My Basing!

Hi Folks,

I spoke about doing a post on this a while ago, but it got put on the back burner and forgotten about. I get a lot of compliments on the basing of my models, and a few of the guys have asked me what I do. There isn't anything really unique about this technique. It's basically applying static grass to the base, then tarting it up with flowers and tufts!

Anyway, a while back I did a little video to show some of what I do, along with some pictures.

1.  Prepare the bases (and count you have the correct number!). For the Flames of War bases this is quick - I generally just trim along the bottom edges just to make sure there is no flash or anything here. I also make sure the edge where they base has been attached to the sprue is nice and clean. Normally I would just use a scalpel for this.

As I put acrylic resin on the bases before I put any models on, I also score the surface of the base. I used to do this by scratching a zig zag pattern in 2 different directions on the surface, but recently I came up with a quicker way of doing this. I have a very fine toothed saw (like a hacksaw, but with slightly more raised teeth) and I drag this over the base in 2 directions. Much quicker and safer!

2.  Applies to the way I base my mini's. I dislike the idea of putting basing medium near finished minis, as I will get it all over them. As such I put the medium on the bases and then cut holes in it once it's dry. The Acrylic Resin I use just peels off and leaves a nice space for the infantry figures to be glued to the base directly. The trick is getting the resin to a decent depth so that the bases are not pronounced. This method is probably more time consuming that others.

Apply the resin to the surface of the base. I have used a small spoon for this in the past, but recently started using a small 'pallet knife' I got from a painting supplies shop. I believe it's purpose is for mixing oil paints? It allows me to put the resin on the base and then spread it around. At this point I don't worry about the resin being in the wrong place, so long as the base is covered.

3.  Once the resin is dry, using a scalpel I cut off the excess. Once this is done, the base should look like this:

4.  A apply a coat of by basing colour. For my FoW stuff I use 'Flat Earth' (Vallejo Model Color 143 (70.983))

The trick here is just to put a good dollop of paint directly onto the base, and then use a rubbish but big brush just to make sure the base is covered.

This paint is actually one I go through most of - followed by English Uniform and Russian Uniform (my Infantry and Tank base colours!).

5.  Once dry, put a dollop of PVA onto the base, and again use a poor quality brush to cover the top surface. I try to avoid getting any on the beveled edges, but if I do, it's no big deal.

6.  Apply the static grass! I use a 'Spring meadow blend' which seems to be a mix of the common 'spring' and 'summer' static grasses. For the 15mm models I think it's a 2mm length grass. I would caution you - if your planning on doing a big army, and want the basing to be the same, take a note of which make and colour you use, else you could end up with variation over the army...

Video of the application process can be found here:

But basically I use a washing up liquid (Dish Soap?) bottle with the stopper removed. this is filled with the grass and given a good shake before use! A funnel of some sort is very useful for getting the static grass into the bottle. You will also need a tub to put the bases in while you squirt them, in order to not be quite so messy. And to be able to retrieve the grass that didn't end up on the base!

7.  Once the grass is on, and the whole thing is dried, the base looks like this:

As you can see, the grass is stuck to the sides and is generally a bit scruffy.

What I do next is take a scalpel and carefully cut along the top of the beveled edges. I then use the same scalpel to carefully scrape the glue and grass from the sides of the base. When I'm done, it looks like this:

Better, but still scruffy!

My next step is to take a small pair of scissors - actually nail scissors I picked up for 99p in a super market - oh, the looks A gives me when I turn up with 'random' things for the shopping basket! I use the scissors to do some 15mm landscaping... generally trimming the grass along the top edge and surface. Just to make sure everything is a similar length, etc. It should end up looking like this:

Neater!

8.  Touch up the sides of the base with Flat Earth again (I also sometimes do the bases without painting the sides before I apply the grass, to save a little time and paint. However most times I forget!). The end result looks like this:

If you want to, at this stage you could also give the flat earth sections a coat or two of varnish - although I rarely do.

So that's the basic's of how I get the grass on. The rest is simple - for this base I glued a model directly onto the surface by applying superglue to the underside of the tracks and pressing down until it was fixed in place.

The pick what tufts you want to use. I aim to put 8 per base on - 2 each of White and Yellow flowers (Mininatur 726-21 S 'Tufts with Blossom Spring') , short tufts (Mininatur 717-22 S 'Short Tufts Summer') and long tufts (Mininatur 717-22 S 'Long Early Fall'). I apply these by dabbing some superglue on the base where I want it. The tip for this is to glue the model onto the base first!

As to which tufts to use - there are any number of styles of these, and it's just about picking the style that suits your army. Tufts can be used to unify the army, or to mark out different types of bases (use purple flowers on commend bases, or one platoon uses all one colour, etc).

This particular base went on to become:

I also use my little scissors to trim the tufts as well, just to make sure they are neat - 15mm landscaping!

The very last thing I do with my bases is apply some thin 'steel paper' to the underside, so that the bases stick to the magnetic sheeting I use for my storage.

And thats it! Thanks to Bob for getting on my case about this tutorial!

How to: Using 'Tufts' - MiniNatur product review

Hi folks,

The other week a few people had commented on the materials I was using on my basing. I thought it might be worth a quick blog on the products I use. When I started basing my infantry units I had bought some ArmyPainter tufts. The pack was quite small and I got through it pretty quickly. A few months later I was at one of the Scottish wargame shows and came across MiniNatur. These packs were roughly the same price as the much smaller ArmyPainter products and are of just the same quality.

The packs I have open and have used look like this - the actual new packs are obviously a lot fuller!:

Basing wise I start a layer of acrylic resin which I then trim down and paint with Vallejo Flat Earth. A quick coat of PVA then a few squirts of static grass from my home made applicator (A washing up bottle!) and the base is ready for detailing.

Normally I would glue the model to the base at this point and then add the tufts afterwards. I put a dab of superglue on the static grass then I use hobby tweezers to take the tufts off the backing and press them gently onto the superglue.

I messed up slightly by not putting the model on this base first! As a result I had to move some of the tufts so the tank was sitting correctly. I also use some nail scissors just to trim the odd sprouty sections from the tufts and any of the static grass that is over the sides of the base.

The pictures were taken under normal lights rather than my daylight bulb, so they look a little yellow/brown. The finished article looks like this:

The tufts go quite far on vehicle models as you only have to do around the edges. You can use slightly more on large artillery bases and less on medium bases. I just try to vary the placing on each base to make them distinct. I find that they break up what would otherwise be large plain spaces.

I payed  £4.25 for each of the MiniNatur packs and they have lasted me quite a while. I only purchased the new ones as the old packs are getting quite sparse. I also know that I have to go back over all my older bases and bring them up to the standard of the new ones!

So there you go, a quick and easy method of making your plain old static grass bases look good without using that horrible lichen/horse hair stuff. The MiniNatur products seem to be great quality and you definitely get your money's worth.

Basing

While working on finishing off the models I've been picking away at for the last few months(...), it occurred to me that I hadn't really detailed what I am doing for the basing of my mini's. Maybe I did a while ago, but I took a pic of what my rough process is.

So I start with my standard base - either a FoW one or one from Warbases. I try to keep units all on the same type of base - so for example all the half tracks I have done have Warbases large size bases.

I've mentioned a few times my reasoning behind basing everything. A lot of the FoW models come moulded on bases and I feel that if one thing has a base on it, everything should. It rattles some internal cage of mine seeing Universal Carriers that look out of scale next to Shermans... purely because the UC are on a base.

The base also provided a better transport solution (magnets) and stops the track to track car park look. The one that one of Battlefronts 'rangers' tells me never happens but that I see on battle reports all the time.

Here's the photo:

The 'Dark Earth' is a acrylic resin from Vallejo (26.218) and is basically a dark grey colour. I apply this to a base that has been well scored in a zigzag pattern by a craft knife. Usual (recently) I have just been using a teaspoon to scoop out the amount I need and then roughly flatten it down. The nice thing about the resin is that it can be cut and trimmer as required when it's dry.

Once it's dry and trimmed, I paint it all Vallejo Model Color Flat Earth (70983). If I am spraying matt varnish around this time I will also give it a spray of that just to seal it. A tip I picked up from Paul, Davey and YD was that if you are using wooden bases you should varnish all of them - including the under side. This means if water should ever get into your mini's, the bases don't swell up and become ruined. 

For bases with infantry, I just press the infantry down, then cut out a rough rectangle that they will fit in. Superglue on the hole and then press the mini in.

Then I paint the bases of the infantry flat earth and let that dry. Then cover the top of the base in PVA and using my home made squirty bottle of static grass (a washing up liquid bottle with the stopper removed) I fire the static grass onto the bases with little puffs of air.

For vehicle bases I just PVA and static grass, then superglue the model onto the base.

The last stage is some dabs of PVA and then application of scrub bushes and flowers (currently from MiniNatur). I'm not one for piles of stones or the likes, as my men are fighting in well cultivated Normandy. Similarly I don't like ruins, rubble, etc. Although to be fair it is a bit daft when my tanks sit on a road with their grass bases - but I'm not quite at the madness of interchangeable bases depending on the tabletop terrain.....