I have returned to painting my mainly old Minifig Samurai miniatures with a few Dixon figures purchased many, many ears ago. Having done a couple of army parades as I progressed to keep myself motivated, there was one thing that bothered me, and that was the infantry basing which looked all a bit too regimented and close order.
Since I started the project I have been doing more reading about the armies, their equipment, organisation, formations, etc. This along with some timely comments as I posted painting progress updates (thank you Rob) has convinced me for the need to rebase all the figures I have done. The rebasing aim will be to give the impression of more open formations which tended to be used. Additionally, I want the show the combined pike and arquebus/bow formations without one row of figures being stuck behind the other.
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| My previous style of basing is behind a rebased unit |
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| The looser basing approach allows arquebus figures to placed between pikes rather than behind as with my previous basing approach, |
Now is a good time to do the rebasing. I am on holiday and Melbourne temperatures for the next couple of days are expected to be in the high 30's Celsius (approximately 94 Fahrenheit or more). I can apply the paint, PVA glue and flock and wait no more than 15 minutes for the stuff to try when placed outside in the sun. This really speeds up the process. I aim to have all the rebasing completed over the next couple of days.
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| Preparation work has already begun. I use a chisel to remove the miniatures from the old bases, and for the most part they come away cleanly with just a little bit of tidying up to do. |
The new basing looks good and would also allow more skirmish type games to be played as well, such as Lion Rampant.
ReplyDeleteTrue, the basing of figures into 3 for infantry and 2 for cavalry does provide that flexibility.
DeleteSince my Feudal Japan armies were originally fielded for Samurai Battles and Impetvs, unit basing was by like weapon type. I often wonder if mixed weapon units would be better but have left basing as is.
ReplyDeleteI have been scanning around for available rules for mixed units.
DeleteThis new basing scheme looks nice but it does take up more room - I hope it's not going to swamp you table.
ReplyDeleteThanks. I expect to have about 8-10 units per side. A unit width is 8 inches as shown in the photos, so I should be right on a 6x4 foot tabletop.
DeleteFifteen minutes to dry the plane totally must certainly be an advantage... but dies anything happen if you leave them out too long in the sun?
ReplyDeleteI do like the reduced waiting time and have not let any stay out overly long in the sun as I have been too keen to move on to the next step.
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