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Sorry for the alliteration, but I'm trying to figure out how to make my bases not suck. I've got some sand with little pebbles in it that I've been gluing to my bases with white glue, but when I try to paint it it looks like complete gak. The sand actually looks better unpainted, and while I can do that for some of my figures (da boyz and da grotz), the balloon corps kinda needs the base-sand applied before I attach the bloon-grotz since the rope sort of drapes on top of the ground. That means I've got to paint them, which means I've got to paint them ALL.

I tried painting a medium brown, washing with some strong-tone, and drybrushing with a light brown but I'm really not satisfied with the result. Any hints, tips, pointers?

thanks!

Try picking up some citadel texture paints. They are far easier to apply and look far better than other materials, and love a dry brush on them.

They cost a lot, but they go a long way. And they look awesome.

Alternatively warlord game basing renders are very nice.

consistent sand color mixed with glue water and grit.

Mix the pot up enough to get the amount of grit you want on the base.

dry brush to finish it up.

I can see if you might want to paint the sand, but I usually leave it natural and use a complimentary paint color and mix some white glue into it. Paint the base and drop the sand/pebbles. Sticks great and you can even drop in some tufts of grass or larger stones.

if you do need to paint the sand, use a wash and highlight method or really thinned out paint to still give it a natural look.

Here's how I do mine - simple but effective. They won't win any awards but they look fine.

http://myminiaturemischief.blogspot.com/2016/06/step-by-step-spiders.html

Other suggestions:

1) Use Wood Glue Max by Elmers...it's fantastic and far better than any PVA or white glue you'll buy. Trust me on this. But get the "Max" version as it's much better texture/use than normal wood glue.
2) Seal in the basing material if you get a chance with watered down glue, or dip, etc.
3) When "painting" the basing material water down your paint much more than usual to make sure it gets in all the crooks and crevices.
4) Don't use real sand...it's much to find and will never pick up proper highlighting. Ideally pick up some various size balast from Woodland Scenics. It will appear artificially large on some of your basing but will catch paint and stand out as needed.
5) Get Army Painter grass tufts...stupid simple and relatively cheap way to add a flair to your bases. Adds a slight 3D effect.

Thanks, guys. I glued up 9 more sand bases last night (spread the glue, dip in the sand mix), and may just play around with some of them (prime and paint) before I build more balloon boyz.

It occured to me that I probably *could* just glue up the 'rope' on a bit of plasticard (like I put under the feet of my regular boyz and grotz) and perhaps paint it before basing, but I want to try some of the techniques you guys linked and see if I can get decent painted bases.