Welcome to my first ever tutorial. In this tutorial I will show you how to create your own base. The main emphasis of this base is to show debris or simply rocks. Now, of course, with enough effort you can make it look however you like, but this tutorial will be focused on creating a rocky texture. So, without further a due, let’s begin.
Step 1 – The tools
Well, here’s the surprise, the rocks are made of cork. Yep, the cake is a lie. Anyhow, I got these babies at Michael’s, there’s around 20 of them in the package, and they cost 8 bucks plus tax. I am using a hobby knife, with a rounded blade. Easier to carve out texture, as I will be showing you in the following steps.
Step 2 – The carving
Now we need to start cutting the cork to form a somewhat stone shape. I usually slice it like bread. After you get your circle, split it in half or quarters. After that, you need to remove all the round corners, well for texture purposes really. We will be drybrushing this, so the more texture, the more real it will look. I will be using superglue to fix everything in position.
Now to fill in some gaps with the various rubble you have left from cutting it.
This is what you should have by now.
Step 3 - Priming
So, now that we got our base, its really easy from now. First we need to prime the Base with a spray. Let me tell you why. This cork is very soft, and I do recommend using soft cork, and not the one you can get from a wine bottle, its way easier to sculpt. So, if you prime this using a brush, first, the paint wont stick too well, this isnt plastic, resin or metal, its something like recycled wood or whatever, second, you might actually rip off some of the cork.
This is how it will look.
Step 4- Drybrushing
Now the fun part. We will apply a heavy drybrush of a color of your choice. I have used Administratum Gray because its fairly light, and has a 'stone' tint to it. A bright color is perfect for the next step. Apply the drybrush liberally, but with care, we dont want to rip off paint or cork with rough strokes.
This is how it should look like
Step 5 - Applying a pigment
Now, we get into some really cool stuff. We will be using dry pigment. AND DONT STEAL YOUR MOMS MAKEUP POWDER. Ok, jokes aside, the reasing we are using pigment is because it actually is very close to eath, and we get to choose the consistency. Which you cannot do wih a wash or ink. Plus it has way better coverage when dry. So below you will see what I used. The cup you see is a savagely stolen ketchup cup from Quickly. Shame. Shame. Shame. Shame.
The amount of pigment you want to add is not too much. Of course you can use as much as you prefer, the more you use, the more concentrated the color will be. We just want to tint the overall look. A PIGMENT IS NOT A SHADE.
This is how much I used.
Now we get to do CHEMISTRY. Well, actually we mix the pigment with water. A spoonful of water. Turns out this pigment is hydrophobic. But fear not hobby hero, for if you stir long and vigourosly enough, water it shall become. Dont use a brush to stir, trust me.
HYDROPHOBIA, YOU SHALL NOT MIX
Nah just kidding, dont spill any on yourself.
Now, liberally cover the entire base with it. By the way, it doesnt apply and run in the recesses as a wash does, so push it in cowboy. Damn that sounded wrong.
And now is the time to grab some snacks, it takes around 40 minutes to dry.
Now its dry and the base looks fabulous
Apply masterpiece to base
Aaaaand thats a wrap. Post your comments, your awesome bases, or just say hi. Thank you for reading, and have a happy hobby.
...it's good to be green!