6mm Spartans Rebased using Baccus Basing System
I had introduced my 6mm Spartan hoplites a while ago.
Now, I’ve always known that Baccus (my 6mm manufacturer of choice) sells this basing pack called the “Baccus Basing System”, which includes fine sand and short static grass that are specially selected to be compatible with 6mm miniatures.
But being the cheapskate that I am, I didn’t believe that the “normal” sand and static grass will look too big/long and out of place. So I went ahead with my own way, and this was what I got with my first attempt at basing 6mm minis.
You can see that the grass is so long that it reaches above the knees, making these Spartans look like they’re wading through some thick jungle undergrowth.
I had also scoffed at buying pre-cut MDF bases, so I cut out some 1mm thick plasticard sheets to the required size and glued them together to make a 2mm thick base. Apart from this being a whole lot of work, I just couldn’t cut the sizes accurately enough by hand, so the seam between the two pieces of plasticard sticks out like a sore thumb.
After weeks of agonizing over how best to correct these problems, I finally broke down and bought a pack of 40 pre-cut 60mm x 30mm MDF bases and the “Baccus Basing System”.
Then I removed my Spartans from the old sub-standard base, and re-based them using the “Baccus Basing System”, going “by the book” in accordance with the instructions included with the pack. One slight deviation I made was to paint the base of the figures green instead of the recommended brown, as I thought it would look more natural against the grass.
And now, I hereby proudly present my re-based Spartan hoplites!
Looking at the end results, I think that maybe I should have sticked “to the book” and painted the figure bases brown. The green color seems to give a clean but artificial look.
But all in all, I’m impressed with the “Baccus Basing System”, and how easily it gives good-looking results!
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I am very, very lazy when it comes to actually painting the bases: I followed Peter’s model exactly, but used the Litko 3mm plywood bases. These are dark-ish brown edge-on, but with a paler strip of wood. But once you “dark wash” the base, I find it darkens up quite nicely without having to actually paint the edges. Also I game on a solid brown background (just gets away from the “Oh my God it’s GREEN” effect of my older mat)and you might find your dark green doesn’t matter so much on brown brushed linen.
One query I had was this: my “summer grass” looks great for about two months, but I notice the grass slowly wears off, and my LotR armies have gone from fighting in Middle Earth to figthing in the Middle East! Do you think straight PVA might be better than watered-down for this?
@bevan: I do like the idea of a brown mat, but since I’ve already invested in green… maybe I’ll make a switch sometime in the future
As for the grass wearing off, I haven’t been gaming for long enough to see myself. But what kind of sealant do you use on top of them?
If a single Dullcote doesn’t do the trick, maybe you could try sealing it down by applying some watered down PVA glue on top of the grass?
The thing I noticed about PVA glue is that the way it holds the flocking material is noticeably different depending on how much you water it down. The less water you add, the more the grass will tend to “stand up” and look like patches. If you add more water, the grass tends to flatten out over a more even area.
I guess it comes down to which effect you’re shooting for, but I think it would be better to use a sealant on top of the grass once you’ve achieved your desired effect.