Don't Forget About the Bottom of Your Bases

Sometimes we forget about the little things, like how we're going to get our figures from A to B or how they feel when we pick them up. This article addressed two issues: the feel of the figure and how you transport them.

Feel: Weight and Heft

For someone who grew up with metal figures, plastic figures just don't feel quite satisfactory. There's nothing wrong with them and I love the dynamic poses you're able to get out of them, but they just feel too light for me. I personally like figures that feel a little bit more substantial. I also discovered that, every now and then, I'd have a charging figure, Tyranid or Ork, that just leaned forward a little too much, that resulted in them tipping over a lot. The solution? Weight the bases.

I like the feel of a little extra weight on plastic figures and it helps they stay upright on slopes. There are plenty of materials out there to use as weights. Some people suggest washers, other people use fishing weights. For most of my figures, I either glue a nickel on the bottom when there is no slot (like the ork on the right) or part of a penny-like piece of metal. I use Liquid Nails to secure them into the base, though white glue or Super Glue would work fine as well.

I actually had almost a hundred 10 pfenning pieces that were perfect, but you can't find those any more. Why nickles? I had a lot of them around and by the time I jumped into the car, drove to the store, and found the appropriate sized washers, the cost would have been the same. If you are thinking about magnetizing your movement/transport trays however, washers may be the way to go for you.

Transporting

The second reason I treat my bases is for transportation reasons. When I used to play a lot of Warhammer Fantasy, I used steel toolboxes to carry them around in. Nowadays, it seems like the foam carry cases are the norm. For my Tyranids though, they just don't fit the bill. First, there is the sheer quantity of figures. I'm sitting on 150+ Tyranids and another 130 Orks. I don't really want to configure that many trays. Tyranids also seem to have a much bigger footprint than normal, because they have their legs and claws extended in all directions, which means that each figure takes up a lot of space. Lastly, Tyrandid have all of those spiky bits, which catch on the foam. I'm just waiting to pull out a Gaunt and discover I left his arm in the bag.

My solution is to carry them in a steel toolbox. I don't fly with them, so they just have to be secure enough not to slide around and fall over. Hormaguants in particular have weak connection points at their ankles, so you also want to make sure it that they are held securely, but not so securely they're being stressed every time you pull it out of the box.

I found a great solution (for me) in the form of rare earth magnets. I get mine from K&J Magnetics, but you can find them at a number of sources. I'm using the 3/16" dia. x 1/16" thick disc magnets, which are $30.00 for 250. As you can see from the Genestealer on the left, all it takes is a single magnet attached with Super Glue. Warriors get 2 magnets and large creatures such as the Carnifex gets 5. To illustrate the strength, here's a small battleforce hanging off the refrigerator door.

Notes

Last updated	11/29/08
Author	Michael Kan
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