.5" Bases?

[Cranky Dog]

Meanwhile, Canada is "Spocking" their money.

 

 

But I can get a base cheaper than $5.

[JackMann]

That's legal in the US too! So long as the bill can still circulate, it's fine. It's only if you defaced it to a degree where you could no longer reasonably spend it.

 

Amusingly, Canada's laws are almost reversed from the US. There is no law against burning paper currency, but defacing coins is illegal.

[WhiteWulfe]

1 hour ago, JackMann said:

That's legal in the US too! So long as the bill can still circulate, it's fine. It's only if you defaced it to a degree where you could no longer reasonably spend it.

 

Amusingly, Canada's laws are almost reversed from the US. There is no law against burning paper currency, but defacing coins is illegal.

I miss the old paper money.  Had a nice feel to it.

 

Now it's all....  Plastic...ey.

 

Says the guy who uses debit and/or Visa debit for everything (because my Visa debit gives me 2% cashback on 90% of my transactions!!  ...0.5% on the rest)

 

 

EDIT: Always loved chemistry class though.  Man, the amount of jocks who would WILLINGLY offer up a $20 or $50 bill when the teacher asked if anyone had a bill, preference for larger ones like 20's, 50's, or even 100's for the classic "light the money on fire" demo and how hard they'd panic was always a good show...

Edited June 28, 2019 by WhiteWulfe

[Madog Barfog]

On 6/27/2019 at 1:43 PM, Cranky Dog said:

For quick reference, the American penny is 0.75" diameter.

 

So... for 1¢, you got a round weighted base.

At the risk of invoking the wrath of those who want to make some issue out of what I've done with a few old pennies, I used to do this to my old Ral Partha minis, especially the ones that fell over frequently. Tom Mejer was a sculpting genius, but a lousy engineer. It's actually cheaper to use a penny than it is to buy a washer that size.

 

I'm perfectly fine with the government being aware of my activities, as it works in their favor the same way stamp collecting helps the post office.

[Disciple of Sakura]

I've used 0.5" washers and 0.75" washers for small creatures in the past. Here's some pics of 1" and .5" washers with a sculpy topper...

FWIW, I hadn't realized I'd bought the smaller 0.5" washers until after I'd already started basing minis. It's not bad for halflings and such, unless they have a really wide stance, TBH. I'm just not thrilled at the lack of consistency. 

[Arikiel]

Also 1.5 and 2.5 inch bases would be handy.

[thelonegoldfish]

I'd like to see https://www.reapermini.com/search/bases/latest/74041 with vertical sides like the 1" bases.

[kristof65]

On 7/10/2019 at 3:28 PM, thelonegoldfish said:

I'd like to see https://www.reapermini.com/search/bases/latest/74041 with vertical sides like the 1" bases.

I second that. 

I bought a bunch of those during the Base Boss KS, but by the time I got them, I couldn't remember what for. 

[moose_shepard]

I'd also like to see 1/2" RPG bases. I bought 1/2" bases from Litko to use for tiny creature minis, like familiars, and they work fine (no problems toppling over), but my OCD dictates that all my bases should look the same, and I already use Reaper's 1", 2", and 3" RPG bases for all my other minis.

[ReaperClark]

On 6/27/2019 at 11:28 AM, JJNiles said:

Can we please get some tiny bases around 1/2" for our tiny minis like Kobolds and Gremlins? 

We have 20mm base which are meant for things like familiars.

 

https://www.reapermini.com/search/20mm

Edited July 25, 2019 by ReaperClark

[Guyra]

I'd definitely like some ~15mm bases for the tiniest things. (Smallest base I've used was about 8mm, and that was the perfect size for the mini.)

[moose_shepard]

On 7/25/2019 at 11:35 AM, ReaperClark said:

We have 20mm base which are meant for things like familiars.

 

https://www.reapermini.com/search/20mm

 

Ideally, tiny minis should have a 12.5mm (1/2") base, because you need to be able to fit four of them in a 25mm (1") square. Like I said, I got some 12.5mm bases from Litko and they're perfect for owls, cats, imps and things like that, but I prefer Reaper RPG bases.

[haldir]

Absolutely love Reaper products, but the small bases are something I don't readily use allot. Lately I've been using the ones out of the Wizkids Unpainted line. I've really started to like the thinness of that style of base. When you consider that most Reaper figures have a scenic base on them, (most Dark Heaven minis for example) the flat base doesn't really add to the overall height of a mini that much.

 

If the small bases like ReaperClark linked were similar in shape to the standard medium rpg base, I think they'd look allot better. They do have a slight slope to them which ruin the base for me. I do use the Reaper smalls vs Litko's similar style & Wizkids unpainted smalls when I need to make a small flying creature thou as it's kinda hard to drill & poke a wire through a flat base (like the Wizkids ones), or through a wooden base (the material I have in Litko).

 

I did pick up the small square ones that were offered in Bone 4 KS, & I like those. There is just something about that slope that bugs me.

[YronimosW]

On 6/27/2019 at 5:41 PM, Doug Sundseth said:

 

"Is it illegal to damage or deface coins?

Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who “fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.” This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent. "

 

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/faqs/Coins/Pages/edu_faq_coins_portraits.aspx

 

As I said, I did research first.

Spoiler

 

The laws about defacing US coins and currency are definitely aimed at counterfeiters, and the old coin-clipping scheme that dates back to the Roman Empire and earlier, where the scammers basically trim small amounts of silver or gold off the edges of coins - collect enough of the trimmings, and a crook can steal a lot of money from the government and public.  It's why coins have those little regular notches around the edge, or have words and so on stamped into the edges - it's hard for coin-clippers to hide the damage to such designs.

 

Of course, circulating US coins (and world coins in general) haven't been made from precious metals like silver and gold and even copper or nickel since the 1960s, so there really hasn't been as much incentive toward coin-clipping today as there used to be.  Thanks to inflation and debased currency, US coins have been forced into the cheapest possible metals (especially zinc) until the currency is worth less than the metal it's stamped into, and today you'd actually make more money melting down the zinc in US one-cent coins and selling it as scrap than you would if you were to use it as money - it's why there's a recurring effort to retire the penny and nickel which, to the frustration of the US government, meets resistance from a US public that just doesn't want to see those small coins disappear.

 

Incidentally, that inflation represents a virtually silent and invisible theft by governments and central banks of wealth from the US public and anyone else holding US cents and dollars, a result of the US government spending money it doesn't have, and then just printing new money to pay off some of the bills, devaluing the money ordinary people spend every second of every day, constantly driving up prices for food and housing and everything else ordinary people spend their money on every day... nothing comes from the government for "free" - if you aren't paying for it in heavy taxes, then you're paying for it in inflation and/or debt to other countries.  (And, technically, all the new, unbacked US dollars and cents that have been produced since the 1960s are the result of a vast and furious amount of government counterfeiting.)

 

I've heard of farmers using new US pennies as washers when building/roofing barns and so on, as washers manufactured for the purpose are typically made from the same thing as US pennies (zinc), the metal is soft enough to drive a nail through, and the one-cent penny can cost less than an actual washer.  Chances are, a penny is cheaper than a plastic base, too, and would appeal to miniatures hobbyists over zinc washers or plastic bases for similar reasons that the penny appeals to farmers.  (Reaper's 20mm bases work out to about 20 cents a base before shipping; some of the competition's bases work out to about 25 US cents a base with free shipping - thanks to inflation, a US penny is overvalued at 1 cent per base, and gets more so every day!)

 

 

Anyway, (and keep in mind I Am Not A Lawyer, this is not legal advice etc., and I use plastic bases myself and wouldn't use coins as bases for nit-picky aesthetic reasons):

1. You aren't likely to get prosecuted by the US government for mangling modern circulating US coins unless you are running some sort of counterfeiting or coin-clipping scheme.
2. You aren't likely to get prosecuted by the US government for mangling modern circulating US coins just because they are so worthless, it isn't worth the US government's time and money to bother.
3. There would be a laughable level of hypocrisy in the US government trying to prosecute a hobbyist for counterfeiting or otherwise debasing these cheap token coins by using them as bases for a handful of miniatures, when the US government itself has driven the value of that money into virtual worthlessness with effectively counterfeit money for decades.  In a saner universe, they'd be more likely to thank you for hiding the evidence for them, than to try to draw any more attention to the worthlessness of a US cent or dollar than already exists, and the US government probably benefits from private citizens destroying their own money anyway, to help remove a lot of the excess dollars from circulation.
4. If you are a US citizen, the coins, at least, are technically your property (the paper currency could be argued to be the property of the Federal Reserve Bank), while people in other countries would have even less to worry about in destroying new US coins.
5. Keep an eye on the dates on those coins, though:  US 1-cent coins were 95% copper until 1982, making them far more valuable than newer pennies; US 10-cent, 25-cent, and 50-cent coins were 90% silver until 1964, making them far more valuable than newer coins.  The new stuff is virtually disposable, but you'll probably want to save the older coins as treasure.

 

 

 

As for smaller plastic bases:

 

20mm seems to be standard for the collectible miniatures games' (Pathfinder Battles, D&D Miniatures, and the Wizkids unpainted miniatures lines) small creatures like gnomes, goblins, kobolds, halflings, quasits, and what-not.  There's no reason you have to stick to that standard, but I've found that it works just fine for smaller miniatures (20mm/.78" is noticeably smaller than the usual 25mm/1" bases; 20mm bases really don't look that big at all!)

 

I agree about liking the flat, thin 20mm Wizkids bases better than the high, sloped bases that Reaper currently sells - I wish I could source a decent number of the Wizkids-style flat, thin plastic bases.  I might be able to have a bunch 3D-printed, I suppose:  I am a bit slow on jumping into that hobby....

Edited August 19, 2019 by YronimosW

[Halberkill]

On ‎8‎/‎19‎/‎2019 at 12:23 PM, YronimosW said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

The laws about defacing US coins and currency are definitely aimed at counterfeiters, and the old coin-clipping scheme that dates back to the Roman Empire and earlier, where the scammers basically trim small amounts of silver or gold off the edges of coins - collect enough of the trimmings, and a crook can steal a lot of money from the government and public.  It's why coins have those little regular notches around the edge, or have words and so on stamped into the edges - it's hard for coin-clippers to hide the damage to such designs.

 

Of course, circulating US coins (and world coins in general) haven't been made from precious metals like silver and gold and even copper or nickel since the 1960s, so there really hasn't been as much incentive toward coin-clipping today as there used to be.  Thanks to inflation and debased currency, US coins have been forced into the cheapest possible metals (especially zinc) until the currency is worth less than the metal it's stamped into, and today you'd actually make more money melting down the zinc in US one-cent coins and selling it as scrap than you would if you were to use it as money - it's why there's a recurring effort to retire the penny and nickel which, to the frustration of the US government, meets resistance from a US public that just doesn't want to see those small coins disappear.

 

Incidentally, that inflation represents a virtually silent and invisible theft by governments and central banks of wealth from the US public and anyone else holding US cents and dollars, a result of the US government spending money it doesn't have, and then just printing new money to pay off some of the bills, devaluing the money ordinary people spend every second of every day, constantly driving up prices for food and housing and everything else ordinary people spend their money on every day... nothing comes from the government for "free" - if you aren't paying for it in heavy taxes, then you're paying for it in inflation and/or debt to other countries.  (And, technically, all the new, unbacked US dollars and cents that have been produced since the 1960s are the result of a vast and furious amount of government counterfeiting.)

 

I've heard of farmers using new US pennies as washers when building/roofing barns and so on, as washers manufactured for the purpose are typically made from the same thing as US pennies (zinc), the metal is soft enough to drive a nail through, and the one-cent penny can cost less than an actual washer.  Chances are, a penny is cheaper than a plastic base, too, and would appeal to miniatures hobbyists over zinc washers or plastic bases for similar reasons that the penny appeals to farmers.  (Reaper's 20mm bases work out to about 20 cents a base before shipping; some of the competition's bases work out to about 25 US cents a base with free shipping - thanks to inflation, a US penny is overvalued at 1 cent per base, and gets more so every day!)

 

I agree about liking the flat, thin 20mm Wizkids bases better than the high, sloped bases that Reaper currently sells - I wish I could source a decent number of the Wizkids-style flat, thin plastic bases.  I might be able to have a bunch 3D-printed, I suppose:  I am a bit slow on jumping into that hobby....

They are selling them in packs now.

 

Halber