Designing a better generic flying base

[Seb]

Solid idea and the sketches with the nameplate is a very good move. Liking your BFG bent Zac, always an intriguing item for space monkeys to paint up

Considering the bases for grander vessels, possibly a more ornate name ribbon on those bases as a special option?

Whilst all other bases can be a generic plate, offering that would be very cool as those cap ships stick around and tend to be the pride of the fleet/player.

- Seb

[mangozac]

Thanks Seb!

Yeah I have been thinking about it further and I'll be doing the initial base design without nameplate, with a nameplate to follow based on a modified copy of the initial base. There' no reason a copy with the name ribbon can't be done either...

This week I added the heading and bearing marks to the base. At the moment I'm just waiting for my 2mm brass rod to arrive from the UK (by far the cheapest place to get it is - even with postage from the UK). Once that's in I can finalise the hole size ready for casting.

[mangozac]

Well the brass rod arrived on Monday and I tried it out that night. All looks good so I've poured some silicone tonight and will have some copies of the base tomorrow. From there I will do the name plate and banner variants (neither of which should take long at all). I might even get fancy and cut the nameplate out on my router...

Here's how it's looking attached to my Fuel Freighter:

[Vaaish]

looking good to me. Those transports look pretty good too!

[BlackCatStudios]

I had been thinking about BFG bases the other day. I was going to make a flat, recessed area the size of an Order die so that one could be placed on the left or right side of the base, and an area on the back for a name card. I had not decided on recessed or raised bearing marks, though after seeing this I like the raised marks.

[mangozac]

Yeah I agree the raised bearing marks have turned out nicely.

Incorporated dice trays have been discussed in the past (primarily on Port Maw when a member by the name of russ_c designed some bases in 3D CAD and had them printed), but it was largely agreed that the special order dice are too big for such a feature. Russ_c's solution was to make special order tokens which mounted to a smaller tray in the rear of the base. I decided not to include dice trays of any kind on this base.

I cast the first duplicate of the base last night and it has come out quite nicely. I'm spending time with the girlfriend tonight, but hopefully I'll get the two base variants modified tomorrow.

[mangozac]

And we have progress!

Here we see the three proposed variants: one blank, one with a name plate and the third with a name banner pencilled in. What are your thoughts (particularly about the proposed banner design)?



I've teed up one of the Resin Addict casting friends to produce and sell the bases and if all goes to plan they should be in his hands very soon...

[paulson games]

I'm liking these, for the name ribbon are you looking at doing that in styrene or greenstuff?

[mangozac]

Greenstuff (or technically a greenstuff/Milliput mix). Despite my aversion to sculpting, doing a shape like that should be pretty straightforward. In contrast, getting it right in styrene would be a pain due to the curvature of the base...

[Vaaish]

The curved one is definitely more typical of the style people tend toward when putting names on the base. Especially with IN fleets.

[BlackCatStudios]

I like the curved name badge, Personally I prefer the name plate to be on the rear facing of the base. I suspect that this was a rough pencil in and not a final placement situation. Also is 2mm actual size of the tip of the GW flight stand?

[Lane]

The Ribbon version looks best though I agree you may want to move it to the rear of the base.

The name Plate looks good but IMHO it is too large (tall) for the space.

[mangozac]

[Seb]

That just looks sexy.

I'm a sucker for the nameplate at the front, let 'em know who's coming to kill them. But gaming wise, it makes sense to have it at the rear so you can track which of your ships is what.

The tall plate is a little full on, if someone uses a big name, I was expecting a plate that would follow the circumference even more than the normal ribbon.

However, literally having an old copperplate style plaque works.

Considering picking up some BFG goodies recently, I may have to order some of these!

- Seb

[mangozac]

Alright so after a bit of discussion I'm going to attempt to do the curved name plate as a separate piece that can be glued anywhere on the blank base. It won't be a banner anymore but rather a plain curved plate.