Rebasing

[Mike]

This topic:

https://www.thewargameswebsite.com/forums/topic/moved-reply-to-10mm-wfb/

Made me wonder about rebasing.
I never have, and that seems unusual.

How many of you have rebased figures?

I guess I have not as when moving on to another project/period/thing it is normally not remotely connected to the last one in terms of genre, such that I need to start everything from scratch.

[Whirlwind]

Sometimes, not very often though.  A lot of my WW2 stuff was initially based for Spearhead, but since I ended up playing much more WRG, then I un-based most the vehicles and put the infantry on smaller bases.  Apart from that, all my 15mm and 28mm figures are individually based and all my 6mm figures are on the ‘Polemos standard’ 60mm x 30mm or 30mm x 30mm, and they get used on that.  Most rules can be converted for that without much difficulty but if they can’t, I ditch the rules rather than rebase the figures.

[Not Connard Sage]

Not going to happen 🙂

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Shaun Travers]

I never have.  Takes too much time away from everything else!

[Tony Hughes]

When I switched to DBA 3 I gradually worked through my 15mm armies rebasing them to v3 army lists and took the opportunity to re-work all the bases to match my ‘new’ methodology of texturing. Other than that there hasn’t been a need for it but I can’t understand why it causes so many problems for people.

 

 

[deephorse]

I don’t play any rules that require bases of a specific size.  The only re-basing that I do, if it counts as such, is when I buy second hand figures that have been based on 1p coins.  I buy some Warbases 1p sabot bases and fix my ‘new’ figures into them, improving the ground work as I do so.

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[ian pillay]

I do, mainly as I am recycling my old miniatures and projects to suit One Hour Wargames and I prefer multi based figures for these rules.

Tally-Ho! Check out my blog at…..
http://steelcitywargaming.wordpress.com/

[Usagitsuki]

I have done. Usually as a matter of aesthetic or utility, very rarely to conform to a specific set of rules.

Sengoku 'blog: https://tenkafubu608971038.wordpress.com

[Guy Farrish]

I have done, last lot was about 900 10mm figs – never again!

I have (before that experience) sold armies rather than rebase – the thought of it made me rethink how committed I was to the period in that scale, the answer, clearly, was not enough to bother with that performance!

These days I am prepared to turn a blind eye to all but the most egregious differences between my basing and new rule requirements.

[Etranger]

I don’t as a rule but I’ve recently picked up some secondhand figures that will need to be rebased. Apart from anything else they will then look more like my own figures.

 

[Geof Downton]

As Etranger, only in the case of secondhand figures, which I was stripping, repainting and distributing amongst new figures. I have a memory of repainting and rebasing some figures from my days of painting even worse than I do now. Fortunately my eyes are now old enough that I am neither able to see the transgressions of the past, nor to improve upon them.

One who puts on his armour should not boast like one who takes it off.
Ahab, King of Israel; 1 Kings 20:11

[Alex]

No – and don’t intend to!

Alex (Does Hobby Stuff)
practising hobby eclecticism

[Andrew Beasley]

Hmm wonder if I have? Oh yes let me count the ways:

• Used wood glue not PVA on snow bases and watched the go yellow in days
• Changed from square to round (thanks GW) then sold the troops
• Decided to go to blocks of 5 for line troops and then expanded the number by adding artefacts and small dioramas to some bases
• Changed flock material so they matched others
• Changed from grit and dry brush to flock
• Changed size to match a new set of rules
• Want to change some hexed based figures as the hexes are too large (my fault)
• Did not like the ‘bullnose’ style as it was hard to pick up the figures but now just pick up by the figure (gasp shock horror)

I’m sure there are a few others in my dark and shady modelling past…

At least Mike is no longer alone in my ‘never met’ club 🙂

 

[Sane Max]

Frequently. Normally I strip and repaint figures completely – about an army a year – but sometimes I rebase when I think the figures look fine but the bases tatty.

Most recently I rebased my Franco-Prussian 15MM when I hadn’t even finished painting it all, when I discovered I had an opponent whose basing scheme was completely different to mine for the period – it wasn’t even necessary – I could have got away with it in the game – but I like my basing to be uniform.

Guess I must be the very odd man out 🙂

[willz]

Rebased my 28mm 18th century armies several years ago, as they were individually based.  As I was travelling to a club and the figures got damaged in transit, only 600 figures.  It was not a long or time consuming task.  My figures are based on standard 40 x 40mm inf and 50 x 50mm cav, plus I have got larger bases they can fit into if required.

Also rebased my 25mm medieval from 60 x 60mm bases, to individual bases over a couple of years.

These days I try to plan before basing, normally 40 x 40mm for 2/4 infantry or 25/50 x 50mm 1 or 2 cavalry figures be it 20mm or 25/30mm.

[Kitfox]

I do it as infrequently as possible and only with good reason although having said that I’ve recently been rebasing my old Warhammer Undead to better fit Oathmark and Dragon rampant so have been stripping off 20mm bases and replacing them with 25mm ones.

If I never do it again it’ll be soon!

Death to all fanatics!

[Konstantinos Travlos]

I have and tried to do also sabot basing, but I think I am done with that.

[Phil Dutré]

Never rebase!

I do touch up and repair bases occasionally, but I never rebase, and certainly not for a specific ruleset.

Rulesets come and go, but your miniatures will likely survive them all. So adapt rules to your collection of miniatures, not the other way around.

[jeffers]

I base on what I think looks good and make rules fit to my system. I stopped bothering with figure removal rules years ago.

More nonsense on my blog: http://battle77.blogspot.com/

[Steven Francis]

Yes…Epic miniatures from the old square bases which were glued with poly cement. Much blood was shed trying to trim down the bottom, and all so I could super glue to 2p’s which will make future rebasing a lot easier.

I will be stripping my Tau at some point this year and that will include the bases needing cleaning but not true rebasing.

[kyoteblue]

I am rebasing my DBM armies onto single-figure bases and having fun doing it. Yes, I am crazy.

[hammurabi70]

 

In the 1990s I rebased from single figure removal basing to elements; never going to change it again!

www.olivercromwell.org; www.battlefieldstrust.com
6mm wargames group: [email protected]; 2mm wargames group: [email protected]

[Paint it Pink]

I recently rebased my Peter Pig AK47 army, which was incomplete. I dislike square bases and pennies are convenient. Oh, and I remember rebasing my Daleks too. Again from square bases to pennies.

One is good, more is better
http://panther6actual.blogspot.co.uk/
http://ashleyrpollard.blogspot.co.uk/

[Patrice]

Interesting thread as people not only answer the question, but also wish to mention why. It gives a broad view of personal tastes and also of the evolution of fashions. 🙂

My first 28mm (small) army very long ago were HYW based by 2-3-4 on collective bases for some old rules (“Charges antiques et médiévales” and “La Flèche et l’épée”) …which I never played with them (although I did play these rules with 15mm figures which I never rebased).

So some time later I felt frustrated that these 28mm guys could not run alone freely on the battlefields, so I rebased them on individual 20mm cardboard square bases, as I used after that for all my newer historical and fantasy figures (except the large fantasy monsters of course). The cavalry following the same process, from collective bases to 2,5cm x 5cm bases.

Some years ago I thought that square bases were not really necessary for skirmish, so I began to base my new figures on 20mm washers. And many older figures which needed improvement (because they had been painted with Humbrol long ago, etc.) were also rebased similar. Only some regular infantry which often is in close order stay on 20mm square bases (and some new napoleonics have been granted 15mm x 20mm bases to give a better impression).

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

[Tony S]

So, last night I glued a bunch of my finished machine guns and crews to MDF bases.   (On a technical note, they’re 3mm thick so that clumsy fingers pick up elements by the base and not the figures).

While gluing them, I was a trifle puzzled as it seemed a bit harder to fit the loader and the leader on the base in a nice fashion than I remembered for the rest of my army.

So this morning in the bright albeit frigid sunlight (having a bit of a cold snap here; -25 C) I looked them over and realized that I’d used 25mm bases and not 30mm square bases like the rest of the army.  So despite my dislike of rebasing, looks like I’m going to need to do some!  Admittedly as there’s no flock or anything, it’ll be rather easy despite my wounded pride.

Like most others, I’m not a fan of rebasing, and won’t look at a set of rules that absolutely require rebasing.  Thank goodness most modern rules tend to allow whatever you have.  The only time I have rebased were WW2 FoW bases.  At the time I rather liked the slim plastic bases that blended very unobtrusively with the table, but then realized you had to pick the stand up by the figures.

So as mentioned earlier, everything was rebased to thick MDF.  It was rather easy as I like to

– glue the figures down, let it dry.

– glue sand down around all figures, let dry.

– slop a coat of a mix of watered down glue and a bit of black or dark brown paint.  That not only holds the grit down, but also shades the ground as well.

– dry brush and then glue some static grass here and there.

So, as a result I could pop the entire glue & grit & grass base off the plastic cleanly as one piece including the figures and just simply glue the thing as an entire whole onto the FoW sized and shaped MDF base.

[Andrew Beasley]

400+ fantasy figures rebased here

A lot of work but the result is super.

 

[Radar]

Just finished rebasing several hundred 15mm ECW figures. My own stupid fault tbh.

I normally glue finished figures to bases then add ‘dirt’  using GW Strickland Mud, wash with chestnut ink before adding flock/Tufts etc.

GW texture paint is a bit pricey and doesn’t go too far, so I thought I’d be clever and make my own. Getting the colour right was more than tricky as the white PVA lightened the mix up. Test looked close enough, so I went ahead and used it. Fatal mistake – it looked okay, but when compared on mass, the homebrew mix stood out like a sore thumb. Added a nuln oil was to tone things down. Better, but still noticeably different. Decided it would do. But it did bug me, and slowly came are to the conclusion that they really did need rebasing.

Horrible, onerous task. Hated every minute of it. Done now.

A lesson learned the hard way.

www.keepyourpowderdry.co.uk

[Aethelflaeda was framed]

I decided that the foot prints of my Nap units when based 12 figs to the battalion were just too big for my small gaming space, and that i did not have enough painted battalions to field a proper corps sized battle, so I converted all my battalions into 2 separate 6-fig battalions by sawing the bases in half with a coping saw, figs intact ( almost always possible).  Figs mostly never came unglued but I did pop off and swap a few voltiguer and grenadier figs so each battalion has the right mix of companies, but wasn’t pedantic.

Mick

[MartinR]

Re basing is something I try to avoid, but obviously I do it for second hand figures.

Ive rebased a lot of my WW2 6mm stuff over the years as rules fashions have changed, some of the oldest figures have been rebased four times now.

My 6mm Napoleonics are the worst offenders, there are quite a lot of them and again, most of them have been rebased at least four times. I was just looking at them again the other day…

These days I hope I’ve settled on basing schemes which will see me out, or are flexible enough to not need doing again. I like movement trays now.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[Count Belisarius]

I generally avoid rebasing. Not that I play many games anyway but…in recent years I’ve done two big rebasing projects. My 15mm ACW. Figures came from multiple sources and based in different styles. Looked awful. I was due to put on a big game and supply everything so I wanted it all to look consistent and good. Took ages but was worth it.

Then, during lockdown I rebased most of my C18th ImagiNation stuff. The army had developed over ten years and organisation had changed a couple of times. Not significantly but things like having separate single based officers and drummers etc made things messy. So I finally decided on a battalion and cavalry unit size and rebased to that. I’m never changing it again!

Occasionally I look at big old school games with all the separate drummers and officers around a unit and like the look and the narrative potential of single figures getting captured etc but overall I’m happy. I still paint odd single figures and any spare figures I had from reorganising are based up so I’ve options there if I want. Also means I have figures I can use for Sharp Practice at some point. Though I’ll use 2 multi bases for units and track casualties…

And finally…all my armies use the same basing colours and static grass. Occasionally I think I’ve got it too dark but I’m not changing now!

A

 

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