Sunday, May 10, 2020

Need Help/Advice/Guidance with 10mm Basing

All,

Operation Barbarossa is fast approaching.  For some reason I decided to re-base my forces, wanted everything uniform, was tired of the hodge-podge of different colors and flocking.  So I'm almost finished, but I've run into a conundrum: I didn't want to base my vehicles because I plan on playing both summer, verdant battles and snowy, winter battles, and when you base your vehicles you sort of have to commit to either verdant or snow.  But I don't want to commit, I want to eat my cake and have it, too.  So the question is, how do you base vehicles that can be used for both the grassy steppe and snowy winter?

Take a gander at what I've got and what I've done so far.

So, here's the whole mess, Germans on the left, Soviets on the right.  It's not finished; I took everything I had and re-based it, then I had to buy some more stuff.  I had plenty of infantry but needed more vehicles, so I picked up some German halftracks and some Soviet T-34s, T-26s, a Ba-6, and a T-60.  I also picked up some Panzer IVGs (long 75s), Marder IIs, and Stug IIIDs (long 75s), so I figure the collection you have before you can take me all the way through the German 'gray' era, or up to summer of 1943.

Back to the basing issue: as you can see, the infantry are flocked in a nice, verdant mix, while the vehicles are not.  Just so you know, I have separate German and Soviet infantry and guns for winter, they're just not finished.  So I knew I'd need separate summer and winter infantry and guns, but want to use a single set of vehicles.  To that end, you  can see I have not flocked my vehicles, just painted them a nice muddy color on the base.

A closer look at ze Germans.

And the Reds.

A close-up of a Soviet engineer platoon, to show the basing, the painted base edges (which are now a single color for all bases, rather than the 96 I'd previously used).  You're looking at a platoon command stand and three squad-sized stands.  I may add some clump foliage to the infantry/gun bases, we'll see.

So those look good, but what about the vehicles?

Here's my plan: leave the vehicle bases muddy brown in the spring/summer, then paint them white for the fall/winter, then paint them back muddy for the spring/summer of '42, then paint them white for the fall/winter of '42, then paint them brown for the spring/summer of '43.  Do you think that will work?  My concern is that the muddy-colored base is too jarring/ugly.  What do you think?

Here's what the muddy bases look like on the table at 'normal' tabletop distance.

A close up of the Panzer IV.

A closeup of the KV-1.

The KV-1 taking a shot at the Panzer IV.

So how does that look to you?  Can you stand it?  Should I?  Is there another alternative?

Let me lay some ground rules: I'm not going to buy another set of all those vehicles and do them again in winter colors.  I can't see flocking the vehicle bases for summer and then scraping it off and painting the bases white, I think it would be too frustrating trying to get all the flock off, would probably damage the basing gel I put down, and may even end up stabbing, scraping, and damaging the paintjob on the models.

I have thought of having two separate bases for each vehicle, one summer and one winter.  I lay on the basing gel, then pull the vehicle off, let it set, and flock for summer and paint white for winter.  Then I attach the vehicle to the appropriate base in a non-permanent way, so that I can put them on and take them off as appropriate.

So what do you guys think?  What would work best, or do you know of another idea, something I haven't thought of?

Thanks in advance!

V/R,
Jack

14 comments:

  1. I've seen people base on transparent acrylic which seems popular for sci-fi (because of infinite potential environments) that could be an option. Or dead grass maybe? Grass dies in the summer heat and the winter cold, fits logically but might look out of place in both settings.

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    Replies
    1. Transparent bases is an intriguing concept, thanks!

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
  2. It is a conundrum, for sure! For my fledgling early war WWII in 15mm project, I am basing on brown base with fine, brown ballast as flocking. To early to decide if this is the right approach for me.

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  3. commenting! You just use decorated "sabot" bases and leave the basic vehicles unbased? You could use blue tac and tac the vehicles to the bases, switching as you go. Probably a no go, but that's how I'd go at the problem.

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    1. Yeah, I'm starting to lean towards the concept of having two sets of bases, and swapping between.

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
  4. As usual, I will be of no help, so here goes... I wouldn't base the vehicles, and would have two sets of infantry, one with green bases, and one with wintery bases.

    Okay, maybe I lied (about being helpful, but probably not), For vehicles, you could make two sets of bases like Disgruntled mentions above, but mount the vehicles on the bases with magnets, changing out the bases to match the season.

    Another idea might be to use posts mounted in the bases that fit into a hole in the underside of the vehicles with a friction fit to hold them together. Guessing that magnets would be less work and hassle. The more I type, the more I like the Blue tac idea.

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    1. Brian,

      Yeah, not basing is not going to happen. I wasn't going to base my vehicles, but then the bases I bought for the infantry were thicker than I expected and so I don't want to have the infantry running around being 3 (scale) feet taller than the vehicles! ;)

      I'm leaning towards having separate bases and just swapping between.

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
  5. Two suggested options for snow. First, and the messy option is to get caulk powder from an art shop and lightly sprinkle over base. Once finished you will have to dust them off and no doubt vacuum. Second option, buy some white plasticine and with small bits push a few on to the stand. On the mud base it will give the impression of snow being churned up by the tanks and be sufficient to tie into the winter theme.

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    1. That's interesting, Peter, I'll have to look into that. Thanks!

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
  6. My smaller scale WW2 is 6 mm but have had the same issues, in the end I have gone for a pale grass colour flock , this works for me for most times of the year, my thoughts were we tend to play less winter battles anyway, even if snow is on the ground roads etc would become churned up and muddy . Not sure I would like transparent I guess it depends on the number of vehicles and size of collection magnetic would work well but be a real faff !

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Matt! I do like the pale grass concept, though I plan to go with full-on, Santa Claus-style snow. I don't think the transparent bases will work.

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete
  7. Perhaps separate bases with rare earth magnets on the vehicles and bases? Personally I've moved away from basing vehicles and I use thin bases for my infantry.

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    1. I'm giving this option a real look.
      I really didn't want to base my vehicles, but I screwed up and bought bases for my infantry that were too thick...

      V/R,
      Jack

      Delete