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What can I use to make sandy bases. I want to base my 1k Sons like they are in a desert. Ideas? I dont care if it's putty, actual sand, dust, GW or not.

Guess it depends on what type of desert you are after.
You can just go plain gw sand whit a desert colour, or you have to use putty if you want to make dunes or dry cracked desert suface.

what i do know for shure is that if you want to be lazy and has $$ leftover you can buy sculpted resin bases.

http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=79_30_42
http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=79_30_43
http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=79_30_44

The only problem I have with sculpted resin bases is two fold. First, my models are already on their blank bases. And second, the models never fit on the bases very well like their entire foot wouldn't sit right on a dune or something.

I want to do a base similar to their homeworld. Or maybe I should shoot for planet of sorcerers?

Sand and cat litter mix (remember to seal it with thinned PVA before painting). Paint a medium beige / light brown. Drybrush very light beige.

Then add Beige tufts:


Or add a sparse amount of tiny pieces of dark green clump foliage and a little GW dead grass:


You can use brown, sepia and flesh washes to give the ground some variety before drybrushing:

I use a mix of sand on my desert bases.

I have a selection of small rocks and grit, as well.

Step 1 : - paint base a lighter color (it helps).
Step 2: Mix glue, a bit of paint, and water
Step 3: apply to base
Step 4: add a few small rocks with tweezers
Step 5: Sprinkle on "play sand" heavy sand mix
Step 6: Sprinkle thin sand mix, for any missed sections.

if your desert has foliage, can also add.

On bases bigger than 40mm, add some hills or terrain diversity first with clay or putty, etc. so its not just a flat base.

I'll add my two cents, since I'm having the same issues with some space wolves units I bought second hand.

So what I did was buy some corkboard(super cheap), cover it with some green stuff and than roll over with with greenstuffs textured rolling pins:
http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/textured-rolling-pins/367-rolling-pin-egyptian.html

You can than break up the corkboard after it dries, and now you have little chunks of ruins you can throw around the bases.

For the bigger bases you can use some more scenic bits like this:
http://www.greenstuffworld.com/en/scenery-accessories/607-egyptian-ruins-resin-set.html?search_query=egyptian&results=2

Vallejo also puts out a kind of sand putty, and I found it worked really well.

This may help:

https://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Warpig1815%27s_Desert_Bases

I wrote it out a while back after I couldn't find anything suitable on the internet. It's a really easy process and fairly customisable depending on what static grass or other foliage you'd like. Anyway, hope it helps.