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Hello I am about to embark on a new renegades army and wanted to go with an urban/fortification theme however I am not sure how to go about this with regular gw bases. I have been looking at the sand and paint grey technique as well as the astrogranite texture paint but it looks too rough to me to be a concrete emplacement or hive city street. considering I have never based before anybody have any experience with easy methods of making realistic looking urban bases?

which bases do you have, new or old???
the older 25mm bases were flat, but the new ones have a damn dimple it the middle...
the old ones, with the slight texture that GW base tops have, are perfect to just drybrush with greys to look like concrete...
then you just paint some yellow or white lines, like in a street, and maybe add a couple piles of rubble here and there...
a few lost bits of gear...
if you are feeling adventurous, you can add some cut-down sprue to look like a curb...

you could do the same with the new ones, except you need to come up with some creative ways to cover the dimple in the middle without it looking the same on each mini...
some can be filled with Liquid Green Stuff, which dries with a rough texture that matches the base's...
some you can leave, and paint scorched like a mortar or grenade hit...
some you can cover with a bit of rubble, or loose kit...

the possibilities are endless, but most people don't seem to realize that that slight texture on the top of the base is already perfect for the look of concrete sidewalks or asphalt streets...
it just needs a little drybrush and some detailing to really jump out...

good luck...

cheers
jah

use plain cork placemats. rip chunks outta them, stick copper wire out of them for rebar and add sand and small stones. voila. compliment with bent sprue, and mesh. i use the mesh from an old ipod speaker. its like a sheet of thin metal with diagonal holes punched in..but you can use anything for urban decay!. paint grey, wash black, drybrush light grey, and add rust. simples.

You can see it here on a SM my mrs painted

I mix up ripped up cork, sand, gravel, mesh, pva, and a bit of water into a paste. It gives the base a nice, gritty feel that when painted with greys looks like rubble and concrete.

Urban warfare is often very dirty, just google images of Stalingrad for example. I think going for a clean concrete look wouldn't fit the aesthetic.

Hive city?

Under or over?

Would probably be a LOT of concrete and steel ether way.

and it definitely depends on what level of fighting.

how bombed out or just light street skirmishes?

super cheap for broken concrete would be cork.
or you could do baked polymer clay in slabs then snap them into chucks for realistic breaks.

I just saw something with non adhesive backed linoleum tile but i have no idea how it reacts with paints and plastics.

You can use those needle work art mesh things from like knitting stores for grating and use bent plastic card or tank bits for metal sheeting n stuff. n cables for cables

I do a couple of things myself. You can sculpt cobblesones pretty easily with green stuff (time consuming but very personal), use floor sections from GW buildings, (pricey) or use grid imprinted sheet plastic by plastruct. You can see all three methods in my gallery.
(sorry but i cant seem to attach them to my post just now!)

Using the standard GW base sounds good; maybe with some small rocks as cement debris, what colours would you guys use for emplacement cement? a bright grey or white? which is the better wash for terrain; badab black or a more brownish hue.

boring! faces and bases are what make the models pal. its one of the first things i look at on a miniature.

odinsgrandson just put up a mini doing exactly what i was suggesting, style-wise...
i like the urban street look...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/613579.page

i hope that will give you an idea of where to start..

cheers
jah