Cutting Down Bike Bases

[ElectricPaladin]

So, I've decided to base all the minis in my Space Hulk set. It will make the game slightly more awkward, but it opens up the possibility of using the models in 40k as well as Space Hulk, and that game was expensive, so it makes me feel less bad.

 

Anyway, I've run into a problem with the genestealers. Some of them are fine to go on small bases. Some of them can go on small bases with a little... adjustment (ie. cutting off something lame and undetailed). Some of them, though, are way too big - specifically, too long.

 

Then I had a brainstorm. Bike bases! They're not as outsized as putting the genestealers on terminator bases, but they're long enough to accamodate the outsized scenery.

 

The trouble is... they're a little too long.

 

So, I wanted to ask if anyone has had any experience with adjusting the size of GW bases. What do I need to be prepared for if I want to make some bike bases a bit shorter, while maintaining the smooth, professional-looking roundness on both ends?

[Hrolf the Cunning]

I think the easiest way to adjust the length would be to take the excess length from the middle of the base. Cut a square or rectangle from the middle, to the required length and then rejoin the ends. Probably best to stabilise/reinforce it with plasticard or similar. This way would help you maintain the rounded ends very easily. Hope that description makes sense.

[ElectricPaladin]

I think the easiest way to adjust the length would be to take the excess length from the middle of the base. Cut a square or rectangle from the middle, to the required length and then rejoin the ends. Probably best to stabilise/reinforce it with plasticard or similar. This way would help you maintain the rounded ends very easily. Hope that description makes sense.

 

You're right.

 

I also just remembered that I know a guy who's pretty heavily into casting resin. What I think I'll do is make one base, then ask my buddy if he can just make a mold of it and cast me like a dozen of 'em. Heck. Maybe I'll go ahead and do the basing I was going to do - plasticard strips to look like deck plating - on just that one and make the entire process about a million times easier...

[Hrolf the Cunning]

It depends how many you're planning on doing I guess. The casting process can add up rapidly speaking from experience Maybe look at using Instant Mold so you or your friend aren't stuck with a mold that you have limited use fore

[Phantomzero17]

Might one of the WFB square base sizes work?

[ElectricPaladin]

Might one of the WFB square base sizes work?

But then it would be square and the rest of the bases would be round. I can't cope with that.

[Jolemai]

For what it's worth, my Marine bikes, War Walker, Avatar and Wraithlord (nee Eldar Dreadnought) all have rectangular/square bases as that's what they came with

[Jarl of Wulfen]

I'd go with the rectangular cavalry bases from fantasy. That's what bikes were on in the way back when in the long long ago

[Durus]

If you just want to do a couple and have some spare slotta bases, the cavalry base is rather easy to convert. Just cut them in half, add the halfcircle part to the end of the cavalry base and build up the side with a strip of 1mm plastic card. Once you sanded the GS flat and it's painted there is no way you can tell that it was put together from multiple parts. It's also a little shorter than the average bike base. You could of course cut it to any length you want.

 

http://i.imgur.com/RhzvtRE.jpg

 

 

I also remember seeing some tutorials on magnetizing Space Hulk bases onto normal bases, at least for the Terminators. They had a ruined deck plating theme, so lots of jagged metal edges and things like that so the SP bases blended in perfectly with the other parts on the 40mm base.

[ElectricPaladin]

I've actually pretty much achieved what I intended. Now all I need to do is find a way to duplicate it. I'll post my results later tonight.