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II'm sure this is a question that has been asked a hundred times before, but how do some people create elevated bases for their models? Ie, creating a large mass of rubble or other terrain effects to add some height to a model? I've heard some people use green stuff and/or tree bark, and paint it as rocks. Are there any other methods?

Cork seems to be a popular option. I have used it myself and is easy to use.

Necrotales has some good basing and terrain tutorials - not sure if he has elevated bases, but plenty of techniques you can use for any bases.

Just remember: in the 80's people thought big hair and shoulder pads in sweaters was cool.

elevated basing is sometimes most effective and tasty when used sparingly and not overdone.

I think in recent years it has become sort of gimmicky and too often OTT.

Corkboard (which can be picked up at nearly any craft store) is cheap, easy to paint -especially for beginners like myself-, and i think it looks pretty cool. Prime it followed by a few small highlighting effects and bam, instant base.

I like doing each set of bases on a theme, but I try to keep the added height below 2mm, save for the odd character/scenic base.

My current set is designed around the force fighting in a ruined temple, so the major component is 0.8mm plasticard; I score a grid pattern into the sheet of card so that, when snapped, the result is lots of 1cm x 1.1cm squares. I then file the edges of each square to an angle of roughly 45 degrees, and weather them with chips and worn depressions by carving them with my hobby scalpel. These are then stuck to each base to mimic flagstone flooring, and each is detailed individually(split/shattered flagstones, small explosion craters, occasionally some ribbed tubing or broken pipe emerging from the ground and so forth).

It's labour-intensive, but I enjoy it, it's another way to make each model into its own character.

Here's an example(forgive the butchered legs I've yet to perfect the sculpted stage of artscale marines, and bear in mind that these are designed with the new textured basing paints in mind) of some almost-finished ones including a FW resin piece on the Sergeant's 40mm;

I just buy my bases ready made these days. The results are just as good as I could make, and the time and effort saved is well worth it IMO.

I use http://www.back2base-ix.com/

CT GAMER wrote:Just remember: in the 80's people thought big hair and shoulder pads in sweaters was cool.

elevated basing is sometimes most effective and tasty when used sparingly and not overdone.

I think in recent years it has become sort of gimmicky and too often OTT.

Well, I only intend to do it for one of my current HQ models-- namely a Lhamaean which I am using as an Archon. I've found that, while the Lhamaean is a wonderfully nice model, she doesn't have the same stature as the current and old Archon models, which is noticeable when I put her with an Incubi bodyguard. I figured that maybe giving her a bit of rubble to stand on might help with that, although I've been debating possibly keeping her as she is.

For those floor tiled bases, instead of making a new one for every mini. I would make maybe 5-10 different ones, and then do a green stuff flat mold of the top, and duplicate the tile texture you have created to be glued ontop of another base you could then stress and damage them to be different too