Dux Bellorum Bases (1)

A while ago I picked up a copy of Dux Bellorum at a very reasonable price from the excellent Northstar.
I had a look through, got quite excited and then the Hobby Funk hit. As an attempt to crawl out from the Funk I started work on some sabot style movement tray base things (a catchy title) for the game. Dux Bel uses an element based system and as my Saxons are individually based for WAB I needed some kind of sabot to put individual figures in. Whilst at Partizan I spotted these skirmish trays made by 4Ground which looked to be the right sort of size, so I grabbed the only pack in stock and took them home. Reviewing them, they seemed exactly right, they are roughly 11cm x 6cm and hold 8 20mm square bases, which will look fine for an element of the more barbarian style armies (such as my Saxons). They also have rounded corners which I found pleasing to the eye. So I placed an order with 4Ground for three more packs to give me 12 bases in total (more than enough for most armies in the game). The only slight problem was that 4Ground don't make a cavalry base to the same dimensions and all elements in the game need to be the same size. I did ask 4Ground if they could make some, but they're snowed under with work apparently - though they did suggest Warbases would do custom ones if I asked. In the end I took a punt on buying some of the 4Ground cavalry bases and figured I could do something with them - which it turned out I could. Their cavalry bases are the same depth (6cm) as the infantry ones, so a simple "cut and shut" job meant I could leave a gap in the middle large enough to hold a third horse while using a base piece from the infantry packs to get the correct frontage.
I then sanded (as in covered them with PVA and modelling sand rather than took a Black and Decker to them) the bases and added a few rocks and a smattering of debris  in the form of abandoned weapons and bucklers. I also embedded a brass rod spear in the rear of each base as a way to hold the little rings to record casualties, much like we've done in our Hail Caesar games.
Below are a few photographs. Once again apologies for the poor quality pictures, that's the last time I use the new camera for stills, honest.

 Cut and shut horse base

The first of these have now been sprayed white (to seal the sand as much as anything) and will hopefully receive a first coat of paint sometime tomorrow.