How to base ships?

[manta]

well, the AOD Rulebook has been ordered but it´ll probably take a week or two to get here from the UK.

Since I want to get a bit of a headstart in painting them and I already have a couple of GHQ vessels sitting on my desk, I wanted to ask how those things are based:

I´d guess capitalships will get their own large base, but what about destroyers, submarines or s-boats? I do own 4 WW1 B-109 torpedoboats, 4 WW2 M-Class destroyers and 5 WW2 Type IX C Subs al in 1:2400th scale. Do I put them on their own, seperate bases or should I put them all on the same base?

 

[DM]

Base the small ships individually.

 

[arbaily]

What I did was base my ships on a piece of card, which was the same size as the counters found in the back of the books. I've encountered a small problem doing this though, which is that my 1/3000 scale Navwar Zara class cruiser doesn't fit on the base. So all I did was just make the base longer so it could fit.

 

[Captain Blicero]

We cut clear plexiglass to size. BB's and BC's are one size, AC's, CL's, another and DD's on wee lilttle bases.

No mucking around "painting" water. You can see the table through the base, everyones "Ocean" is uniform...

-Eric

 

[Wishbone]

I was thinking perspex when I started out but it didn't look very good - too shiny.
I use plasticard, then Games Workshop Greenstuff over the top, press the ship into the greenstuff then sculpt into ocean effect.

I doesn't quite go with my gaming mat but I like the way it looks!

 

[Ballentyne]

On my fleets I use plasticard with vallejo water effect, or for my large carriers... well actually I'm not sure what it is, but it bases them up quite well even if it darkens the water.

Example on this IJN Aoba, yeah not quite as good as I usually do, but I like the wave patterns

 

[verdantgreen]

I don't base mine at all.

I learned naval wargaming from some grumpy old Korean War veterans who insisted on playing without bases - just the ship model scooting along the table. Differentiating between ships of the same class wasn't much of a problem with them because they used some hoary old system that took an inordinate amount of time to resolve fire (a broadside from the IJN's Nagato once took ten minutes!). Under that system, there were never too many ships on the table, so differentiation was not a problem.

The only problem I have with that is that the itty bitty ships can be hard to move correctly.

 

[McKickaha]

Ditto on the white plasticard then the Vallejo Water Effect.

I cut the card abount 1cm longer than the ship and decal on the ships name and class using ink jet printer decal paper.

 

[steveburt]

I use 2mm MDF, painted sea green, with ship name stuck on back, then covered with clear acrylic texture gel, which I texture as it dries to look like waves. A light dry brush with off white gives bow wave, wake and a few white caps.

The disadvantage of clear bases is there's nowhere to put the ship name.

 

[steveburt]

If you don't base ships, how do you tell identical ships apart?
For instance, in a River Plate refight, how do you tell the Ajax from the Achilles?
Or in a Narvik game, how do you tell all those destroyers apart?

 

[Wishbone]

with clear ship bases you can write the name of the ship in white on the back of the base. That way, on a blue sea the name will show up nicely.

 

[verdantgreen]

I usually differentiate between my ships of the same class with a marker of some sort if it isn't obvious by position. That being said, one of these days, I'm going to start basing them, hehe.

 

[rcbecker1]

I base mine on wood then paint the base.
ray

 

[Captain Chum]

These are all very cool bases. This thread is another great example of having some type of modeling section and placing all of these in one section.

I have been researching basing and found these posts very useful in my research.

 

[steveburt]

I base mine on 2mm MDF, paint the base a deep sea-green, apply label, then I cover the whole base with a thin layer of clear acrylic texture gel - sculpted lightly to look like waves, bow wave and wake. It stays shiny so looks very like water. It also seals the label nicely.

 

[Captain Chum]

Those sound very cool. Do you possibly have a picture of your work?

 

[steveburt]

There's a picture of some of my WW1 ships showing the bases here:
http://www.fluffycat.co.uk/Steves_Web_Page/Gallery.html