How to make hollow bases for an army? (to fill with skulls/blood)

[StarFyre]

Hello,

I want to do a khorne army (I\'ve been doing commission and ebay sales for the past while now and after my current commission, I want to try another army for ebay/private sale). But, I want to do it with bases similar to:

http://coolminiornot.com/225327

That is Matthieu\'s wonderful lord on juggernaut. He told me that it\'s ink mixed with resin.

My question is, would you cut out the top of a base. Glue it to plasticard (forthe new bottom) and then use that OR make a perfectly square base (GW bases are sloped) and make it deeper (ie. maybe the height isn\'t enough? the skulls or whatever i sculpt inside...depends how much should be visible?)

I want to then cast them in resin to make a lot for an army.

Thoughts? has anyone tried this before?

Sanjay

 

[james sequeira]

Are you planning on filling the bases over the bones and such with a water type product ? like in that link

I also think the standard gw square type bases might not have alot of area to place many bones in if the model is raised with some rock in the middle.

 

[StarFyre]

yes, i want to fill it with liquid.

Where, the idea was for the models to be walking ON the skulls.

As if they are walking through a river or swamp filled with 100s of dead bodies/skulls.

Sanjay

 

[james sequeira]

Your idea of non tilted bases are good then, more area to work with, but still the same size bases as the normal ones.

hollow out, plasticard and some putty around the edges to make sure it is sealed I would say.

 

[exilesjjb]

could you not just turn the bases upside down?

 

[Shadzar]

You probably want to make your own base rather than try using a stock one. GW games have a rule that relates to close combat, or did in past editions.

You can change a base, but it must be the same size or bigger.

You cannot put something form a 50mm base on a 25mm base for example, so things coming into base2base contact don\'t fit less around it. But you can put something that belongs on a 25mm base on a 50mm base. Sucks for use in game allowing more things around it, but sometimes you need the extra base for the detail work like you are talking about.

So Make your own base, would be my suggestion.

Plan out your bone/blood detail and how much will look right, then make the base big enough to hold them, and deep enough to hold your resin while it cures.

You could make the base entirely out of the resin mixed with the red ink. Then painting the edges black would give the game fel, and also darken the inside blood to appear natural shadowed since light wont be inside from the side, but only the top and bottom.

If painting the resin on the bottom, you may want to make sure you have white or something first to make sure the red shows up against the blakc bottom of the base.

Maybe a medium white gray undercoating for the bottom to reflect the red back slightly, but stil not show the full black bottom through the blood/bone mix.

This page has some info on how to put things in water for terrain effects that you may find helpful.

 

[mickc22]

I\'ve made up some deep water bases and I\'ve made up the molds

thought I had some pics of them but not on this PC it seems, I can take some new ones if you want to see if they are suitable

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by StarFyre
My question is, would you cut out the top of a base. Glue it to plasticard (for the new bottom) and then use that OR make a perfectly square base (GW bases are sloped) and make it deeper (ie. maybe the height isn\'t enough? the skulls or whatever i sculpt inside...depends how much should be visible?)
I want to then cast them in resin to make a lot for an army.

OK Sanjay You\'ve pretty much hit the nail on the head her.
If you want them deeper there is a \"trick\" you could try. (It\'s a bit wasteful but it works)
Firstly mount the GW Square bases onto something like 60 or 80 Plasticard. The you need the help of someone with a \'Morticer\' (A woodworking drill press which cuts square holes) to cut out the tops of the bases. It\'ll also cut out the bottoms so you will then need to remount the remains of the bases onto some 60 or 80 plasticard.
Then you are good to let you imagination go wild.
4mm Cork tile and Plasticard work wonders making bases inserts.
Have fun.

 

[mickc22]

this is what I\'ve got so far

 

[Shadzar]

???

Im confused, you bought those or made them, and how if made?

Are they deep enough for what you need them to do?

 

[mickc22]

I made them, they are as deep as the base, can\'t go any deeper

the GW type are masters that I\'ve made ready for molding

the black ones are resin one I\'ve cast, I just sprayed them black so they stand out better in the pic, the resin I use is cream colored

 

[Shadzar]

AH! That explains the top pics then. Well they look good so far!

Which bloody mes are you going to try? Resin and some ink, or trying some ink in 5 minute epoxy just poured over your painted bones?

If the only resin you can find is cream colored, the clear epoxy might work, but I don\'t know how well it takes ink. Food colouring didn\'t work to well for me for reds.

 

[QuietiManes]

Instead of filling a base with skulls and clear resin, why not just use some flat sheets of plasticard and then put the skulls on that, THEN just pour the resin on top of that? Leaving the sides clear. It would be a bit of work to set up the base with some sort of retainer to hold the resin while it cures though (no more than drilling out bases and gluing bottoms and all that though, I wouldn\'t think, this sounds like a lot of work, plus the sides will obscure a lot of the details, the bases are small enough after all).

 

[Dragonsreach]

Quietmanes, the commission is for an army and by the sounds of it has to be tournament legal (for GW).

 

[mickc22]

...and if I\'ve already (almost) got the bases ready for molding and casting, Sanjay can concentrate on painting the army and leave all that effort to me

If I\'ve got time I might even have a go at making some skull inserts, not sure if I have enough skulls tho

 

[mickc22]

the molds are done for bevel sided (GW style) 25mm round and and square bases, gonna do some preliminary casting tonight to check for quality

 

[Shadzar]

Originally posted by mickc22
the molds are done for bevel sided (GW style) 25mm round and and square bases, gonna do some preliminary casting tonight to check for quality

Are the molds going to produce only the pit bases, or will they include the skulls as part of the molds so that the only thing needed is painting the skulls and adding the medium to emulate the liquid in the pit, or leave out the liquid and add flocking for various forms of skulls lined pits as bases?

Sounds like something I might be interested in buying a few of either way.

 

[mickc22]

at the moment just the empty base, I\'m playing around with making some skeletal inserts, no reason they couldn\'t be cast together to make a single base I suppose

 

[Shadzar]

Originally posted by mickc22
at the moment just the empty base, I\'m playing around with making some skeletal inserts, no reason they couldn\'t be cast together to make a single base I suppose

Just thinking it might be easier to cast the boney bits in than making them one at a time, but then also when I think about it, you end up with a few bases all the same.

Either way if it doesn\'t violate GW IP to sell them I still might be interested in cavity/pit bases. Maybe other people would to to save on making them themselves. I can\'t wait to see progress either way on the project as a whole.

 

[mickc22]

I might get some preliminary castings done tonight or tomorrow to check on quality

I picked up some more silicone today so I can do the mold for the rounded edge bases shortly too