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Would YOU like to know the secret to my water bases? If the answer is yes then keep on reading!
I posted this on Ammobunker earlier so I thought I'd post it here too. Hope someone gets some use out of it.

First take a piece of balsa or an ice cream stick or whatever and break it into a suitable sized piece and shape. Then dig into it with a knife or a similar sharp object
to give the effect of rotted/worn wood. I gave this example a wash of blue to give a better look of what I mean.


I can't stress this enough but don't be an idiot like me and use your drill for this. :-/


Now take your piece of wood and glue it to your base. Here I've used some milliput to give the piece of wood some height so it doesn't look like it floats on the water when its finished.
You could also use rocks or slate or whatever you have instead of wood.


Now lets make some of my "special basing mix".
Take a pinch (or two) of static grass (scorched grass in my case), a similar amount of sand and a small pinch of leaf litter (I use this) and mix it with drop of PVA and a drop or two of water.



Now spread this thinly on your base. I also put some tiny bits on the wood to simulate debris and barnacles and wotnot.

This is what it should look like when dry.


You can also put a thicker layer on the base and poke it with a toothpick while its drying to make coral reef like formations like I did with this guy.


Now we paint!
Start with a basecoat of dheneb stone. I've given the "seabed" a wash of coelia greenshade and the wood a heavy wash of devlan mud.
If you wan't lighter wood use a lighter wash of gryphonne sepia with a dash of devlan mud.


Now comes the fun part. (click on the image for zoomable pic)
Start lathering on different washes in whatever pattern you feel like. Here I've started with asurmen blue and leviathan purple. Then I've continued with sepia and tiny dots of baal red.
Finally I've put on some thraka green. Add all the washes wet so they'll seep into each other. Also try to keep bright washes like blue and red to a minimum on the wood as it looks a bit weird.


Here's the dried result.

I might have gone a bit overboard with the purple and blue on the wood... :$

Lets move onto the water itself.
Get yourself some Vallejo Transparent Water and spread it where you want the water.
Don't put it on too thick because it will take forever to dry. 2-3mm tops. Poke it with a stick or something to make some ripples/waves/whatever you want. I made some small waves.

Clean edges and let it dry overnight.

It should come out like this.


Here's the and result with the mini attached. (again, click on image for zoomable pic)

I picked out some of the grains of sand on the wood in white and glazed them with sepia so make barnacles.
I also did some floating vegetation with a mix af leaf litter and PVA washed with green.

Thanks for reading. Gimme a shout if you use it. I'd love to see the results.

Pretty creative solution. Defenantly the first water bases I've seen.

Nice bases here my friend, well done.

That's excellent! I'll have to keep this in mind if I ever want some cool water effects. Thanks for posting!