Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This is not me picking on anyone in particular, and because of that, I'm not going to post examples - I think we can all immediately bring to mind the bases I'm talking about. Flick through any winners category online for Golden Demon if you need a refresher.

My query is where did this start, and just how did it end up at the extremes we see now? Or has high end basing always been done this way?

Nextly... Why? Is it that people now think they are necessary for a high profile mini, so include them (and perpetuate the trend), or is there something this style is referencing?

Sometimes a block base can be well over the same height as the mini or diorama it holds, but no wider - It puts me in mind of a giant pepper mill type shape at times.
Pure curiosity, I have nothing against these things, I just don't understand them. If it were me I'd look at using a cube of cut slate or mineral, because in my brain that's nicer than wood.

Edit: Because apparently we need pictures, here's what happens when you google "large wooden miniature base".
These are very tame compared to the pieces I'm thinking of.

Ummm... what?

Where did I lose you?

Probably people trying to get their entries noticed at golden demon. I can imagine an escalation from there. Sometimes it's a nice finishing touch on an amazing model. I've seen too many though where I've wanted to use the plinth as a mallet...

A pal of mine who won the young bloods trophy a few years back and now paints at gw uses Adidas deodorant caps as plinths. They really look much better.

You mean a Plinth.

They date back to the days of ancient Greece, it's done to enhance the aesthetic quality of a piece by giving balance to the form on display.

I was wondering if a little like the early forrays into OSL are attributed to people like Victoria Lamb, if there were notable people who set the trend for this stacked heel effect.

Don't get me wrong, I like a plinth. I just don't understand (or perhaps appreciate the.. Subtle nuances) of a 4" or 6" block under a 28mm figure.

Paulsons got it.

Pretty sure plinths existed for a long time and i think most mini painters use them to kinda differentiate between gaming pieces and "art" pieces.

It gives you extra space to really mess with and make a cool thing or keep it simple and focus it on the model or bust.

edit: IT definitely can be way over done and the wrong proportions can really detract from the whole.

IMHO of course

Impractically mounting a miniature helps explicitly show that it is not meant to be seen as a gaming token, rather a piece of art in it's own right.

As mentioned above, using a plinth as an impractical mount is a good way to do this as it creates parallels to ancient/renaissance 3d art.

 paulson games wrote:
You mean a Plinth.

They date back to the days of ancient Greece, it's done to enhance the aesthetic quality of a piece by giving balance to the form on display.

Aw. I thought the word for this was wood chunk.

I don't mean purely plinths. I also mean those cases when a modeller decides to directly extend the profile of a base downwards without variation from form. Sometimes shaping the wood right into the base of the diorama so that the wood becomes integral to the base structure.

I don't mean a chess piece effect or division, but an integration of shape.

The earliest ones I've seen are (as you identify) Golden Demon entries.

I would imagine it started when someone looked at the trophy bases on the GD statuettes that they used to give and thought that looks good!

Also allot of Dioramas have tag lines and the front of a base would need to be enlarged to make it ledgable, this is also seen traditionally on sports trophy bases so the two just seem to have come together over time.

I suppose it is difficult to identify a trend unless the figures are high profile, so again a sort of self feeding loop.
I've barely seen winning entries in the past few years that don't use them, which makes me wonder what percentage of people see them as necessary.

I think as said by Desu, it's very easy to get wrong.

 Desubot wrote:
It gives you extra space to really mess with and make a cool thing or keep it simple and focus it on the model or bust.

A lot of competition painters also like them because they provide a way for judges to handle the piece without having to touch the actual miniature.


For a while there, Golden Demon Oz had banned the use of display bases, but as a compromise after much discussion with entrants had allowed painters to attach an unobtrusive 'handling base' underneath the normal base.

Did they give a reason for banning them?

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Did they give a reason for banning them?

IIRC, it was largely just due to the GD organisers at the time thinking that they were too obtrusive. It was a fairly controversial decision at the time, and was fairly widely unpopular with the higher-tier painters.

The actual policy varied over time - for a while, they were allowed but the rules stipulated that they would be ignored for judging purposes. At another point the model still had to be on a removable, regular slotta base so that it could be taken off the plinth for judging.

For miniatures it started much earlier with historical display figurines that were usually bigger than 28mm so they a looked more balanced, even on a small plinth, than a little 28mm Space Marine. Fantasy/Sci-Fi competition painters adopted it (like a lot of painting methods) for handling and a more sculptural look and less of a gaming piece feeling.

 insaniak wrote:
A lot of competition painters also like them because they provide a way for judges to handle the piece without having to touch the actual miniature.

That is a really good reason! Can't believe I never realized that

Thought it was just to raise them up / look cool... but that's extremely practical, as well. I've seen painters do some really cool things where the basing "bleeds" onto / into the plinth a bit, too. I already liked the look of these but will appreciate them more now that I know they actually serve a purpose

There are cases where it's pretty obtrusive, but I wonder how far it got to be outright ruled upon.

I've git some things I've always wanted to base on, like a large motorbike gear, I wonder how well that kind of thing would go down in comparison to the old cocobolo.

Whether a wooden block/plinth or simply a deep extension of the scenic basing, big bases have long been a part of model presentation, especially among military model hobbyists.

As an interesting note, the 1987 Citadel "Blandford's Warriors" figures originally came with comically large plastic plinth basses.



Foundry recently re-released them though without the bases http://www.wargamesfoundry.com/our-ranges/ex-citadel/mercenaries/

I had a couple of the originals, but they were more valuable than useful to me so I sold them on.

A large plinth can draw the eye to the subject, make the modeler's work seem more grand and important and compensate for any anatomical deficiencies.

Until the early 1990s, each Golden Demon category had an overall size restriction and it was stipulated that all minis had to be on their normal gaming base. I can't remember when that was removed.

I think it's done to make competitive pieces stand out. I rather like it, as it gives the artist an opportunity to create a micro-diorama for their figure, add in a bit more world than a typical round plastic base would allow.

I can certainly see where this blurs the line between diorama and pure figure painting. Something the organizers of any painting competition should probably clarify, but most don't. I've seen some ridiculously large dioramic bases, with groundwork overflowing off the wooden part, ruins and walls and trees all incorporated into it, even sublevels carved out of the wooden base with another miniature or scene taking place. I happen to really like this, but it does kind of detract from pure figure painting.

Insaniak also brought up a really good point.

I have a strange urge to mount a figure on a three inch plinth, with another figure climbing up the back of the plinth, where the top figure can't see it....

The Auld Grump

 TheAuldGrump wrote:
I have a strange urge to mount a figure on a three inch plinth, with another figure climbing up the back of the plinth, where the top figure can't see it....

The Auld Grump

YES!
Do this.