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So while I was putting together one of my Tau, I decided to have a go at making a base rather different than my norm (sand & grass etc) and I came up with this:

Fairly simple, and basic, but with the added bonus of being really easy to do with readily available materials.

I wasn't sure what i was aiming for when making it, but i eventually ened up with this, later decided to be a muddy, age old trench with boarding.







Opinions?

Hows this? added a bit more variation to the wood and tried to get a dried mud like effect on them.

Nice. Looks good.

See if you can guess what the readily available material was, well, except for the sand of course lol

I'm going to say pieces of sprue, or pop-sickle sticks

Close, match sticks, they're great because they have a grain to them, which after a light priming is easily brought out by washes/drybrushing.

I used: Calthan Brown, Devlan Mud, Dheneb Stone and Badab black, just basically mixing and matching and experimenting

Here's an early look at my wet mud, though it isn't dry yet, so it will shrink a little bit still.

RayvenQ wrote:So while I was putting together one of my Tau, I decided to have a go at making a base rather different than my norm (sand & grass etc) and I came up with this:

Fairly simple, and basic, but with the added bonus of being really easy to do with readily available materials.

I wasn't sure what i was aiming for when making it, but i eventually ened up with this, later decided to be a muddy, age old trench with boarding.







Opinions?

Hows this? added a bit more variation to the wood and tried to get a dried mud like effect on them.

Wow i like it, Simple yet elegant

The matchsticks have come out really well - I could see them working well as railway sleepers too. Would there be any issues with the overhanging bits interfering with BtB placing for assaults and the like?

Necroagogo wrote:The matchsticks have come out really well - I could see them working well as railway sleepers too. Would there be any issues with the overhanging bits interfering with BtB placing for assaults and the like?

There's easily enough base still showing for it not to be an issue. Really liking the dried mud one, not so much the wet mud. Look forward to seeing some more

Very nice outcome

cool idea, always love selfmade bases the most.

wooden bits are always a friend to the scratchbuilder as for their own texture...

good work, show us more^^^

vic

I like it. But you should consider painting the wood a lighter color to make the bases 'pop'. Are you going to make resin castings? This simple base would work well for a do-it-yourself.

Yeah I'll probably do a lighter wood next time. Not gonna bother casting, as it's easier and cheaper to just make them instead of casting them, it also means i can vary the look very easily.

I'll possibly to larger bases too when the need comes, and I'd got an idea forming for a display base which will involve me pretty much building a trench system.

RayvenQ wrote:...display base which will involve me pretty much building a trench system.

That would look amazing. Keep us posted!

I got the picture frame (20" x 16 )that will serve as the base, didnt manage to get filler/spackle though, but i need cardboard to build it up a bit . I'm stuck on the design though, heres a couple that I've tried

Idea 1 - One trench, with a communication trench going backwards and a big no mans land (either wide or long i dunno)

Idea 2 - Two trenches with a small no mans land between them, one of the trenches (or maybe both) with a communication trench.

Trenches will be 3cm deep, with the veritcal posts between the boards being 4cm (slightly too tall for infantry models to fire over standing in the trench, except for the space marine missle launcher guy, but I'll probably build fire steps for them to use)

Trenches will be 4cm wide with a 2cm firing step.

You'll notice i use 4cm a lot, thats because thats the length of the matchsticks and it saves me from having to cut hundreds to make the duckboards and its wide enough to fit models into.

Here's a wip of my gun drone base, still in need of a few washes/drybrushes. I've managed to get the wood to stand out more, but I cant make it pop too much without it looking out of place