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How do you guys get a mini off a base without ruining it? I plastic-glued bits of plasticard under my burna's feet and then plastic-glued him to the base, at which point I PVA'd sand on the base. I'm thinking now though that I want to base my "specialty" infantry on 32's instead of 25's (the burna hangs WAY out there, and he'll likely see more field time in KT than 40k), what's the best way to get this guy off his base without damaging him? I'm leaning towards setting him in ankle-deep water for a day and see if I can get the sand off the base, then take a razor-saw to his plasticard "stilts". It's painted so I'd rather avoid damaging the paintjob overmuch if possible.

If you like the way you've based it, but just want to go up to a bigger base, I recommend leaving it on the 25mm, but cut the "lip" off the bottom edges so that it becomes more flat and just glue the whole thing to the bigger base.
I use hobby snips to just hack all the rim off the base. It doesn't need to look neat as you are going to then add more of your chosen basing around the edge to blend it.

Depending on your basing (sand or flock are best for this technique), this could look like you always had it on the 32mm.

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Hrm, hadn't thought of that. The base is nothing special, just sand with a base-coat of brown (haven't washed or highlighted the base yet). Options is good, thanks!

If you don't care about the base and just want to remove the model, I'd just go to town with the hobby snips and cut the base away bit by bit until you only have the base directly under the models feet left.
Then you just glue it to the 32mm, glue on the basing material and you're done

What about cutting the base around the feet the filling/ sand the material off the the correct level

What Galef said. I find that in addition to that, sandpaper sheets come in handy to reduce the thickness of the remaining base chuncks, be they the whole circular old base top or just the bit glued to the models feet.

I wouldn't hold the hold base rim to a belt sander, since I'd count on the model flipping in my hanbs and look like it had a horrible accident ;-]

Also, there is the alternative to get one of the many base add-on ring products that extend a 25mm base to 32mm.

Coh Magnussen wrote:
How do you guys get a mini off a base without ruining it? I plastic-glued bits of plasticard under my burna's feet and then plastic-glued him to the base, at which point I PVA'd sand on the base. I'm thinking now though that I want to base my "specialty" infantry on 32's instead of 25's (the burna hangs WAY out there, and he'll likely see more field time in KT than 40k), what's the best way to get this guy off his base without damaging him? I'm leaning towards setting him in ankle-deep water for a day and see if I can get the sand off the base, then take a razor-saw to his plasticard "stilts". It's painted so I'd rather avoid damaging the paintjob overmuch if possible.

Well if you did raise his feet from the base with extra bits it gets much easier. Just do the soak to break up and lift the sand, then either the razor saw (or just a sharp craft knife) to cut off the figure and remount on the 32mm base. You also save the 25mm base and can use it on another model, an objective marker, etc.

My two cents,

CB