The two boxes you see to the right of the picture are cardboard Jewelry Boxes commercially available. The two boxes are vertical, illustrating the ability of the figure stands to remain attached to the magnetic base, therefore suffering much less damage during transit than plastic bases that will float free in transit without packing on top of them that can damage figures and equipment. The boxes normally come with a cotton insert that will help items stay in place even further. http://retailshoppingbags.com/cofijebo.html
The bases to the left are metal and are available from: http://www.wargameaccessories.com The bases to the right are plastic "card stock" in the UK and/or "plastic sheets" in the US. They were scribed with a sharp #11 x-acto blade and "bent" until they snap off the sheet. Plastic is slightly less expensive but it is not as stable in transit over bumpy roads or by C-130 or C-17 (I speak from experience on this). Many of our bases (primarily infantry) have a small spike (dulled nail) attached at the center rear to allow for easier handling during a long simulation or convention games where every participant isn't as careful as you would like. The vehicles are either on small bases that just fit the vehicle or mounted on the 1" square bases similar to the GHQ rules suggest.
Another base resource: http://www.miniatureservicecenter.com/m ... .htm#metal
In the picture above you can see two of the sizes we use for infantry bases. The 1/2" square for 1 to 2 figures, the 3/4" square base for 2 or 3 figures, and we usually use a 1" square base for 4 or 5 figures. In this picture you can also see the inside of the box top that has the layout and inventory for this particular box, which makes pick-up a whole lot easier after games. The unit information will also be on the top and side of each box for easy identification as you can see in the picture below. For conventions or large games you need as much organization as possible up front. We try to use these boxes for every unit in the games or simulations so participants can keep them together, and unobserved if they wish until they are ready to enter the game. The boxes below were first used for a simulation with the 3rd Bn, 24th Marines in 1997.
The Viet Nam era Marines illustrated below show how you can use the base to convey the landscape of the theater of operations. It is hard to define the base in this picture but you can just see the edges if you look close. In this picture each base is a Marine Fire Team. The metal bases are also thinner and blend better than the plastic I used on the WW2 Panzer Grenadiers in the picture below the Marines.
The Panzer Grenadiers pictured below are 15 years old. They were done before GHQ made their current line of infantry. The bases are plastic (that's all that was available at the time) with the handling spike.
I have included the picture below so you can see how some of our vehicles are mounted on small (almost vehicle size) bases that are 1/2" wide and as long as needed. We do this for two reasons. First, because it looks good during convoy simulations and in games where there is lots of fighting on roads and in MOUT situations, and Second because it allows us to put a whole useful unit (see the Cav Troop above) in one box.
Woodland Scenics materials may be obtained from Walthers through their web site at:
http://www.walthers.com/
...where you can also find the "Z" scale vehicles, the civilians, and animals in the picture below, as well as the ornamental fence you see around the grave yards in the piclture above. The tractors were converted from "charmes" from a craft shop.
I hope this helps...
Will
. Fortunatly for me,I've been cutting my own as of recent.
