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So I recently came into ownership of some old lead space marine minis, and I want to use them in modern games, any advice on how best to add slots to modern sized space marine bases?

To be honest, I think you'd better clipping off the tabs on the bottom of the minis and filing the undersides of the feet smooth, rather than trying to cut slotted holes in the bases. The way slotta bases work is they have a kind of tab 'holder', little sides of plastic that sandwich the tab to help keep it in place. Obviously the solid modern bases wouldn't have that 'holder', so you're probably not going to gain much in terms of stability cutting holes in them. If you really want to, you could probably do it with an appropriate sized dremel fitting, but then you've got to make sure to get the hole in the right place (slotta base holes are slightly offset because the tab is usually at the back of the heels and the minis naturally lean forward slightly), otherwise the model will look (and probably be) unbalanced.

If you don't want a heavy metal model to only have a superglue connection to the base, you can always go down the route of pinning, or even cutting the tab away but leaving little spikes under the feet, before drilling holes into the base for them to go through. I've never done that myself, but I don't see why it shouldn't work, so long as you fill any gaps with putty or something.

That's just my thoughts, anyway. Other people might have better ways of doing it.

I like that spike idea, may try that thanks for the advice, and good point about the tabs on the bottom, that would probably have caused some issues, thanks.


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Anyone have any advice on a good tool to cut the metal with?

You can also buy 32mm slotta bases for cheap on eBay or Amazon. I just recently bought 200 of them on eBay for $27 to rebase my old Necrons.

If these are really made of lead, even nail clippers will do the trick. Lead makes aluminum look tough and durable.

If they're 'white metal' - a nonlead alloy similar to pewter - that's a bit harder. Nail clippers can still work, but will dull fast. Ideally you want something designed to metal like end snips.

 Vulcan wrote:
If these are really made of lead, even nail clippers will do the trick. Lead makes aluminum look tough and durable.

If they're 'white metal' - a nonlead alloy similar to pewter - that's a bit harder. Nail clippers can still work, but will dull fast. Ideally you want something designed to metal like end snips.

So with a bit of Google-fu these minis are white metal, so it may be time to break out the mini-rotary tool.

Mini-rotary tool may not even be necessary. I have a pair of metal clippers that have been serving me well since 1998.

To offer a counterpoint, I recently rebased some metal minis, and I left the tabs on because I figured it would be more solid than glueing feet on bases, and less work than pinning. I cut slots into the bases with a hobby knife (from the bottom, not to break the rim), and supported the tabs with some plasticard. Easy, quick, stable. See pics:

I ended up doing the spike trick, supplemented with super glue. It seems to be working great so far, but we will see once they are fully painted and on the tabletop.

If you have a Dremel or similar rotary tool, you can get cutting wheels that would cut an appropriately sized slot with minimal effort.