Friday 30 January 2009

Confessions of a Basing Nazi Part 1

Greg of Gloranthan Army has asked me to describe how I do my basing.

Now I'm liberal in very many ways, but politically just to the right of Genghis Khan in terms of my approach to basing. My bases must all be exactly the right size, a standard colour and finish, matt varnished, substantially waterproof and without a hint of warping. Any figures I buy are rebased to my standard, as are most figures I sell.

In this first post I shall list the main tools I use:-


This big box of gunk largely consists of plaster and sand/small grit, but I also add a pigment to save on painting time. I also use a strong Wood Glue and a good springy palette knife that comes to a fairly fine point.


This is my static grass, and trusty Noch puffer bottle.


And this is a colour guide I made a couple of years ago, that shows the stages in the process, which I'll describe in the next post. I use it to check that my different armies are based on similar colour bases.

The 8 stages are terribly time consuming, and there must be quicker ways of achieving the same result; nonetheless this is my way, and the ONLY TRUE WAY. n.b. the colour have been a little washed out by the lighting.

5 comments:

Matt said...

What's the puffer bottle?

BigRedBat said...

Ah, that's a railway modelling trick. You fill it with the fibres, shake it around a bit, and then puff clouds of the fibres out which settle on the wood-glue. In theory static electricity makes them stand vertical.

I was sceptical, but it does work up to a point.

Once I've done the above, I turn the minis upside down, and tap hard on the underside of the base to shake loose fibres free, and then puff again.

Grégory Privat said...

Alleluya ! The Guide is there !

Hint to readers : do 10 percent of whatever he s going to explain and you ll be a grand master of basing !

BigRedBat said...

If I catch anyone skipping any steps, I will hunt them down and puff them within an inch of their lives!

cooey2ph said...

A timely read! I've been psyching myself to start texturing my bases and your entry may have done the trick to mtivate me. Thanks!