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Hey I am just wondering how do people base their models. Whenever I base it just sucks ass!

You should be over in painting and modelling with this thread, my friend.

For what it's worth, I go for PVA glue and a light covering of flock. Less is more.

Moving to P&M. However, I also recommend perusing the tutorials. They may prove very helpful.


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EDIT: do you mean working on the base or a base coat paiting tutorial. I just relized you could be thinking of two different things.

I cant find any good ones!

I hate basing models especially when I own a over 1000 Infantry models I have to base. I look for shops like Micro Arts Studios and Armor Cast for bases since it saves me time and still look good. Expensive but very worth it.

Ok. But my wallet's a little tight right now. I'm about to move.

If you are referring to finishing off a base with flocking et al then a real simple way

Get course sand from hobby lobby or coarse catbox filler-yep catbox filler

City concept.
Catbox filler
common elmer’s glue
1-2 types of grey paint
1 type of brown
Brush
1. Paint the base a grey.
2. pour some elmer’s glue into a Dixie cup with hot water. Mix with toothpick or such.
3. Use the paint brush to do a quick smear over the base.
4. Dip into the catbox filler. Gently tap off excess.
5. Go eat a sandwich.
6. With brush add some splotches of brown and second grey onto “gravel” once dry.
7. Seal.

From there you can get more elaborate. I like to add little bits of spure etc. on occasion to represent pipes, machinery bricks, etc. I then use a mix of furniture floor finish and black ink and brush on to darken, highlight, and seal.

EDIT: Two much better articles than this by experts
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/240263.page#718457

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/225587.page#720641

I have started to experiment with textured acrylic gel. There are various types, I am using extra rough pumice which is full of small flakes of rock.

I munge the gel onto the base using a lolly stick and a toothpick. Once dried, the gel substrate shrinks considerably leaving the chips of pumice standing proud. These can be painted and drybrushed as rocky terrain, or alien grass as you like.

Acrylic gels can be coloured with paint before application. There are many types available from water effect to the kind of very rough pumice.

Another way to liven up a base is with grass and plants.

Grass can be made from old brush bristles, or you can buy bristles from model railway shops.

Hasslefree Miniatures do a range of photoetched brass foliage for bases.

Stick on the required foliage with PVA glue or epoxy resin or just jam it into whatever other base material you use before it dries.

http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/range.php?range_id=48&subcat_id=23

Sorry, I just skipped every step but 5.
Gimme a bit :(.

Thanks for the tutorial though, I own a lot of cats so the filler won't be hard to come by.

My bases change from mini to mini beacause I don't really game (unfortunatly!). Here's the latest base im working on:

Thats a nice base man. Serious for that

My first use of GW snow scatter, it's not a bad product, but there are better ways to get snow bases, they just require a little more prep work and I'm lazy! lol

Here is a link to a group of articles on The Painting Corps about basing models. The two articles that Fraz linked are in there as well.

Don't use Elmer's glue. It isn't PVA glue, and therefore lasts shorter and is generally weaker. You can get PVA glue at most art supply stores.

I generally don't.

I SHOULD, because just painting them green or even just leaving them in the Chaos Black undercoat looks like I don't bother
But I can't be bothered. Flock's a pain in the ass, and I can't figure out how to brush PVA on without trashing the brush.

Here's a tip: If I'm doing large numbers of models, I glue on my sand mix (PVA then [Beach sand + fine gravel] then a layer of watered-down PVA for security) before I prime them - I get the base undercoated at the same time, and I don't have to worry about getting paint on the mode's feet later on.

Also, If you're going to flock your bases, be sure to paint them green first, or you will still see the black base under your flock.

G'day! I think a simple solid base is critical for the overall appearance of your model. If you spend time painting it, spend time basing it. however, they dont have to be elaborate.

I tend to use sand, throw in either some rocks or old models I dont use any more/spare bits. Here is an example of a base at the part way stage - note this was for a daemon prince, so its got more detail than normal:



On this, I undercoat black, then paint the sand/rocks with Chardon Grey.
I then throw a badab black wash over this, and finally highlight with a drybrush of codex/fortress grey.

It sounds like a lot of work, but its really not too hard.

So far as dealing with your brushes, use an old one thats ruined from drybrushing. Or buy a $2 from a cheap store. PVA is the only way to go.

This is the finished product:


And an example on another DP.

I quite like the GaleForce 9 basing products. They are pretty good value too. You can base a vast quantity of models with a single tub, and they have stuff to represent pretty much every season and every type of enviroment as well.

All you need to do is get some watered down PVA on the base. I use a really old brush which it does not matter if I don't wash out all the PVA after I use it, or a waste strip of card, cut to the same width as a large model brush (so quite a small brush, about 0.5cm wide).

Skorpion wrote:I generally don't.

I SHOULD, because just painting them green or even just leaving them in the Chaos Black undercoat looks like I don't bother
But I can't be bothered. Flock's a pain in the ass, and I can't figure out how to brush PVA on without trashing the brush.

Don't use a brush. If you're doing a base then you don't need to be super accurate anywhere, except for avoiding your (insanely well painted) model. Find a bir of sprue or an ice-lolly (popsicle?) stick. I remember at primary school we used plastic spatula things for mucking about with PVA.

Does any one have a simple tutorial thats cost effective and can be done with modeling grass,P.V.A. and modeling sand?

Step 1: Apply pva to base
Step 2: Dip base into modelling sand
Step 3: tap off excess back into container
Step 4: wait for pva glue to set a bit, then apply some watered down pva to the base to seal the sand
Step 5: paint the base whatever colours you want. Example Snakebite leather as the main coat then drybrush with bubonic brown for a desert like theme
Step 5: add some small blobs of pva to the base and dip in the static grass, shake off any excess back into container, blow on the grass slightly to help erect () it.

voila! quick, simple and effective.

First thing is I am guessing you have sand and flocking.
I do this for sand bases
I have a large dry brush I paint my bases with a thick coat of pva dip it in the sand tap it off move on to the next one I usually do a squad at a time.
Wash the brush in the sink to get all the glue out.
In a old pill bottle I mix one part glue with one part dish soap and one part water.
With the brush paint the thinned glue over the sand let dry.
Then prime the model and .

grimbrandt wrote:Step 1: Apply pva to base
Step 2: Dip base into modelling sand
Step 3: tap off excess back into container
Step 4: wait for pva glue to set a bit, then apply some watered down pva to the base to seal the sand
Step 5: paint the base whatever colours you want. Example Snakebite leather as the main coat then drybrush with bubonic brown for a desert like theme
Step 5: add some small blobs of pva to the base and dip in the static grass, shake off any excess back into container, blow on the grass slightly to help erect () it.

voila! quick, simple and effective.

I would sprinkle the sand/grass on the base, rather than dunk the base... that way you are not going to get loads of PVA in your basing material.

Plus you don't stand any danger of smudging the PVA over places you don't want it to go. And when placing the gras, you have much more control over the look of the grass when you drop the grass on the base than dunking.

And whenever you do static grass, use tweezers as otherwise the grass will stick to your fingers and you will look like you have hairy palms until you go wash them

Hehe I've never had trouble dunkig bases into static grass, I only use small blotches of glue on the base to represent tufts of grass. The glue takes a while to begin to set so the gras is easily movable to get the deisired effect, like I said blowing gently on it helps. As for grass on my hands it's just a matter of brushing them together to get the grass into the container, never had all that much stubbornly stick to me!

I would sprinkle the sand/grass on the base, rather than dunk the base... that way you are not going to get loads of PVA in your basing material.

Plus you don't stand any danger of smudging the PVA over places you don't want it to go. And when placing the gras, you have much more control over the look of the grass when you drop the grass on the base than dunking.

And whenever you do static grass, use tweezers as otherwise the grass will stick to your fingers and you will look like you have hairy palms until you go wash them

deadratman wrote:No that does not work.I have been doing this ever since I started and from the title of this thread you know it didn't go well.

Really? All my based figures were done using that method (some of which can be found in my gallery).

What problems exactly are you having with the grass/sand?

I find it best to apply about twice as much grass as I want to actually stick to the base, press down gently to the top of the pile with the tweezers, leave it for about 30-60 seconds and then gently shake off the excess.

Gives you nice solid clumps of grass. And as has been stated, blowing on the grass removes some more of the loose excess as well as making the grass itself stand up. This tip is also helped if you hold the model upside down whilst blowing on the grass.

I go outside and find some sandstones with alright colours. Then I grind them together for a while. After that I mix up some of it with some PVA and paint it onto the base with an old brush. If I leave it that way it looks like mud when it dries. Most of the time, I do that then sprinkle some more of the sand stone over the base while it's still wet. I did that for my Space Marines army because they were more alligned with ad mech and I wanted to do with a wasteland landscape similar to Mars. The pictures don't show it because of flash and the auto adjusted image, but in real life they look more dry and have a more reddish tone to the bases.

This is what it ended up looking like.


This is what it looks like on the vehicles


Ignore the display thing they're standing on I made that ages ago for a Gundam model, they just take over it when it's time for pictures

I use Corn Meal a lot of the time, and it works very well. You can put it into your base with super glue or PVA glue (elmer's glue is great too).

There are lots of ways to do scenic bases also, but the Corn meal usually figures into those also (You can take a file to corn meal and smooth some parts out- it makes a great ruins effect).

I sculpt my bases with greenstuff. I score the base with my knife. Then i cover the base with greenstuff. Then i put the models foot prints in the greenstuff (so i know where it will be and so it will fit). Make sure the model, tools, and greenstuff are wet at all times. Then i take a metal tool i have that is similar to a tooth pick (smaller tip though, and dont use a toothpick) and poke holes straight up and down. Then i go at an angle to create a variety. Then finally when im done I lift the greenstuff that is falling off the the edge up and onto the base with my wet knife and make it look clean. Then i poke holes where the knife flattened the base. I often put bits into the bases to make them look more interesting. I also frequently put sculpted rocks into them. Here are some examples:

One of my first practice bases:

Gobbos:




My Ork Base:



Giant Cave Squig WIP Base (this one was made to look like a hill):




Hope this is helpful

Walk arround the beach and grab a tub full of sand. Better yet, if you see some construction grab a tub full of construction sand because they have a mix of small and large grains which give better texture. That is how I started my bases in the old days.

And with regards to static Grass, I get a squeeze bottle with a cone nozzle from the local craft store and put the grass in there. Then, I put a small amount of glue on the "grass area" and with the nozzle pointing down, I squeeze. I usually place the model in an empty tub to collect any of the grass that do not make contact with the glue. After the glue is full of grass, I flip the figure upside down and flick the base to shake of excess. Then, I use a brush to "push" horizontally on the sides of the grass arround the outter limits. Do not bush up as that will lift the grass of the glue. Just push. The excess grass in the empty tub gets returned to the squeeze bottle.

Here is an example of my grass on a finished base and figure. (I don't use sand anymore because I can afford to buy flock). You can see that the squeeze bottle also shot some random grass individually standing. I left those alone to add effect.