With Games Works change to Space Marine base sizes, I bought a set of Secret Weapon Miniatures 32mm Conversion Ring set to try out. I really like the end result, but the process was a bit of a pain so I figured it might be worth a tutorial post.

As with any molded product it is first important to clean off any flash. The rings had a few sections of longer flash like the picture below, but overall were well done. The main area that needed trimming was the bottom edge of each piece so it didn’t interfere with the original base.

Next up, I needed to drill out the hole a bit larger as it didn’t seem to be molded deep enough. I found a drill bit that fit within the hole and then used the xacto knife to round out the front edge.

The big issue I had with the 32mm conversion rings are that they didn’t fit tightly against the base. To tighten it down a bit I sliced off a small section of each piece (the image below shows a bit too much).

Its important to trim a both pieces rather than a larger section on just one as it will help keep the pieces square to each other. Also, you will have to drill out the hole a bit more as well.

Doing a quick fit check to make sure they line up.

On the standard bearer I cut a bit too much and the pieces no longer touched on one end, but this could be fixed with green stuff, on the other hand the ring now fits tightly against the base.

The completed squad with their 32mm conversion rings.

I then used liquid green stuff and shoved it into any gaps between the rings and the base to create a better fit. My concern was grabbing the base right were there was a gap and breaking material off the base when it squeezed.

Liquid Green Stuff was also used to fill the gap between the two pieces and the top gap.

Since the models are currently being painted I needed to prime the rings with brush primer. It just so happened that I bought Imperial Primer at one point instead of regular black so this was brushed onto the rings.

Next up I used Stirling Mud texture paint on the top of the rings and into the existing base material.

Once dried I used my base color of Baneblade brown to bring it back in line with the rest of the base.

The models are still work in progress, but the new rings make a huge difference. The marines are more imposing, much more stable (especially the standard), and will add a lot more opportunity for future bases.

So as I sad at the beginning, the rings were a bit of a pain, but they made a great improvement. For the rest of my marines, I’m not sure if I will buy more rings, rip off the base and start over, or some other means. The rings were only $5 for the set of 10 but so are blank bases from GW.

This does lead me to a question for my readers: I remember someone else having a great post about trimming the bottom of the base so it could be glued onto a new 32mm base, does anyone know where this is?

The next group of re-basing I plan to follow the excellent tutorial done on Ded ‘Ard that simply clips the bottom of the current base and glue it to the top of the new one. Thanks to Thor for that link 🙂