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I'm planning to do an easy mixture of mostly sand + tiny rocks + a little bigger rocks. Then putting glue on the base and putting the mixture on the glue. Pretty easy stuff...

1 thing though... how do you keep the sand + rocks and stuff to be really "burnt into" the base? I remember doing this before with my Tyranids a long time ago and it tends to start falling off during play or getting a bit rough with the model. It's like the glue isn't holding all the mixture anymore or something. I do give the model a really good pat after I'm done throwing the mixture onto it to remove the loose parts... Is there something you guys do the essentially SEAL the sand + rock mixtures into the base?

Thin PVA (white) glue with water and paint it over your sand/rocks/cork/whatever and let it dry.

It isn't invincible, but it will help keep things from coming off.

I do a similar sealing mix, but I'll throw a little acrylic craft paint into it. Can be tough getting a spray into all of the little cracks and crevices of a really coarse basing mix, so I like to hit those recesses while I'm at it.

I also go over the bases (relatively gently) with a cheap chip brush, after the initial application has dried. The sealing mix would probably take care of any half-stuck grains, but I like to be thorough and it does a much better job of removing excess than simply flipping and tapping. After those treatments, the grit layer is solid - it's more likely to come off in large chunks after a hard knock (which takes a bit of doing) than it is to shed individual grains during handling.

If you want it to be that much closer to bulletproof, supergluing a larger rock or two directly to the base before applying the rest of the mix helps act as an anchor. The bond between sand grains seems to be stronger than between the grains and the plastic base.

The methods above is pretty much your best choice. Just make sure that you give it a good 24 hours to cure before you continue work with it. If you are really worried you can do a second application of the same, just make sure it cures fully inbetween applications.

Echo Oadie's comment. I glue sand onto my base with regular PVA, let it sit for 8-12 hours to fully dry, then flood wash the base with thinned Liquitex Burnt Umber. This helps seal and bind everything together. Lastly, I dry brush the sand and add a little flocking.

Can regular Elmer's glue watered down work? Or does it need to be that specific PVA glue?

Yes, that will work fine

 Ifurita wrote:
Yes, that will work fine

Cool! Thanks guys. Going to do a watered down Elmers Glue + acrylic paint mixture over my sand bases tonight!

Recommend that you do a test figure first to see how it turns out.