How to Make 25¢ Kings Of War Unit Bases for Multi-Basing [Hobby]

As I approach the ramp up for making a new army in Kings of War, I get excited about the prospect of all the miniatures I will buy and from what company or model range I will choose from. Setting out a budget as to not spend myself into oblivion, AKA the dog house with the wife, I often forget to set some money aside to base the army on something sturdy.

On the market, laser cut bases for Kings of War are a popular option for those who like to multi base their armies. And with multi basing for miniature wargaming being a fairly new concept there are only a few options to choose from. I will highlight a local favorite for me, Armada Games in Tampa which sells a whole line of Kings of War bases in all different sizes (FYI they also carry the full line of Mantic models *ahem* US players looking for a source on this side of the pond). These are nice bases, I based all of my Brotherhood army on them and I was very pleased. However I did spend about $25.00+ on these bases, which don't get me wrong, is a completely respectable and economic option for those who want to skip the DIY bit. However; being the penny pincher I am, I just knew I could find a way to make it cheaper.

Yes I need better desk lighting.

Pre-Work: The Materials

I am not sure how I discovered what ended up being my material for these bases, most likely the wife was dragging me through what is prob 1 of 20 Dollar Trees we have in Titusville, FL, but in the school supply section were these nifty wooden clip boards that caught my eye. Picking them up it was very obvious they were made out of wood and not a cheap card board, they felt firm and were not far off from what an MDF material would feel like. Penny-pincher senses tingling, and Kings of War hobby always near to my thoughts, I knew this was my solution for saving a few bucks to spend on nice miniatures instead.

Like everything at Dollar Tree, these clipboards cost me a whopping $1 (.75 GBP for our friends across the pond), a piercing arrow of a cost to my miserly and penny-pinching heart. However I recovered from this sticker shock, and pressed on with this great hobby investment.
 

Pre-Work: The Tools

Getting it home I broke out a few tools I would use for the job: A pair of good sharp snips, a metal ruler (any ruler beyond 250mm is fine), exacto knife (optional), and a fine point Sharpy. While I realize that these tools are an additional investment for those who do not have them, they are nice tools to have for many portions of the hobby, especially terrain making. The snips themselves I got at Home Depot for some other project, but have since used them for too many hobby projects to count.

It is true that if you have a table saw handy it may be even easier or cheaper to buy the nice wood in a sheet at the hardware supply store and cut it using the tablesaw, but this is for those of us who do not have such tools in our hobby room.

Step 1: Make a Plan

Starting off I would decide what sizes bases I would need to make with the amount of clipboards I had. Being that I was working on my Orc army at the time, I would have to make quite a few 125mm x 100mm bases. The clipboards themselves would allow me to make 4 such bases with a bit extra leftover where the clip is screwed in. This is where I get my 25¢ cost per base. Though most armies use the 100mm x 80mm bases which you could theoretically get more out of the clipboards, driving your cost per base further down.

Step 2: Measure and Mark

After I have determined that I need 4 125mm x 100mm bases, I took my handy dandy metal ruler and very carefully aligned it to the edges of the clipboard. Usually I would accomplish this by aligning the tick marks along the edge in a very exact fashion, ensuring my ruler was straight. From there I would mark off 100mm deep and 125mm wide with the sharpy, giving myself a reference before I sunk my snips into the wood.

Also as a tip, you have to decide now if the mark you are making with the sharpy are within your measurements, or are the outside border. It matters, as the sharpy mark is about a millimeter wide and will therefor mess up your width somewhere if you don't decide on this now.

Step 3: MEASURE TWICE

Ha, you think I would let you cut without giving you the old saying your daddy never stopped nagging you with? Measure twice, cut once please. Seriously though, this is Kings of War, imagine someone is laser lighting the angle to get that rear charge, and they get it because you eff'ed up the cutting portion of this step. The menacing sound of triple portions of dice hitting the table made me fearful of screwing up this step. That and the cost of wasted materials.... *shudders*.

Step 4: Make Your Cut

Now its time to commit after you did all that measuring... you did measure twice? RIGHT? If not please follow Jim to the Pit of Misery... Dilly Dilly... now return to Step 3. 

Anyways, now that you have measured, take your snips and carefully cut along the lines you made with the sharpy, keeping in mind whether you decided that the sharpy line is inside or outside the measurements. The snips I used I had to make a couple different cuts depending on the length of the side I was cutting. It may be even more exact if you are able to make any side in one cut, so if there is a tool out there that I am missing that could do this I'd love to hear about it.

Step 5: Verify Your Cut

Exactness is key like I said before with Kings Of War bases. Its a game at its core of boxes and the angles that they make, therefor you have to make sure that you have good measurements for the bases that you cut. After the base has been cut out I measured each side and the middle of the base to ensure that it is exact. If not I trim (very slightly) with either an exacto knife or the snip until I have reached the desired measurements. Typically at this point id use some sort of right angle to ensure that my corners were right angles (a good indication if you cut/measured right) it is also very key for obvious reasons you have right angles in Kings Of War. I would often use my KoW wavering or LOS widget to verify.

Step 6: Repair (As Needed)

Its OK to have made a mistake in cutting that resulted in a tear or some sort of damage. Its fairly ease to fix small errors to your bases with some good old wood filler or wood glue followed up with a verification with your your right angle/ruler. Pictured to the right one of my corners ripped off of my base, the best thing to do in this situation is to save whatever bit that fell off and try to reattach it. This ensures you keep all of your important measurements and angles.

You're Done!

All and all it took me about 10 Minutes average to crank out one base, give and take whether I was working on the same clipboard or not. While when you go for a cheaper option in basing you are paying for it in time, but usually even the cutting of bases is enjoyable for me in the garage after a long day (anything to get that army on the table).

So there you have it, a quick and simple way to make cheap 25¢ (or maybe less) Kings of War bases with some supplies from the local Dollar Tree. I'm super stoked to get to basing my orc army on all of the 50x50s, 125x100s, 250x100s, and 120x40s I cut out of this material. While I had a surplus of 20x20s and 25x25s for my Orc army, there is nothing stopping you from using this method for those size bases as well. In that case I could only imagine how cheap it would be to make lots and lots of bases (KoW: Vanguard warbands anyone?). 

As always if you have a question about anything from this post or others, feel free to tweet me or comment below!

Testing out the bases in my first Orc test game

Ready to Waaaggghhhh