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I wanna make some special bases for my skinks and have it look like they're standing in water up to their ankles or so. So.. how? I've seen some clear resin kind of stuff used before and I'm guessing I'd use that, but how can I get a 20mm square? I was thinking I would paint the whole model, glue it to the base and have some kind of container that I would pour the resin in so you can see the "submerged" feet. how could I pull something like that off?

anyone happen to have any pics of something like that?

Go to your local hobby lobby, buy something called water effects. It's a glue like substance that dries clear, and you can make ripples and waves with it. place that around your painted skinks feets and you should be good.

I saw that, I was afraid it would end up oozing over the edge of the base and look dumb :( maybe I'll give it a try then.. it's from woodland scenics right?

if you want skinks up to thier ankles:

Remove the skinks feet, glue him back to the base.
use masking tape around the base to stop it running over, then pour a little bit in.

will the masking tape hold it in well enough?

I posted in WIP too, a guy there said to just use the non-slotta bases and turn it upside down, then I'll have a little "pool" to pour it into.. all of the bases would be upside down but that might work.

ive used it a few times, duck tape would work better though.

sounds like a good idea, only problem though is that the bases are slanted, they would look odd up-side-down.

I'm thinking along the lines of ice cube trays????

Create a plasticard grid the same surface area as the top of the base. tip in basing material, add skink, add resin, pray, bash on kitchen counter or pull grid apart, polish edges of ice cube then attach to base????

This is my best guess, have an experiment and post some pics.
Good luck you'll need it!

So, I had this new idea. What if I cut out the top part of a square base, so it's just a hollow square frame with the angled corners. Then on the bottom I'll glue on a thin square of plasticard, and then I'll have a "pool" for the model to stand in. But instead of doing that to 80+ bases I'll just do a few and then cast them in resin and make a whole bunch.. then I'll have my plain square bases with a little pool in em.. and I can then paint the bases to look like water on the bottom of the pool part, glue the model's feet inside and add some tall grass or little rocks and then squirt in the water effects into the little pool to finish the job.

Think that would do it? or would it be a crazy amt of work and I'll hate doing it?

I thought of that when I first noticed your thread. It might be a fair amount of work but it'll be worth it.

Try it out first though, im thinking the sides of the base might cast too much shadow making the effect hardly visable.

The Water Effects I have is a really thick material, that wouldn't work well with an "ice cube tray" method. It's meant to be sculpted after application. I think there's a different product that's thinner and would settle down into it better, but I'm not sure what that one's called off hand.

may i suggest using PVA glue (thats what its called in UK, not sure of US name) instead of water effects, works exactly the same and produces same quality results but is about 1/4 of the cost. It does take slightly longer to dry tho

yeah,
Have you thought about making see-thru slotta bases?

Fill a slotta base with filler/GS so you have a solid shape

make a mold of a slotta base(s) 'open topped' with the surface of the base level with the surface of the mold
Easiest way to do this is to put the slotta base(s) face down in a container and fill with silicone rubber when dry pull the mold from the container and remove the slotta base(s)
Now with the mold the other way up you have slotta base shaped holes to put the models into...

Remove the tab from the skinks feet... If you want textured surface under water, base him on a small piece of square card and put that in the mold.

Put the skink with his feet (and or card) touching the bottom of the base mold.

Pour in the clear resin (water efects is good enough).

______.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.________
_____ /.,,.,..,LJ.,.,,LJ.,,,..,\ ______
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when done you should have a clear base with the skink submerged 2 or 3mm ina a clear legal size base...

THis would be time consumming so I'd recommend making several molds to speed things up...

PAnic...

edit :added a crappy diagram to show what i mean... ish...

I'm curious about this too. I've done some water effects on my Deathwing, but I built the edges up with a resin-ish material then poured the "water" in. This has worked great so far. Now I'm doing a base on my Dreadnaught though and want water that goes to the edge of the base without the resin build up as a barrier. I've been meaning to try the masking tape approach and post my results, but I keep forgetting

The resin-type stuff is put out by Vallejo and comes in a small tub. I wish I could remember the name of it... It's great though and dries with a gritty feel as if you'd used the PVA+sand technique for basing. Like I said, I've used it create a small barrier around the base and then poured the water effects into it. Everything's come out great so far!

Do you have any pics of your bases Zamboni?

I like your idea too Panic.. I was thinking of trying something like that. If I try the pool idea I had I would use a clear resin for everything.. maybe if it's all clear I could paint some blues and greens on the bottom side of the base for a watery color, but keep the resin clear.

I got the idea for the pool from brush thralls here:
http://www.brushthralls.com/basing/water-bases.html

He did it to just 1 base for a special model so I figured to do a whole army like that I'd need to cast them myself maybe I'd make a mold with like 6 of em in it.. then for the special stuff like a steadon I'd just carve out the 1 base as needed

yeah,
yeah that way looks like the skinks are walking through some wet ruin puddles.
I'd give my way a go... if you want the unit to look like they are in a pond

I'd pva glue 10 (filled in) bases down face first in a shallow tray (dvd case)...
Use medium hardness silicone rubber.

that way I'd when i'm using the mold i'm basing 10 skinks a night...

Panic...

I may give it a try, seems like it would work good. I'l probably have a good 10 or 12 bases in the mold so it won't take forever to do them all... I can fit a lot of skinks in 1000 pts

I really love the way the brush thralls ones came out but I think that would only look good on larger bases.