Ship bases

[leopard]

planning on basing the ships here, I see from the excellent S100 model here I’m not alone in this.

thinking mostly for sanity in storage and transport of the very nice Imperial Japanese Navy models. goal is to have a length of steel under a length of plastic, for magnetic storage.

I’ve done similar for 1:2400 models, though they usually have base all around, guessing here having a base to the rear means either making my own wake markers or finding some other way to manage this.

Has anyone else thought about basing the craft and the in game implications?

[Tom C]

Absolutely! I love the models but believe they will be damaged easily. I was thinking about something a simple as clear plastic. As far as game play I’d assume all measurements and such would still be done from the model so it wouldn’t change anything.

[leopard]

Picked up some plastic, mine now based on plastic sheet, with a steel base of a smaller size stuck to the bottom (I don’t have steel bases of the appropriate size to use alone).

Torpedo boats, Japanese ones, are on 1″ wide by 2 1/2″ long bases for example, both sides, bow and stern have the same overhang.

wake markers will be tucked under the base slightly, torpedos sit on top before being moved off (they move before the boat so no issues there), just need to make a custom turn marker that can sit on top of the base, think a capital “L” shape, but modelled with an angle of 120 degrees and 135 degrees (for a 30 and 45 degree turn), put the bottom of the L along the ships stern, then pivot around the side of the stern – tada, base size no longer matters.

just need to work out how to paint them, thinking a neutral blue/grey colour

[Wayne Walton]

I’ve used a Dremel to make a recess for a rare earth metal magnet in the underside of the hulls on my boats. The plastic models only needed one to hold them securely, while the tanker and larger vessels need 2 or three.
They stick to magnetic sheets just fine – just make sure you get the magnets the right way round before gluing them in place 🙂

[Author]

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