Here's the initial selection of 1/2400th scale French pre-dreadnoughts that I'll be basing, painting and possibly even playing some games with this month. I have a pretty good set up, with battleships, armoured cruisers, light cruisers, coastal battleships and a single destroyer flotilla, but I have ordered some more models from Tumbling Dice to round out the force and to extend it from the late 1880's through to 1900.
As you can see, I've bagged them up with their bases, which are a consistent 20mm wide but vary in length to allow 5mm fore and 10mm aft of each ship, thereby following a consistent ratio between model and base whilst allowing for a base label astern of each model. I like the simplicity of this system and much prefer the look to the wider bases that you often see in use. I'm using 20mm as a width because it's what I've done for my Victorian ironclads and seems to work well, especially for handling and storage.
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| 40mm x 40mm |
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| 40mm x 60mm |
The torpedo boat and destroyer flotillas will be based on either a 40mm x 40mm square, which was my initial approach to flotilla basing, or possibly a 40mm x 60mm rectangle, which gives a bit more room to lay them out in threes, which is the minimum number of models for a flotilla base in Broadside and Salvo. I like the idea of square bases as they allow you to set out flotillas in formations but the rectangular bases are probably a better idea.
When I start to assemble and base the models I'm not going to use much base texturing, as it can look a bit over the top and take up too much time, so it will be just a bow wave and a wake using acrylic paste to create the effects. The plan is to start on these after the weekend, as I have some DIY to plough through and the Battle of Sable Island ironclad scenario to play, now that I have painted the additional ships that I need.
Are you sure about the destroyer bases? Looking at the B&S rules I read it as each individual model represents 3-5 ships.
ReplyDeleteYou were right Matt. I checked with DM via the END group and he clarified it, although he also said that you could base in multiples if you wanted to.
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I read it as each flotilla base represents three to five ships. So a flotilla could be represented by an individual model but I think it's three to five models on a single flotilla base. This is how some other rules do it. It also gets around the problem of moving tiny torpedo boats in formations if they are individually based. I may well shoot an email off to David Manley to get a definitive answer.
ReplyDeleteYeah you may well be right. I know in Fire When Ready flotillas are 1 or 2 models on a 50mm square base representing 2-6 actual ships. Probably worth checking with David before gluing them down!
DeleteI think I'll base DD's individually and TB's on multiple bases...Happy Days!
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