Today the very talented Mike Schalk takes us through how to make some lovely looking bases. You can see more of his work here: https://www.instagram.com/mschalk12/ . If you would like to contribute to our Community Content please get in touch at DrawnCombat@gmail.com
In this article, I'll be presenting an in
depth how-to on the basics of crafting and painting bases from materials you
can find almost exclusively at your local Dollar or Pound shop. I've made hundreds of these bases, with some variation,
for my armies over the years to great effect; a few of these armies now have
event awards for appearance next to them in my display cases thanks, in large
part, to the foundations they're glued to!
Gather Your Materials
The bulk of this technique is founded on you
rounding up some cork sheeting. Avoid
getting yours from hobby shops; this stuff is prone to price gouging, and I'd
hate to see you paying $20 a roll for it.
The roll that I'm working with here came from the Dollar General (a U.S.
Chain retailer) and cost me a whopping $3USD.
It's not a huge roll, but 36 square inches will do about 30 bases if
you're smart with your materials. You
can also find it sold in square sheets, which will do just fine too!
The trickier, yet equally important,
material that you'll need to source is some wood chips. In the photo above, these are the silver
chunks; mine came from the Dollar Store, a Canadian retailer, and cost me
$4CAD. The best way to find this is to
make your way to any store that's going to be selling “Filler” for vases and
the sort of decorative things that your mum likes to set out on tables or
shelves. Failing that, I've seen folks
make good use of tree bark. If you have
to go this route, make sure the tree is dead already; not only will this mean
the bark is dry enough to not lift any paint you apply, but you're less likely
to wake up to some Ents storming your house.
The last elements are easy enough to get a
hold of: some fine sand (also easy to find at bargain shops or your yard), the
cheapest acrylic paint you can find in
grey, white, and black, some primer, a cheap glue gun, and some PVA glue.
Optionally, you can usually find some tufts
of flowers or clumps of bush to dress the finished product to your taste; I
like the Woodland Scenics stuff, but cheaper alternatives are easy enough to
find. If a can of black or grey primer
is out of your price range, any junk from the bargain shops that you can brush
on works fine too. Finally, I've got
some Woodland Scenics Adhesive shown that I like to brush on to seal the bases
at the end, but it can be hard to find/expensive, so either forego that
altogether or brush on some PVA, as listed above. Finally, the GW Shades in
Reikland Fleshshade and Athonian Camoshade are what will really make these pop,
but you can absolutely made do without them in a pinch. Everything needed to follow these steps cost
me about $25CAD, aside from the Shade paints.
Assembling the Components
Start by gluing your bases face down onto
your sheet of cork with your hot glue gun, ensuring that they're not too close
to each other. Be sure to use enough
glue to cover the surface of the base, but not so much that it squishes out the
sides when you press them to the cork.
Next, tear around each base and set aside all the scrap cork that will
naturally start piling up; you'll need it for the next step. Be sure that you tear as close to the edge of
the bases as you can can so that opponents can still get their models in base
contact with you.
Next, hit each base with a chunk of
wood. Be aware of what models you're
going to be fixing to each base at this point; you're going to add layers and
bits of cork around the wood next, but models don't adhere to the wood well. This is rarely an issue with plastic models,
but some heavier metal figures will often detach during handling if they don't
have some cork underfoot. The job now is
to simply fish through your pile of odd cork bits and build up a few layers
(depending on the thickness of your material) around the wood. Be careful about making the base too tall, as
you can inadvertently make your model top heavy and potentially get accused of
modelling for advantage by ornery opponents. To avoid harsh edges to the cork,
grab some hobby clippers and try to blend the cork bits into each other
Lastly, and this is optional, I like to use
some fine grit sand to emulate moss growth on the rock. The sand I used for
this tutorial was a little too heavy, but I've included a shot of what it looks
like with much finer grit sand at the end of this article. Run a bead of glue
along one face of the base and sprinkle some sand over it. Remember that moss
always faces one direction in nature (North maybe? I can't remember) so don't
go wild with the sand here.
Painting Your Bases
Painting rock that looks convincing relies
on your skill at drybrushing. Nature is
not consistent, predictable, or ordered, and your bases will look more
convincing as you layer colours and texture on top of them. For now, start by priming them black and
brushing them all over with grey. You
can skip the priming, but be ABSOLUTELY certain that all of the cork is
covered. Nothing ruins the suspension of disbelief like a nasty chunk of cork
showing through.
Next, dilute some black acrylic with water
to make a poor man's wash. Don't use GW
shades for this; not only does the Citadel stuff sometimes come out glossy, but
there's no reason to cover a 25 cent base in 27 cents of expensive wash anyway.
Depending on how dilute you go, you may want to do this process twice. It is
absolutely critical that you let your coats dry between steps. If you try to wash over wet grey then you'll
end up with a weirdly muddy looking mess.
Be patient. If you're doing 25 of
these in a row, then the first few you do might well be dry by the time you get
through the whole line of them.
Next, after the washes have dried, hit the
whole base with a white drybrush. Cheap
acrylic white does a fine job, but an off white like GW's Screaming Skull or
Ushtabi Bone gives a warmer hue. A great
tip for anyone frustrated by drybrushing that looks chalky would be to try a
makeup brush; my wife donated a little eyeshadow brush to me a while ago and
it's the best for drybrush applications.
The softer bristles make control so much easier! Don't overdue it, but
do take advantage of the texture of the cork, and remember to always make
downward strokes to catch the edges.
Next, feel start alternating washes and
drybrushes. I like Athonian Camoshade
for the cork and Reikland Fleshshade for the wood chunk. If you want to follow
up with another drybrush to re-establish the edges, just make sure you go
lightly.
Finally, hit the moss that we did with any
green you have on hand, wash once with our black wash, and touch the very top
surfaces with a yellow (Balor Brown is a great pick), This will give the moss some variation and
add a bit more colour to our work. Don't
forget to paint your rims and you're all set!
Closing Thoughts
Basing is an easy way to take your army to the
next level, and requires only some basic, cheap materials and some
experimentation. Even if painting your models isn't your favourite part of the
hobby, doing some nice work here can elevate the appearance of even the most
basic armies. Always remember to let your paints dry between steps, be aware
that a model has to have somewhere to stand, and avoid shapes and patterns that
look unnatural. Cheers, and happy hobbying folks!
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