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Is there any efficient way to do this? it just seems like such a waste of money to buy bases at the store.
Thanks in advance

Mate please don't start threads asking questions in the tutorial section. They belong in the P&M forum.



What exactly are you asking for though? Are you refering to the standard black bases you get in GW kits or do you mean fancy bases you can by from stores?

Cut out 28mm circles of plasticard? Or even normal card if you want to go super cheap, though they probably won't last long.

Oh sorry, didn't know this was not the place for questions.

I mean just the normal 28mm bases, nothing fancy. I have potentially many to do, and have done some the plasticard method but it's fairly slow to get a nice even circle out of it. Tried using a large drill bit (the one that makes a little disk in the middle) and it either bent the plasticard or broke whatever other material I used

You can buy standard plastic bases on EBay dirt cheap.

Do you mean a 28mm diameter base?

Litko Aero Systems will do you bases of any size you want.

They produce all the standard sizes and can also make custom sizes.

http://www.litko.net/categories/Miniature-Bases-%26-Bottoms/Circular/

Bases from the big gaming miniature manufacturers may seem unjustifiably pricey, but unless you only need to make a few, have all the tools/materials on hand already, and have much more time than money, going completely DIY seems like more effort than it's worth.

Just how many are you looking for? With simple things like wood/plastic/MDF disks, the economy of scale really comes into play. Poking around quickly online, I found 1"x1/8" wood disks (same overall dimensions as a standard 25mm round, but lacking the beveled edge and hollow cup bottom - if you truly meant 28mm, instead of the 25mm bases the generally come with 28mm models, like I'm assuming, you'd be closer to 1-1/8"D) from one manufacturer. They're $.10/ea for 25 (same as Litko, but solid wood instead of slotted plywood), $.06/ea for 100, and less than $.04/ea ($.038, to be exact)) for 500. Renendra sells injection-molded plastic bases for a pittance compared to, say, a GW base bag - 25mm rounds are $4 for a bag of 50 through The Warstore - that's $.08/ea. Even tacking shipping charges on top of those costs (which get diluted more and more as your order size increases), those are still pretty cheap.

I don't value my time all that highly and I feel a certain sense of satisfaction in rigging something up myself that I would otherwise have to buy, but even with all that I would just order some. If you insist on making them yourself, I'd probably revisit the hole saw, this time using some scrap wood as a sacrificial backing board and clamping the material in place. Drilling/cutting straight through to the backer helps support the material evenly and prevent tear-out on the bottom edge, giving you much cleaner cuts. If you have or can get access to one, a drill press would be ideal for the task.

I've been toying w/an idea i had but not the time or $$$ to try... Get a 1" diameter gasket punch, use it to "punch out" 1" diameter circles on plastic card & do the same on a stone texture sticky tile from home depot. Problem is that gasket punch is like $40+ for a good one, but it should last forever

 shrew wrote:
I've been toying w/an idea i had but not the time or $$$ to try... Get a 1" diameter gasket punch, use it to "punch out" 1" diameter circles on plastic card & do the same on a stone texture sticky tile from home depot. Problem is that gasket punch is like $40+ for a good one, but it should last forever

Stone texture sticky tile will RUIN cutting instruments pretty quickly. That being said, it does look damn fine on a miniature scale.

As mentioned above, you can get bulk bases dirt cheap from either ebay, or some of the other suppliers.

one elusive thought here though...what happened to the bases for the minis you have that you need so many of them????

@ Jimsolo, i used one at work & the only problem i had was the that the gasket punch was damaged due to someone using it to cut 0.5mm stainless steel shim stock with it. I put the tile pieces on regular bases cause i didn't feel like detailing bases

The bases are really not that expensive. Skimmer bases are the ones that for some reason are pricy as feth (and ovals).

Though the easiest way around it is to simply cut it out of plasticard. I did it for a couple of my Devilfish bases since i lost the original. I took one that i still had and traced it onto a thick plasticard sheet, cut it out with heavy scissors, and built my terrain on top of it to hide the unusual lack of a sloped edge lol. As for the peg, i magnetize my bases for skimmers anyway so that was easy (pipe that fit the magnet like a glove cleverly hidden behind the rubble)

I use leather punch tools I go off of eBay, some plastic card, and. Hammer(helps with stress relief).

Only punch 3-4 at a time hen pop them out or you'll damage the discs it makes. You can use textured plastic card as well for different finishes.