Hello all! Been a while.
I'd typed up this thing for a guy on another forum, and wondered if it'd serve any purpose here. It's basically a short, rambling tale of my obsession with finding just the right round bases. It also includes one or two pics
(hosted on cheddarmongers.org) that people might find useful...
Way back in the mists of time I originally settled on board game counters from
EM4 Miniatures. Left to right: 20x40mm, 22mm, 25mm, 31mm, 38mm.
The plastic reacts with poly cement, like styrene, for a firm bond with plastic minis. However, they can have some annoying mould lines and mould slippage around the middle - a bit inconvenient to clean up.
Also, there's the different thicknesses as the counters get larger, with a hiccup at the 25mm as it's two parts sandwiched together. Makes it big and chunky, as mentioned, with a groove around the middle. They can be prised apart, but you need to be careful and clean up sockets and rims, which is way too much faff. So we can safely ignore that as a base option.
Problem is, without it...
Vehicles like the new rhino chassis fit fairly well on 31mm counters; but these smaller gunwagons and rhinos teeter on the 22mm counters, and if the third didn't have the roller, it'd look kind of lost on the 31mm. I needed a set of bases with matching 25mms...
(Some wee orange 'n' white counters are still useful for blast markers and void shields though, IMO)Epic 12x40mm strip base, vs.
Renedra 25mm round base.
With spakky marians.
Or for a proper huddled mob, orks.
The Renedra bases would've been perfect - good ol' familiar styrene; unobtrusive mould lines; looks well alongside the Epic strip bases. The only thing letting them down was the single 25mm size that didn't match any other round bases, and that was enough. I'll keep these for Warmaster characters, but for various Epic 'mobs' and vehicles I'll stick with my second choice...
As a child of GW I didn't think I'd go for wooden bases. I was worried about gluing, roughness, splintered edges, etc. But I browsed through
Fenris Games' laser-cut ply and saw the variety of diameters I wanted, that otherwise matched. I bought a pack of 25mm bases for a closer look.
Surface and edges are a lot smoother and cleaner than I imagined. At least, the surface is no rougher than textured plastic, and a decent spray-priming should sort any microscopic irregularities in the edge. Not to mention those sprue attachment points on the plastic bases aren't exactly super-slick, either.
More orkses.
Waaagh!
Though for a certain model I might stick with a plastic base - Renedra's 115x88mm oval. Fits well, it does.
I think they were the last thing I posted here, before the last time I disappeared.