Hello
Im using plastic bases for spaceships from em4 company. i hope you know about
them. They are identical like Gw bases for ground troops. Cheap and numerous.
they have standard flying bases too. I`m using them cause some of bases in GZG
order didn`t come to me and I wanted visual equality of my ships. Slots should
be covered for example by green stuff. It will give you a little more weight
and stability. the surface may be a little rough, but after spraying model
black and painting white dots pattern (stars, maybe some distant
constellations) the effect is pretty good. If you want ships on different
heights, use steel wire (one for smaller ships and two for battlecruisers and
up). You got to make a holes at a bottom of models by for example pin vice.
Bye
A base does not pay for movement or FTL how well do the points balance when
attacking a base?
Andy
http://www.msnusers.com/ConfusionCentral411/_whatsnew.msnw
In a message dated 4/3/04 2:00:52 AM,
> owner-gzg-digest@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU writes:
<< From: <apter@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Bases
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A base does not pay for movement or FTL how well do the points balance when
attacking a base? >>
It depends, are U building them as "space bases" or planetary.
For Space defense Station, I build tehm just like ships, and teh can be
balanced by point...
Of course against "fixed Space Stations" units carry missiles are nice to
have.. and a few Long Range Guns to standoff and pound. Even with a thrust of
1 it not going far.
If it a space station, I would balance by points, planetary or Orbital Moons
bases I would give attacker 2 or 3 times points for the base, as U have to
crack the base out of it shell.
Biut that just me
Have a Good One,
I was Playing with a few space base ideas and looking at attack modes and
counters. It seems nova cannon, missiles, fighters; long ranged beams are
effective against bases while a base must have a mix of close in or stand off
weapons. The Grasser has some potential as a stand off weapon as do beam 5 and
6 while nova cannon are more effective in a support ship. The use of in system
(non Ftl escorts) makes some sense in such scenarios but you would normally
think of small police custom boats not monitors. What is your Idea...
Andy
http://www.msnusers.com/ConfusionCentral411/_whatsnew.msnw
> From: DOCAgren@aol.com
Well, against a fixed space base, either civilian or military, attacking with
a few long range or fire and forget weapons is the way to hit them.
Station need some weapons for close-in work/point defense and the
ability to reach out and smack the enemy A B3 or B4 single arc or even a few
MT Missiles.
But for defense ships don't be surprised if there are a # of non-FTL
system
defense boats both "police/customs ships" and a a few "home defense
gunboats". oh and don't forget those orbital defense systems. Small Defense
stations with Thrust 1, and Long Range Fire Power, use of minesfields... Leave
a few paths into the station, but force any unauthorized ship to run the
field. Also if it a military base, don't forget that the ships there can be
brought up to action status.... Might not be fully combat effective or ready,
but still can provide some cover. And local Fighter coverage. never forget
them.
Have a Good One,
DOC Agren
(Lurker on the Digest)
In a message dated 4/4/04 2:00:56 AM,
> owner-gzg-digest@lists.CSUA.Berkeley.EDU writes:
<< From: <apter@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Re: Re: Bases
I was Playing with a few space base ideas and looking at attack modes and
counters. It seems nova cannon, missiles, fighters; long ranged beams are
effective against bases while a base must have a mix of close in or stand off
weapons. The Grasser has some potential as a stand off weapon as do beam 5 and
6 while nova cannon are more effective in a support ship. The use of in system
(non Ftl escorts) makes some sense in such scenarios but you would normally
think of small police custom boats not monitors. What is your Idea...
Andy >>
I'm with Jim.
My experience with hex bases is they are more tip-prone. <shrug>
I have found geo-hexes old circular bases to be excellent, once you
realize the cast centre post sucked and replaced it with brass tubing. They
easily give themselves to the
use of a circular cutout-centre turn gauge and arc determiner, unlike
the hexagonal bases. I do agree that such a base requires 12 ticks.
I would like to see larger and smaller circular bases and one about the same
size as the geohex base, all engineered to fit a cast post or to easily allow
the retrofit of brass rod.
Hmmmm. I know someone with a spin caster. These aren't that hard to bash up as
production prototypes and could then go into the spin cast puck. Something to
investigate. Does anyone else find they prefer round to hexagonal? Would
anyone else be interested in getting 2 or 3 sizes of round bases, with the
idea being a small one for fighters and FFs, a medium size one for cruisers
and BCs, and a larger one for the larger ships, crafted with the idea of using
brass rod or a cast rod?
I'll have to talk to my spin-caster-master and see what he says, but
this is a possible option we could look into...
Tomb
> I would like to see larger and smaller circular bases
Heavy steel washer, plus something to glue on top to hold the post.
Jim's and TomB's comments made me wonder:
What bases are your ship-tipping experiences based on? Specifically, are
the hex bases the same weight and size as the circular bases (measuring the
diameter of the circular bases and the side-to-side length of the hex
bases, since that's the "shortest lever" and thus the most likely direction to
tip in)?
Later,
The hex base is the standard black plastic base (which I use now only for
fighters) and the Evil Empires round clear base. My collection of ships
started with a large number of Silent Death miniatures and I found
that some of those miniatures fell on a regular basis if the table happened to
get bumped. Putting the same miniatures on the clear plastic
round base eliminated the problem for me. Which is the basis for my preference
of round bases if Jon is going to start production.
As to the relative sizes of the two bases the Evil Empires base with the
long post is taller than the standard hex base. The diameter of the Evil
Empires base is only slightly larger than the standard hex base (less
than a 1/16" point to point).
I was comparing as close to apples to apples when I made my decision that
round bases were more stable than the hex bases. The former round
metal Geo-Hex bases with 12 ticks which were exactly the same diameter
as the Evil Empires base were even more to my liking as they placed more
weight low in the base. That is what I would like to use as my standard base
for most cruisers and possibly as high as BBs. For the larger miniatures at
present I use the larger Evil Empires round base but again
I would prefer a round metal base with 12 ticks of about the same diameter.
I have superdread's from the Galactic Knights line that I have yet to base
just due to the fact that I don't have bases that I believe is up to the job
for those monsters. Though for those miniatures it is as much
about the post thickness as the base diameter. I mounted one on the old Evil
Empires Gothic bases from the early 90's, more of a square base
with the corners cut short with a 1/4" post. The shape of the base is
not the best for use in FT though. To be honest I'd really like to see
three different diameter bases 1 1/4" (old Geo-Hex metal base), 1 3/4"
(not presently available) and 2 3/8" (Evil Empires large base).
Hope this information helps Oerjan.
Jim
> Oerjan Ohlson wrote:
> Jim's and TomB's comments made me wonder:
> The hex base is the standard black plastic base (which I use now only
Jim, Ever tried adding weight to the bottom cavity of the black hex bases?
Well you probably did since the Red Shirts sold pewter base weights that fit
right into that cavity. I just use a couple 7/8" fender washers. The
lower center of gravity helps but then I only use this type of base on
crusiers or smaller.
> I have superdread's from the Galactic Knights line that I have yet to
I use the old Gex-Hex metal bases for all my minis BC and larger. I
also
add a 1 1/4" fender washer on the bottom to lower the CG even more. For
the
largest minis, I add an even larger fender washer (maybe 1 3/4")to the
bottom for stability and more weight at the bottom. This way I get the
clockface and a larger base with almost no extra effort. I haven't based any
of my SGDs yet so I can't say if that large washer is big enough but I can
always pick up a larger fenderwasher at the hardware store (is that
'ironmonger' in UK English?) if needed. For a stronger post, I go with brass
tubing for anything that size.
For the really expensive version, you can buy bar stock in various
metals - steel, stainless steel and brass, with a hexagonal cross
section. A 2" diameter brass rod, approximately 12" long is $80.00. By
sawing into 1/2" thick plates, you get bases that weigh about 4-5 ounces
each. You can then drill a hole in the center and weld or braze a steel or
brass rod as the post.
I have seen them used for 1/300th pewter aircraft on 30" long antennae
and they will right themselves until almost 45 degrees from vertical. I would
assume that they would be able to hold heavier masses upright at
heights of 4-6".
--Binhan
[quoted original message omitted]
> Dean Gundberg wrote:
> The hex base is the standard black plastic base (which I use now only
Well
> you probably did since the Red Shirts sold pewter base weights that fit
The Redshirts started making the base weights after I started using the round
bases, they wanted something to sell. So the truth is no I never did use
those.
> I have superdread's from the Galactic Knights line that I have yet to
For the
> largest minis, I add an even larger fender washer (maybe 1 3/4")to the
I will have to start adding the washers to the plastic bases, I was just
trying to avoid the extra step. Though Dean you must be running out of
the Geo-Hex bases by now or did you stock pile that many from the
smaller ships you purchased?
I've been using Jon's metal posts on the bigger miniatures so far but the SGDs
will be getting brass posts. I'll just have to find a washer for under the
bigger base to give it some weight.
Jim
> Dean Gundberg
> Jim Bell wrote:
> The hex base is the standard black plastic base (which I use now only
That's pretty much what I suspected.
> My collection of ships started with a large number of Silent Death
Similar to my experience... though several of my original SD miniatures
(particularly the Hatchling ones) didn't have the mounting holes directly
under the centre of gravity, which aggravated the problem considerably.
However:
> The diameter of the Evil Empires base is only slightly larger than the
standard
> hex base (less than a 1/16" point to point).
30.5 mm point-to-point vs 32mm in diameter means a 5% shorter lever -
but
the point-to-point direction is the *longest* lever of the hex base, ie.
the one direction it is *least* likely to tip over in. As you noted hex bases
almost invariably tip over the *side* instead, and there the difference is
5.5mm (17%) which is quite a lot given the size of most miniatures. (Another
way of comparing the sizes is the table area covered: the hex base only covers
75% as much table area as the GW circular base.)
So, well... I agree that you're comparing as close to apple to apples as
possible without making your own bases, but it's still not a very close
comparison; the GW base is a fair bit bigger than the standard hex base.
Most of the difference in stability between the two comes from their different
*sizes*, not from their different *shapes*.
My own basis for comparing base stability is that I did make my own
experimental circular bases at the same time I made the small hex base (now
FT004). (Since I measure in cm the GW hex base is slightly too large to use
in play; three ships side-by-side in base-to-base contact end up with
the
two on the ends 6.4mu - ie. outside ADFC range - of one another; thus I
needed something smaller than that.) The base sizes I tried were diameter 30mm
(allowing ADFC to *just* reach ships two base widths away, and 0.5mm
less than the point-to-point width of a hex base), diameter 27.5mm (same
table area covered as the standard hex base but different shape) and
diameter 26.5mm (same as the *side-to-side* width of a hex base). Of
these three, only the 30mm one was comparable to the hex base in stability.
While the others were as stable as the hex base is *over the side*, I orient
the
hex base so its point-to-point (30.5mm) axis coincides with the ship
model's longest (and thus most tip-prone) axis which meant that the
smaller
circular bases lost a lot of stability in that direction :-(
'Course, as Dean mentioned base weight comes into it too - glueing a
weight into the bottom of each base (or making the base out of solid metal
from
the outset) also improves the stability considerably.
> I have superdread's from the Galactic Knights line that I have yet to
I use the Silent Death "Warhounds-style" basing for my Victory-class
SGDNs, ie. two hex bases rather than a single one. (The Victories are so big
that I can't measure from post to post anyway, so I have the centre point
marked on the top instead). I use metal posts though; plastic ones just snap
(even
the old GW Space Fleet ones :-( ).
> I have superdread's from the Galactic Knights line
I have mounted superdread's from the Galactic Knights line and have had no
problems. I usually use a massonite base but for these ships I created a stand
(75mm by 150mm) by using 2 sheets of balsa glued together with the grain at
right angles. I then mount three stands on to the base and custom cut the
stands to fit the ship.