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Currently I've been painting figures from the Soul Wars box for use in Warcry. These easy-to-build figures come with sculpted bases. Now in the case of my Castigators, the bases were easy to paint, and the end result looks good. With the Banshees, the detail was too busy for my taste, and too close together, so painting the base was a pain. They look decent, and if I could have done a better job, they might look as good as the bases on the Castigators.

Why I have mixed feelings is the contrast of these figures with integral sculpted bases with other figures of the same war-band who do not have them. The Evoker, the Sequitor Prime with Redemption Cache, and the Grimghast Reapers have standard bases, and I've used Martian Ironcrust on them instead. So there's a glaring difference in appearance. Now I could have bought Shattered Dominion bases which are similar, but not an exact match, but that's $70 for the two different boxes. Also, with Warcry GW has added at least one new base size which is not included, 28mm. While that's not a problem with the Stormcast or Nighthaunts, if I did want to go the Shattered Dominion path with the mortal Chaos Warcry war-bands, I'd still have some odd figures out because of this. So $70 for an incomplete solution.

Now I realize that these figures with integral sculpted bases are aimed at the novice and the uncommitted market. The figures are easy-to-build and with the pre-sculpted bases once painted should “Wow” a new gamer, perhaps netting GW a new customer. A do-it-yourself base would not have the same visual impact, as well as adding a complicating factor which might turn off the prospective new customer. So these integral bases are not going away, and one just has to adapt.

Anyway, in the end I like the look of my individual figures' bases, but the look of the war-band as a whole is sort of strange thanks to the visual clash.

Some sculpted bases I think allow certain designs to work; heck I'd welcome some sculpted pillars on Daughters of Khaine Khinerai to give them something to "kick" their legs off and not just be hovering on their tails.

At the same time I want to put my Necrons onto new bases and that means clipping the detail bases of every single one. Which means less surface area bonding room and on some (eg the little assistant units for the new tri-legged destroyers) its nearly impossible to remove the base without having issues.

It's something that I see as both a boon and a negative; that said with plastic they aren't too hard to remove on most models. Some are harder and some might require some careful creative cuts or some base terrain that hides some ugly cuts. Pinning might also be needed onto some bases (eg resin bases)

I have pretty much the same feelings as OP. I love sculpted bases because they are often as much or even more fun to paint than the miniatures. At the same time, I hate that they are different than the rest of the army. They work great for Warhammer Underworlds and I understand why they are included with other Easy-to-build models but I wish I could base the whole army in the same way. I like the option to buy sculpted bases such as Shattered Dominion or Sector Imperialis separately but unfortunately both are really low quality compared to sculpted bases you get in E2B kits.

I ended up chopping the sculpted bases of Nighthaunt E2B into bits and used said bits to decorate bases instead. I don't mind scenic elements integrated into models as long as they fit the theme and their use remains consistent within the army, Light of Eltharion and Teclis are good example of this.

My latest project has been Space Marine Heroes Series 2 Terminators and I have really enjoyed painting the bases. However, knowing that I can't make similar bases myself I decided to limit the project onto Terminators only and paint them as Deathwing. I am going to include Lexicanum Varus and Chaplain Tarentus who are both designed in similar style, including matching fully sculpted bases.

Surely integrating them into your current base scheme isn't that difficult? If your other bases are martian ironcrust, just trim off as much of the unwanted detail as possible, then build the MA up and over the sculpted elements to blend them in?

Definitely understand the problems that come from pre-sculpted bases and I'm seeing how that will be an issue down the line when I go and paint my Nighthaunt later this year. If you have a basing scheme in mind, like QAR said, just snip off the detail and work from there and I have to agree, it can even give you some basing bits to unify your army further.

When it comes to convenient standing rocks and the like, I prefer to chop them off, like the ones from Indomitus, as there was no way a random rock would be in the middle of a ship.

I am not against them though, they're great for picking up the odd box and not worrying about blank bases in the case of Underworlds.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Surely integrating them into your current base scheme isn't that difficult? If your other bases are martian ironcrust, just trim off as much of the unwanted detail as possible, then build the MA up and over the sculpted elements to blend them in?

It's possible, but as Overread notes, it causes other problems. Also, since "tactical rocks" are a thing in sculpting, the figure needs that rock (or column) to stand. Castigator

Now with the banshees, one could take the surface detail off, although there's a lot.

The Thorns of the Briar Queen look like they have easily removed detail. However, I bought them because I need the Chaingeists, and because I like the overall look, base detail included. In this case, it would be better to build up the standard bases of the Grimghast Reapers.

1. Photos are GW official product photos, not mine.
2. How does one use the image tag? I couldn't get it to work.

Basing is my least favourite aspect of the hobby. I'm just not creative enough to make bases look good. Case in point, my "urban" bases for my dark angels look like trash. Astrogranite and chunks of detritus does not make for a good looking basing style.
I really, really love the Space Marine Hereos S1 bases however. If GW would sell them, i'd be instantly in for a company's worth of them.


Pre-sculpted bases would be the way to go for me should I require them. There are enough base manufacturers out there to have quite a good range of styles and themes available. The added price of purchasing the bases is annoying. But that is saved on the trouble of doing it myself
and inevitably being unhappy with them.

Things like the Underworld bases are great. You've got a coherent, reoccurring theme that helps tie all the warbands together.

sculped bases are nice but not if the rest of the army has them not ive got the starter set for AOS and have to buy some more models to get a legal list and they come with those sculped
bases. so i wil look if i can put them on blank bases (maybey not posseble because of feet that are on the sculped bases) and do the same base technisch as on the starter set.