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So, I've been trying my hand at basing -- just cork, ballast, static grass -- and it seems to be going pretty well except for the grass and ballast. Specifically, what order do I things in? Do I lay down my ballast, and once that's dry, hit it with static grass where I want it? Or do I lay down the grass and then hit the empty spots with ballast after that's dry? And what about long grasses at the edge of my cork rocks... do I put those down before everything, or after everything?

I think the order matters only for the effect you're after. Is the grass growing through the ballast, or has the gravel/debris fallen on the grass? That will define which one goes down first.

For the long grass I would be incoined to put it down last so you don't disturb it with any other actions.

Much like painting, you're going to learn by trial and error. I would try it one way and see if you're happy with the result. If you aren't, you can always try it another way.

Personally, I think that static/tufted grass is almost always best left to last, but there can be exceptions. Granted, I also think that all basing should be painted (unpainted sand, ballast, or natural rocks tend to look "off" or "out of scale," in my opinion, next to painted models), which makes adding grass early problematic. Still, Jimsolo is quite right - there's no replacement for personal experience and experimentation.

This is grass after ballast: (My phone apparently prefers gigantic pics. You've been warned)


I must say, I'm pretty happy with the result.

I glue my sand to my base, wash and drybrush the sand, then add static grass on top of it. If I do any snow effects, that goes on last.