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I have been in the 40k hobby since back in the late days of rogue trader and early 2nd edition. For the majority of that time, I subscribed to the mindset that green flocked bases were the standard. I felt that the battlefield was chosen by the faster army and so, the 'crisp grassy glade' made perfect sense. But, times change and I received enough harassment from my fellow gamers that I finally began to see the light. For the life of me, I have failed to master the simple gravel and static grass basing technique that most use, but I have managed to create a few unique and simple techniques that add a bit of flavor to my armies. Here I will tutorial the 'lost city' bases that I put on my Harlequin Eldar army.

Here is a quick run through of my basing technique. Luckily I needed to make the bases for my recent shining spears, so I will be making 40mm bases in the tutorial. The concept is identical for 25mm and 60mm bases (and fingers crossed valkerie bases when our new codex comes out ) just adjust your cutter accordingly.

In this tutorial I used,
-a circle cutter
-hobby knife (I use one with a retractable, snap-off blade)
-Plastic Cement
-PVA Glue
-Super Glue
-Fine Grade Modeling Ballast
-Matte Varnish
-Flock
-Tiled Plastic Card (mine was 3/16" tiles, by either plastruct or evergreen)
-Citadel paints (Khemri Brown, Dheneb Stone, Space Wolves Grey)

Optional
-Rare earth magnets (mine are 6mm x 1.5mm thick, from K & J Magnetics)
-Elmers Stick-All epoxy glue



Step 1
Set your circle cutter to the radius of your base. Make sure to make it the raduis of the top, not the bottom (i.e. not 40mm). A slightly larger or smaller cirlce can be fixed a bit, but it is easier if your circles are the exact size. Flip your plastic card over (texture down) and start cutting circles out of it. I tend to get 2 - 3 finished bases out of each circle I cut. With the circle cutter it is better to do several light passes with the blade. Pressing to hard will flex the tool and change the radius of your cut.


Step 2
Using your hobby knife, score between the groves of the tiles and break them down into the shapes you want to use on your bases. I keep these shapes fairly simple. Either straight lines or right angles for the undamaged sections. For the damaged sections you can do the same, or use up some of the waste from cutting your original circles (the concave pieces left over on your plastic card sheet). Glue these pieces down with plastic cement. You can then add on a few 'broken' tiles.


Step 3
Depending on what the bases are being used for, I find that a few extra details can add a lot. For the 'lost city' feel I like to use an assortment of extras from the wood elf glade guard box. It comes with several small tree sprouts and rune stones. I like to trim the base off of one or two of the sprouts and build larger branches. Be sure to clip or shave off any of the little wood elf sprites that are hidden in the bits (or maybe not, that's all up to you).


Step 4
After all the ground details are in place, apply super glue along the damaged edges of the tile and dip the base into the modeling ballast. You can also apply ballast to any areas that you want a cleaner transition for the flock (around trees for example). You can also make small hills in the base by gluing ballast to a large open area.

I wanted something a bit more ornate for my seer councils bases. I wanted to add statues, but felt that the bases would get over crowded if I tried to add larger scale models. So I opted to go the other direction with the statues. Caesar Miniatures makes several great lines of 1:72 scale miniatures. I happened to have a set of their fantasy adventurers laying around. I just cut them in half where ever it seemed the 'statue' would be weakest and then roughed up the edges.



Step 5 (optional)
All of my armies are built with magnetic bases for the purpose of transportation. I got tired of delicate weapon arms and spiky bits constantly breaking off, so now all my models are transported upright in large trading card boxes (about 18"x 24"x 5"), standing upright and happy! It also works well for magnetic display boards. Anyway, I was at a stopping point for the night and it was a good time to do this step (which also helps out in the painting process.
Attach a rare earth magnet to the bottom of each base. 1 is usually strong enough for anything on a 40mm base, unless it is the size & weight of an IG ogryn. I prefer to use elmers brand 'stick all'. It tends to wrap around the magnet just enough to hold onto it and isn't expensive.
A few tips.
-Place the magnet touching something upright if possible (i.e. between two pegs on the 40mm or 60mm bases, or alongside the slot on a slotta base.
-Try to get the magnet as centered as possible. If placed on the outer edge of a base, lighter models can occasionally attract or repel each other on the game table. (fun to see, but not good for game play.)
-place your magnet/glue over writing on the base, or if it is blank, score the base a few times with your hobby knife. This give the epoxy a better surface to bond to and you are less likely to 'leave' the magnet in your transport case when you pick up your model.


Step 6
I prime the bases in grey, this tends to keep the paint job a bit lighter and gives the feeling of an untouched city. Base coat the bases in Khemri Brown and allow them to fully dry.


Step 7
Drybrush the bases in Dheneb Stone and then again in Space Wolves Grey. I like to drybrush from the center of the base outwards so that the highlights are on the 'real edges' and not the edges created by the base (no hard line around the exterior of the base).
If you have branches on your bases, I drybrush them as well and then finish with a final highlight of pure white.


Step 8
Go back and hit individual tiles with Space Wolves Grey and Khemri Brown. Not to many, just 2-3 in each color. Keep the paint thin. I find it helps to immediately dab my thumb over tiles that I paint with Khemri Brown (it removes some of the darker color and breaks up the solid pattern).
That's it for painting, be sure to matte seal the bases before the next step.


Step 9
Apply elmers glue to any grassy area as well as the ballast. Dip the base into your chosen flock and knock off the excess. Allow the glue to dry. Your all finished. All that's left is to attach your mini.


That's the basic idea, obviously you can dress it up or dumb it down from there.



Hope this tutorial helps you out.

Nice tutorial, and very nice bases, i have to try this with some of my models.

Thanks! That's really helpful. The tiles look great!

Really good tutorial, really helps your models to stand out. Like you said its different than most people do but thats of course no bad thing. If its ok I think I'll use something similar, probably sub out the branches and vegetation and use rubble instead though.
Thanks for sharing.



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I just saw the shining spears on re-reading the thread, amazing idea, they look outstanding.

Thanks, and feel free to have a hand at the basing (thats what tutorials are all about I guess ). The rubble look would be really great.

Looks neat - nice alternative to the usual supects. I need to start putting more effort into my basing. Gravel looks better than just plastic, but there's so much mor eopportunity.

Fantastic stuff - very helpful and awesome end results!

Looks great, relatively simple. I do enjoy the character it adds to your minis! This is an area I can improve in greatly, and I will put some of this to use.

Thanks for the tut, Fleck. Your bases are great, and now they are my bases too!

Those look great, I'll have to try that. Right now I'm playing with rocks and such, but this is next on my to do list

thanks a lot! I'm definitaly going to use this for my new sm chapter =)

Very nice stuff. You mind taking close ups of the bases with water on them? Those look AMAZING!

Your bases are impressive enough that I bought some plasticard today with the grid pattern in it because seeing it reminded me of this tutorial - even though I don't really have an army to base this way yet.

If it's not to much trouble, could you show how you got your water to look so... watery? it's really well done.

@ Everyone Thanks again for all the compliments. I never thought my simple basing styles would get so much attention. Maybe I'll add in a how-to for my IG Hive City basing technique some time in the future.

@ AffliKtion & CodGod Here are a few more pictures of the bases with water on them. The process is actually way to simple to deserve a write up, but I'll try to make it appear more complex with a picture of the paints I used, I used base of Mordian Blue, then wet blend Mordian Blue, Enchanted Blue, and Space Wolves Grey. Once you've Matte Sealed and flocked your base (or otherwise finished the base) give the water a coat of 'Ardcoat gloss varnish and you're finished! it's really just the combination of blended blues and varnish that gives you the 'Wet' effect. just remember to keep the water darker near the edges and lighter at the center.

THAT is an awesome water effect method - another winning tip from GNF!

Wow, fantastic job! I absolutely love these bases.

very inspiring do you think you could do a tutorial for nurgle basing?

i really like this

Iz naice

Good job. I'm really happy you posted this tutorial, I've been looking for a good way to make tiled bases for a while.