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I was wondering, how do you get that 'rock-face' effect on your bases?

Do you use actual rock or do you model them out of something else?

Thanks in advance for any advice!

i use cork sheets, the kind you post notes on with thumbtacks...
otherwise, i use premade resin bases...
the resin pieces look more realistic than cork, but you can dress the cork a bit with little stones, grass, and debris to distract the eye from seeing the cork...

cheers
jah

Cork is the answer. It's cheap and easy to use. My whole GK at is on cork.

Bark. It's so awesome.

Bark works well too, there's a tutorial somewhere here on Dakka that details how to make fantastic looking hills. You could just miniaturize that to put... on... your miniatures.

It recommends bark.

Cork, certain types of bark mulch, slate fragments, fractured plaster/drywall, ceiling tiles, resin castings...

Would be easier to point you at one you wanted if you were to provide an example of what kind of base you are trying to replicate.

Truth be told, my first squad of 6 Dark Angels had a medium/fine light brown/white gravel base. So it looked like sandy, slightly rocky terrain without painting it any further.

This light brown base looked great with traditional caliban green dark angels + red lining.

For the next 5 Dark Angels, with a similar theme, I'm looking to add in some grey-ish 'rocks' along with the same light brown gravel...

Am I making any sense here?

Thanks for all your responses!

i use cork sheets

This works the best in my opinion. (Although I don't do a TON of rocky bases... )

Thanks!

Chris

dominiquekee wrote:
For the next 5 Dark Angels, with a similar theme, I'm looking to add in some grey-ish 'rocks' along with the same light brown gravel...

Am I making any sense here?

Sure. But there are a bunch of different materials and techniques people use for rocks. It would help if you posted or linked to pics of a model (or multiple models) which have the kind of base you're trying to replicate. When you say "those rocky bases", I presume you've got something specific in mind? Then we could guess or tell for sure what they used/did, and give suggestions or detailed instructions on how to get the same effect.

 Mannahnin wrote:

dominiquekee wrote:
For the next 5 Dark Angels, with a similar theme, I'm looking to add in some grey-ish 'rocks' along with the same light brown gravel...

Am I making any sense here?

Sure. But there are a bunch of different materials and techniques people use for rocks. It would help if you posted or linked to pics of a model (or multiple models) which have the kind of base you're trying to replicate. When you say "those rocky bases", I presume you've got something specific in mind? Then we could guess or tell for sure what they used/did, and give suggestions or detailed instructions on how to get the same effect.

Thanks for the advice mate!

I have something small scale in mind. Let me see if I can find an example to better illustrate what I'm thinking about. Sorry for the ambiguity!

cork, slate, grind up cork, decorative tree bark, grind up walnut shells, broken plaster, greenstuff and resin cast stuff...

got anything specific in mind ?

Or rocks. I picked up a couple of bits of random indoor-grade decorative plant slate for the following:

I used a mix of the thin adhesive-backed cork sheet, and thicker corkboard for these guys:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/328047-Assault%20Marines%20on%20foot%20with%20Sang%20Priest.html?m=2

Pine bark is awesome, easy to dry brush and lighter than actual rocks! I've got a bunch of Easterlings based with it as "slate", worked out nicely.

T-

 anticitizen013 wrote:
Bark works well too, there's a tutorial somewhere here on Dakka that details how to make fantastic looking hills. You could just miniaturize that to put... on... your miniatures. It recommends bark.

I imagine you're talking about Terraformer's (of 3-T Studios) hill tutorial. He uses pine bark chunks (that can be found or bought in large bags from garden centers/home improvement stores for landscaping) to fantastic effect. I've seen nothing that works better for scaled down sedimentary rock, including actual sedimentary rock.

Cork board chunks are a much more commonly used basing material, though (partially due to the ease of resizing/shaping versus pine bark nuggets), so I'd guess that's what the OP was asking about. Pics of an example would really help us narrow it down, though.

I used bark from a tree outside. A tulip tree, I believe... some came down after the storm. But otherwise just grab a nice sharp axe, find a tree with gnarly bark on it, and chop away!

If you're in the UK, chipped ash is going to be pretty widespread soon

for metal models i've actually used shale for the basing. It adds weight so it lowers the center of gravity of the models, and it's actually pretty easy to drill through as well for pinning it all together. Shale's also handy for getting the nifty looking rock outcrop for your commander to angrily be pointing from.

I will admit, it's not perfect for durability of the base's appearance, but it goes a long way for improving the durability of the model standing on top of it and keeping it form getting chipped via falling over.

Can also use bark chips; even cheaper even than the cork if it matters. Like if you were doing a horde like that or something.

For some of mine though I got sort of fancy and used petrified wood.

while we're on the topic of rocks, i always wanted to get one of them fancy colorful flat slices of brightly colored gem that go for around $15CAD and do a warp portal.

I'm hoping to snare off this thread in the hopes someone has seen this done and can send me a link.

 poda_t wrote:
while we're on the topic of rocks, i always wanted to get one of them fancy colorful flat slices of brightly colored gem that go for around $15CAD and do a warp portal.

I'm hoping to snare off this thread in the hopes someone has seen this done and can send me a link.

Google image search for "Crystal webway portal 40k" and you get some examples. There is also a really neat viginette done ages ago of a Tau fire warrior capping a bunch of Dark Eldar warriors as they emerge from a crystal based warp portal, but I can't find it :(

Bark or Cork

Cork is the easyest to use... just cut it in the shape you want, paint it grey (or black), and drybrush with white. Them, wash it with black. It will look perfect.

You can also variate the technic: painting in earth tones and drybrushing with yellow, or painting with yellow and drybrush with white (for desert rocks). Moons can use light grey with white drybrush...

It is pretty easy, and when you lear the way, you will be doying it in bunchs

I'm still not able to get a shot of what I have in my mind, but all your advice so far is really great and will go a long long way to help me decide what to get and what to do!

Honestly, the 'rocks' I'm looking for will not go towards basing my models. I've decided to slowly plan a vignette (is that the right word to use?). Is this too ambitious for a beginner?

ive used bark and it works well but ima go and try the cork idea

bark

check it out

For BIG things (like dioramas), the bark is better.

Cork is a lot more "custumizable", but hardly looks good at bigger sizes

WOW! Meade, that looks amazing!

May I ask how did you get that 'bonsai' on the side? Or..... is it a real bonsai...

Got to find myself some bark right here in backwater Malaysia

dominiquekee wrote:
WOW! Meade, that looks amazing!

May I ask how did you get that 'bonsai' on the side? Or..... is it a real bonsai...

Got to find myself some bark right here in backwater Malaysia

You probably have awesome bark there. You might need to dry it out a bit before you put it on your base though.

The tree is not a real bonsai (that would be insane, it's a 40 mm base!). It's twisted wire, covered with glue from a glue gun, painted thickly, and then glued on some woodland scenics dark clump foliage.

I use wall filler, It doesnt give you that arid cracked look but it would be fairly easy to do a large area with it. I will grab some better pics later but heres a shoddy example http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/431043-Astral%20claws%20wip.html

 Meade wrote:

dominiquekee wrote:
WOW! Meade, that looks amazing!

May I ask how did you get that 'bonsai' on the side? Or..... is it a real bonsai...

Got to find myself some bark right here in backwater Malaysia

You probably have awesome bark there. You might need to dry it out a bit before you put it on your base though.

The tree is not a real bonsai (that would be insane, it's a 40 mm base!). It's twisted wire, covered with glue from a glue gun, painted thickly, and then glued on some woodland scenics dark clump foliage.

Thanks for the advice Meade! Will continue to experiment this!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

spears wrote:
I use wall filler, It doesnt give you that arid cracked look but it would be fairly easy to do a large area with it. I will grab some better pics later but heres a shoddy example http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/431043-Astral%20claws%20wip.html

It's a GREAT example! I'm putting this on my list of experimental projects! Thanks man!