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It's time to start a massive basing project (80+ figures for the first round, plus another 40+ if I like the outcome) and I want to set myself up for fast, productive workflow, maybe doing models in groups of 20 in just a few steps each. My theme is sort of aged urban devastation... a cityscape laid to ruin in a battle months or years earlier, so crumbling pavement, gravel, and sand, rusting sheet metal and wire, pools of filthy water, shattered masonry, dead leaves and paper trash, tufts of hardy brown grasses and weeds pushing up despite the toxic residue, all in shades of soot, ash, rust, and dust.

I know I'll need sand and gravel, but I'm not sure what scale/grit/grain... PVA glue is on the list, but should I try to tint it with paint or dye? Will I need tons of paint or wash to ink and drybrush the texture, or can I get the materials themselves to bring most of the color? I also need props... I have saved lots of scrap plasticard and sprue, but I need static grass, little glue-on tufts, barbed wire, maybe other neat bits if it can be done cheaply.

Any guidance on what I need and how much of it, and most importantly, who to go through for good selection and cheap, fast service? Thanks!

Here's a great example of "the look" I'm after:
http://www.spikeybits.com/2016/04/fallout-40k-new-california-republic-admech-army.html

If you are just trying to copy that, then its probably.

sand
small rocks
cork
Crackle paint in dirt brown or GW stuff.
and i think Gale force flock. they have the more neutral beige static grass
also spray primer in base dirt color because painting sand suuuuuucks
a brown wash
and some pigment powder (i prefer raw selinea or however that one is spelt)
spray varnish.

glue cork down with pva.
glue sand down where you want it but not on the whole thing (leave spaces for the crackle paint if you want it to look like dry desert.
add smaller rocks where you want the details
add plastic detail bits however you want it.
spray dirt primer color over all of it

repaint cork into wall color or brick or whaver you are trying to represent.
paint the plastic to what you want it
put the crackle paint where you didnt put sand
wash the whole thing.
let it dry
add pigment powder to make it look dusty
set it in with iso alcohol.
once all dry, spray varnish.
use pva glue drops and add flock

as for direct color. you are going to have to eye ball it.

its probably best to pick out the colors you like.

Sweet, thanks for the step-by-step. I'll have to tweak it a bit as this is an all-metal army, so the figs are already mounted on slottabases. I'll have to avoid stuff that needs spray fixers OR remount the whole army. Any idea if that's a terrible notion? Would a metal model, especially with small feet, just rip off the base at first drop? Definitely stoked to play with the crackle paint if I can manage it!

You dont have to remove the model if you dont want to.

just dont glue the cork near the feet and dont glue sand near it too. paint around it with the crackle paint instead since it would be tinner. just dont forget to fill any gaps.

This stuff is good for a basing material and is really cheap. I usually buy a couple of other materials, like basing grit and black sand and mix it all together.

This stuff comes in a huge bag for a really good price.

Anything from railroad modeling kits will be great, cut up sprues make excellent debris and twisted metal, aquarium rocks you can pounds of for cheap at the Dollar Tree.

If you don't mind the work, a cut up soda can is also good for urban wreckage or with a little work a can be can made to look like a water tower.

There's a ton of stuff you can do. Hell if you have a gravel driveway, so to the end of the driveway and all the ultra fine crushed stuff gets washed down there, collect that too.