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Hey all,

I'm currently building some terrain and wondering if I could get any tips for basing the terrain with sand/gravel?

Whats the best way to do it?

-Do you water down some pva and then sprinkle the sand on it? Or mix the sand with the pva and spread that on?

Glue down a few pebbles ..water down PVA and dip it in sand then ..after it dries ..coat with watered down PVA again..
BAse coat, dry brush a couple layers ..add flocking and tufts as needed..
Note this is over simplified their are dozens of tutorials on this sight on how to do this...

I paint pure PVA onto the base, then sprinkle with sand. I shake off the excess and let it dry. When it's dry, I mix PVA with water (about 50/50) and gently paint it over the sand.

I also do the above. It's the Right Way (tm).

I used to just PVA then prime heavily, but this can still sometimes flake off. The thin PVA coat really does run into the gaps between sand, and get absorbed into the cat litter I use as grit locking it all into place nicely.

I'm about to try the DIY texture paste method below with sand mixed in for added texture. I'll also swap the white paint out for black. The materials have been bought, but it will be sometime in the next week or two before I have the time to try it. You can buy texture paste at craft stores (or get the Vallejo stuff that's made specifically for modelling). While the premade stuff is great, the cost is just too high for anything larger than bases or objective markers. I also prefer texture paste over pure PVA glue because PVA shrinks as it dries and has a tendency to warp terrain.

Water and PVA mix can be a poor idea with allot of base materials (Card/MDF) as it will induce warping in the board.

Better a coat of PVA to seal the board prior to further finishes. Better that it warps before you detail it too much. Been there, not great.

Then my preferred mix is a paste of PVA, Tile Grout and Paint. I'll throw some sand in there too depending on scale/desired finish/type of terrain.

Then wash + Dark Drybrush + Light Drybrush + Flock.

Card sucks as a base material. 3mm MDF is cheap and warps a lot less. For larger pieces I use 5mm MDF.

I use allot of mounting board for <10mm scale terrain basing, so it has its uses.

winterdyne wrote:
Card sucks as a base material. 3mm MDF is cheap and warps a lot less. For larger pieces I use 5mm MDF.

Totally agree, I need to rebase all my cities terrain that I put on, now warped, card. MDF will work great, just make sure you paint BOTH sides and let dry before you mount to the terrain and it shouldn't warp at all.

I'll either put it on fibreboard, or a piece of MDF, or craft plywood (bass wood usually, if I have some available). The latter can get quite expensive especially for large items, but works really really well too - I just tend to keep it for smaller stuff and or get it on sale.

How I base just depends on materials and what I'm doing.

I have a jar of home made texture paint - pva, water, paint and 'stuff' - whatever I have to hand, with sand and a variety of rocks.

I also use Vallejo's texture paints, which are quite good, but again more for small items (I tend to use it on bases)

Anyway as mentioned there are a lot of really good tutorials on basing and methods. I'd suggest you check out youtube: TerrainTutor first as well as EonsOfBattle, Luke Towan (model railroading) also does a lot of good stuff easily transferrable for our uses.