A New Base of Operations

I don't do a lot of how-to or "process" features on this blog. Number one, I find them tedious to put together, and two, I think they're a bit boring. However, I've made a fairly significant decision to move away from using metal washers for basing, so I thought I'd share a bit about this.

First, in the past I've based a lot of minis on metal fender and standard washers. They're cheap and they work well with magnet-based storage methods. But I don't really use magnetic storage, and I am tired of the painted rims of these bases chipping both in play and in storage.

Now I could use GW-style slotted bases, but I've just decided I would use wood. I really liked Gale Force 9's MDF offerings, but their pre-cut and custom cut bases are longer available. This could change, but I'd like to make this transition now, so I went with Litko. I like supporting smaller manufacturers like these guys, so I gave them a try.

I ordered 1 pack of 50 25mm (3mm thickness) plywood bases and 1 pack of 25 25mm (1.5mm thickness) plywood bases. I got my order in 2 days! Great service! here they are:





I really like the sturdiness of the 3mm thickness cut, so I think I will be ordering more of these.

Here's a another shot:



And here's a comparison of the relative thickness of the 25mm bases in 3mm and 1.5mm:



Here's my next project, a Reaper halfling thief, primed, based on a Litko 25mm, and textured with a bit of Liquitex resin sand:



He's white-glued to a piece of sturdy card for ease of handling while painting.

Here's a Reaper pirate with a harpoon, also on one of the Litko 25mm (3mm thickness) rounds:



I'm pretty excited to make this switch and so the non-slotted base figures on you'll be seeing on this blog in the future will mostly be based on Litko's plywood 25mm. They work out to $.18 a base, and that is a little more expensive than washers, but the tradeoffs more than make up the difference for me.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott