Favourite Basing Techniques

[BrotherEndcat]

G'day lovely ladies and gents of BC,

 

Out of shear curiosity, what are everyone's favourite basing techniques / schemes? 

 

I personally love cracked sidewalk style bases made with a combination of green stuff rollers and citadel technical paints.

 

Share your favourites and the techniques you use to achieve them!

 

Cheers!

 

Oh and photos are fun too, throw some in for inspiration to others :D

Edited June 25, 2019 by BrotherEndcat

[Marshal Rohr]

I use sparkle because it adds weight the space marine armor when you press them down into it

[Karhedron]

Paint it Goblin Green and flock it. Can you tell I learned to paint in the 90s?

[Magos Takatus]

Now that's a blast from the past! I wonder what the closest to Goblin Green is with the current range? I'm still mainly using painted sand but I do add textured paint from GW here and there:

 

 

I also glue tons of stuff to bases to sell the idea of an old battlefield.

[Karhedron]

Now that's a blast from the past! I wonder what the closest to Goblin Green is with the current range?

Warboss Green is virtually identical (I can't tell the difference between the two).

[DanPesci]

Goblin green & flock! Amazing :D

 

Not seen that combo for many a year haha.

 

THis is my current basing method (very much going for a ruined city/old battlefield look:

 

- 'rocky basing grit' -> glued onto base first in small piles. Small models dont get a lot of this.

- some bases get extra items/debris if big enough.

- then cover the flat of the base with Astrogranite Debris - i usually do two layers of this to build up some texture/height

- Paint the basing grit dawnstone grey

- Add some brown patches to astrogranite for a bit of contrast/mud

- Wash with nuln oil/ Drybrush with dawnstone

- Add some additional grass tufts (currently using the batllefields XP wasteland ones as they work nicely with the general grey of the base)

 

 

This is super straightforward/easy to do (although now im looking at it it seems a lot of steps haha), im far from a top level modellerpainter and it gives ace results.

[MadGreek]

Sculpted bases for me, from Dragon Forge .  I use the Ancient Ruins sets to complement my Greek Theme. Then just do dirt areas brown shades, base white for the Stone and Columns, and a little bit of scrub here and there. There are also bases that have space for water effects, though I haven't done those yet.

Edited June 25, 2019 by MadGreek

[MegaVolt87]

I am a lazy boi and just use the schemes from the citadel paint app for just the dirt parts. Or I get resin scenic bases as I really could not be bothered doing anything super custom. 

[Naryn]

I use sparkle because it adds weight the space marine armor when you press them down into it

I've been coming around to spackle and concrete patch lately as well, I love the heft it gives to the bases and it functions basically identically to Citadel texture paints, but comes in a massive container. I like to apply with a butter knife in super thin layers, over the bare base, and lightly press the mini into the surface to show where it goes. Then the next day when the mixture is dry you can glue it on for a VERY solid connection.

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

I am a lazy boi and just use the schemes from the citadel paint app for just the dirt parts. Or I get resin scenic bases as I really could not be bothered doing anything super custom. 

 

The Citadel schemes are often pretty underrated. I remember going out and paying for a White Dwarf just for the section where they gave several examples of how to paint each Texture color they sold and for different battlefield styles. They do things like recommend a drybrush of Underhive Ash (a pale yellow) before drybrushing Tyrant Skull, and it really makes all the difference compared to when I was just winging it and drybrushing white or bone or even Tyrant Skull alone.

[MegaVolt87]

Can't remember which paint by numbers basing guide I used to do my termi's but I think it looks good. I think it was asgronite, corelia cameoshade, tyrant skull lightly drybrushed. 

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/354832-a-long-war-vet-returns-iron-warriors-project/?do=findComment&comment=5287947

Edited June 26, 2019 by MegaVolt87

[Arkhanist]

 

I am a lazy boi and just use the schemes from the citadel paint app for just the dirt parts. Or I get resin scenic bases as I really could not be bothered doing anything super custom. 

 

The Citadel schemes are often pretty underrated. I remember going out and paying for a White Dwarf just for the section where they gave several examples of how to paint each Texture color they sold and for different battlefield styles. They do things like recommend a drybrush of Underhive Ash (a pale yellow) before drybrushing Tyrant Skull, and it really makes all the difference compared to when I was just winging it and drybrushing white or bone or even Tyrant Skull alone.

 

 

I'm using that scheme myself on armageddon dunes for my sandy bases for my Blood Angels in the ETL. Except my underhive ash has turned to rubber, so I substituted krieg khaki - same colour, just an edge (now layer) paint instead. But I like to add more than just the texture paints.

 

In my case, I mostly use negative impression pads called basius - you put greenstuff on a base, press it onto the appropriately themed pad and hey presto, custom textures. Cheaper than resin bases, and much more variety! Shame they don't sell them at retail any more, but there's been several kickstarter versions.

 

This is the one I'm using for my BA:

 

 

Greenstuff world do textured rollers than work on the same principle, but the range is much more restricted to repeating patterns.

 

The downside is getting the edge right, i.e. trimming and smoothing where the greenstuff meets the rim can be time consuming, so I just fill in the gap with texture paint and drybrushing, and blending it into the existing rubble/sand on the base, and paint as normal. I could use sand of course, and in this specific example I am adding some gravel to add some small rocks, but the textured paint looks better and saves painting time, so eh, just call me lazy.

 

Literally hot off my painting table, still needs a extra coat on the rim I think, but you get the idea.

 

http://i.imgur.com/CQ370P0h.jpg

 

The WD article on different tweaks to the texture paints you reference is super handy, definitely, I have the magazine somewhere, though I usually use the digital version...

 

 

[Trevak Dal]

Bought a bigish sack of sand for like, flower arrangements or something from Walmart for $3 or something. Fine grain, cut it with a zip lock bag of sand from the beach last time I went (coarser) shake it up and glue it to the bases.

[MaliGn]

My current army is based on tile textured plasticard... for monsters and bigger stuff I cut holes for the feet to fit though and glue broken tile bits around the holes... I also carve a more mosaic effect in and paint accordingly when appropriate.

[NiceGuyAdi]

Polyfilla on the base and a wet sponge to texture. Gives a random cracked earth feel, and it’s cheap as chips. Or french fries, whatever.

[MegaVolt87]

Bought a bigish sack of sand for like, flower arrangements or something from Walmart for $3 or something. Fine grain, cut it with a zip lock bag of sand from the beach last time I went (coarser) shake it up and glue it to the bases.

 

You spent money on sand? I still got a big tupperware container of the stuff when I went to the beach when I was like 12. Beach was in a national park, so was the pure stuff with the rocky bits. 

[Marshal Rohr]

Beach sand needs to be baked, iirc. Set an oven to 300 and leave in for two hours. Don’t remember where I read that but it’s stuck with me for years.

[Arkhanist]

Yeah, beach sand will be full of salt for a start, and plenty of fungus and bacteria live in it. To properly sterilise it for handling, conventionally you sift and rinse it to remove unwanted debris, etc and bake it at 150 degC (300F) for an hour. To get the salt out, you simmer it in a big pan to dissolve the salt in the water then use coffee filters to separate the water and sand again. Sand you buy normally comes from quarries I believe, and modelling/children's sand is sterilised for you.

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

Paint it Goblin Green and flock it. Can you tell I learned to paint in the 90s? :P

Brings back memories.

Myself I like the odd bit of gravel or model component like a gun or helmet glued to the base, then I glue down sand and paint it brown, followed by a dry brush it in a lighter brown, then maybe a bit static grass or tuft glued down. I like to paint the rims of my bases black, as I saw it done once and really liked the look of it. What colours do others use for their base rims?

Edited July 7, 2019 by Captain Smashy Pants

[Razblood]

Vallejo Sandy paste, dipped in mixed sand and some kitty litter "rocks" here and there on larger bases followed by basecoat wash and drybrush. May add static grass if I feel like it or crackle paint if I feel like it.

[Arkhanist]

Good news, everyone! Basius pads are available again at retail. No association, but I do have several of them I've picked up from kickstarters, and they are brilliant for doing your own themed basing (see above for demo!) cheaper than resin bases.

 

https://directbasius.co.uk/collections/basius-max

[Magos Takatus]

Good news, everyone! Basius pads are available again at retail. No association, but I do have several of them I've picked up from kickstarters, and they are brilliant for doing your own themed basing (see above for demo!) cheaper than resin bases.

 

https://directbasius.co.uk/collections/basius-max

Those plates are an amazing idea! If I hadn't already got a long way into my armies I'd start using those. I could use them for one-offs but that's not good value. I'm sure I could come up with an excuse to order one though. :D 

[Arkhanist]

 

Good news, everyone! Basius pads are available again at retail. No association, but I do have several of them I've picked up from kickstarters, and they are brilliant for doing your own themed basing (see above for demo!) cheaper than resin bases.

 

https://directbasius.co.uk/collections/basius-max

Those plates are an amazing idea! If I hadn't already got a long way into my armies I'd start using those. I could use them for one-offs but that's not good value. I'm sure I could come up with an excuse to order one though.

 

 

If you don't need the big pad for variety for an army, they now also do 5cm square mini ones for £7.

 

Edited July 9, 2019 by Arkhanist

[Mendi Warrior]

One component I like to use for basing is pine bark. I bought a 50L bag from the gardening section of my DIY store, it is dirt cheap. Now, it is best to let them dry and "clean" them. Ideally you need a very sunny day, an outside area you can cover with them, an old toothbrush, and time of course. Alternative methods must surely exist but this is the one I used 

Sizes and shapes are various, you can quite easily find some which fit nicely on bases. They will represent rocks. The bigger ones can be used for terrain.

Use a glue gun to put them into place and to glue models on them as well. It works well with plastic models, but the bound can be fragile without pinning.

 

Other components I like to use are polyfilla, styrofoam, and a mix of model train gravel of various sizes, sprues cut to tiny bits, and baking soda.

 

And basically anything else that fits the purpose.

[MegaVolt87]

Beach sand needs to be baked, iirc. Set an oven to 300 and leave in for two hours. Don’t remember where I read that but it’s stuck with me for years.

 

Interesting, I never heard that. I never really had issues with my sand. I am guessing the heat "hardens" the grains or something.