basing micronauts

[ww2navyguy]

E.springer,

I am looking for pretty much the same thing as you. You've raised a good topic for discussion.

Maybe this is something that GHQ could market in the near future for their WWi, WWII and modern naval offerings?

Most of my ships are based on pieces of bass or balsa wood, painted blue. Since the bases are not magnetic, they shift a lot in my tackle boxes when I am transporting them. Not good for the paint jobs.

I'm anxious to hear if other have good suggestions.

Thanks for starting the topic!

Scott

[cbovill]

I too was looking for the best solution to the ship basing problem and was not able to find metal bases in the needed sizes. I thought about trying to buy sheet metal and then cut it to shape but I can't find a store that sells suitable sheet metal, and I don't know how I would cut it adequately.

So I opted for plastic sheet. I went with a product that is readily available at all the chain hobby stores (you know the ones that don't carry miniatures) and railroading stores. It's by Evergreen Scale Models and I use 1mm thick plain sheet styrene (sells for $2.25 for two 6x12" sheets).

Then I needed a way to cut the plastic so that I would get an accurate cut each time and quickly. I found the perfect solution. I bought a floor tile cutter from Home Depot. It looks just like a one of those paper cutters you see in the office mailroom.

I also came up with standard base sizes for my ships. Since I can make them any size I want to I decided to make a different standard size for each class of ship as follows:
Ship Type Base Dimensions
CV, BB, BC 12.00 x 3.00 cm
BB (old), CA 9.50 x 2.50 cm
CL, Tanker 9.00 x 2.25 cm
DD 6.00 x 1.75 cm
FF 5.00 x 1.75 cm
SS 4.00 x 1.50 cm
Merchant Ships 7.00 x 2.25 cm

Now that I had all the ship bases and in the sizes I wanted at an economical price, I needed to make them look realistic - afterall, we put so much work into the bases for our land armies, I felt no different with needing the ships to also have beautiful bases. So I followed the instructions on GHQ's website for making ship bases and the finished product is below:


Top view


Side view

Hope that helps.

Chris

[ww2navyguy]

cbovill,

Thanks for sharing your approach to basing WWII GHQ miniatures. I think you have some of the nicest ships I have ever seen.

Could you tell me if you use anything metallic on the bases to keep them from sliding around?

Thanks! Please post more photos of your ships if you have them.

Scott

[cbovill]

Scott, thanks for the great comments. Regarding the bases, nothing metal, and that is the biggest draw back to my bases. So to get past the need to keep the ships from sliding around in transit, I'm using some shelving liner from Walmart that I secure to the bottom of the boxes the ships are in. The stuff I use has a rather tacky, rubbery surface and the ships don't slide much on it. But they can still be bounced out of place. Not perfect, but it helps.

Chris

[ww2navyguy]

E.springer,

I've never considered the "changing polarity" problem before for magnets, but that would not be good. The last thing I would want to do is to remove and replace bad magnets on miniatures.

I would love to see GHQ add this to their list of future offerings. A good basing system designed for gaming. They could offer specific sized bases for each class of ship that could be labeled with the ship's name. Not only would the bases help protect the painted models form sliding and becoming damaged, but they also give the gamer something to grab onto without harming the ships with our greasy fingertips.

GHQ: Is this something that you would ever consider offering for your 1:2400 scale line?

Scott

[av8rmongo]

I don't base my miniatures but I have been considering it for years, especially now that I'm getting into 1/1200 scale Napoleonics. I move around so often that if I don't pack them in foam lined cases like bunker boxes or whatever then they always end up getting damaged.
What I'm considering now is a middle of the raod approach. Make bases for use on the table top to prevent damage from rough handling and then remove them for storage in my foam cases. This should be possible using the rare earth magnets described in the "Rotating Turrets" thread right? I have tons of the Evergreen Plastic around and like very much the idea of using that. The ships are mostly hollow or could be carefully drilled to accept a magnet - I think it could work out well.

Paul

[JMD]

I have plans to re-base my 2400 scale naval miniatures, following similar designs I witnessed infantry/armor gamers using. I have built wooden trays with magnetic sheets on the bottoms, which fit nicely into tool/tackle boxes.
I have scoured online sites looking for metal bases upon which I can adhere the micronauts. All I can find are metal bases for individual or small unit stands. Litko can cut stands to the size desired, but they are plywood/not metalic.

Does anyone know where I can find metal stands which measure in length
from 15cm (Queen Mary) to 6cm (DDs); and as wide as 3.5cm (** CENSORED ** CVs) to 1.5 cm (SS)?

Try Litko again. They make something called sheet steel. It acts as metal(metal inbedded in a material like magnetic sheets) and cuts easily. I comes in the same variety of sizes as the wooden bases. I have used it and it works fine. It has a peel off backing and sticks to the bottom of your base. I use Evergreen plastic for my bases, but any basing materail will work with them.

-Matt

[JMD]

Actually it's called Flex Steel.

-Matt

[ww2navyguy]

JMD,

Do you have any photos you can share of your miniatures on the flex steel bases from Litko?

How did you place an order with Litko with so many different sizes needed for your ship bases (i.e., destroyers would require small and narrow bases, where large capital ships would require long and wide bases)?

Thanks!

Scott

[JMD]

JMD,

Do you have any photos you can share of your miniatures on the flex steel bases from Litko?

How did you place an order with Litko with so many different sizes needed for your ship bases (i.e., destroyers would require small and narrow bases, where large capital ships would require long and wide bases)?

Thanks!

Scott

Scott,

I ordered them online at their website. They have options for two different thicknesses of wood and magnetic sheet as well as flex steel for each size base they offer. They will make custom sizes if you e-mail them and ask. The flex steel is virtually indistinguishable from the magnetic sheet in appearance.

I don't have a website, so I can't post pictures to this forum. I do have jpegs of some of my stuff though.

-JMD

[Azure]

I work for an alarm company, and for certain types of door contacts, we use INSANELY strong "rare earth" magnets. Ive seen similar size magnets for sale on ebay or even through science shops, about 5/8 diameter, 1/8 thick, with or without holes drilled in the centers.
The polarity changing is not something that happens often with these style magnets, and if it does, it dosent matter, because the flat sides of them are the + or - poles, not the edges. A solution i would advise, is to make a base from 2 plies of 1 mm sheet, with the top layer as the "base, and the lower layer just as a trim.
Inside the lower "trim", epoxy or superglue small metal plates (like model railroading weights from cheap N scale train cars, like those from toy stores or yard sales-Walthers i believe sells just the weights.
Now, superglue the rare earth magnets to the UNDERSIDES of your tackle box drawers (plasic ones are better than metal ones)
I believe this would be a good fix. Incidentally, the magnets we use at work are manufactured by a company called GRI.
These things are VERY strong, i would advise against placing the weights directly onto the magnets, as they may well pull the metal plate off the ship's base when you go to pull it from the tackle box etc.
another type magnet would be the plastic laminate sheet style that is used in refrigerator magnets or applique signs for vehicles. This you could probably place the weights directly onto, with either of these methods polarity reversal will not matter (at least for transporting them) as it uses only one magnet.
Azure