Basic Desert Basing
Beginner | Rating: 8.33 Votes: 6
Views: 7787 | By: steelcult  |
| Category: General Subcategory: Brushes and tools | Date: 2009-12-12 00:47:27 |
|
|
So you've decided you need to base your Fremen or your Harkonens or your modern US Marines - but need some ideas of what you should use or how to do it. Well, thats what this is all about - I've spent a bit of time in the sand, and thought I should pass that on to ya'll.
The bases I'm using in this example come from our own DragonForge Designs and can be found at www.dragonforge.com.
Now, on to the basing.
I start with a mix of fine sand, two kinds of local sand (large grain sand and a loess or powdered clay we refer to as moon dust), and small, medium and large model railroad ballast. I mix this all together and then place it in a convienient open toped bin (in this case the top off a KoolAid container).
As you can see, I've left the clumps and such from the local sand in the mix, as well as any lumps that have fallen from earlier bases. This helps give you a few large-ish rocks that blend in with the rest of the base.
So, now that we have our mix, our next step is the base itself -
These were cleaned and primed using a color called desert tan (wonderfull how that worked, no?) and then a layer of white glue followed by a dip in the mix of basing materials - 
Let it dry and keep laying on the materials until you get the desired effect.
Once you've got the level of coverage you desire, let the piece dry over night, then its time to move onto the next step. Since this step is the same if you ware using a base you have covered or a premade base, I'll be showing the basing steps using one of Jeffs fine bases.
Next step is to cover the piece with an off white color -
From here, you start adding washes of color - now since the desert that surrounds me is two tone - off red on top with the light tan/white underneath, I wash using Burnt Sienna until I reach the level of color depth I'm looking for.
The advantage to doing things this way is just like the sands settle in the desert, the paint settles on the piece - so you get the darkest colors at the base of the rocks and such, and it lightens up just fine.
PHP Developer Blog
dimas9999.org.ua
I hope you find this useful.
|
|
|
steelcult
06 July 10 | |
@ Luie Davis - nope - I just use black on all my bases at this point.
|
Luie Davis
03 July 10 |  |
Rating: 8
Does it matter if the base trim is Black or another color?
|
No Such Agency
01 March 10 |  |
Rating: 8
Variation in particle size is the key to natural looking "rubble" or dirt bases. Your tub of mixed stuff is a great tool for this!
|
steelcult
16 December 09 | |
@ A Luna - Thus the title, Basic Basing 
|
devoncodain
16 December 09 |  |
Rating: 10
It actually is really useful Steel thanks man.
|
A Luna
15 December 09 |  |
Rating: 8
Kinda... simple 
|
Thorbjørn
13 December 09 |  |
Rating: 6
The end picture actually looks good,
I'll have a go at this. Thanks
|
|
You are not logged in. |
If you would like to leave a comment and don't have an account, please signup.
You'll get access to Vote tracking so you will never see the same miniature twice (unless you want to) and many other enhancements to your browsing experience.
|
|
|
