I really, really, really dislike basing.
It doesn’t help that I’m up at 4am trying to get everything based for a Combat Patrol tourney tomorrow at Gryphon Games. Not that 4am’s crazy for a weekend night, especially since I slept til about 2pm today because it’s, you know, Setherday. I’m also making my own job harder by basing every model of a particular type, rather than just the ones I’m running in a 500-pt tourney. That’s leading to some additional bloodletters, plaguebearers, etc. getting the basejob.
But man, I hate basing. It just…it feels pointless and messy and ineffectual. This is further compounded where flying bases are concerned–they’re already clear! They already reflect whatever the creature’s flying over!
I do appreciate that a lot of Fantasy stuff seems to come pre-loaded with decorative bases, and I’ve put some elements onto other ones. But it’s a dramatic shift between the pleasure I took in the time-consuming, repetitive task of washing 19 Plaguebearers (they were my first models, and I thought washing meant a different thing) or painting/washing 8 bloodletters (I did them up with a strange, random paint scheme that evokes African demonic spirits) and the snarling grumbles I’m emitting as I slather texture paints and white glue all over the bases for these guys.
So I wrote this post in the hopes I’d feel better!
Ego Poisoning 
You’re not alone. Almost every based model I own came that way second – hand because I’ve just never really seen the point. No matter how you base a model, it’s going to look out of place in the majority of terrain. As long as you’re ignoring the discrepancy, why not just ignore a plain black base?
Grin.
I try to tell myself that the Daemons bring their natural terrain with them when they emerge from the Warp. This is how I try to console myself.
You know my feelings on this already. Still, I can’t deny that a nice, tasteful base-job can tie a figure together really nicely. I always look at it as that last stage on a long run: the finish line’s right up ahead, but just throwing yourself down into the grass by the side of the track would be so nice right now–no! Must…get…to…finish…
(Not that I’ve done any long runs in…20 years? But I vaguely remember the sensation…)
I was trying to find that post to link to it, but at 3am I apparently lacked the capacity for that work. I did many searches and came up short!
The happy moral of the story is that I worked til about 6, caught a few hours’ sleep, and then with the aid of my incomparable bride based/painted everything I didn’t have done yet. Ended up tied for best painted, and about the only points I put up in the tourney came from having a fully painted/based army (6th edition is…unkind to Daemons, even on a 4′ table).
Also turns out that I didn’t have to base my translucent flying bases, somehow! A comedy of errors, or a change in policy, I cannot say!