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Post by Sleepy Hollow Mike on Feb 15, 2014 9:47:43 GMT
I was wondering how some of you guys base your minis? I am using the what I like to call outdoors method of basing with a natural stone texture and grass flock. I was wondering if any of you fellas use something different to mimic indoor bases?
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Post by forsaken on Feb 15, 2014 15:47:25 GMT
I personaly like to use Games-Workshop greenstuff to sculpt plank floor or stone. It is easy all you need next is a needle.
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Post by adamantinedragon on Feb 15, 2014 17:08:34 GMT
I think basing my minis is my next step up the ladder of miniatures as artwork. Up until now my bases have mostly been stuff I glue my minis onto so they don't fall down in play. In fact most of the nearly 1,000 minis I have that I based myself (about 600 of which were Mage Knight minis I rebased) were simply glued onto 1/2", 1" or 2" wooden disks I bought in bulk from an online wooden supply store. A good bit of them are actually based on cheap poker chips I bought at a dollar store. Most of the bases are only "painted" in the sense that if they were on the mini when I painted it, the paint slopped all over the base.
I realize now that makes for a very sloppy presentation of the miniature.
So I'm going to start making the base more of an integral part of my minis in the future.
If I ever get back to painting minis. I've got so much else in my queue right now. My work table is overflowing right now with Hirst Arts cast blocks that I need to assemble and paint. Sigh... I suppose it's good that this is a hobby you never run out of things to do.
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Post by Sleepy Hollow Mike on Feb 16, 2014 14:22:13 GMT
I personaly like to use Games-Workshop greenstuff to sculpt plank floor or stone. It is easy all you need next is a needle. Does it get pricey? I have some green stuff but I cant see me basing even a tenth of my minis with that stuff. I bet they come out great tho!.....Hmmm... Where did I put my Green Stuff again?
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Post by adamantinedragon on Feb 16, 2014 16:56:20 GMT
There are much less costly options to green stuff. I use "Apoxie Sculpt" a lot for my sculpting. It's probably 1/5 the cost by mass of green stuff and it provides more than enough detail and strength for modifying bases. Most of the bases I've seen that use epoxy putty start with a plastic, wooden or metal foundation and build on that. In some cases I've seen pebbles or sand used to provide some bulk so that the use of putty is kept to a minimum.
I also use a lot of Sculpey clay, which is much cheaper even than Apoxie Sculpt but isn't as strong.
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Post by wilmanric on Feb 16, 2014 21:11:51 GMT
I personaly like to use Games-Workshop greenstuff to sculpt plank floor or stone. It is easy all you need next is a needle. Have you posted any examples? I'd love to see some!
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Post by pwnerator on Feb 17, 2014 1:37:06 GMT
I use Beer caps! They look great I think. Plus I'm never going to run out of them They are a bit bigger than 1 inch though. Then i just use sand and glue and paint as needed. I can make quite a few different bases with just those two things. Not by much though!
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Post by adamantinedragon on Feb 17, 2014 4:18:04 GMT
I've used plastic soda bottle caps as bases too.
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Bael
Room Planner
Posts: 288
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Post by Bael on Feb 18, 2014 18:51:59 GMT
I was wondering how some of you guys base your minis? I am using the what I like to call outdoors method of basing with a natural stone texture and grass flock. I was wondering if any of you fellas use something different to mimic indoor bases? I don't like to go crazy with player character minis. I use metal ones (METAL\m/) and use JB Weld to fix them to either coins or wooden discs. I try to blend it to cover the original base. It dries hard and I just paint the bases a gray/green. I find this color allows the details of the figure to pop. I like it better then black. I'm not into flocking these just keeping them simple and functional. Now for monsters, I'll flock, add rocks, etc. I'll use wooden discs or squares. I rebased some Heroclix Sasquatches and primed them up for painting to be used as Yetis. They look quite menacing. I am working on basing some of those LJN PVC dwarves to convert to Fire Giants. Too bad I'm camera-less for the time being.
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Post by bloodchoke on Feb 18, 2014 23:55:30 GMT
I've been using fender washers, usually attached to a wooden disc, and build from there. Usually I just use rocks, sand and a bit of moss or static grass for plant life. I've been playing with cork a bit too. It makes great rock texture and elevates the miniature higher off the table, which is great for boss monsters and PCs. Downside is that it's rather soft, but a coat or two of white glue hardens it a bit. For bulk, sand is definitely the way to go imo, but the cork is another option for creatures you really want to stand out.
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Post by matakishi on Feb 22, 2014 15:06:49 GMT
I used to base miniatures differently depending on their settings but these days everything is based with a generic 'dried earth with grass patches' motif. I can use any of my miniatures with any others which, since I tend to design and play games that can employ many different genres, suits me fine. If you're just dungeoneering you may want to choose a different style, probably one that matches a stone floor or similar. Depending on the number of miniatures you have there are different ways of achieving this ranging from dedicated bases or base inserts to sculpting your own as has bee mentioned already. The simple option can be smooth bases painted either grey or with a flagstone pattern added. the one thing that remains true is that a good base will make average figures look good but a bad base will make even the best painted miniatures look poor. Some examples of my basing across genres: Zulu War Modern Afghanistan Napoleonic Sci Fi Fantasy
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Post by Sleepy Hollow Mike on Feb 22, 2014 20:08:39 GMT
WOW! Thanks for the advice Matakishi! Since I play a wide variety of skirmish games as well as RPG's I have been going with the basic dried earth with grass tuft thing. That said I have also been experimenting with the grey dried earth rubble type thing for my dungeons. BTW LOVE those minis! Nice job! I found some examples of my average basing here. These show the two basic ideas I use. The VSF steam tank uses the "out door type" and the undead have the dungean type.
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valas
Room Planner
I'm being twisted, on the sideway down.
Posts: 459
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Post by valas on Feb 23, 2014 0:40:14 GMT
I use various things to base minis. For example, my Deathwatch team I have used cork as the basing material to simulate rock slabs. I've used green stuff to make cobblestone, linoleum tiles to simulate broken concrete rubble, sand, grass tufts, granny grate and mechanical bits for sci fi. It varies based on the theme of the group or army. I do try and keeps groups consistent in theme which I believe gives a better overall visual. Experiment - see what you like and go with it.
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Post by bschummer on Feb 23, 2014 21:48:41 GMT
I use various methods for bases, but generally do rocks for cavernous creatures (kitty litter mostly), grass for outdoor creatures, and I've tried stippling techniques to simulate marble flooring (to varying degrees of success).
Also, for the bases themselves, I use a circle punch (either 1" or 28mm, available at any craft store) and punch out bases from old comic and magazine backboards. I have tons lying around and get a lot of use out of them. It made rebasing some cheap mage knight and heroclix minis a breeze.
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Bael
Room Planner
Posts: 288
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Post by Bael on Feb 25, 2014 14:04:10 GMT
WOW! Thanks for the advice Matakishi! Since I play a wide variety of skirmish games as well as RPG's I have been going with the basic dried earth with grass tuft thing. That said I have also been experimenting with the grey dried earth rubble type thing for my dungeons. BTW LOVE those minis! Nice job! I found some examples of my average basing here. These show the two basic ideas I use. The VSF steam tank uses the "out door type" and the undead have the dungean type. Why mount a tank?
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Post by sgtslag on Feb 25, 2014 14:18:04 GMT
Some folks base their tanks to prevent damage to the tread's paint, to avoid handling the model itself (pick it up using the base, not the model; some folks use magnets on the base's bottom, to secure them for storage/transport); to make them fit in better, visually, with all of the other mounted figures (infantry, gun squads, jeeps, trucks, etc.); and some rules even require bases of a particular size and/or shape, for measuring movement, and what I call, "zone of control," or to represent the unit's occupied area, or footprint. Cheers!
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Bael
Room Planner
Posts: 288
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Post by Bael on Feb 25, 2014 18:32:32 GMT
That makes sense, especially a fiddly model. Nothing worse then doing treads on tank models. I just couldn't picture a based tank in a street scene. I have about 100+ Roco tanks/sp guns/trucks/halftracks not based and they look so excellent on any terrain. They are quite sturdy as compared to glued models.
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dmandrew
Cardboard Collector
cuttin' cardboard
Posts: 22
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Post by dmandrew on Feb 27, 2014 7:23:00 GMT
i use cardboard wrapped in cardstock for oddities.
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Post by bloodchoke on Feb 28, 2014 19:46:03 GMT
Just remembered these videos, so thought I would share. The first uses apoxy, the second styrene sheets.
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Post by grym247 on Feb 28, 2014 21:23:39 GMT
Some really great pics here guys. Any chance of some pics of your armies going up in the mini gallery?
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