Need Help/Advice/Guidance with 10mm Basing

Started by bigjackmac, 10 May 2020, 06:05:18 PM

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bigjackmac

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.


And 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

mmcv

I've seen people use clear perspex bases in the past that then appear nearly invisible and just show through the mat underneath. Your tables are always so well set up so that could work quite well as you'll just see what is on the table base below - road, grass, snow, whatever!

fred.

I don't think there is an easy answer.

I tend to go with a mix of grass and bare earth on my bases in the hope they blend with various terrain.

The muddy bases look too uniform this makes them stand out against the background. Perhaps some dry brushing or washes to bring out the texture?

For snow you could add some loose flock to the vehicle bases.

The other option with vehicles is no bases! They are big enough to sit on the terrain as they are - but it does make storage harder.

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Raider4

Quote from: fred. on 10 May 2020, 06:30:27 PM
The other option with vehicles is no bases! They are big enough to sit on the terrain as they are - but it does make storage harder.

The KV-1 above is longer than the base it's on, so worrying about storage may not be a factor here.

Orcs

Some of the members don't base 10mm tanks. I do as it allows the base to stop the tanks rubbing up against each other when stored.  I would base for summer with flock and ground then just use a green table even for winter, and factor in the weather effect into the scenario. ie less visiblity etc

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fsn

I'm with Orcs.

Thought I do think the idea of clear bases is very clever.
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hammurabi70

Create a sabot by cutting out white felt to match the base size and then cut a hole that the AFV will push through.  However, if it is painted for summer it will look peculiar.  As the winter requirement is a white coating the ultimate solution is two sets of tanks. Our solution is for two of us to create distinct summer and winter armies and use each other's.  As a solo player that is not much use to you.

bigjackmac

First, thanks everyone, I appreciate the quick responses!

I am intrigued by the clear bases, but I may have zoomed past that already.

Regarding the bases, storage is helped by the bases, but it wasn't the deciding factor.  Not basing is not an option.  I didn't want to base my vehicles, but then the bases I bought for my troops ended up being thicker than I expected and I don't want my troops running around being three (scale) feet taller than my tanks!

My current bases are a little bright; just realized I hadn't given them an ink wash yet...

I'm all alone in my wargaming endeavors, so if I want summer and winter armies (and I do), I've got to do them myself.

It may not be perfectly accurate, but I'm okay with my Germans using gray tanks and my Soviets using green tanks in the snow.  It's not perfect, but again, I'm a solo gamer and I absolutely am not going to buy two of every vehicle.  For those of you doing that, my hat is off to you!

I'm leaning towards having separate summer and winter bases; I'm going to test and see how it works.

V/R,
Jack



V/R,
Jack

Noktu

If you end up having separate bases for summer and winter, maybe you could use blue tack to then swap on and off?

paulr

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hammurabi70

Quote from: bigjackmac on 11 May 2020, 02:20:36 AM
I'm all alone in my wargaming endeavors, so if I want summer and winter armies (and I do), I've got to do them myself.

It may not be perfectly accurate, but I'm okay with my Germans using gray tanks and my Soviets using green tanks in the snow.  It's not perfect, but again, I'm a solo gamer and I absolutely am not going to buy two of every vehicle.  For those of you doing that, my hat is off to you!

I'm leaning towards having separate summer and winter bases; I'm going to test and see how it works.

V/R,
Jack

Actually, it is worse than that as for some you need three.  My opponent has German tanks for early war in panzer gray and late war in Dapple camo.  Hence, some tanks like Tigers fall into all three categories.

Orcs

The only snag with clear bases is that any superglue that runs will show up as a white splodge on the base. As Hammurabi says the ideal is to have different armies for winter and summer.

Trouble is you then need completely different terrain as well. Snow covered houses and trees etc,
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Lord Kermit of Birkenhead

None of my vehicle collection is based, except the stuff used for BKC, CWC, and FWC. Infantry, if singles then 12.7 x 12.7 counters, if multi 40x20 MDF. Guns - square bases sized to take gun and crew.
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Ithoriel

The only transparent bases I've seen in action were under some Napoleonic Ships.

Initially I thought,"Oooh! That's neat!" but within minutes I couldn't shake the notion that the ships were floating above the seas surface on a cushion of air. Proto-areonefs, perhaps! :)
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fred.

Regarding clear basing - if done with thicker bases it does rather give a shiny / floating appearance.

But there are some gamers using very thin plastic - either blister packs or report cover sheets - and these are nearly invisible on the table. This is with 28mm figures, not 10mm tanks, so not sure how applicable it is.
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