Evolution of my ship bases

   I haven't really done anything lately so I decided to talk about how I base my ships. I first got started in modern naval wargaming back in 1989. The first ships I got were 1/2400 scale Superior models. At the time that was what was available at the local game store and GHQ had just started its modern harpoon range. My first ship models used this as a base.

NNOOOTTHHIIIINNG!!!

   Yes, I just plopped the minis on the table. After seeing a few games at a convention however I decided that my ships did in fact need bases. So I used evergreen plastic tile sheets to make my first bases. I like the tile plastic as it was easy to make a base custom sized for the ship but also somewhat uniformed. I painted bases sky blue with a simple wave pattern. I also wrote the ship class on the stand.

On sale at Gnomecon.

   Then for about ten years I didn't do any naval wargaming. Part of this was due to lack of players, but also 1/2400 was starting to look like a dead end in modern naval miniatures. (GHQ is only just now updating its Harpoon line) Then in 2005 I went to Iraq. While there I decided to spend my two week leave in England. One of the places I went to was the Navwar store. There, in addition to crapload of 1/300 aircraft, I decided to switch over to 1/3000 scale, buying several fleet packs. Once again I started basing them on tile sheets with the ship class on the stand. I tried using a darker blue and also a more dramatic wave pattern for my combat ships.

Some specialized units did get their own name.

 

   I wasn't really happy with the dark blue as it didn't match up with my Seascape mat. Thus I changed over to the aqua blue I use now. I also decided to add the ship's name to the stand.

   After a while I also started to add the ship's national flag or naval ensign.

   I then noticed that my ship stands were getting crowded with too many names. Also with the demise of most hobby shops plastic tile sheets were getting harder to come by. I was really impressed with wayswatcher's use of tongue depressors as ship bases, so I decided to use them. They come in a verity of sizes and take paint better than the plastic does. I also removed the ship class to reduce clutter. The ship class is now written on the bottom of the base. Thus this is how I base my ship miniatures for now.

I use the simple wave pattern for slow moving ships like this merchant.

By the way; as you might have noticed in the captions, I'll be selling my 1/2400 scale ships this weekend at the Gnomcon flea market.

See ya, James