| 
How to base figures:
There are 1001 ways t base your figures and rather than try to write a comprehensive and massive single guide we shall include some good "how to" articles from other painters.
AW "Quickie-Guide"
Steve Crofts: "How to Base Figures" (Basic)
Steve Crofts: Advanced Basing.
LotR general Guide & images (unknown author)
AW Quickie-Guide
Step 1
Paint your base in an appropriate colour and allow to dry.
Step 2
Coat the painted basing material with PVA glue and then dip it in a container of the fine talus. Allow about 20 minutes for the glue to dry.
Step 2(a - optional) If you are adding cork boulders then glue them to the base at this stage
Step 3
Paint a 50/50 water & PVA mixture over the talus and allow to dry. Drying time will depend on how much of the mixture you applied to the sand. A hair drier will help reduce the drying time. This step ensures that the sand texturing will stay affixed to the basing material.
Step 4
Once the sand is completely dry; paint it with appropriate colours for the landscape you want.
Step 5
Once the painted talus/cork has dried, (allow about 20 minutes if using acrylics) dry brush it with a suitable colour to bring out the highlights.
Step 6
Dab some PVA on the surface ensuring that you do not cover the entire base. Now sprinkle on flock or static grass. Hold the base over some paper and invert it, then tap it on the back to shake off the loose flock and static grass – the paper allows you to collect what comes off and keep it.
Step 7
If suitable add a patch of long grass/straw/dead grass: Roll a few bits of the grass between your finger and thumb and then dab on a blob of PVA glue. Let this dry so that you have a full length of grass ending in a clear blob of set PVA glue. Now cut off the length you want to attach to the base and fix the cut length to the base using a bit more PVA glue at the “blob” end.
Step8 (optional)
Paint a 50/50 water & PVA mixture over the scatter/static grass and allow to dry.
Step 9
Add lichen or foliage clumps for bushes/shrubs.
How To Base Figures
By Steve Crofts (Originally released at www.wargames.co.uk )
This Article came about after reading a couple of posts on the “help wanted” topic on the forums. A few people were wanting to know how to base their figures, so without further ado I’ll give you my way of basing figures, I hope it is of use, and hopefully time permitting, I may expand on this further than just this basic guide.
Cue the Blue Peter music and away we go….. Oh and forget the sticky back plastic!
You will Need:
An Air tight Container
Emulsion
Building Sand (Fine talus)
Budgie Grit (Fine-Coarse Talus)
Static Flock (Static grass)
PVA Glue
Paint, (Acrylic)
A length of dowel or mixing stick
An old scalpel and blades
A ladle
See no sticky back plastic!
Mixing the formula:
Pour the emulsion into your air tight container until it is about ¼ full.
Add to this, a ladle at a time the building sand, mix using the dowel when each ladle of sand is added. As the mix gets thicker add small amounts of water, not too much as you need to keep it at a nice wet cement like concentration.
Once this is mixed you are ready to begin basing.
How long does it keep? I hear you say, well I’ve had my mix in this air tight bucket over two years now and all I do is give it a stir every now and then and add a little water to the mix if it is getting a little stiff.
Simple basing
Using the scalpel, get a little of the texture mix and start applying it to the base.
Once this is done, and the texture is still wet, add in small patches the bird grit, once a pleasing amount has been put on lightly press on theses patches just to firm it into the texture, it helps it to bond.
Now leave to dry.
When the mixture is dry turn the figure upside down and gently tap the bottom of the base, this will remove any loose grit.
Painting
You should know be ready to start painting the “Earth” colour on your base.
I use a dark Earth colour for the first coat or like in this case Raw Umber. Paint the texture and the bird grit, and then leave to dry.
Second coat, this is dry brushed heavily onto the texture and the grit, the colour I am using here is Teddy Bear brown.
Highlight, this is done by lightly dry brushing the texture and the grit, the colour I’ve used here is Oat Meal.
That’s the “Earth” painted now leave to dry.
Flocking
Blob some PVA onto a palette, now add some water, it should end up with the PVA resembling thin paint. With an old brush, paint patches on the base where you wish to have “grass”.
Dip the figures base in the static flock and cover it entirely and generously.
Now lift the figure out of the flock and give it a gentle shake to get most of the excess flock off, then turn the figure upside down and gibe the base a firm but gentle tap, this should get rid of the rest of the excess. Any left over excess can be blown off. If you find the blowing flattens the flock , no need to worry just turn the figure upside down again and give it another tap!
And that is the figure based!
I use this technique for all my basing, whether it is a single figures base or a massed figure base. I think the effect looks quite good.
Advanced Basing by Steve Crofts
Forward:
This next article deals with adding a few little extras and is designed to enhance things like command bases or large monster bases, but there is nothing to stop you from using these tips, etc… on your other models.
The steps are a little different to those in my first article and these that I am about to go through are done BEFORE the first article, but I will tell you when and what to do as I go along.
Are we ready…. Cue the music and away we go!
Getting Started
You will need the following: -
Tub of texture, (see first article for the recipe)
Scatter Flock
Acrylic paints
Paint brush bristles, ( long grass / dead grass)
Super glue gel
A few small Twigs
A few small stones or gravel.(Coarse Talus / Fine Talus)
P.V.A. glue
Scalpel
Scissors
Paint brushes
Begin
First of all I started with the small stones, after giving them a wash and drying them, I glued them in various places around the base using the super glue gel.
Next comes the “long grass”.
To make this I took a small amount of hair and holding it with one hand I put a blob of gel across it, I then gave the hair a couple of twists and held it whilst the glue set.
I then cut the hair in two at the point where it had been glued, (this is to be the base of the “grass”.
Now take the scissors and trim it slightly just to neaten the bristles.
Using the scalpel I then “bored” small holes just big enough for the base of the “grass” to stick in, and glued the “grass” in position, again with the gel.
Once the “grass” was dry in the hole, I then splayed it by pressing my finger in the middle and adding a small amount of pressure, once the “grass” was splayed I then trimmed it to look better and more natural. This was done about a half dozen times.
After the “grass was in place the next items were the “Logs”. I used about three small twigs o this base and glued those in positions again with the gel.
Texturing the Earth
I then added the texture and bird grit, (see my first article to find out how to do this).
And I also painted the earth and rocks using the same method as before.
Don’t go on to adding the flock yet as this comes later!
The logs and grass were painted after the earth had been done, and I will now cover this.
Painting the Logs
First of all after the earth I painted the logs.
A base coat of black was applied to the twigs, don’t put this on too heavy otherwise the bark grain will be obliterated and you will have nothing left to dry brush! The second coat was heavily dry brushed on, the colour I used was Charcoal/ Anthracite grey.
The final dry brushing was light and for this I used the colour Quarry Pebble, ( a very light grey). This last colour then finished the logs.
Painting the Grass
The Long grass was painted next, I used the colour Jungle green for this. Once dried the first highlight was brushed on lightly, this was forest green.
The final highlight was a mixture of Forest green and Oatmeal mixed in a 50-50 consistency.
Flocking
To finish the base I then went through the process of flocking as described in my first article.
Hope you’ve enjoyed these two articles and are of use and benefit to you.
LotR General Guide & Examples
Introduction
When I first got interested in painting miniatures it was the bases that frustrated me the most, so I tried a lot of different ways to make them fit in with the battlefield depending on where in middle earth the miniature had come from. I thought I would put this article together to let you all know how I go about basing my miniatures. I hope you find this article useful.
Base 1
Firstly paint the entire base with Scorched Brown, when this is dry paint a layer of watered down PVA glue to the top of the base. Sit the top of the base into Static Grass for a couple of minutes. When you lift the base out of the Static Grass tap it gently, this will remove any excess and make the grass stand up.
Base 2
To get this effect, undercoat the entire base with Fortress Grey then apply PVA to the top of the base. Sit the top of the base into fine/coarse talus. Once this has dried paint the entire base again with Fortress Grey.
Base 3
This effect was achieved by painting the entire base with Fortress Grey. Once dry apply PVA glue to the top of the base then sit the top of the base into fine or coarse talus.
Base 4
For larger bases you can add more detail. This one was achieved by painting the entire base with Bestial Brown. Once dry paint the top of the base with PVA glue and sit it in talus. Allow to dry then add small drops of Super glue in places, to this add tufts of Static Grass long/dead grass and/or Lichen.
These are other examples of using Static Grass with Talus.
Base 5
For this effect PVA glue was applied to the top of the base which was then sat in Coarse Talus. Then the entire base was painted Chaos Black. Once dry, paint the rim of the base with Bestial Brown and dry brush the gravel with Skull White.
Base 6
This base is simply painted entirely with Bestial Brown. Once dry apply watered down PVA glue to the top of the base and sit it in Static Gras for a couple of minutes. Tap the base to remove any excess and to make the grass stand up.
Base 7
This base was painted entirely with Snot Green. Once dry PVA glue was applied to the top of the base which was then covered in Static Grass. Once this was dry a few drops of Super glue were applied and fine talus sprinkled over. Once this was dry the gravel was painted Chaos Black and dry brushed with Skull White.
Base 8
This effect was achieved by painting the entire base with Scorched Brown. After applying watered down PVA glue to the top of the base it was sat in Green Scatter for a couple of minutes. Again tap the base to remove any excess.
Base 9
This base was painted entirely with Bestial Brown. Using watered down PVA glue to dab small patches onto the top of the base then dip into Brown Scatter. Apply watered down PVA glue to the remaining areas and sit the top of the base into Static Grass.
back |
