Base Size Blues

It has been a long time since my last update, but I have been busy.  I entered another round of "batting clean-up" around the painting table, and have been tackling projects started and left fallow for far too long.  My goal is to complete 1000 models this month.  (Mostly 6mm, so not as grandiose as it seems).  The lion's share of these are my remain 1809 Austrians Infantry in helmets.  (about 36 stands), Austrian Hussars and Generals.  Also on the pile are a pile of 6mm Modern US Infantry, and a collection of fleet scale starships.

The Sci-Fi foray is the result of one of the boy's forays into my storage bins.  He managed to uncover my old collection of Babylon 5 ships, and decided to make up a starship game on the spot .(I will post on the various space combat games later, the rules varied from "this guy blows up that guy, your turn!" to a modified version of the Battle Cattle card game.)    This has resulted in me trying to finish a couple hundred Star Furies and League on Nonaligned Worlds ships.

All of which I was intending to post today, but the SD card containing the myriad of photos I snapped yesterday opted to corrupt all of the data, spoiling an evening's efforts.

Which brings me at last to the point of this update:  basing, again.

I have finished three more Austrian Hussar units and eleven stands of infantry.  After basing on their standard 30mmx 60mm however, I made a horrible discovery:


I do not like the way they look.  It came as quite a shock, as I had previously based all of my Austrian and French armies in this fashion.


But there it is.  The double rank just doesn't look right any more. When I think of the Austrians, I think of three ranks and big battalions. When I visualize the French, it is always their assault columns.  Only the British really seem to fit in this two rank system.

I tried different means of achieving three ranks:


But they leave too much white space.  Inspiration came in the form of Lee's custom Command and Colors Napoleonics set over at A Napoleonic Therapy project.  His figs are mounted on 50mm x 35mm stands and they look outstanding.  I tried one stand for the fit:


I think it looks about right for the look I am going for, and the compact stands make it look a little neater.  The thought of rebasing all of my existing figures is a bit daunting.  Especially as I have shifted gears back into my 1809 project and just ordered enough 6mm figs to finally complete my Imperial Guard formations and a Corps of Bavarian Troops.  These are the dangers of painting with out a ruleset in mind.  I am seriously considering giving Command and Colors Napoleonics a try, just to inspire the project.  Perhaps when GMT gets around to releasing the Austrian army...

Comments

  1. I had the same issue, but with the French, as you say, you see them in column. I went with 60x60 but it does take up a lot of space

    Ian

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  2. CCN sounds like it might be a good way for you to go, at least in the short haul for your Napoleonic collection.

    I have said (and done) it before; Re-basing is the Devil's work! Aside from my misguided diversion into "historical organizations" for my Napoleonic troops, I have based them the same way, with only minimal minor changes, for 40 years. Similarly, for my Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance stuff, I started with element frontage (60mm) bases and have never changed.

    That aside, I do think that then "look" of a unit in smaller scales (10mm and below) is perhaps a bigger deal, as it is much m,ore about that than the individual figures. Good luck regardless!

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  3. For my 6mm CCA project, I chose 24mm x 45mm bases. With the 45mm width, I could fit two Baccus strips within the 45mm frontage leaving just a little space on each flank. For depth, I placed the ranks in a more compact formation than you show in your deployments. Perhaps, try squeezing out some space between the ranks?

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