Well, this isn't about painting as such, but it's more a general question about Epic models and their bases.

I'm a newcomer to Epic and 6mm in general, having played Eldar in 28mm for the last few years. However, I've got to the point where I'm uninterested in the game, and only buy models to paint. I have about 5000 points of 28mm Eldar sitting on my shelves, and I play exactly 5 games a year with them, at the annual local tournament. Maybe one or two others, if I can find anyone else.

I'm hoping that Epic can change this, and get me back into actually playing the game. I've bought an Eldar Warhost, some Shining Spears and an Avatar and am now in the slow proccess of painting these. It took me a while to get adjusted to painting 28mm miniatures, and I imagine it'll take a while to get used to 6mm, too. But whilst I'm not entirely happy with the standard I'm painting at, it's certainly decent and I can put on 2 or 3 more layers of highlights and maybe some washes later on if I want to improve the models' looks. But that's not what I'm worried about.

The thing is, I frankly have no idea how to base these models. With 28mm models I tended to just glue gravel onto the base, and whilst this was boring it worked. However, using 1mm pebbles with 6mm models isn't quite right. Ideally, I want to get the sort of effect used in this army. What sort of gravel is that? Is that normal staticgrass, or something finer -the staticgrass I have is a bit coarser than that, I think.

Secondly, what sort of bases do the larger models come with, if at all? Infantry come with 10x40mm (or whatever it is) bases, my Shining Spears came with bases a bit larger... But what above that? If I buy some vehicles, do they come with bases or am I expected to make my own? If so, how? Is there any difference between GW and FW models in this regard?
And then, Titans: I've seen in some pics of older Titans, the bases often have a turning wheel to indicate how many damage points the Titan has left. Were these bases home made, were they produced by GW, and if I go buy a Phantom titan today, will it still have that sort of base, or will it just have a standard 80mm one?
I hope someone can help me with these questions; I'll post some pics of my army once I've got it based.
Thanks,
Jianaran

Welcome to the boards, good to have you with us! I myself grew bored of playing W40k and just go for Epic these days - it is a fantastic game and I'm sure you'll love it. I'll try and help with some of your questions and talk about what I do for my own armies.

Personally I base with a mix of the same sort of gravely stuff I might use for 28mm, but also with finer sand mixed in. I found some really fine sand on a local beach and collected a big tub. It's nice to have some bigger bits in the mix, but finer material is good too I find, as otherwise the feet of the epic figures can get buried under the basing material. Some of the bases in the army you ask about also have some of the plastic ruins used on them, sadly these are no longer available, but you could probably find some on ebay or trade some from people. I think that's just normal static grass, just applied sparingly than, not certain though. I use some static grass, along sometimes with some of the older flock type which is made up of tiny little dots.

Infantry come on 12x40mm bases, the older type of bases were 40x40mm ones. Shining Spears are on bases originally used in the Warmaster game, which are 40x20mm. Vehicles tend not to be supplied with bases and it is up to personal preference whether individuals base them or not. Personally I like to and have bought a couple of hundred bases, which I'm working through basing all my vehicles on now, mostly using Warmaster bases. For some where the vehicle is small, such as a Rhino, I cut a certain amount of the length off the base. Some people base things like Dreadnaughts, Land Speeders, Vypers, ect on the older 40mm square bases, but personally I prefer to go for round ones and certain of my armies will be based entirely on round bases for aesthetic reasons (the epic basing rules are very flexible compared to GW's other games and allow for this). I used to use 1p and 2p UK coins, but these days have switched to using the 'Battle of Five Armies bases' from the rare but still sold GW game, which are 25mm round like the W40k ones, but also usefully the same height as the Warmaster ones (some people do just use W40k bases but I think for epic scale models these look poor raised up so much) which can be ordered from the bases section of the GW webstore.  For some larger vehicles like my Land Raiders I glued two Warmaster bases together (glued to each other and the vehicle these seem pretty sturdy). For other large vehicles / units / armies where appropriate I use W40k round bases (cut and filed down to the same height as the other bases because I'm a bit obsessive with this) e.g. for my Vultures. Some of these I could maybe just buy plasticard of the appropriate thickness and cut them myself, but I don't trust my ability to cut them precisely and cleanly enough, so prefer to buy them in. A photo here of my some of epic illustrates a lot of this:


Old titans used to come with bases with rotatable card bits in them to displays it's number of shields. Personally I like to keep all my bases the same height and so prefer the thin 60mm round bases they sell these days and which may or may not come with Titan models you buy. If not they can be ordered from GW again, they're called Titan Bases (and are 60mm round rather than 80mm you mention, I'm certain there isn't an 80mm base)

Spent longer writing that than I intended (quiet / lazy day at work) but I hope that helps.

Best, Glyn

Hey, that's my army  

Welcome Jianaran, glad to be of sevice, my bases have no5thing special in them usually and are generally GW material, those are sand with a couple of patches of static grass added. I don't usually base vehicles but the Eldar skimmers need something to finish then in my opinion, those are the GW LOTR figure round bases with the slot filled (you generally get 4 bases for 1 to 3 figs so I've lots spare).

I'm not sure what the new Phantom comes with base wise, mine are the old ones with the shield counter base, I don't think they do these any more, just the flat ones, which I also use.

Thanks

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My newest basing finds:
80# test clear monofilament fishing line -- 1-1.5 cm lengths are stiff enough to hold up plastic skimmers and the like.  Not sure about metals, testing soon.

Michael's -- a craft supply store in the U.S. sells 130 packs of rectangular "woodsies": 40x1.5"x.75" (roughly 37x19mm) 40x 2"x1" and 40 1"x1/2" square rectangles.  I've taken to drilling holes in these rectangles with a 6mm drill bit, then seating infantry int he holes.  I like the 40x20 bases because it allows for more dispersion and more 'action' on the base itself.  I then glue a drilled base onto an undrilled base -- it's a bit thick, but this has the advantage of being much easier to pick up with fingers.

Staples sells packs of 100 adhesive business card (3.5"x2.5") magnets for about $22.  With a paper cutter, it is easy to cut these to the size of bases, and put them on the bottom. Litko sells packs of 100 precut magnets for ~$16, but they are weaker, and the staples cards can yield 4 40x20mm bases each.

I had been using precut steel bases from wargame accessories, then splaying out magnetic cards on the floor of wooden cigar boxes for storage.  I'm thinking of doing the opposite -- which means I'll be sticking a bunch of magnets on the bottom of these steel bases.

For flock -- beach or playround sand is great -- perhaps run it through a strainer to pick out larger pebbles.  My one problem has been that the sand tends to end up beneath the bases, gumming up the works on my storage system.  I've also been trying ground coffee -- but this is partially because I have a nice coffee grinder that will grind a range of coarsenesses.  

Paper clips and small beads can have multiple uses.

Thanks for the replies and the welcomes, everyone! Judging by what you've said, I think that Australian 5 and 10 cent coins will do nicely (19mm and 24mm respectively, it looks like) for basing things like Vypers and Falcons. I'll have to work something out for the Engines of Vaul, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. Flyers might be a problem, too. And after I've posted this, I'll probably have to walk down to the beach and grab some fine sand -Luckily, I live about 20m from the sea and am surrounded by beaches with all kinds of different types of sand and gravel. One's even covered with a mix of gravel and small rocks pretty much identical to the stuff that GW sells.

GlynG: Love the army, looks great. And I have to say I agree with you on using 40K 25mm bases. Epic is a small scale system on thin bases, and sticking chunky 40k scale bases in doesn't work at all. Also, I can't seem to find the BotFA bases on any of the GW website. All I can see is the boxed game. If they're still available, could you please link me to the product page for them?
And yes, I stuffed up mentioning 80mm bases: I meant the 65mm chunky bases, the ones that the larger titans are often on.

Justiniel: By LOTR bases, do you mean the standard 25mm ones also used in 40K, or something else? Also, what did you use to make those trees on that objective(?) in the main army shots? I've got a bit of experience with making 28mm/HO scale trees, but not a clue how to do the same in 6mm.

Once again, thanks everyone.

I finally found a good use for the green flock I bought 20 years ago when I started the hobby. I mix some green flock with some fine sand and apply this to the bases for a generic broken ground/scrubland feel for my models.

If I want a more desert waste feel I adjust the quantities of sand/flock respectively.

For urban you can use train modelers ballast or grey sand or normal sand and paint it grey/dark grey.

For vehicle bases I recently bought from Magister Militum
->10 mm ->bases. They are a bit pricey (£5 per pack of 50) but they arrived in 2 days and had protective paper on both sides of the plastic base. Great for all my tanks. 40x20x2mm.

Good luck and post your results.

D.

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Thanks Glad to be of help. The BOFA bases are still available. I tried linking directly to the page but it seem to want to work, from the Australian online store you want to click on the hobby tab and then select bases on the left and they're on that page - "25mm Round Battle of Five Armies Bases".

Yes, they are the same as far as I'm aware, not really having any 40K stuff to hand but I've not noticed any difference.
Currently doing a few more of them for SH tanks.

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Damn. I wish I'd spotted those BOFA bases before. I've got quite a few things mounted on 40k bases that would look considerably better on those. Too late now, though; I could maybe transfer the War Walkers but transferring thirty stands of plastic infantry over would likely be more trouble than it's worth.

Of course, the Revenant Titans ruin any hopes I might have had of everything having the same base thickness anyway. Without the increased base thickness they wouldn't have anywhere for the peg to go, and wouldn't stand up.

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