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Hi has anyone got general info on making bases look awesome? Any tricks and tips or sites that have cool extras I can add to them?

What do you currently do for bases and what theme are you looking for?

I am currently using resin bases for most of my Sci-Fi & Steampunk stuff, for my historicals and fantasy I use sand and static grass plus various other additions.

If you can give us an idea of what you want it to end up as, you've get a better chance of a decent steer.

The 2 most important things to remember:
1) Glue sand on NEATLY. Don't let it stay on the rim, it looks ugly. Make sure you cover the top surface up to the edge. Once the PVA is dry, water a bit down (about 50-50) and apply that to the dry sand - it'll get drawn in. Let that dry and you'll find the base much easier to paint.

2) Less is more with static grass. Small clumps (3 or 4 dabs of PVA per base) looks better than trying to put grass all over the base. That just looks wrong most of the time.

Thanks guys! I'm doing snow bases at the moment but I think i'm missing the layers and height, its all a bit flat. I've tried using modrock on the latest bases to gain some bumps and craters which is half way done so not too sure if its worked yet.

After making my own bases for years I decided to go with resin basis and weathering kits to make them really pop. It's a bit more expensive usually $10 for 10 small bases but the time and energy it saves plus how they look more than makes up for it in my eyes.

I've had a look at your gallery now and can see what you mean about being a little flat on the chaos marines. I think it´s like winterdyne said above with static grass sometimes less is more and having so much white makes it look very blank. I've only done snow a little bit on my Falklands/ cold war Brits and letting the mud, rocks and grass underneath show through helps to give a less arctic feel. Also the point about making sure no sand is on the base rim is vital. No matter how nice the figure and basing, that sort of thing will always draw the eye in a negative way which is unfair on the nice work you´ve done.

I'm watch what you do with interest as next year I'm doing some winter war figures which will be a lot snowier than I've done before. My Brita follow so you can see what I've done - hope it comes out ok as I'm on a kindle.





Edit - didn't work I'll have to 're- link from a proper pc.

Looking on the bigger screen, I think my snow is much lighter than the effect you are going for on your CSM, but the principle stays - rather than painting the sand white and making everything WHITE AND SNOW, paint your sand as the ground colcour and then apply snow over the top so some of the underneath shows though and you get the idea of the snow lying on top of the ground.

Alternatively, if you are going for a full on ice world look, consider some resin bases like these: http://www.tinyworlds.co.uk/bases/resin-bases/round-lipped-ds-bases/30mm-round-lipped-ice-world-resin-bases

Thanks Richard_UK it is like Winterdyne said less is more I'm experimenting on the base for my Heldrake at the moment and its looking very messy. Quality not quantity, however there are people out there skilled enough to do detailed bases with lots going on and make them look very good its just not me so next lot i'll do will be much simpler.