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I'm trying to decide what flocking/texture to use for the bases of this honour guard for my counts as Severin Loth. I want to do rock or sand, I'd rather not do anything other than just glue stuff down. Does GW have some small pepples you that you guys would recommend? How is their "sand"?

Also, what glue should I use? Super glue for flocking or something else?

Thanks in advance

Use playpit sand and cat litter. Both come in big sacks and are way way cheaper than GW stuff.

Apply by brushing neat PVA onto the top of the base, pouring over the sand / litter mix. Tap off excess and ensure the rim is clean. Allow to dry then water down some PVA and touch that onto the sand and cat litter(it'll 'flood' in) and help seal it on, otherwise when you drybrush it'll tend to come off.

Once done, paint this (your 'earth') in whatever colour you want (usually brown, drybrushed with some sort of light tan / buff). Then apply small dabs of PVA to apply static grass (or use tufts). Do not fall into the trap of attempting to static grass the whole thing, it looks awful. When basecoating, use THIN PAINT, and keep the brush away from feet. The paint will flood into the sand texture and spread naturally to close the gap. Several coats (allow each to dry) is better than having to touch up the actual model's paintwork.

Similarly, just gluing stuff down usually looks wrong. It's not a bad paintjob from what I see, don't shirk on the basing, you'll be glad you didn't.

winterdyne wrote:
Use playpit sand and cat litter. Both come in big sacks and are way way cheaper than GW stuff.

Apply by brushing neat PVA onto the top of the base, pouring over the sand / litter mix. Tap off excess and ensure the rim is clean. Allow to dry then water down some PVA and touch that onto the sand and cat litter(it'll 'flood' in) and help seal it on, otherwise when you drybrush it'll tend to come off.

Once done, paint this (your 'earth') in whatever colour you want (usually brown, drybrushed with some sort of light tan / buff). Then apply small dabs of PVA to apply static grass (or use tufts). Do not fall into the trap of attempting to static grass the whole thing, it looks awful. When basecoating, use THIN PAINT, and keep the brush away from feet. The paint will flood into the sand texture and spread naturally to close the gap. Several coats (allow each to dry) is better than having to touch up the actual model's paintwork.

Similarly, just gluing stuff down usually looks wrong. It's not a bad paintjob from what I see, don't shirk on the basing, you'll be glad you didn't.

Wow, thanks Winterdyne... sounds like a plan. I think I'll just follow your advice step for step (I have cats, so I've already got my supplies).

I find 'fullers earth' type cat litter to be the best (both as litter and scenic material). Grey clay lumps. Just remember to put the thin PVA on it, or you'll find it absorbing your paint too much and disintegrating.

I wont be able to offer any better advice than Winterdyne. He's the guy to listen to. I just want to mention how good your squad looks. Lots of Anil in there, I like it. I've been using some of that stuff myself recently. But yeh, great looking squad.

 alanmckenzie wrote:
I wont be able to offer any better advice than Winterdyne. He's the guy to listen to. I just want to mention how good your squad looks. Lots of Anil in there, I like it. I've been using some of that stuff myself recently. But yeh, great looking squad.

Yeah, I really like the Anvil stuff too. I wanted the Honour Guard squad to have a variety of armor, yet not look like it was left overs and such... Anvil really gave me those options, plus looking Roman is great for Ultras anyway.