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Hi lads.

Personally i'm not a fan of the standard flying bases as they tend to break on me the whole time.

Question is, are they mandatory? or is it fine to have my deffcopters just resting on their skids as if they have landed?

I only ask as any pic of see of them the bases are on them, but my local GW says most people leave them off...

Cheers lads.

Roy.

You might get some grief for leaving them off.
Mainly because the model on skids has a very different base area than the model on the flying base.

I don't fix the bases to the models cause they will break when you transport them but a bit of blutack will usually keep them in place in game.

Well, as it goes, I would keep them on as it might cause a fuss with TLOS.

For some reason jetbikes get big round flying bases and normal bikes get those long bases. Use the bike bases if you like them better and don't worry about anyone who might complain. It's a game, if they cant enjoy it because you dislike broken bases they can buy you new ones .

This is a rules question, so really should go in You Make The Call. That said, I understand that you need to know in relation to how you build your models.

The 5th edition rules state that models must be based on the base with which they are provided. So for Jetbikes of any kind, that’s generally going to be a flying stand. They do say that you can base them some other way IF your opponent consents, but it's kind of a pain to ask every game, and I always hate to feel like I'm imposing on my opponent's good will.

That said, if you choose to model them differently, opponents will probably not have a problem with it, so long as you do not appear to be gaining a game advantage from it. Of course, just sitting them on the skids, or using regular Bike bases, does give you a game advantage. It makes the models easier to hide and to get cover saves. So most places I’ve played, people are not going to like seeing someone do this.

A better solution to your dilemma, which I’ve frequently seen, is to modify or replace the fragile flying stand rod/peg, so it doesn’t break on you so much. The easiest modification is simply to snap off the little bit at the end, and to widen the hole in the model so that the wider, tapering rod of the flying stand inserts directly into the model. Using my fingers and exacto, this usually takes me about 30 seconds. Another common one I’ve seen is to simply replace the whole clear rod with a screw, nail, or another small dowel made of plastic, wood or metal.

Model them on their skids, sitting on a base the size of a flying base or the bottom section of the flying base. It might hang off a bit, but that's ok.

Another option would be to improve the base. The best option is to use magnets. You've already got a small hole in the vehicle, just enlarge it and stick a magnet in there and glue the other magnet to the top of the pole. If you don't want to use magnets, consider using a piece of scenery (CoD runied bits for instance) as a more substantial option for supporting the copter instead of the post they are supplied with.

Yea, the whole base thing is a bit mad.

There is reason for needing them at specific sizes, but A, I like to give my independant characters bigger scenic bases, and B, as you say flying bases are annoying.

I just glue them on really strong and transport them very carefully. Best way to re-attatch a broken flying base, or indeed anything else thats plastic, is to use super glue on both parts, set one part on fire til its just hot enough to melt a tiny bit, then fuse it with the wet other part and it litterally is super super bonded in like less than 5 seconds!

Eilif's idea with building the height out of scenery is also nice.

I have my fling bases removable. For jetbikes OR skimmers. Makes transportation so much easier and I haven't broken a base in a few years now.

The mounting hole is enlarged to 3mm to better fit more of the post into it (instead of the whole model sitting on a 1mm nub, it is supported by a 3x3mm stub. Much more stable).

My bases are also weighted with washers (40mm for the bikes. 60mm for the skimmers) but they add 3mm to the height of the bases so LOS can be a negative.

Newt-Of-Death wrote:Yea, the whole base thing is a bit mad......Eilif's idea with building the height out of scenery is also nice.

True my bro gave his Ghazghkull thraka a dreadnought sized base (don't remember the exact size) and gave it a Armageddon looking scenery and turned out brilliantly.

though gazzy is 2 times the size of the normal base they provide him with, Anyways this one suit him nicely this one is perfect.

Well...RAW, you can have any sized base that is larger than those supplied with the models, but nothing smaller, so using bike bases is a clear breaking of the rules...

What is your gripe about the Flying bases? Is it that they don't seem as solid as the normal bases?

If so, my reccomendation is to buy some thin copper rod, and put them on the normal 60mm bases. They're around the same size, will be durable with the copper rod, and you won't have to worry about any rules nazi's that you might (and probably will) come across.

The club I play in is very casual so I just put the flying bases on units that actually look good with it (ie. Blue Scribes or Screamers of Tzeentch). Other units (ie. Necron Destroyers) I find look cooler without a base.

If your club doesn't have any issues with it, do what you think looks good. Otherwise, you'll have to conform to the RAW. Alternatively, you can make the flying bases removable and just put them on when needed (This usually makes transportation easier as well).

Darth Bob wrote:Well...RAW, you can have any sized base that is larger than those supplied with the models, but nothing smaller, so using bike bases is a clear breaking of the rules...

Actually that is 4th RAW, 5th you have to use the base supplied, or get consent of your opponent.

I never glue any of my flying bases for my jetbikes or wave serpents. I bought some brass rod for when I break off the little nibs replace it with a brass rod.

Dakka Dan wrote:

Darth Bob wrote:Well...RAW, you can have any sized base that is larger than those supplied with the models, but nothing smaller, so using bike bases is a clear breaking of the rules...

Actually that is 4th RAW, 5th you have to use the base supplied, or get consent of your opponent.

I never glue any of my flying bases for my jetbikes or wave serpents. I bought some brass rod for when I break off the little nibs replace it with a brass rod.

I have to agree with Dakka Dan but here's something funny..... By RAW, "they (Citadel Miniatures) must be glued onto their bases before they can be used in the game." Silly GW.

plasticspork wrote:For some reason jetbikes get big round flying bases and normal bikes get those long bases. Use the bike bases if you like them better and don't worry about anyone who might complain. It's a game, if they cant enjoy it because you dislike broken bases they can buy you new ones .

Maybe you shouldn't have broken the old ones, hoss. I've had my Tau for a little over two years and only ever had one broken base. Asking me to buy you new gak because you can't be careful with it? I'd laugh my ass off and tell you to go feth yourself.

And like you said, it's a game. By not having your skimmers on bases you're screwing with how the game works. Suddenly you're capable of hiding behind low obstacles that you couldn't before, claiming cover that you shouldn't be claiming, because your skimmer isn't sitting at an appropriate height. It's like modeling all your infantry to be prone, you're modeling for an advantage in that case and obviously I wouldn't allow it.

I don't care if they're on the bases they came with. If you want to use a different base and use brass rod instead, then fine, so long as the rod sits at the same height as one of the plastic stands (and the new base is similar in size to the old, like a 60mm base instead of the large flying base).

I like to give my independant characters bigger scenic bases

I also don't have a problem with that. In 4th you could mount them on a base one size larger (but no smaller) anyway. And my XV89 came with a 60mm base so I have mine mounted on a resin 60mm base in a dynamic pose.

In the case of skimmers though it's a little different (well, so long as you don't go overboard with your ICs and have them standing twice their height or anything like that).

Skimmers need to be skimming, they just look cooler that way.
Magnets really are the way to go my friend, on that note I pulled up an old youtube vid to walk you through how to do a dead simple conversion.

This a chap called Fritz, has an awesome channel on youtube so when your done here you should check out his other stuff too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Oda7m7IOzo

That is a really clever little tutorial there, nice one Lenny