Advanced Basing Techniques

Basing can make or break a model. Even if your painting skills rank only a "meh", complete and uniform basing can make your army really pop. But if you're looking to make your army look super-sharp, complex or creative basing can be one of the most important steps.

I recommend devising a theme for your army. For example, I thought it'd be fun for my Dark Eldar to be assaulting a Mechanicum Forge World. If you've read Graham McNeil's "Mechanicum" or Dan Abnett's "Titanicus" then you know what a Forge World looks like in my mind's eye: dusty, gritty, utterly polluted, littered with scrap machinery and junk parts left to rust for eternity. My Dark Eldar would be raiding this Forge World to steal items and technology to sell to other races or to use for themselves, as well as grab a few Tech-Adepts and menials for the torture tables! Therefore, they'd be blowing holes in buildings and assaulting through to nab all the cool stuff. I itemized what I wanted to do, and wrote down how to do it.

1: Dusty/Gritty: The obvious starting point would be gravel/sand glued to the base, what really mattered was the color choice. The sand would be painted GW Vomit Brown and then dry-brushed GW Plague Brown, with a few spots of dry-brushed GW Bleached Bone. I also added stones and boulders buried in the sand, using my old standby of cork glued to the base before the sand. Here's the type of cork I use: Linky-link!

2: Junk: I glue anything to the base that looks even remotely mechanical. My favorite are lock washers because they look like cogs or gears. Plastruct and Evergreen make a variety of useful types of plasticard rod such as I-beams or ladders, and all sizes of round tubing. GW bitz are also super-useful. I've been using the inside gubbinz of Space Marine Drop Pods, (because I don't use them on the inside of the Drop Pods, I just glue the SoB's shut!) because they can be easily cut to look like ubiquitous machine parts. Searchlights, jerry cans, ammo bins, IG stowage, grating cut from SM Razorback hatches, exhaust ports, anything! A $20 box of Cities of Death terrain can supply an entire army's worth of basing material! Just start digging through your bitz bins until you can find something that could be mistaken for machinery. Even just brass rod bent at rounded 90 degree angles can simulate laid wiring.

3: Buildings: Of course I can't construct buildings on bases, but I can hint at them. Remember, the miniature is a little display of another reality plucked and placed onto a base. It's perfectly fine to have just a portion of something showing on a model's base. Once again, I return to Evergreen and Plastruct for plasticard sheets with diamond plate patterns, tile patterns, corrugated sheet patterns and siding patterns. I like Evergreen's 1/4" Tile pattern plasticard because it has a very defined cut, snaps easily into workable pieces, and looks just like a tiled or paneled floor! I add pieces of standard plasticard sheeting to simulate a broken wall, just leave on edge flat to glue to the base where the tile stops, and rag up the other edge with snips or a knife.

4: Pollution: This mostly came down to choice of paint. Having "oil" leaking from pipes or into drainage ditches by layering on green, brown and black washes to flavor. Most of the metal things were painted with splotches of rust, using a progression of GW Bestial Brown, VGC Hot Orange, then VGC Fiery Orange in a stippling pattern.

I suggest gathering your materials before you start your project, and make sure you have enough for the whole army. Take an hour and go to your local hardware store and check out their supply of washers and nuts, something is sure to catch your fancy. If they do window screen repair, ask for some scraps of aluminum screen, it makes great decking and grilles. I bought a piece today from Grieve's that was 12"x 24", it cost me $1.10, and it's more than I'll ever use. Stop by Hobby Lobby or Michael's and just look for doodads. Most of the stuff can be picked up cheap, and it's dead-useful.

So, I'll leave you with some shots of my DE bases, and I'll be back next time with some more basing techniques ,or whatever I damn well feel like!

How To: Snow Basing

Keeping with the hopes of making this site an instructional tool, I've decided to take the camera on a little trip with me as I finished a commission for a customer. These Ogres were painted for one of our better customers, who I will refer to simply as "The Bartender".




For this project, you'll need Elmer's Glue, Snow Flock (I've used Woodland Scenics' snow flock, pictured above), Static Grass, a throwaway brush and a small tray to mix in.




To begin, you'll need some finished models to work with. Have everything painted, based and sealed before you begin the process.




Once you have some models to play with, you'll want to lay out a rough patching of flock on them. Any color flock can work, as long as it fits your models color scheme. Here, I've used Gale Force 9's "Parched Straw" static grass (shown above).




Next, you'll want to mix up your snow. Dump some snow flock and glue into your mixing tray and use the back of your brush to mix the two togeather, adding water as needed. There is no golden ratio to this step, the best way to describe the desired mix is: "Mix to a mashed potato consistency". Your mix should look like this:




Once you have your mix ready, take your brush and start dabbing it on the base of the model. Don't worry about getting the snow mixed in with the static grass; on the contrary, you want it to look like the snow has been caked and matted into the grassy patches. If you're gotten your mix right, you'll notice the snow start to level out on its own once you dab it down (shown below).




After you have your mix dabbed onto the model, you'll want to grab a pinch of your un-mixed snow flock. Sprinkle this over the still wet mix you've just laid down on the model. This will give the snow more texture since, as mentioned above, the mix tends to flatten itself out and become too smooth looking (sprinkled base shown below).




Repeat this process for the rest of your models; dabbing on the mix and then sprinkling them with the snow flock.

Your results should look a little something like this:




I hope this tutorial has given a little confidence to those who need it. Trying a new basing technique on models you've spent hours painting is always daunting.

As with all skills though, practice makes perfect. Get out there and try this on a few test models until you feel confident enough in your ability to turn out consistent results.

It should be noted that you can seal the snow after you've finished the process, but I've gotten varying results on how this affects the grass and the overall look of the snow.

As always, comments and questions are welcome and, indeed, helpfull.

Special thanks to "The Bartender" for the use of his models.