Dry autumn leaves for basing

G

Grumbold Ironbrow

Guest
Awesome;

Originally posted by Margo
Sooo. Today I went to the park with birches and collected the seeds. It\'s amazing that someone discovered they could be used for basing, they look great! So thanks for advice, everybody :)
Click to expand...

Margo, you said that you have tried the oregano and didn\'t like it, have you tried dried, finely chopped parsley?

I\'d like to see what the birch seeds look like. They were prevelent where I grew up, but now I live in the southeastern US and they\'re very scare there..

Cheers,
Grumb
 
M

Margo

New member
Originally posted by Grumbold Ironbrow
Margo, you said that you have tried the oregano and didn\'t like it, have you tried dried, finely chopped parsley?
Click to expand...

nope, haven\'t tried that for a simple reason that I don\'t use dried parsley for cooking, only fresh :) But I\'ll look closely at the spices section in supermarket for it.

@WurzagUdUraZahuba: I\'ll take a pic of the leaves tomorrow, they look really amazing. I found various kinds and colours: reddish, brown, yellowish, even green.
 
R

Ritual

New member
Originally posted by Margo
[I found various kinds and colours: reddish, brown, yellowish, even green.
Click to expand...
You can also put some paint on them, once they\'re dry. I use to apply an orange/brown wash on them (if I\'m doing autumn leaves, that is) and then pick out the edges with a light yellow/orange colour. That makes them a bit more striking, IMO.

/Anders
 
M

Margo

New member
I thought about painting them over, but I think I\'ll follow your advise and try washing. I thought, i\'d better post a picture of a finished base (When it\'s finished, that is) -- most of you know anyway what those \"leaves\" look like. Just in case, there are two links up in the thread showing pictures. :)
 
S

Samurai_Girl

Guest
Ok assuming herbs for basing, I have a couple questions.
1) Should I use white glue or model glue to stick them to the base?
2) Will they degrade to any extent since they are plant-based? I know they are dried and can last for a long time in jars, but I\'m not sure for exposed bases.
3) Do I use the herbs before or after I seal the mini?
 
Einion

Einion

New member
In addition to the tea leaves and dried herbs for basic leaf litter, if you want to do an anal \'I want to decide on where each leaf goes\' technique you can make the leaves individually from painted thin paper (I use cigarette papers, it\'s the thinnest thing I could find). You could also use foils from various sources but I like the paper approach as you don\'t have to worry about scraping paint off and exposing shiny metal.

Here\'s what they look like:

SF_Groundwork1.jpg


SF_Groundwork_Details.jpg


Poacher_Triptych.jpg


If you\'re interested I\'ll describe the basic technique, it\'s quite straightforward but tedious as all get out :)

Einion
 
R

RedDawn

New member
@Einion - Holy Crap! That base is fantastic!

@Samurai_Girl - I personall can\'t answer your questions, but here\'s another thread on basing (Autumn Leaves) that might help you out.

Also, it seems that Chrispy did an article on basing that might help you. (You can find the articles near the forums button on the front page of CMoN.)

Hope that helps!
 
Einion

Einion

New member
Well nobody actually asked until you ;)

The technique is pretty much straight from the Stan Catchpol tips in Military Modelling so any longtime collectors of that might know this already, although I think I\'ve added a few wrinkles myself.
  • Paint the paper both sides with acrylic paint.
  • Cut into long narrow strips - the width will be a little less than the length of the finished leaves.
  • Then cut the strips into small diamonds by cutting at a sharp angle. I\'ve found scissors are the easy way to do this, it\'s just a pain to try it with a craft knife.
  • Score each leaf along the long axis with a dull blade, I use a pointed sculpting tool with the leaf in the palm of the opposite hand. This makes them curl up and make quite believable dry leat shapes.
  • Glue each one down separately. I use PVA glue for this straight from the container, if you use anything with too much water in it the leaves get damp and that nice curl they had disappears! So you have to be careful not to have visible glue and you can\'t paint anywhere around them after they\'re in place so if you think you might want to do this I\'d try foil instead of paper.
Einion
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back To Top
Top