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I'm really looking for plain plastic disc as I am putting craters on top of them, so I don't need nice logo'd templates. Suggestions?

Has it got to be plastic?

Litko Aero do a massive range of bases in MDF and plywood,

Nope, does not have to be plastic. Cheap is preferred. Can't really use cardboard because glue and wash will warp it. MDF sounds like a good option.

10 no. 3-inch discs of laser cut 3mm plywood is $11.99 plus postage on Litko Aero.

I was actually looking at the 100 pack. For anyone who is curious about the ask, I am making phosphex templates. A quad mortar battery can throw out 12 a turn and they remain on tne battlefield. Between the quad mortars, grenades, medusas, and other stuff, there could be a lot of them needed by the end of the battle.

If they only need to be 3" in diameter then you might consider hacking up some Pringle's tubes. They are almost exactly 3", and have quite a sturdy steel disk at the bottom (and a plastic lid). I've also picked up laser cut MDF shapes of ebay for reasonably cheap. You could also use old compact disks, I bet if you search around you'll be able to get a ton of those for free.

Could you get one of those cylinder drill bits the right size? Like the ones they use to drill holes in drywall ceilings for recessed lighting.

How close a tolerance to 3 inches do you need? Mini dvd/cdr discs are 3.15 inches across. You can buy 100 packs of no-brand ones of those off ebay for not much. They have a hole in the middle but if you are modelling a crater over them anyway that shouldn't matter.

3" is like 76.2mm, but proxie models dose do 75MM plastic bases.

http://www.proxiemodels.com/store2/index.php?route=product/product&path=20_26&product_id=95

Given that they are templates, they really should be 3" exact. I'm mostly a casual player, so personally, a few mm here and there doesn't make a difference, but they should be as close to 3" as possible. Slightly smaller bases would be ok. Slightly larger bases probably not so ok. I had thought about 75mm bases.

 Nevelon wrote:
Could you get one of those cylinder drill bits the right size? Like the ones they use to drill holes in drywall ceilings for recessed lighting.

something like that would also be my suggestion. Get a stack of MDF or light plywood like basswood, clamp it really well to your table and you can probably do easily 5 or more at one time. Maybe more, maybe less depending on what kind of clamping you can do. Plus, you could use the rest of the wood/mdf as a kind of base if you really wanted, with the cut out for the craters, or other items.

 Ifurita wrote:
I was actually looking at the 100 pack. For anyone who is curious about the ask, I am making phosphex templates. A quad mortar battery can throw out 12 a turn and they remain on tne battlefield. Between the quad mortars, grenades, medusas, and other stuff, there could be a lot of them needed by the end of the battle.

100 craters! Strewth!!

It's going to be like the Western Front in WW1.

What happens when you put MDF in the oven? If I apply scupley over the top and then bake at 275 for 15 minutes, do you think it would be ok?

If you want craters it is best to have a selection of disks of different sizes. When you make a set russian doll them so they stack inside each other for storage.

Phospphex templates are either 3" or 5", so I'm a bit contrained there. I want to make them pretty low craters so that it's doesn't make model placement a pain.

 Ifurita wrote:
What happens when you put MDF in the oven? If I apply scupley over the top and then bake at 275 for 15 minutes, do you think it would be ok?

This would be a bad idea. MDF can give off formaldehyde or the decomposition products thereof when heated.

If you are planning on using sculpey and aren't too fussed if they are mostly the same craters then I'd make a couple of crater designs out of it (use a cardboard 3/5" template and trim the sculpey to the base size before baking it) then get some 2 part molding compound like blue stuff (or the reusable instant mold - though you'd need a lot of it) and make press molds off the initial few craters. Then you can churn out as many crater templates the right size as you want made entirely out of sculpey. I use this technique to make wound markers and bases out of milliput.

The Litko bases are plywood, not MDF, but I doubt they bake well.