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I've got a set of Warriors of Minas Tirith that I need to base up (And possibly more to come in future), but I've no idea how to get the look I want. I'm used to basing my green Salamanders on a darker ash-desert theme, so when it comes to the reverse - basing dark warriors on a light base, I'm clueless!

My idea is, to have them based on something akin to moorland - a thin blanket of lush green grass overlaying rock formations below. I'd like it as close as possible to this if I can:



The problem is, that I don't have a clue what to get. Which Static Grass? Which flock? What should I use to represent underlying rock/dirt? How should I go about assembling the base?

I'd like something that looks good and isn't too expensive to replicate across the board. If anybody could point me in the right direction, it would be a great help. If possible, post pictures of your own minis (WHFB, 40K, LotR, Historical etc. - I'm looking at the base more than anything else!) should they have a base similar to what I'd like to achieve.

For the dirt I recommend PVAing sand down and then spraying black, dry brush from dark brown upto something like Karak stone to give various shades and textures of dirt. Rocks I used to take a hammer to garden rocks to reduce them to tiny pieces suitable for basing, again spray black, dry brush dark grey to a bonelike colour to textures. All this is done on a matter of pence per base and can be replicated to hearts desire.

For the grass I used GW glade grass which looks like this:

@Melcavuk - Thanks for the input! I usually primer grey, but I suppose brushing on black would work just as well. I may even be able to use the same method as my Salamanders if black dirt is best used under green grass. as for the grass itself, it's perhaps a touch too vibrant for my needs, but at least it's a back-up if I can't find anything else. Maybe a vibrant green would be better to give the model a bit more of a 'pop'.

Pretty straight forward and once you get the hang of it it's easy to make it look great. If you want it to look realistic NEVER just cover the base in static grass. It just looks wrong lol. So definitely glue down some sand flock, making sure to add a few bigger pieces to look like rocks lying in a field. I would then paint it brown, earthshade wash, drybrush brown basecoat, lighter drybrush of a lighter brown. Paint the few larger chunks of flock a different color so they stand out as scattered stones. Once you have that done, apply patches of static grass where necessary. If you're trying to emulate the picture you posted, I'd cover the base about 75 % in static grass, but leave a few random patches of bare ground just to break it up a little.

As for what type of static grass, there are a lot of options. As Melcavuk said, I would also use GW Glade Grass. Perhaps even a patch or two of Midland Tufts, or add a pinch of it mixed into the Glade Grass. Why? Grass is never just a uniform green, so it will help it look natural.

Hope this helps a little! Good luck

@StormBringer328 - Thanks for the help, that's some useful info. I wasn't thinking of quite the density of grass as on the above picture of Hadrian's Wall, more the colour and 'scrubiness'. I was thinking of getting some midland tufts for my Salamanders, so I guess this kills two birds with one stone! Perhaps all I'll need to get is just some flock - pity GW is selling it at quite a steep price for what you get. Anyway, thanks for the input.