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First I would like to say that by no means is this my original idea. I adapted (stole) this idea for use on bases.

This was my inspiration.
http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/2011/06/earth-dry-soil-effect.html

Here is my adaption of it. I'ts a quicker not as good looking version of the link above.

Urban Version


Wasteland Version


The whole process took about 1/2 an hour and most of that was waiting for the PVA to Dry and the Milliput to stiffen.
I cooked it under a desk lamp to quicken drying times. I learnt that to do that when I almost burnt my ear off.

Materials
- Egg shell (boiled or not although boiled is probably better)
Clean the egg and then let the egg dry out before you use it. REMOVE EGG SKIN
- Your base (but you already knew that).
- Milliput Silver Grey is what I use although any other type of putty or kneadatite will work.
- Super Glue
- PVA/White Glue
- Water
- Paints
- Sculpting tool or other small blunt object.

Method

Step 1
Mix up some Milliput (or whatever else you used) and spread a thin, even layer on your base.



Step 2
Remove the egg skin from the egg. Break it into big flatish pieces.



Step 3
Super glue the big pieces to roughly fit the base.
It's not pictured but you also need to fill in the gaps as best as you can with smaller pieces.
Let it dry before the next step.



Step 4
Now get your sculpting tool and smash the shells to create the texture. The more you smash the more broken and rugged the base will look.
I stopped at this point.



Step 5
Seal it by painting it with a layer of watered down PVA. Wait for it to dry.



Now for the Painting Part
This is how I painted mine.

Prime Black



Drybrush Vallejo Charred Brown (Scorched Brown)



Drybrush Vallejo Earth (Graveyard Earth).



Drybrush lightly Desert Yellow.



Heavy drybrush Bleached Bone.



Watered down wash of a 1:1 mix Devlan Mud and Badab Black.



Done.

Give it a varnish coat if you're worried about it smelling like egg.
Although I think the PVA, Priming and painting have already killed the bad smell.
I did it anyway just to be safe.


For an Urban Version which to me looks like a broken Road;
I smashed the eggshells less for this one to achieve a different effect.
1st prime Black
2nd Drybrush Codex Grey
3rd Overbrush 1:1 Codex grey Chaos black
4th Drybrush Fortress grey
5th Wash Badab Black



Hope you people find this useful.

Not bad! Thanks for sharing

Wow, never would have thought of that.

Thanks for the comments everyone. I've added an Urban looking version which I think looks much better it gives a great broken road effect.

Flying Pooo wrote:Thanks for the comments everyone. I've added an Urban looking version which I think looks much better it gives a great broken road effect.

I have got to try this!

Still looks awesome.

Will the shell rot, degrade, or melt?

Probably not, it is calciun+nitrogenium, his degradation is made by microbionts, with so much glues, paints, and varnishs around it will last a lot of time...

thanks for the ideia

Chowderhead wrote:Will the shell rot, degrade, or melt?

Not I'm 100% sure on that.
Though my bases are sealed with the combination of PVA, Primer, paints and some matte varnish.
If it does rot or degrade it would take a very, very, very time.
The thing that would be more likely to rot would be the egg skin. That's why I took it out.
You are left with the durable hard shell which probably wouldn't rot or degrade much on its own but with the primer, PVA and the varnish I'm fairly certain it wont.
Egg shells are also very strong I doubt they would melt.

EDIT;
With a bit of google fu. I found some contradicting answers to this question.
Although the most reliable sources all seemed to say they last a long time. They also said that it's the egg skin that rots and if you take that away, the shell will last a long time.
I also found out that if you dry out the egg first it will last longer. I did this with my egg but did not put it as a step. I'm going to solve that problem.
Also Ostrich eggs last centuries don't they? My great grandpa hollowed one out and painted it when he was a boy and my grandma still displays it at her house.

The Dwarf Wolf wrote:Probably not, it is calciun+nitrogenium, his degradation is made by microbionts, with so much glues, paints, and varnishs around it will last a lot of time...

thanks for the ideia

Beat me to it!

This is a great idea, I'm looking for ideas for my urban bases, I'll have to give this a try.

These are awesome, I'll be using them in conjunction with other stuff on my next army.

Great idea!

Nice adaptaion of someones idea.

Wicked cool. Gonna do this for my Chaos Battleforce marines.

Groovy work! I dig it.

AWESOME! Thanks you have changed the way i base forever!

Very nice!

Chowderhead wrote:Will the shell rot, degrade, or melt?

The first two: yes. It will also be forever breaking and chipping.

DarknessEternal wrote:

Chowderhead wrote:Will the shell rot, degrade, or melt?

The first two: yes. It will also be forever breaking and chipping.

This is what worries me. With enough glue, paint, and varnish the egg shells will still deteriorate? I don't wanna do this and then have to scrape it all off in a year haha

Does anyone know how long it will actually last if you do it right (clean the shells, let them dry, and seal them)

Couldn't one get pretty much the same effect with Plastic sheeting?

Take the light covers from ceiling light boxes and smash it with a hammer. I have used this to make Ice for an ice flow river. It could be glued and painted as described here also and it isn't going to rot/degrade.

felixander wrote:

DarknessEternal wrote:

Chowderhead wrote:Will the shell rot, degrade, or melt?

The first two: yes. It will also be forever breaking and chipping.

This is what worries me. With enough glue, paint, and varnish the egg shells will still deteriorate? I don't wanna do this and then have to scrape it all off in a year haha

Does anyone know how long it will actually last if you do it right (clean the shells, let them dry, and seal them)

Well mine still look the same as the day I made them (No chipping or degrading).... so I can say for certain they last at least 5 months... But in the long run I'm not absolutely sure.
The thing that rots the fastest is the egg skin once that is removed the shell itself is mush slower to rot. But how long it takes to rot I don't know.
But I'm assuming it will be at least 10 years. Eggshells are made of a really tough protein or something (I googled it last time can't be bothered now).
I think you could spray it with some kind of sealer like varnish to make it last longer. I've done this on some terrain pieces where I've used this eggshell method.

I can see this idea being extended to larger ideas.

One thing that immediately comes to mind for me are small impact craters. (The kind that aren't big holes, but are instead "dents" in the pavement).

Torn up pavement on roads, caused by heavy tank treads.

etc.

DarknessEternal wrote:

Chowderhead wrote:Will the shell rot, degrade, or melt?

The first two: yes. It will also be forever breaking and chipping.

uh ya, just like the paint on the model itself and it's not like the usual PVA + sand combo is indestructible.
these bases would be no more vulnerable than any other part of a finished mini.

i dont really like the wasteland one but the cracked road one is looking mint. great work.
this looks like a CHEAP and FAST way to do bases to a high standard.