The Sci-Fi foray is the result of one of the boy's forays into my storage bins. He managed to uncover my old collection of Babylon 5 ships, and decided to make up a starship game on the spot .(I will post on the various space combat games later, the rules varied from "this guy blows up that guy, your turn!" to a modified version of the Battle Cattle card game.) This has resulted in me trying to finish a couple hundred Star Furies and League on Nonaligned Worlds ships.
All of which I was intending to post today, but the SD card containing the myriad of photos I snapped yesterday opted to corrupt all of the data, spoiling an evening's efforts.
Which brings me at last to the point of this update: basing, again.
I have finished three more Austrian Hussar units and eleven stands of infantry. After basing on their standard 30mmx 60mm however, I made a horrible discovery:
I do not like the way they look. It came as quite a shock, as I had previously based all of my Austrian and French armies in this fashion.
But there it is. The double rank just doesn't look right any more. When I think of the Austrians, I think of three ranks and big battalions. When I visualize the French, it is always their assault columns. Only the British really seem to fit in this two rank system.
I tried different means of achieving three ranks:
But they leave too much white space. Inspiration came in the form of Lee's custom Command and Colors Napoleonics set over at A Napoleonic Therapy project. His figs are mounted on 50mm x 35mm stands and they look outstanding. I tried one stand for the fit:
I think it looks about right for the look I am going for, and the compact stands make it look a little neater. The thought of rebasing all of my existing figures is a bit daunting. Especially as I have shifted gears back into my 1809 project and just ordered enough 6mm figs to finally complete my Imperial Guard formations and a Corps of Bavarian Troops. These are the dangers of painting with out a ruleset in mind. I am seriously considering giving Command and Colors Napoleonics a try, just to inspire the project. Perhaps when GMT gets around to releasing the Austrian army...
I had the same issue, but with the French, as you say, you see them in column. I went with 60x60 but it does take up a lot of space
ReplyDeleteIan
CCN sounds like it might be a good way for you to go, at least in the short haul for your Napoleonic collection.
ReplyDeleteI have said (and done) it before; Re-basing is the Devil's work! Aside from my misguided diversion into "historical organizations" for my Napoleonic troops, I have based them the same way, with only minimal minor changes, for 40 years. Similarly, for my Ancient/Medieval/Renaissance stuff, I started with element frontage (60mm) bases and have never changed.
That aside, I do think that then "look" of a unit in smaller scales (10mm and below) is perhaps a bigger deal, as it is much m,ore about that than the individual figures. Good luck regardless!
For my 6mm CCA project, I chose 24mm x 45mm bases. With the 45mm width, I could fit two Baccus strips within the 45mm frontage leaving just a little space on each flank. For depth, I placed the ranks in a more compact formation than you show in your deployments. Perhaps, try squeezing out some space between the ranks?
ReplyDelete