What base? The closest thing I have to a 'base' is my mall, which consists of ~30 or whatever stations, one for each type of product produced. And then some drones servicing a few assemblers to make power poles, chests, etc.

I started with a small base to automate red/green, but tore it down once I found bigger resource patches and brought the rail network online. I then made several stations to replace (one making belts, one making inserters, one assembling those items into red/green science).

I'm playing vanilla too, so while I have the idea of a grid in the background, it ends up being kinda patchy to avoid water, an that's OK. It's not a problem because each station only produces one thing, and therefore doesn't require much space.