Rebasing and Tournaments

[Montford]

A good while ago I dug out my old Space Marine army (its no longer my main army). Its all the old 25mm based miniatures, some from the early 90's.

 

I have been touching up the paint jobs and I have a question: some of these models (Devastators, Assault Marines) now come with 32mm bases in their boxes, however Tactical Marines and Command Squads still come with 25mm. 

 

Is it acceptable to have half of your power armor infantry on a different base than the other? Such as one Devastator Squad on 25 and the other on 32? I wouldn't think so but I decided I should ask the community and get some feedback.

 

I am thinking that I should go ahead and rebase them, however If I do go ahead and rebase everything to 32, will a Tactical Squad / Jump Pack Chaplain on 32s be allowed if they do not yet come that was commercially? 

[Joukernaut]

Everything except scouts comes on 32mm bases nowadays. So rebasing everything is definately an option and looks amazing. I did it awhile ago and never regret the time investment.

That said it is also perfectly legal to field them on 25mm bases. Most tournaments allow 25mm as well as 32mm for space marines, but not a mix of them, they care about uniformity.

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

25mm bases are still legal if you don't feel like re-basing. 32mm is a valid base size for jump pack Chaplains. There is an official model with this base size already, it's the Blood Angels themed one.

[Panzer]

The general "rule" is: the bases the models came delivered with or the ones the latest version uses. Just make it consistent. So for Space Marines 25mm and 32mm is both fine.

 

Officially from the ruleset there are no rules which base to use for your models though.

[Halandaar]

There are no rules governing base size written into 40k any more. Whether or not individual tournaments enforce rules about base sizes will be down to them, or whatever format they use.

 

But in general, 32mm is the size almost all Power-Armoured models are provided on and anything that still comes with 25mm (other than Scouts) is simply down to being an older kit that hasn't been re-packed since the start of 6th Edition. As mentioned above, there are already Chaplain models officially packaged with 32mm, so you will have no issue putting yours on one.

[Mandragola]

Some tournaments, generally the bigger ones, do require specific base sizes. Paradoxically, at last year’s LGT I was asked to rebase some scouts I’d made from reivers into 25mm bases instead of 32s.

 

My advice is to get all your marines (apart from the scouts!) onto 32mm bases. First of all because it will look better. I did that with my 30k stuff when 32mm bases first came out and they certainly looked better. It’s also a chance to get all your bases looking consistent.

[Toxichobbit]

Given GW sell Marines on both base sizes, either is acceptable. Up to you if you mix the two sizes. Likewise, up to your opponent if they have a problem with it (I wouldn't, but some people are more serious gamers than me). Personally, I prefer all my Marines (even the Scouts) to be on 32mm bases or larger. I also mount my non-Gravis Primaris characters on 32mm rather than 40mm, because I prefer the consistency. It's not technically legal, but I don't bother with tournaments anymore so I don't have that to consider.

 

Everything except scouts comes on 32mm bases nowadays. So rebasing everything is definately an option and looks amazing. I did it awhile ago and never regret the time investment.
That said it is also perfectly legal to field them on 25mm bases. Most tournaments allow 25mm as well as 32mm for space marines, but not a mix of them, they care about uniformity.

 

There's still a lot that comes with 25mm bases. The Command Squad, as Montford said, is one of them. Oddly, the Company Command (same models with a plastic Captain added) are on 32mm. Other things on 25mm are almost all of the old characters (named & generic), the Techmarine box set, all of the Legion of the Damned and the mono-pose plastic Marines and like you said, the Scouts. It's a rather eccentric mix.

[Ishagu]

You don't have to re-base them, but Astartes look a Heck of a lot better with bigger bases.

[Montford]

Thank you all for the responses. Rebasing will commence shortly.

 

A side note: I suppose I'd better get bigger bases for those Terminators I have on 25s lol. I think it would be funny to show up with them like that but I suppose I can't count on the sense of humor of the TO :)

[Frostbit3]

My personal experience with mismatching bases is that I was hyper aware of it every time I placed my devastators on high ground they wouldn’t have fit on with 32s and it made me feel guilty even though there was no rational reason to. Same for my orks. That army played way worse for me on 32s but I became very aware of how my opponents might perceive it if I didn’t because of the game play advantages. I just wanted to avoid any potential for awkwardness even if 99% of people would never say anything.

Rebasing was super cheap using adapter rings and didn’t take much time.

But your mileage will certainly vary.

[infyrana]

Didn't realise there was a recent thread for this.  I wanted to rebase some of my very old marines, are there objections to using laser cut bases the sort you can find on mass to buy?  Ie for tournies or local store games etc?

[MegaVolt87]

There are base extenders available that boost up 25mm to 32mm etc. If you leave them black, they look similar to warmahordes bases. Older SM's look way better on 32mm bases, I rebased like 100+ IW's they look way better on bigger bases. 

[Mandragola]

Didn't realise there was a recent thread for this.  I wanted to rebase some of my very old marines, are there objections to using laser cut bases the sort you can find on mass to buy?  Ie for tournies or local store games etc?

 

You can do this, but actually GW bases are not expensive at all and will look vastly better. Laser cut bases will have straight sides.

 

When I rebased my 7th Legion I got some of the industrial-themed bases. They were really easy to make look good (typhus corrosion over metal spray ftw) and it was a huge improvement to the army.