With the release of the Old World at the beginning of the year, I started re-organizing some of my fantasy armies to play the game. One of the biggest changes (controversies) of the new game was that most troops had new base sizes. So I needed to find a solution to deal with that. I had done an update to my basing during the 9th age run, so I did not want to totally redu the bases from scratch. So, I found a number of conversion bases that I thought might work. I received a number, some good, some bad.
There were two styles that came out on top. One was with open bottoms from Erik’s Hobbies and the other are flat bottom bases from Green Stuff World. I think the open bottom bases are best for those armies that already have Neodymium magnets. The Green Stuff World option is better for those that want to apply sheet magnets or would like to add a little more weight to their base. As my dwarves were not magnetized (they were one of my more recent armies) and metal, I though the weight would help them be more stable (not to mention the larger size of ToW bases).
I got the bases and spray painted them dark brown. I then added some white glue and snapped them to the bases of all my troops. Since the Dwarves are an infantry army, it only required one size. I do have a unit filler, so I did add a base to that one also.
The seams between the base size and converter size were quite tight, so I figured I could get away without filling it. On the larger base filler, that was not the case. I found some brown wood filler in a tube that was thin and easy to apply and filled in the gap on the 40 to 50mm base.
Next was to start pumicing the edges of all the bases to bring the ground cover to the edges. I hit all the bases on all for sides and let it dry. I used the same pumice as I used when I did the original basing, so they would be no issue with color matching. I let that dry overnight and hit the same areas with a tan drybrush.
Next I needed to add some flocking to the edges to blend in with the existing coverage. Once again, the key was to use the same matching flock. Since I had a larger base, I added a tuft here and there to give more variance. I thought about more flowers, but decided to switch it up with some grass instead.
With that, I finished redoing my troops and the army is ready to go (although, I had been playing with the army while I was doing the conversion). I still have to change my artillery, but that will require a full re-basing, as I am changing from 60mm round to 50mm square. I will just be careful with removing the figures, in the hope I can re-purpose those for something else in the future.
One army down, a few to go…. I think this approach with work for those armies that I was already happy with the basing. This is particularly true for older models with slot bases. For those armies that the basing is old school basic or the models are just attached to the top, full base replacement will probably make sense. As mine run the gamut, I will use different approaches. It is great the market has given us different options, so we can pick what works best for us!
- Manteuffel