Do bases matter that much?

Do bases matter that much when it comes to miniatures used in wargaming? By current standards they clearly do with plenty of trade offerings available.

Also the preference for elements without individual figure removal also permits more imagination to be applied around a base. Perhaps the exception is skirmish gaming but even here you have the option of sabot bases providing the individual figure movement while retaining the convenience of the larger element base which can still be given varying levels of decoration.

My basing journey has been pretty basic. Back in the dim and distant past I painted desert or green paint onto cardboard bases. I still have them and they work. The figures are 25mm. They look a bit tired though.

I think this figure is a citadel adventurer from the 1970's.

Then I started a 15mm phase and actually paid for painting including basing. The quality was good but somehow they did not grow on me. They look accurate but......

I did some of my own and I was even less happy!

And then I caught the plastic fantastic bug and returned to simple painted bases for some 1/72 scale figures.

Zvezda Russian Dragoons

In the middle of this phase I moved into 28mm figures and thought they needed something extra. As it happened despite all the wealth of offerings and advice in all the various magazines and books I had collected, I stumbled across the humble warhammer guide in one of their rulebooks - maybe shieldwall - where they recommended simply gritting the bases and after basecoating drybrushing once. Somewhere I found a suggestion to use budgie grit. I tried it and painted it up except no dry brush but added some static grass and...... I was still underwhelmed. There is no pleasing some people.

I then had another surge of plain painted bases when I reworked more of my old 25mm metals.

You can see them next to the Zvezda Russians above - Minifigs French circa 1972? and Tradition Russians from the mid 1970's. The bases they replaced were dark green painted airfix box card - the figures have been transformed in my view.

And then I decided to do some mediterranean normans. Coincidentally I had watched both British cycling, Le Tour and La Vuelta races and the penny dropped. All my scenic basing had generally used dark brown earth (or grey brown for 15mm) colours - and I had not recognised why I liked the bright green bases beyond their simplicity. British cyclists rode through dark earth countryside with bright greens but La Vuelta cyclists went through fantastically bright coloured soils of many hues and even with brighter green shrubs and trees on top. (well except in the picos mountains in the north).

So I got my paints out and started experimenting - and so I have now found what I like. 

In my next post I will share the results.