Basing with magnets to give a choice of column or line.

An 'Over The Top' Perfectionist?  [See footnote]

I must be in my attempt to make my modelling life more complicated than it's needs to be, because I'm striving to achieve an unnecessary objective. 

For my War of the Worlds game I purchased a number of British Colonial units from Baccus including some Mounted Infantry, (MI) a more modern term might be Mobile Infantry, certainly reading a little on the Boer War they fitted a niche in that unconventional war.

Whilst I have gently mocked or chided those who base their models on smaller bases so they can change the formation, I've managed to avoid 'That Need'. However the MI in this game not only called for it, rather they demanded it.

Ideally when they unmount to fire then I should swop bases but I didn't fancy that, and thought in my game they'd fire from the saddle or line up to charge towards the Martian Tripod dump the horses and shoot the heck out of it. My desire not to paint the same unit twice, mounted and unmounted, forced me to think about mounting them on smaller bases so I can have them in column or in a two lines.

Having already based some units on small 1/4 sized bases and realised how fiddly it was I wanted to have the best of both worlds on one base.

Requirements:

1mm plastic card Model Scenery Supplies,  and Small Super Strong N35 Neodymium Disc Magnets (3 x 1mm).

All I had to do was cut the 1mm card into  2x 30mm square bases plus 1 30x60mm base for each set. Drill a hole in the centre of the square bases and then two holes in the 30c60mm base that lined up with them, HA!

Precision is key, I glued the magnets in the bases tested for positioning choosing the best alignment and based the men accordingly.

Method

• Get some 2mm MDF identically sized 30mm squares (no store purchased aren't all the same size).
  
• Find the centre and drill with a small bit first, this gives more control and accuracy then put them on top of each other and turn through 90° to see how close to centre the holes are.
• When happy place them on the 30x60mm MDF drill through and using a pin see how well they both align with each other and on the board below in the two positions (column and line). If you're happy stop.
• Get the plastic card, cut it into 30mm strips and then 60mm lengths you need two lengths for each set. I found my card had a rough side and a shiny side. I planned it so the shiny sides faced each other, this gave the completed work a rough side for bottom and top, for basing and painting.
• Use same bit to drill through jig into plastic, then  enlarge with a 3mm bit, I used a small round file to widen it a little, try to leave it tight.
• Ensure all magnets have the same pole facing upwards, glue them in place and test again for best positions, you may want to file the edges of the top square.
• When basing setup the men for column rather than line as a slightly ragged line looks better than a ragged column, if you prefer the opposite then do that. If you look at my above picture You'll see what I mean.

My small 'jig', large 2mm MDF bases taped together to hold the plastic card. I did tape the 'jig' to the cutting board too.

Position the two templates on the plastic card and drill through.

Do both sides, remove one square and if this is to be cut in half then run a blade on the plastic, just score and bend/snap in half.

After you have glued them in place you should have this. All the large pieces have rough side down, all the small squares have rough side up. In all the cases below the magnets all face the same way, lets say North face is up. 

The final result.

Footnote:

I was going to title this article as; 'Are you an OCD gamer?' However before doing so I happened to read this article; 'The difference between OCD and Perfectionism' by Kyle, written February 22, 2018.
It's worth a read and has made me think twice before commenting that another gamer or indeed anyone is OCD when all they are doing is simply striving to be an over the top perfectionist. 
True OCD shouldn't be wished on anybody.