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I want to start a showcase army and I have never based armies before. with Orks should you base first then glue the model down?

Depends on the base. If there's a flat surface you can glue him aferwards. If it isn't you can glue him before (I do it like this whenever I use sand). You could also do it like this - glue the flat side of whatever he is standing on (like a rock) to his feet. Then glue that to the base. Then make sure this doesn't look strange by adding aditional material and make it look natural. You should do it like this for more complicated bases.

Yeah, depends on what basing you'll use - you definitely need to decide that _before_ starting the army.

For a simple sand/gravel-style base, you can glue the sand etc on after painting (using a small brush, to avoid getting glue on the figure). But for more elaborate basing, you may be better off basing first, after carefully marking the area where the feet will go so you can leave it empty.

Is this showcase for fantasy or science fiction? In either case, for orcs, you'll want to go beyond tabletop and add all sorts of orky bling. Skulls, corpses. Snotlings, orclings, and those round head things with teeth come to mind as "pets" that I've often seen on bases. You can also consider partially painting the miniature, fixing it to the base, then painting the miniature and base together as cohesive artwork. Also consider making a pseudo-diorama, where, when you put all the miniatures on their movement tray, you have a mini-diorama with its own scene (eg. a bunch of orcs on a rock outcropping).

Guh. Now I gotta do this with my stupid orcs.