Why do you base your models?

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**Eilif**

Vermis wrote:
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Also also, I can understand the opposition to a mini dragging a circle of earth around with it, especially the pet rock/skull/whatever so the mini can do a Captain Morgan, and especially those ridiculous teetering towers of cork that no painting competition is without, these days. But I can't help but wonder that if the former ruins their suspension of disbelief, then what about the soldiers with enormous heads and hands, perched on scale-six-inch-tall plinths, making up armies crammed into and desperately fighting over a football pitch, wielding small arms and guns and sometimes artillery with a range measured in feet; and with none of this able to move and operate according to what it represents, but subject to having a hand descend from above to move them around, and relying on the arbitrary, abstract result of a dice roll to determine what effect a 'shot' has?

Good point.

**Reality-Torrent**

If you don't base it it really woulden't look finished to me..

**Stormwall**

Basing my models allows me to crawl through the gak involved with the model himself and do something fun and creative to base him as I said before.

You guys mentioned models looking out of place by being models, and that is true too.

I've been thinking... If a faction just got done fighting on a desert world, say... idk, Crimson Fists, and then they deployed quickly to an autumn world or some other world, they would still have lots of debris/sand and mud caked on from the prior conflict.

In a way, basing our models shows where they come from. No matter what our models will be out of place, no matter where they go. That's a 40k thing. You know, their home world in your living room or wherever their game table is.

**AllSeeingSkink**

Vermis wrote:
Also also, I can understand the opposition to a mini dragging a circle of earth around with it, especially the pet rock/skull/whatever so the mini can do a Captain Morgan, and especially those ridiculous teetering towers of cork that no painting competition is without, these days. But I can't help but wonder that if the former ruins their suspension of disbelief, then what about the soldiers with enormous heads and hands, perched on scale-six-inch-tall plinths, making up armies crammed into and desperately fighting over a football pitch, wielding small arms and guns and sometimes artillery with a range measured in feet; and with none of this able to move and operate according to what it represents, but subject to having a hand descend from above to move them around, and relying on the arbitrary, abstract result of a dice roll to determine what effect a 'shot' has?
I don't mean that as a high-handed criticism of black bases. You can do as you like, and I wouldn't even raise an eyebrow at it. (Well, I might nod, say 'nice', and admire your aesthetic conviction) But in tabletop imagery, as with complaints about other, non-GW rules, I think people tend to forget that it's all very abstract and unrealistic anyway. I know I said that they're not just gaming counters, but... yeah, from another POV that is all they are.

Not trying to sound harsh but reading this just sounded like the equivalent of "well we're all dying anyway and you'll never achieve everything you want with your life so why bother at all?". It's kind of dismissing something with the idea that it's all futile anyway.

Of course it's all abstraction, of course the models are just glorified counters, but it still doesn't really make sense to lump all those things together otherwise why are we playing a miniature wargame in the first place?

People obviously have different levels of what annoys them or doesn't. To me, the ultimate of a miniature wargame (vs just playing with counters) is that it shows snapshots of a battle, and having non-matching bases is probably the most visually jarring thing even if it is one of those things we just accept. Are there other things that can be jarring? Yes, of course... but when you have 2 fully painted armies, the one that strikes first is the bases.

Though I do base my models anyway, because I tend to not play many games any more anyway, my models are display pieces that get gamed with occasionally, not game pieces that get displayed occasionally. If my models lived in their cases and only emerged to play games I would not give them scenic bases.

**Vermis**

Nihilism? Me? Hahaha good gracious no. I see it as sweating the small stuff, criticising one little flaw in the middle of a whole heap of flaws that we successfully ignore anyway to enjoy the game. A bit like grognards who obsess over lacing in Napoleonic games: Switching the colour isn't going to make the 'snapshot' much more immersive or much less toy soldiers. Or the game much better overall. Just different. I don't think it should - or does - improve or ruin your enjoyment that much.

**TheAuldGrump**

Two reasons, really:

1.) A nicely based mini looks better - it looks like it is interacting with its environment.

2.) Basing is fun.

It allows you to tell a story with the miniature, more so when it is for a unit. (My girlfriend has a unit of dwarfs on a set of stairs, looking heroic - the commander has an easel and a paintbrush...)

It took me about five minutes to be hooked by the dioramic bases that I have seen for Kings of War - it makes doing units so much more entertaining. (Tin Racer on Beasts of War has an undead army that was what decided me that I wanted to do diorama bases.)

The Auld Grump

**AllSeeingSkink**

Vermis wrote:
Nihilism? Me? Hahaha good gracious no. I see it as sweating the small stuff, criticising one little flaw in the middle of a whole heap of flaws that we successfully ignore anyway to enjoy the game. A bit like grognards who obsess over lacing in Napoleonic games: Switching the colour isn't going to make the 'snapshot' much more immersive or much less toy soldiers. Or the game much better overall. Just different. I don't think it should - or does - improve or ruin your enjoyment that much.

But the very fact we play with miniatures shows that it means something, maybe less to you but I don't think it's a stretch to see how specific things might annoy some people more, especially something as visually jarring as a random patch of grass under a soldier in the middle of a desert. Most the other things you mentioned aren't nearly as bad, though I'm sure there's people who find those things annoying too. Bobbleheadedness in 40k is one of my personal gripes as well.

**Zomnivore**

I don't paint bases unless they're resin, and its a cool model.

I don't think they look good as anything other then black pucks, and I like seeing the run off of paint on the black it makes the base look interesting in terms of seeing the process it takes to paint the mini, and that makes a moderately well painted miniature look more interesting.

If I'm trying to be lazy making terrain like sand/grit/flock on a base, and half ass it, it shows and the contrast between the base, and the bases model irritates me more then a base on a black puck.

**-iPaint-**

I prefer based over not based, personally.

This:

Looks better than this, imo.

It's nothing fancy, but that little bit extra effort goes a long way. It's also a reason why I started basing vehicles - not only does it make storage and transport easier, but it also brings them up to the same base height as the infantry and weapon teams.

Now, if you're displaying your models for a webstore or something, then I might consider doing a simple black base, or not basing if there's an integral base. I guess it depends.

~iPaint