Thank you le_steph40, those are very kind words and I am glad you like it!
Thanks Andy. The base ended up being a nice distraction before final assembly of the smaller parts. Give it a go sometime, they can be really simple and still look great and most of all it is fun! You could knock out a simple tarmac or grass base in an hour or two.
fubar57
The punches do come in handy, or a circle cutter would work as well as long as you could get the circles small enough with it.
Like Andy mentioned, my first circle punch was actually a home made one from a set of mini Dremel bits. I'd be glad to show a sort of how-to in the tools and techniques area if anyone is interested. The cost was basically whatever the drill bit set cost. It only took a few minutes to make and worked well.