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This may seem like an odd question, but thought some of you might have some good tips. I'm nearing the end of my 28mm Bolt Action US Airborne, and am going to try my hand at some Peter Pig 15mm USMC. I want to use them interchangably for either Bolt Action or for Blitzkrieg Commander (or other group base WW2 games). Does anyone have a good way to base the figures singly while still allowing them to mount a square 'group' base depending on the game being played?

I had thought of a magnetic or metal square base and mounting the figures on magnets, but this would require I custom build a second layer for the base that would be as tall as the magnet material I mounted them on. At 28mm it's pretty easy to do this with movement trays, but I don't know at 15mm (I had thought of basing them on pennies, but that again would necessitate something custom).

Any thoughts?

Personally at 15mm scale I would not bother to make convertible bases. The cost and effort of doing so looks roughly similar to the cost and effort of having more figures on the proper bases.

I base this comment on my experience of doing up 15mm ACW infantry figures for rules like Stars 'n' Bars and Fire & Fury.

Whut about metal bases and MAgnets?

 col. krazy kenny wrote:
Whut about metal bases and MAgnets?

That's what I'm going to end up doing. I've opted down the 'more difficult' route. Litko makes some 15mm magnetic bases that I'll use for the individual figures. Then some metal sheets as a bottom base with some bass wood with 15mm holes drilled through it on top. That will let me have the group base be 'level' with the skirmish bases. We'll see how it goes. I'll post some photos once I get a base of five built.

I'm actually attempting to do much the same. I recently purchased a box of PSC British Late War Infantry and based them individually on pennies or in weapon teams on nickels.

I'm new to historical WWII gaming, and in my reading I haven't been able to figure out what the level of expected Flames of War tourney rule compliance people would ask in a casual FLGS game.

Would grouping/overlapping the individually based infantry into the size of/onto an official FOW base be sufficient?

Would building slotted bases that hold 2 or 3 penny-sized bases be acceptable?

I'm in two minds about this. I bought two boxes of 15mm metals with the intention to use them individually for skirmish games as well as FoW formation bases, so I'd be interested in seeing any solutions that work out effective.

It seems like too much effort to me. I'd just paint more models I think.

If you really want to try it, I'd consider some small thin steel washers, glue them to the bottom of the bases (maybe shave the plastic a bit so they don't sit so high) and then use magnetic sheet for the FoW base. Or you could try and embed some really small magnets in the bases, you can get 2mm wide by 1mm thick rare earth magnets, drill 2mm holes in the bases and position the magnets in the holes. You could use steel washers on one side to make things easier.

I mount my individual plastic 15mm on metal washers and can then put them on magnetic larger bases. I'm not sure it'd work with nice Peter Pig metals though as they might be too top heavy unless you go for a really big base and then it might not look right when using them individually and might not allow for enough figures on a base when using the sabot.

I'm basing my Anglo Saxons for SAGA on 2p coins, so that if I ever need movement trays for other games, I can use Warbase's 2p movement trays.



http://war-bases.co.uk/index.php?route=product/category&path=68_70

15mm I go for FoW sized bases with 2 infantry on a small base, 4 on a medium/standard infantry base. It's simple to use wound markers for the odd casualty incurred, no need for movement trays or the hassle of magnetising.

1/72 infantry all on seperate bases (pennies) with weapons/command/logistics teams on bigger round bases. Again no movement trays here.

Well if instead of coins (which are pretty much all non magnetic as far as I'm aware?) you used steel washers, then you could just do your bases from magnetic sheet. I think that would be the quickest way and would actually take you no longer than what it currently takes you to base on pennies anyway.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Well if instead of coins (which are pretty much all non magnetic as far as I'm aware?) you used steel washers, then you could just do your bases from magnetic sheet. I think that would be the quickest way and would actually take you no longer than what it currently takes you to base on pennies anyway.

Actually all British 2p coins produced after 1992 are copper plated steel and therefore are magnetic.

It depends on the coin really. Some are magnetic, some not. Just check wikipedia, your national mint website, or just use a magnet to test them.

Could mount the models individually on 1p coins and then buy the 1p movement trays from warbases, you can specify custom layouts if you don't want them ranked up.

 Shadow Captain Edithae wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Well if instead of coins (which are pretty much all non magnetic as far as I'm aware?) you used steel washers, then you could just do your bases from magnetic sheet. I think that would be the quickest way and would actually take you no longer than what it currently takes you to base on pennies anyway.

Actually all British 2p coins produced after 1992 are copper plated steel and therefore are magnetic.

It depends on the coin really. Some are magnetic, some not. Just check wikipedia, your national mint website, or just use a magnet to test them.

Nifty, didn't now that. I've got Australian, US and UAE coins on me and none of them are magnetic. I have a Euro coin that isn't magnetic but apparently some of them are, I have some Indian Rupees floating around but can't put my hand on them to test.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Well if instead of coins (which are pretty much all non magnetic as far as I'm aware?) you used steel washers, then you could just do your bases from magnetic sheet. I think that would be the quickest way and would actually take you no longer than what it currently takes you to base on pennies anyway.

I looked at steel washers, and I could not find any the right size that didn't have a huge hole in the middle (had I found some with a small enough hole, I would have used them as you mentioned,as they're generally cheap and magnetic). I use some that are about 25mm across for my 28mm Bolt Action figures, but as fender washers the hole is really small, and easily covered either with a tiny piece of plasticard or by the pre cast bases themselves.

I get my washers off of ebay because I find there are sizes my local shops just don't carry.

 frozenwastes wrote:
I get my washers off of ebay because I find there are sizes my local shops just don't carry.

Now that you've mentioned that, I did find:

https://www.boltdepot.com/Product-Details.aspx?product=7314

Still, my Litko 15mm magnetic bases should arrive today, and we'll see how they shape up.

That looks pretty good as far as the smaller hole goes. It should also be wide enough to be stable for the metal 15mm miniatures. I use like 9mm fender washers for the plastics I use, but metal miniatures just fall over with such a small base, so I have to double them up to lower the centre of gravity.

 frozenwastes wrote:
That looks pretty good as far as the smaller hole goes. It should also be wide enough to be stable for the metal 15mm miniatures. I use like 9mm fender washers for the plastics I use, but metal miniatures just fall over with such a small base, so I have to double them up to lower the centre of gravity.

Well, it looks like I will have to try something on top of the Litko 15mm magnetic bases. They are made from a flexible magnetic sheet, and aren't going to be stiff enough to have a figure mounted on them along with basing material. They are the right size however, and do seem like they will keep the Peter Pigs vertical, from that perspective. Lowes looks like they may have something that could work, I'll check my local store. The Litko magnetic bases have an adhesive side, and this should help in terms of the holes in the middle of the washers. The PP minis may be long enough to bridge, and then fill in with sand/basing material.

Here is a comparison with a PP mini on the litko base and a penny. I think 15mm will still work for diameter, but I would agree that going to much smaller could become problematic. I tried it on some artificial grass and on a slight incline, and it appear to give a large enough base that it didn't tip the mini over. It's just the lack of rigidity.

I haven't gotten to it yet, but I was planning on using M6 washers. So the hole is about 6mm diameter, 12.5mm outer diameter and either 0.8 or 1.5mm thickness.

I wasn't actually planning on doing magnetic bases though, it just seemed like too much effort. I wanted to avoid magnetising the models themselves, as I don't want them attracting or repelling each other on the battlefield. It's not too bad on 40k models as it's a 25mm base and I use a 3mm magnet, so the magnets don't get too close to each other, but I imagine on smaller models it'd be more problematic if you magnetise the individual soldiers. If I were to do it, I'd magnetise the large base the models go on, not the individual models.

Here is my test model stuck to my fridge. Works good from that perspective. Trashed a few bits of basswood trying to drill them. Note that the Litko bases aren't strong enough to make problems even when put near each other. So, just a matter of how I want to do the group base surface now

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
If I were to do it, I'd magnetise the large base the models go on, not the individual models.

This would indeed be the better (and most certainly less time consuming) way to go.

Magnets are the way to go.

Here's some of my 288mm late medievals on and off the unit base:




I use Litko 2mm square bases with heavy duty magnet base bottoms. The unit bases are Litko 60mm x 40mm wooden bases with flexible steel base bottom, but on the top.

A work in progress, but here I've drilled out four 5/8" holes in some plasticard, glued that to a base, and then sanded it.

The marines fit in well enough. So I think that is how I will move forward. The plasticard is cheap enough and rigid enough that it works fine for my purposes (plus is not to time consuming to drill out).

Glad it worked out for you, man

That turned out great.

Spot on, worked well