Miniature basing has always been a struggle for my perfectionist brain. As long as I'm playing on a table where the terrain matches the bases of my figures, it's fine. But when I'm playing on a desert world with woodland bases...well, it just bothers me.
So I decided to try a solution I stumbled upon a while ago:
Clear Acrylic Bases. Since I play All Things Zombies on a variety of terrain, I decided to convert some of my zombie bases to see how I liked the results. I ordered 100 bases from Litko and I was off and running.
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Here are zombies with my original base style.
These were to resemble asphalt and cement for urban terrain.
Fine for the city, not so much for the woods. |
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(Gulp!)
This was the hard part because of the idea of taking a knife to finished minis! |
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Zombies with Clear Acrylic Bases.
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| Zombies surge out of the woods, across the gravel berm and onto a paved road. |
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| You get a sense of how the clear bases allow figures to flow through different terrain. |
I really like how this turned out. I've converted all my zombies and am starting on my survivors/gangers. It is not a perfect solution - that would be models that stood without any base at all - but I like how this works. In fact, I like it so well I've converted my Reaper fantasy figures I use for D&D...
I am moving to clear base too. Rebasing everything may be painful, but I believe the results are worth it.
ReplyDeleteThe main issue with clear base is that the unbalanced miniatures (the one with no proper standing) and some metal one where the feet are molded onto a small base are difficult to work.
Yes, I found that as well. With patience, some straight nippers, a good knife, and some files I've been able to remove integral bases. I'm wondering about possible pinning some models to the acrylic base through the foot. I need some super-tiny drill bits for that, but it might help for some of the more unstable figures.
DeleteThere are few steps I take:
Delete1. Glue them on a wood base
2. Paint
3. Tamiya matt vernish spray
4. Debase
5. Rebase on clear base
I really like the clear base idea, something I've thought of for a long time, but looking at rebasing my 500+ collection is really not an option for me. My son on the other hand has all his Saga forces on clear bases and they look superb, as do yours.
ReplyDeleteFortunately my zombie/survivors collection is only about 75 figures. I've actually been surprised at how quickly I can convert them. I did all my zombies in a weekend - probably about 4-5 total hours of work.
DeleteThe fantasy figures in this post are the only ones of this genre I have that are painted. I have a dozen or so in the cue for paint. These will go straight onto clear bases when they are finished.
I won't be converting my WH40K models. That would be, like you, a daunting task with probably upwards of 300+ models. I also won't be doing anything with my 15mm collection. I don't think in that scale it would work as well.
Well, rebasing like this is really an all-or-nothing thing, right? Too much work for me, though the results do look very good.
ReplyDeleteIt actually hasn't been too difficult. Of course, zombies are very forgiving - if I accidentally cut off a toe, I just put a little red paint there and carried on. : )
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