Topic: Basing Material ...

[GamesPoet]

What do you use for basing material

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Gave a go to Pro Acryl Brown Earth (fine) yesterday and today.  It comes in a 120ml jar, and is cheaper than AK Terrain basing material, the latter comes in 100ml and 250ml jars.

Either one is less expensive than GWs Stirland Mud., and both have way more for use than the 24ml jars that the GW products are sold inside.

[TaraGreen]

Wow, that's an interesting question!

We use all kinds of stuff, depending on whether you want to build gaming or display bases / dioramas.

Birdsand and static grass is the first thing that comes to my mind when you want to build standard gaming bases.

Wood glue mixed with the corresponding paint if you want to create lava bases or, for example, green slime bases for a nurgle army.

All-purpose glue for spiderwebs.

Cotton wool balls to create smoke or when you use them with wood glue, you could create climbing plants.

Or you could go for a walk and collect twigs if you want to create trees on your bases.

Or go to a building supplies store and buy impact sound insulation. Their reverse side sometimes looks like wood planks.

I use cork to create rocks and paint them grey.

Greenstuff World offers textured rolling pins for all kinds of bases. You can use them with Milliput or Greenstuff to create cobblestone pavement, steampunk bases, temple bases, wood planks or bases with celtic runes.

There is water effect to create water bases.

Tiny animals, leaves or paper plants you can add to your bases.

The usual GW skulls, of course.

And if you have a 3D printer or use resin, there are endless possibilities you can print to embellish your bases: boxes, mushrooms, tree stumps, crystals ...

Crackle medium for desert bases.

Fly-screen or toothpicks to create fences or spikes.

[JAK]

I thought I’d posted a reply here yesterday, but obviously I forgot to press post!

Tara’s given you a lot of good ideas for your bases but I’d assumed you you were wanting comments on the ready mixed ground covers so I’ll add my original reply below.

For a flat plastic/MDF base I cover in PVA glue and sprinkle sand/grit/etc. and when dry paint. If its just the odd base or two I’ll use a normal acrylic paint in a suitable earth colour but if doing an army  with movement trays I get one of these small trial pots of household emulsion paint of the right shade.

If I want a bit move variation to a base I mix a ready-mixed household wall filler with PVA glue, the ground colour paint and sometime sand or grit and trowel it onto the base. You need to remember the paint so that any damage in gaming doesn't appear as a glaring white patch. Any major variations in ground level can be built up with small pieces of sprue before adding this filler. Once dry you can add more sand and paint as a flat base.

I’ve never use the type of modelling base material you describe although I was given one some years back. I didn’t like it and found it dried up very quickly in the bottle, becoming useless so will stick to making my own.


I mount my figures so that they are not touching the base, either on a less than foot sized piece of plastic card, or leaving a gap if using a wire pin. This is so that whatever you add to the base can be pushed under the foot so the figure appears to be standing on it and not starting to sink into quicksand, (unless that's the look you’re after).

[Zygmund]

For me, it's the ordinary stuff:
- PVA glue (super glue where needed)
- sand (different granularity)
- stones (pebbles and larger ones)
- cork (powder and pieces)
- polyfilla (a kind of filler), powdered or molded into larger pieces
- sawdust (different granularity), also coloured for leaves
- static grass (free and in tufts)
- foliage
- lichens
- bark
- birch seeds, sometimes coloured
- foam
- greenstuff
- ready made resin and plastic scenery pieces and bits

Got a pot of Vallejo Black Lava too. Mixing it in now and then.

-Z