Building Bases
I gave a presentation at my modeling group's meeting last month on groundwork for minis. I'm by no means an expert, but it's something I've been working on and trying to improve. My talk was to share what I've been learning and get a conversation going with the group on some of their tips and tricks as well, which it did. But, since I went to all that work, I thought I'd share some of it here too.
Back in July I posted a few pictures of a base I was building for a vampire lord from GW. Here are some more details on what I did. For the basic base structure I'm working with cork. The bottom is a thin piece of cork tile (you can find cork tile at most arts and crafts stores near their bulletin board section) torn to the size of the wood base. Tearing as opposed to cutting gives you a much more organic shape and interesting texture. I then took a couple thick pieces to build my structure. These are torn from a cork trivet sold at Ikea (you can get three for $3). I thought it needed more height so in the second image I've added another piece. I continued to add little bits of cork and tear other parts away until I had the shape I wanted (pictures 3 and 4). When I'm attaching the cork I use thick superglue. It runs less and works well for this application. You can see I've also started to add some extras. These are skulls from Secret Weapon Miniatures, parts of a fence from a Busch railway kit, some grave stones from another railway kit, some balsa wood, a chain from GaleForce 9, and some bricks from Secret Weapon. You can also see a few 'hairs' from a coconut on picture 4 used to mimic roots. The figure is sitting on top of the base to check the overall look and feel.
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In this second series I've now added more detail. I've taken sand to give the base more texture and fill in gaps. For this I brush on white glue and then sprinkle the sand over it. Don't cover all of the cork, you want some of that texture as well. I've bent and broken the fence, I've used an x-acto knife to cut cracks and chips in the tombstones, and added a few more pieces to the base (skulls and skeleton bits, another tombstone, etc). From these early pictures it is easy to see the different materials that go into making up the base. On the final two pictures I have primed the base. I'm pre-shading with the primer. So I begin by covering the base entirely with a coat of black primer. Once dry I return with white primer but spray it only from above (and at a slight angle around the base). This helps me pick out the dirt texture using only a series of washes plus some dry brushing. The whole base looks much more cohesive now and it is ready to paint.
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On a side note, I normally would not attach the figure to the base before painting. However in this case part of the base is integrated in to the figure's sculpt. So, to get a smooth transition between the sculpted base and mine I was forced to add it on early. Also the vampire does have a head. I've just left it off to make painting it easier.
I learned a lot from the tutorials on
MassiveVoodoo and I thought the basing video on
Miniature Mentor was excellent. They are both great resources for more information.
