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I quite fancy basing my new(ish) army to give them an urban, tarmac style look. Does anyone have any tips on creating this look?

The GW bases come with a tarmac-like texture to the top of them.  Perhaps just paint on some yellow dotted lines and you can pretend they are playing in the street...

Sandpaper.

Glue it texture side up (obviously) and you have a very concrete-like look.

~E

Sandpaper? Gosh, that's simple yet clever. Thanks!

Very good idea, consider it pinched.

Glad I could help.

~E

http://www.blackcatbases.com/product.asp?strPageHistory=category&numSearchStartRecord=0&strParents=92&CAT_ID=92&P_ID=410&btnProduct=More+Details

These are a nice and fairly cheap alternative to scratch-building your own. I can't say enough nice things about Black Cat Bases, either – I placed my order one afternoon and they arrived the next day. Not only that, but I'd made a special request, so it wasn't a standard pack. Now that's efficient service!

Good quality (though they needed a little clean up), and really cheap for resin bases. I'd recommend you opt for the £30 set – enough bases for an entire force.

Now that's a nice choice too. Do they let you pick and choose what type of bases you want? I really like the plain tarmac and paving slab ones, but the I'm not too fond of kerbside bases.

Thanks for the suggestion!

You can use very thin  polystyrenne sheets to give a thickish looking asphalt surface. Then cut groves into the surface to represent breaks in the road or the pavement.

One good thing for road markings i find is to use electrical tape. Cut very fine strips of electrical tape and run them across the base in the directions or patterns required. This will give you a nice subtle relief that will look a lot more like the painted on road markings you see in real life. then paint them and it gives excellent effects.

You can also use plasticard for the concrete/ asphalt surface instead of foam card or polystyrenne.

I'm going to give the sandpaper technique a try first, but this is certainly a possibility for non-unit models. Thanks!

Leaving the base bare certainly works, lemme get you a pic...

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So is that just painted directly on to the base, with no texturing aside from what the plastic already has? Certainly looks good enough to me.