# Back 2 Base-ix Battle Frame 5000



## tu_shan82 (Mar 7, 2008)

I'm quite excited by this wargaming table set up and think it's a good, cheap alternative to GW's RoB table. Granted you'd need to put in a fair bit of work to make the table pieces look like real terrain instead of wooden boxes, but if you buy the RoB table from GW, you've got to put in a fair amount of work so it doesn't look slabs of grey plastic, so it's six of one to half a dozen of the other in that regard. Also another selling point for me, and I know this isn't applicable to a lot of you, but it is to some, and that is that Back 2 Baseix, the manufacturer of Battle Frame 5000, are an Australian company. Also the dude in the video has got a cool goatie, soul patch, clit tickler thing on his chin. Lol. Here's a link to their website.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

Its a good idea in principle, but its a bit two simple as it is, it is just a set of upturned shoe boxes, could use some pre printed or textured blocks/sections, Realm of battle is grey plastic but it would take far less time and effort to turn that in to a useable board.

Good idea but its not quite finished, if your going to sell a modular board make it as close to useable out of the box as possible, if your going to have to put weeks of work into it you may as well make the boxes yourself and save a load of cash.


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## GrizBe (May 12, 2010)

I'm thinking pretty much the same as Bits is... anyone with even god aweful carpentry skills could make this yourself at a fraction of the price.


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## tu_shan82 (Mar 7, 2008)

GrizBe said:


> I'm thinking pretty much the same as Bits is... anyone with even god aweful carpentry skills could make this yourself at a fraction of the price.



I don't necessarily think that's true, I would have what you would call rudimentary woodworking skills, metalworking is my real forte having done part of an apprenticeship as a fabricator/welder and winning awards from the trade school I attended, but I doubt I'd be able to reproduce what back to base-ix has done. Not that I am terrible at woodwork, I actually made a nice trunk that currently resides in my brother's bedroom as I don't have room for it where I live. The tiles are exactly 300mm, and without the correct machinery, which most would not have access to at home, you'd end up with some tiles being slightly under size and some being slightly oversize, and being a single mm out of tolerance would fuck up how the table goes together. Also they'd have to be dead straight too otherwise they wouldn't marry up properly either.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

tu_shan82 said:


> I don't necessarily think that's true, I would have what you would call rudimentary woodworking skills, metalworking is my real forte having done part of an apprenticeship as a fabricator/welder and winning awards from the trade school I attended, but I doubt I'd be able to reproduce what back to base-ix has done. Not that I am terrible at woodwork, I actually made a nice trunk that currently resides in my brother's bedroom as I don't have room for it where I live. The tiles are exactly 300mm, and without the correct machinery, which most would not have access to at home, you'd end up with some tiles being slightly under size and some being slightly oversize, and being a single mm out of tolerance would fuck up how the table goes together. Also they'd have to be dead straight too otherwise they wouldn't marry up properly either.



sorry it was unfair of grizbe to assume the rest of the world has the woodworking skills we brits take for granted, its just in our blood, it would shock you what we can do with a orange box,a six inch nail and some sticky back plastic.:shok:

But in all honesty, a decent local timber merchant would be able to cut a sheet of plywood or mdf without any problem to match this and most of them would do it for free. Then it would just be a matter of building some up for height. 
Not saying what they have done isnt impressive, its a good idea and im all for ready made game boards, but the board is too far from a decorated board at the moment, once you have all those tiles your gonna have to spend some cash,time and effort to make them look like a city scape.
However the normal flat tiles would be great for doing modular rivers or roads.


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

Should have named it Blocks O' shit 5000. Seriously, just a bunch of uniform squares with no features? How imaginative.

I agree with GrizBe, and dipshit with a circular saw and some chalk mark could build a fairly decent table on their own. This shit is just lazy.

Not that I don't appreciate you shairing this, I simply thing that I could make something similar out of wood for less.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

I suppose though alot of the products that have come along in the last few years are designed to cater for the younger "cant be arsed" generation of gamers,which is sad really, i have built a couple of game boards in my time and it was a huge ball ache but it was a labour of love and i didnt have the vast array of materials we have available now, i have yet to see a convincing off the shelf game board set, the realm of battle idea i like but i wish they would do a ruined city scape board,cracked pavements/roads etc


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## ROT (Jun 25, 2010)

They need sloped tiles next, I love the idea, looks flawless-

EXCEPT, it's too angular, 90 degrees doesn't look natural, you'd have to do alot of work to stop it looking like a bunch of rectangle boxes stuck together.

So special scenery sculpted tiles would look awesome.




gen.ahab said:


> I agree with GrizBe, and dipshit with a circular saw and some chalk mark could build a fairly decent table on their own. This shit is just lazy.


 I'd like to think dipshits aren't packing BuzzSaws, if I'm completely honest. :laugh:


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## GrizBe (May 12, 2010)

Anyone remember when your gaming board was just a X' by X' sheet of MDF, then your scenery was whatever you could mash together out of papier mache and cereal boxes? Those were the days...

Why back in my day, if you wanted witchfate tor you'd have to go steal some carpet tubing and... *mumbles off into old man ranting.* Get off my hobby! *shakes stick at.*


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

GrizBe said:


> Anyone remember when your gaming board was just a X' by X' sheet of MDF, then your scenery was whatever you could mash together out of papier mache and cereal boxes? Those were the days...
> 
> Why back in my day, if you wanted witchfate tor you'd have to go steal some carpet tubing and... *mumbles off into old man ranting.* Get off my hobby! *shakes stick at.*


very true, we used to risk life and limb for the hobby, inhaling melting polystyrene, cutting minis from sprues with Stanley knives and nail clippers,filing lead minis ....those were the days, up turned pot noodle pots for scenery and anything you could steel out of a fish tank, none of this pre made fancy smancy scenery, we had to use all our blue peter taught skills damn it!!!
coming over here stealing our jobs!!!


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## deathwatch27 (Dec 30, 2009)

TOOK R JOBS!!!!!

Seriously went to focus the other day got a 6' x 3' ish board, some baton for around the edge n some no more nails bollox for bout £20. Ok takes some time and some BALLAST n a bit of pva. Now got a useable table.


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## gen.ahab (Dec 22, 2009)

ROT said:


> I'd like to think dipshits aren't packing BuzzSaws, if I'm completely honest. :laugh:


Ah it's good for them to lose a finger or two, it is a learning experience.


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## GrizBe (May 12, 2010)

Back in my day, you'd think nothing of having your limb sawn off then getting the girls in home economics to reattach it for you while your science teacher made you do a project of it.... those were lessons back in my day. None of this fancy, smancy comptuerised white boards bollocks... We had black lung from the chalk dust damnit!


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

Well to shine a light into the otherwise murky pit of negativity, I think it looks alright.

I like the concept and the sheer number of tiles they are releasing in different sizes and heights. I like the magnetic aspect for convenience and speed although it does mean that to put up a 6x4 gaming table you need a 5x3 (give or take) dining table already in place, because those magnets don't look anywhere near strong enough to support their own weight.

Yes they look very boxy and unnatural, but I think if you spent a bit of time on them with some left over vehicle bits, ammo crates, plastic pipes and wire then you could make a very nice modular series of buildings, cargo containers and roads. Depending on how you plan to store it, then even Cities of Death buildings should fix neatly onto a single tile, letting you move stuff around pretty well without having to bother with a "scenery box" or whatever.

At £100 or so for a 6x4 it's pretty expensive, but then so is the RoB board for £50 more. If you're going to have to spend hours on both to make them look presentable then I'd rather have the cheaper, more modular one that doesn't have aggravating hills that models seem to perenially fall off.

And what's this about "Good old days"?? My board is STILL a 6x4 sheet of MDF that I got from B&Q for free (it was used as packaging for a timber shipment and the nice man cut it to size) and my scenery is made out of Pizza Hut boxes and toilet rolls!


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

Sethis said:


> And what's this about "Good old days"?? My board is STILL a 6x4 sheet of MDF that I got from B&Q for free (it was used as packaging for a timber shipment and the nice man cut it to size) and my scenery is made out of Pizza Hut boxes and toilet rolls!


Pizza Hut !!! when i were a lad we couldnt afford Pizza Hut, we were lucky to get cold gravel to eat, we used to work 26 hours a day downt mill and mill owner would beat us with his belt and we would thank him for it!!


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## normtheunsavoury (Mar 20, 2008)

I can see this being ideal for cityscapes but not much else. A few bits and bobs here and there and some roads painted on and it would be pretty cool, I wouldn't fix buildings to it anyway so it would be really easy to keep it modular and the different levels on it would make things interesting.


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## Unforgiven302 (Oct 20, 2008)

Decent idea, but in practice it would end up looking like you were playing on a giant Lego table. Everything is square or rectangular and has no flowing lines or natural look to it. It is also too raw and plain. No detail or texture to it. Yes, that means you the consumer can do it up as you want, but it just looks like it would be a massive undertaking to do all those boxes. 

As has been mentioned, city scape would be the obvious use for a system like that, but for anything else it is going to look rather silly. I would be interested in this system if I was planning to build a ruined city, it would be the right choice I think.

If you really wanted a system like that go to your local home improvement store and buy a bunch of different thickness' of insulation foam board pieces. Cut them in 1+1 or 2+2 foot squares and have at it. What about the magnets that this table uses? Magnets? MAGNETS? We don't need no stinking magnets!!! Use pieces of wire from a coat hanger and make pins for the foam tiles, that will hold them together. foam can also be cut, filed, trimmed and fooled with to make textures, depth and smooth flowing lines unlike hollow wooden boxes with magnets.

Good intentions, not so good final product. It may have different heights and all, but it is way too angular, boxy and raw to be of great use.


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## Hooobit (Dec 5, 2010)

Nice find, but an absolute waste of the money.

Me and my friends used to make scenery out of expanding foam and all sort of stuff, once almost passed out due to us melting foam in a confined space... The god ol'days when you were about 11 and everything seemed like a good idea.

Best bet would be to (as everyone has said) just get a piece of wood cut at a merchants place, or by a retard with a Chopsaw/ Panel saw. Part of the fun always used to be making stuff yourself so you could avoid paying through the ass for scenery.

You are better of using random crap left about your home as scenery, unless you have the Natural woodworking skills of the British people.


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## Marneus Calgar (Dec 5, 2007)

I'm in agreement with B&K and Grizbe. All you got to do is go to a supplier and get them to cut a 6x4 table into lots of 2x2 bits. That way you can do the terrain yourself, with the money you've saved from buying their branded wood. 

Honestly, you can do this, then add features to those perfectly cut squares, to make them attach to one another. It's not difficult


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## Mortigar (Oct 5, 2010)

i have my own 16foot x 4foot games table that i am in the process of making terrain boards for, lots of insulation foam on mdf boards, wont be as modular as they are based on 50mm pink foam and 4foot wide, but at least i can build in stuff like craters and trenches, there is no way that i would be able to do something like that on them

i think it would be better for them to show a board that has already had some work done to it to make it looking like a games table rather than a video of some bloke moving wooden boxes around. if they are aimed at the modeller and scratchbuilder at least give people an idea of what can be done with the boards rather than these are great they are boxes that have magnet technology


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## Eleven (Nov 6, 2008)

bitsandkits said:


> sorry it was unfair of grizbe to assume the rest of the world has the woodworking skills we brits take for granted...


Who could ever dispute that brits are at home with wood in their hands.


Don't ban me please, couldn't help it.


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

Eleven said:


> Who could ever dispute that brits are at home with wood in their hands.
> 
> 
> Don't ban me please, couldn't help it.


We Brits invented masturbation,but like many other things we invented, other countries soon over take us at it.


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## tu_shan82 (Mar 7, 2008)

Eleven said:


> Who could ever dispute that brits are at home with wood in their hands.
> 
> 
> Don't ban me please, couldn't help it.


If you had of said that over at Warseer they would have baned most definitely, round here though you just earned yourself 19 rep points for making me laugh.


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## ThePublic (Apr 8, 2009)

So again, I know its a simple solution... but hasn't anyone ever gamed on a sand table. Real easy, plywood table, 1X6 frame, and sand and water. And terrain detail you want to make with minimal cost or time.

maybe I am just old and simple in my needs and wants....


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## GrizBe (May 12, 2010)

You know, thats a pretty darn simple idea.... alot of people probably don't do it/haven't tried it though because of the possible mess all of the sand could make... but I can easilly see how you could sculpt it into whatever terrain you wanted.


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## Sethis (Jun 4, 2009)

Wouldn't the wet sand stick to your models and kind of get in the cracks of the armour or in the flock of the bases?


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## Djinn24 (Jan 12, 2008)

Ooo get that moon sand stuff they are constantly shoving down my kids throats on cartoon network.


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## Evil beaver2 (Feb 3, 2009)

djinn24 said:


> Ooo get that moon sand stuff they are constantly shoving down my kids throats on cartoon network.


That is one of the few things I believe has less value for its price than this board.


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