Friday 17 April 2015

Basing and ID labels

They say plans rarely survive first contact with the enemy. This has proved the case with my plans for the continuation of my plan for my SYW Austrians. Instead of painting IR42 Gaisruck, which has been started, I decided to take a bit of time out and do some basing.

I hate basing. I put it off, then I put it off some more until the task becomes a big one. At some point, it becomes essential to get it done before it becomes so daunting it may never get done. 

This week I've taken a few hours to do some mass sand and gritting, ink washing, dry brushing and flocking. In a few more hours the job will be done. I really do hate basing!
I have chosen to label all of my Seven Years War units when I base them. Each unit has two labels. 

Firstly, at the rear of each 'flag base' (or 'command base' where a flag isn't present) I have put a small disc with the unit number.  In the case of the Russians I used the first three letters of the units name. I have kept the label small on a natural background colour to keep things unobtrusive, neat and tidy.
This unit is Infantry Regiment 22.

The disc was made out of thin light brown card with a hole punch. 

The panel pin, BTW, is for holding two coloured pony beads one above the other. One (the bottom one) denotes unit quality. The other (the top one) is a 'first fire' marker. The latter is removed after first fire.
More information can be found under each numbered base on a second label. 

These give a list of inhabers (regiment 'owners') and battle honours. These labels were printed onto self-adhesive paper.

The labels rarely serve any purpose, but they finish things off nicely.



6 comments:

Gonsalvo said...

I hate basing, too.

Have you considered adding your name and the date they were competed to the label on the bottom of the command stands?

Dave Huntley (sheepman) said...

I do like the idea of printing a bit more info about the rgt on the bottom of the base, I do a bit with my figures but not quite to this extent. I thnk it gives a bit of 'personality' to the unit and we thereby tend to take more notice of it's exploits during a game rather than treat it as expendible.
Dave.

BigRedBat said...

I like those, James!

I sometimes inscribe the unit name in greenstuff on the back of a base.

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

I agree basing just no fun to do and I'm never completely satisfied with it, but it is a necessary evil. The only thing I dislike more is prep work and cleaning and don't even get me started on plastic assembly which is why most my figures are metal.

I do really like the small blended in number on the command base as I personally detest obvious paper labels on bases as it ruins the whole impression.

As to the figures they look great as always.

Christopher

Ray Rousell said...

I do like the idea of using the numbered hole punch.

David said...

I now tacke my basing as I go along, I find it less daunting. If there is anything I loathe more then basing though, it is rebasing!