Effing slottas

[Spooktalker]

I can't stand these things!  

After years of resisting (http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=97455b7fb2726ac7a79b31d6cc8891b3&topic=52192.0) I did some careful analysis and despite what I saw as significant drawbacks I recently came crawling back to them, at least for my Oldhammer collection, and over the last three months or so I've been standing all my dudes up in their slots. The main reason I came back was it seemed like the path of least resistance and I've been trying to go with the flow more lately, follow the tao and try not to make more work for myself than necessary. What could be easier than fitting tab A with slot B?

Many things are easier, as it happens!

These things are a mess. Rather, I guess it's not so much the fault of the slotta itself but the effing figures.

First of all the figures are not sized for the base they are designated. Humans and dwarfs spill over the 20mm bases and are impossible to rank up except if you totally cop out and put them diagonally so they are staring off nowhere in space looking like idiots. The chaos figures don't fit on 25mm bases. Some figures like pink horrors don't fit on any kind of base.

Secondly you have two slots to choose from, straight or diagonal, but many figures look best with some angle between the two. Therefore not only do I have to buy both straight and diagonal slottas, but I've also got bags of slotless slottas and I've been dremelling my own slots in many of these with a dremel cut off wheel, this because the archivist in my wants to preserve the slot but also because cutting the tab off and pinning a figure here and there for display is fine, but for thousands of figures it's even worse than the slotta. Why didn't the sculptor give a have second's thought to whether this a diagonal or a straight posed figure and sculpt it to fit the base?

Thirdly, insult to injury many figures have tabs that are simply too effing big for the slots! Ones that are too fat are common, and some are even so wide across they don't even fit diagonally in the slot! For example some kislev I'm trying to stick in right now. There's just something incredibly maddening about this last one, where I'm widening the slots one by one with a box cutter cutting towards myself as there is no other way I can see to do it.

I'm starting to think this is why kids love the plastic figures so much.

One solution would be to put all the 20mm figures on 25mm bases, at least that would solve the 20mm problem if not the slot-too-fat problem. Dave King has suggested this and it makes some sense. But it's really hard to go so strikingly against the current standard. When I do up my Fantasy Warriors Grenadier figures I do think I'm going that way, though, 24mm square for dwarves and orcs alike, and thankfully I won't have to worry about slottas for those.

And now I'm in so deep with the slottas, having stood up a good number of hundreds of figures in them (but not glued them for the most part) that I feel I can't back out now.

Anyway, I could go but join in and rant about slottas and tabbed figures why don't you?    

[King Tiger]

I've only really had issues with slotta-bases once, and that was with GW metal kasrkin, the tabs were huge, too long and too thick, taking hours of my time to fit them in, and that was it.

Never had to worry about ranking as I don't play allot of games where that issue comes up really.

And these days I never use the slot, even if I'm crazy enough to buy a GW model, as I usually cut the tab off to mount the model to something on the base, or since I do more historical gaming I just glue over the hole with paper, then mount the model on the base

[Patrick R]

I found that a pair of good cutters help tremendously in trimming the tabs.  If they don't fit in the slot lengthwise, I just cut off the corners at a 45° angle which makes enough room for them to fit.  If they are too broad the old Dremel comes in handy to shave off enough metal to make it fit.  If the tab is only slightly broader than the slot I tend to simply wrench them in as the plastic has some give.

[grant]

When I played GW games, I wouldn't use the slot tabs. Cut them off, and use the feet to glue to the base, or sometimes a pin. I prefer the flat topped bases, not the slotted ones too. If I had to use a slotted base, I had some thin masking tape to cover the slot. Worked great.

No sense effing the ineffable.

[Anpu]

I prefer slottas to integral bases as I invariably pin the mini to a scenic base, homemade or resin. Integrals are so much more work to get of cleanly.

[grant]

I prefer slottas to integral bases as I invariably pin the mini to a scenic base, homemade or resin. Integrals are so much more work to get of cleanly.

I'll agree there - I don't buy integral bases if I avoid it. A thin razor saw works great at taking those off.

[Vermis]

Anyway, I could go but join in and rant about slottas and tabbed figures why don't you?  

Opening Pandora's box, there.

First of all the figures are not sized for the base they are designated. Humans and dwarfs spill over the 20mm bases and are impossible to rank up except if you totally cop out and put them diagonally so they are staring off nowhere in space looking like idiots. The chaos figures don't fit on 25mm bases. Some figures like pink horrors don't fit on any kind of base.

Starting wargaming as a GW brat, I thought slottabases were a nifty, convenient, and obvious way of standing your minis up on the 'battlefield', lining them up, etc.
I started Lizardmen after their 6th ed redesign, when the saurus received their current appearance, and quickly found out that the arms and shields and tails and things had to be positioned just so for any hope of ranking up. Even then there was a lot of bumping and awkwardness; and this was on 25mm bases. First inkling that it wasn't all it was cracked up to be.
Other GW minis didn't look a lot better. Like you say, lookit the current Chaos warriors, all crammed together like spiky sardines!

It's not restricted to GW and slottabases, though. Try ranking up GB saxons with 20mm² space each and an awful lot of horizontal spears. I always liked the look of multibasing, but it was that that tipped me over into the view that individual basing and casualty removal have no place in a mass battle game.  

Dunno when I first saw 'flat' basing, but all the hand-cut cardboard and 2p pieces looked a bit rough and untidy for my liking. It gradually grew on me, though, helped along by my discovery of Epic, and by some of the modern, machine-produced options. Nowadays it's slottabases that seem just a wee bit odder to me, a tad too much bare-sided plinth for the mini to balance on.

I was showing the Ronin book around this week, at that game night I last whinged about in that Malifaux topic. One guy looked at the photos and had his own moment of 2p horror too. He much prefers the big, round-sided bases used in Malifaux and Warmahordes, etc. That's less each mini running around with their own plinth, and more running around with their own tractor tire.

I do still use them for some games and things, but for most, I like flat bases.

Only thing is, I'm still hung up on styrene for bases. I think it's a bit like people preferring the 'heft' of metal minis. Maybe acrylic for some odd shapes and sizes, though.

[beefcake]

I'm not a fan of square bases myself. round 25mm slottas I quite like. I don't really base anything on squares anymore. I guess it gives me the feeling that something should be viewed from a specific angle or something. or maybe I just don't like spiky edges for my delicate fingers   If I don't base something on one of my own homemade resin bases I'll do it on a round plastic slotta for small ones or larger for the big minis.
I'm not at all a fan of the Warmahordes bases as I don't have a display cabinet and for gaming they seem pointless.

[Coronasan]

I'm not at all a fan of the Warmahordes bases as I don't have a display cabinet and for gaming they seem pointless.

I have never liked Warmahordes bases, they are that bit bigger and mean models don't as easily fit into building, trenches or whatever.

I prefer round bases as on quare bases I like to have the model facing a side of the base and its more hassle to line them up. However I did do that with my Confrontation forces as they kinda had to be on their square bases.

[Argonor]

I don't use square bases at all. Round slottas for minis with tabs, and washers for all the rest. And still, I sometimes have to remove the tab from slotta-minis, as they'll look odd if they are placed in the slot (too far back or forward to look balanced).

[Lowtardog]

I have been very must against slottas until starting painting fantasy again, I agree round bases only for my models as the square ones are a real pain. I have had the same issues of having to snip and doctor the tabs so feel your pain

[Ramshackle_Curtis]

For posing, try clipping the tab off one foot, so it is only attached by one foot. You can then bend it to go in the slot AND give you the angle you want. Or trim the tab down to only have tabe under the feetm then just make holes in the base to fit the figs in.

As fior ranking up, use cavalry bases and put 2 figs on. Do citadel still make longer unit bases? *s eems they do:

http://search.games-workshop.com/search/keywords-bases--locale-gb--page-2

[Andrew May]

Anyone remember Gorkamorka bases?

[Hammers]

Fucking slottas. Ugly and useless.

[Argonor]

Anyone remember Gorkamorka bases?

Yup. Minis toppling over all the time.