Bases for Kings of War army - Part 1

Greetings!

One of the great aspects of the hobby (and sadly the one I have neglected for a long time again) is modelling. And one of the aspects of modelling of your army is creating nice bases for your warriors and units. I wanted to create something more than just drybrushed sand and static grass and was looking for the idea to address that.

Kings of War offers a unique option here. Since your units have fixed dimensions it is possible to create small dioramas. The term used by KoW players in that case is "multi-basing". 

1. Multi-basing or "normal" basing- which to choose?

Multi-basing offers some fantastic opportunities and I must admit I was very tempted to go that path. I have seen some incredible examples of multi-basing and one of the best I have spotted so far is this Night Stalkers army project by Oddian (many thanks for the permission for using your pictures!):

Night Stalkers - Shadow Hounds by Oddian

Night Stalkers - Fiends by Oddian

I highly recommend visiting his blog (Oddian Hobbies) and in particular his tutorial on how to make these beautiful bases here:

Creating a swamp basing scheme for Kings of War

I was very tempted to go with this path for basing my army. It just looks amazing! I was ready to spend extra time to learn how to make similar trays for my units that would match Elven theme. 

However, the  slight disadvantage of such approach, at least for me, is the fact that the models seem to be fixed to the bases and that poses a challenge for the transport. I could not use the miniature cases for such force either. Or might need some custom made foams that would take a bit more space than usual.

Because of that, sadly, I decided I will have to go different path and pick the individual bases as I have done so far. The difference I wanted to make was about the design of the bases themselves. Hence, then looked at the offer of scenic resin bases.

2. Resin Scenic Bases

I checked different offers and patterns and decided to go with the one from MicroArtStudio:

Arcane Bases by MicroArtStudio

I really liked this design and used these bases for my unit of fast cavalry. In fact, I tested it long time ago for Warhammer but since the effect was great, when I switched to Kings of War I had no doubts that I will want to continue with these bases.

Fast cavalry on their new bases.

Unfortunately, I discovered a serious problem with the resin bases when I started preparing my units for Kings of War. Here is the picture to illustrate the issue:

The bases are significantly narrower than 25 mm each.

The bases were not of the advertised dimensions and as the difference was significant it was not acceptable for the use in the game of Kings of War. The unit dimensions are very important here. 

I wrote to the company asking for the reasons of such situation and I learned that is it due to the fact the typical plastic bases are also smaller. The difference is even bigger after cutting process. I asked if they plan to address that issue with the future releases of the same products. Unfortunately, I was informed that the company is withdrawing the square bases from the offer. 

The good thing was I could still return the bases and I was fully refunded. I was very nicely surprised by the high quality of the customer service and I would like to thank MicroArtStudio for their professional attitude. 

However, I was yet again left with a problem of the bases to solve.

3. Magnetized bases + steel movement trays.

A friend of mine suggested I should check the offer of the local store Olympian Games.

I checked the offer and decided to email Dean, the owner, directly. He was extremely helpful in providing information about the products, in particular that I asked about custom size bases for my army.  Dean had a fantastic solution in the form of individual MDF bases that are magnetized and are only 3 mm thick total.

Initially, I was thinking about ordering MDF movement tray but without a frame, so that the dimensions are exactly of the required size for Kings of War units. But Dean informed me about 1.5 mm thick steel sheets that could work even better. Here are some pictures of the bases and movement trays I ordered for my current Kings of War army:

Individual bases on the left, steel sheet in the middle and bases on the movement tray on the right.

As you can see the bases fit perfectly, are of the correct size and at the same time I have the exact unit dimension. I think it will help a lot in the games as I will be able to align my units precisely and measuring arcs of visibility will be much easier.

All kind of bases I ordered this time.

Please, check the offer of Olympian Games or drop Dean an email as I know he is always happy to expand his offer and he can accommodate custom orders too. I have a feeling this was just the first of the orders I placed in his shop! 

I have the bases but they now need something to be built on the surface. I hoped to find something similar to MicroArtStudio designs and was soon rewarded by another discovery.

4. Greestuff world - materials and tutorials

The company in Spain, called The Greenstuff World has something they call Textured Rolling Pins. 

Check out this link:

Textured Rolling Pins

The principle is really great in its simplicity. You have a rod with textured surface and you roll it over the surface to imprint that texture. You can use many different materials for it, green stuff being just one of it. 

I decided to pick the smooth pin for making the surface even and ready for texturing and Frozen pattern pin, shown here:

Frozen Textured Pin from Green Stuff World

I followed their video tutorial on how to use their pins with Green Stuff for a test base of 50 x 50 mm. Here is the video:

 

I noticed that I need quite a substantial amount of green stuff to imprint the texture properly but I am happy with the initial effect. What I plan to do is to spread green stuff over all the bases for a single unit and then roll over them when they are assembled on the movement tray. In this way I should be able to obtain a pattern that is composed from few smaller pieces, a bit like a jigsaw puzzle. Here is the first test base:

First test base

Now I will need to paint it and see how that looks. I think I will go for warm brown colors I used for MicroArtStudio bases. It is not the end of the journey though because I want to add extra features to the new bases and that is something I haven't decided upon yet. Hence "Part 1" in the title of the post! 

If you have any suggestions as how to further proceed with the bases I would be very happy to hear them! 

I hope I will find the solution soon and that I will follow with part 2 shortly.

In the meantime thanks for reading!