Community Content: Brilliant Basing

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!