Help with basing.

So i'm going to start making the bases for my army. I have what I believe is going to be a pretty good system. I have a long thin and wide plank of balsa wood that I will hatch out a "cobblestone/city" pattern into. Then I will go ahead and glue all of my bases onto the back of it and cut out the bases. I did a tester and it worked pretty well actually and all of the cobblestones or whatever should be identical in size. Then after that I will mar each of them up and add rubble death and grass. (I think the bright green jade grass will look good if i can make it look like its growing up through cracks or small holes and stuff.) Here's just a basic one i did to test and I want some peoples opinions. One side the hatch marks are deeper and the other not so much. I think the deeper ones are the way to go because you loose the depth in the dry brush, I will be airbrushing these though. So if any of you have made nice cityscape bases along the same line please chime in!!

https://i.imgur.com/x8gAJ4I.jpg

One thing I remembered after is that I need to stagger the squares for cobblestone. More tips appreciated.

I agree with you about the deeper scoring. That looks pretty sweet on the whole.

Its definitely a good start but I need to get some more ideas and see some more examples. Im scouring youtube trying to find something, ill know it when i see it.

Might be helpful, so I tell you, how I based my army. Simple, but good looking.
First, I painted the whole base in deneb stone. Then I glued it completely with a pale sand,
I got from someone, who builds sidewalks and footways. After that, I finished them with
Middenland Grass and small gravels. Looks like a stone dessert, with small grass tufts.

edit: found an old photo on gw's facebook page:



Yeah. I know, not much of a painter in me, but it's enough to play some funny games.

Mhh cobblestone from balsa wood is tricky in my opinion. The medium is soft and you'll probably rip your model off the balsa when you poke it at an odd angle. That said you might struggle to get a model to stick on that in the first place, that is plastic, let alone metal models should you have any.

What I think you need is a sturdier medium to build upon, plasticard and pvc plates spring to mind here, you'd have to cut little tiles and then glue them on the base individually. This is more work, but will also hold longer, since the plastics will be molten together, while the porous wood will likely not stick that well to anything.

There is also the problem of the wood pattern showing through, looking odd. Of course plasticard won't have any texture at all, but you can either go over it with a rough sand paper or paint some structure paint on it to make it look like stone. Most department stores sell a foundation for freshly plastered walls that has a very fine grain structure to it. I did a whole gaming table with it and I'm very happy. Maybe that will work on a small scale as well.

That's my 2ct. That said your first experiment looks alright, you could stick to that and just make the scoring deeper. But I think you could develop a better method in general.

Ive tried working on Balsa wood before , ive based my riptide with it and i just soaked the thing in glue haha. I dropped my riptide on saturday and it broke at the ankle and the foot stayed connected to the balsa wood but the wood disconected from itself. It sticks well what I will due is afterwards I will coat it in a watered down elmers wood glue or something similar. Also I never intended to glue the models to the base you need to go plastic on plastic so I will be pinning the models to the base.

Here is what the riptides base looked like before i primed it.

https://i.imgur.com/fpA0Amx.jpg

I fine tuned my cobblestone a bit and I think I have found something that will work quite well.

https://i.imgur.com/PT00oGY.jpg

You are right the medium is soft and will break but with a little finesse you can really manipulate it. I plan to add water in some cracks, tufts of grass sticking out through cracks, battle damage and other basic blood and gore. The first picture i posted was a dummy to see if i could get a product and after just the paint the balsa wood is darn firm I can mar it with my fingernail but i have to press hard and the wood doesn't show through.

Working with this balsa wood will allow me to add geometric elevation like steps curbs gardens etc. ultimately I would like to make a board cut out the pieces and have them be able to place back in to have a seamless diorama, but I don't think that will happen any time soon. More updates soon its too late to do more.


And zenotaph I really like the base, it reminds me of some sort of salt flats!

The new cobblestone looks good. If not for the durability I have no objections whatsoever You seem to be able to use the intrinsic structure of the balsa to good effect.

Its_Rumble wrote:

And zenotaph I really like the base, it reminds me of some sort of salt flats!

I made them, because it was easy to realize. And yes, its salt dessert look was intended.
Yours are looking pretty well, too, but are much more complicated. Thumbs up from me!!