Draagnaj Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 I am new to the art of mini painting, so try to be easy on me. My experience with painting has been with some of the learn to paint sets. From them, I feel I have a grasp on painting minis to tabletop quality. I love what reaper produces, and am hoping to use them pretty exclusively with my tabletop games. I just ordered 15 minis to use as PCs, but would like a little advice before I get into painting them. I like a lot of uniformity to my games. Being that I ordered some dark haven and some pathfinder minis, they all have different bases. I like the idea of reaper making them tabletop ready out of the package, but I would like them to all have the same base. I have no issues with using a jewelers saw to remove the mini from its base, but I am wondering what bases out there you guys use. At this point, I am not looking to do scenic bases; perhaps somewhere down the road I will come back to that. But what bases do you guys use? The metal bases seem to be a little expensive for me. I'm leaning more towards a round 25 mm base, like DDM are on. I had considered using dental stone (not plaster) to sculpt a base and make a template from, but after further consideration, I feel like it wouldn't be very durable for a table. I was reading the sticky and saw that some people use 1 inch wood rounds; have you tried this? Thanks for looking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferox Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 I'm rather fond of nickels -- they're nice and uniform, heavy and wide enough to be stable, durable, and are reasonably sized for a 1" battlegrid. It's also tough to beat the price. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hot Lead Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 So if I get it right you just want to put them on plain bases? (I.e. no scenics, no sculpted base, etc.) If so, yes then wooden blanks are available at craft stores like Michaels. I've also seen hardware stores sell 1" metal discs with no holes (not washers.) They're used with those .22 caliber nail guns for setting concrete anchors. Otherwise gaming bases tend to have slots in them for those style minis, though there are a few out there without them. GW makes 25mm plastic bases without slots for some of the newer plastic Space Marines. You can also buy plain discs from places like this: Wargames factory Litko bases Or you can kick it old school like Ferox suggests. Never saw a round base without Lincoln's or Jefferson's face on it until the early 90's space marines. Later, Laszlo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferox Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 I've also seen hardware stores sell 1" metal discs with no holes (not washers.) They're used with those .22 caliber nail guns for setting concrete anchors. While we're on the subject: until I started in on WarmaHordes and accumulated an improbably large collection of spare 50mm bases, I used 2" fender washers to base "large" creatures. Anyone have any tricks for 3" bases that don't involve a bandsaw? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkstar Posted August 28, 2011 Share Posted August 28, 2011 Anyone have any tricks for 3" bases that don't involve a bandsaw? Check the toy section of your local dollar tree, 99 cent store. Mine sells these plastic coins, I think they're party favors or something like that. Perfect for that size I would say since they come in a bag of about 10 coins so you can experiment, or sand down the edges to bevel them inward to look like a warmachine base fairly easily. And if you screw up, it's not a big deal since you get 10 or so to play around with. Nice I found a blog showing the size of those coins (you'd probably want to use the dime) http://rko-ideas-galore.blogspot.com/2011/03/leprechaun-loot-treasure-hunt.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draagnaj Posted August 29, 2011 Author Share Posted August 29, 2011 Thank you for the replies. I like the idea of a nickel, however after thinking a little more, I don't think it will work for me. When I decide to start making monsters for future games, I won't have any bases that will match for a large creature size. I looked at michael's today, and although they were out of 1 inch round wooden pieces, they did have 1 1/2 inch size that I liked a lot. I was thinking it might even work to use this (http://www.dremel.com/en-us/Accessories/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=615) and make a nice inset platform. What online stores do you guys order your flock and other simple scenic materials from. I'm basically looking to take my cut mini and epoxy it to a wooden 1 inch base. Take the base and apply glue and add flock and pebbles. Perhaps some of them I will sculpt tiles onto the base to simulate a cobblestone setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jubilee Posted August 29, 2011 Share Posted August 29, 2011 If you are going to attach a figure with just two small foot contacts on the base, i would strongly suggest pinning them, especially for gaming. With regards to basing materials, I mostly buy stuff locally at hobby or train shops - is that not an option for you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Draagnaj Posted August 30, 2011 Author Share Posted August 30, 2011 A local shop isn't really the best option for me. I live in downtown Los Angeles and the closest place is about 45 minutes with all of the traffic. As for pinning them down, do you have a link that shows how to do that? I'm not quite sure what exactly you mean by pinning it. Thanks for bringing up the concern though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonkeySloth Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Pinning means drilling a small hole, about the width of a paper clip, into the miniature and base and then gluing a metal rod in the holes. This helps secure the piece to the base as super glue isn't super effective against a shearing force. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MamaGeek Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Funny this should come up now. I was just browsing in Lowes and found some interesting basing material. Long story (skip if you're not interested): I got out of work early, because the county where I work still was without power after Hurricane Irene, and we were running on generators, which started to fail. So, I thought it was a good time to get that oil change for my car, which was overdue. I had a coupon for an oil change and tire rotation, and the place told me it would take 2-3 hours. There was a Lowes right next door, so I spent at least an hour browsing around, and writing down anything I thought I could use for miniatures. I found something that looked like it would make fantastic bases: Caster Cups! Caster cups are these things you put on the bottom of sofa, table, or chair legs, so they don't scratch up your floor. They have a nice shape to them, come in round or square, and are inset in the middle, which is great for bases you want to fill with water effects, or have some variable terrain, or for basing a mini with a broccoli base, so you can integrate it with putty and not add too much height. They came in packs of four, of course (for table/sofa/chair legs). These were the ones of most interest: 2" round cherry $5.48 - these were really nice, stained and varnished, excellent for display 1 1/4" round plastic $1.98 - a little big for a 1" square, but ok if you're not going to stand a bunch of them side by side 1 3/4" square plastic $2.28 - good for 2" basing 1 11/16" round plastic $2.28 - good for 2" basing There are even more varieties available online, and from other stores/sellers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator TaleSpinner Posted August 30, 2011 Moderator Share Posted August 30, 2011 Fender washers. You can get then very cheap at any hardware store. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferox Posted August 30, 2011 Share Posted August 30, 2011 Fender washers. You can get then very cheap at any hardware store. Aha! And dock washers, which appear to be fender washers writ large, are available in up to 4" outside diameter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madbrad Posted September 5, 2011 Share Posted September 5, 2011 Have you guys seen the magnetic bases from gale force 9, I love em they have great weight and come in all kinds of differant sizes from 25mm up! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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