Search the Community

I decided to open up a thread as a sort of an interactive experiment in basing. I don't see this thread as proprietary, if anyone else wants to put their own experiments in here feel free. To provide background, I am specifically looking at materials used to fill out the base on a mini after gluing it down onto a fender washer of an appropriate size. In some cases I am cutting away much of the broccoli in order for me to reposition the feet. I have used a number of materials in basing. I'll go over them to give more context. I first picked up a tube of "Squadron Green" from MicroMark at my local Hobby Store. It is relatively cheap ($4 for a tube,) but is not terribly easy to work with - it is sticky and the back is full of warnings not to use your hands or breathe the fumes. It is relatively tough - though I have used oil to prevent it from sticking to the tool, and I have found this makes it brittle in places. Two-part epoxy putty works absolutely great - I have no concerns regarding it's durability, nor do I feel any hesitation in working with it with my hands. The trouble is I believe it may well be overkill for simple basing - it is relatively expensive ($20 for two tubes,) and the level of detail it holds is entirely unnecessary if you are going to flock the base. So I am looking for a cheap alternative when I plan to cover the base. I consulted the "Basing Materials Compendium" in the forums, and found air-dried clay on it. I decided what the heck and picked up a 1 kg bag of "Polyform Model Air" from my local Michaels. It was $10, but it was 2.2 pounds. If I ever run out of this, I will be very surprised. In fact, I cut off half of the block and sealed it with my vacuum sealer, since it may well be months or years before I get to it. It is easy to work with, my concerns are its durability, which is the reason I am opening this thread. So, this is my experiment: I cut most of the brocolli off and repositioned the feet of the Bones "Orc Berserker". This left an irregular space on the base. It looks like this: I then used the clay to fill out the base. I have a dull x-acto blade, I used that to shape the clay, particularly between the legs where it is hard to get to with my fingers. When I was done, I took a bit of water and ran it around the outside to smooth out any cracks, help it adhere to the base and mini, and remove my fingerprints. The results look like this: Btw, yes, I am using old pictures. I don't have my camera here, and I don't feel it necessary to take new ones - it is the same mini and I'm using the same technique. Now, the back of the bag says let dry for 24 hours. In 24 hours we will expose it to some stress tests and see how it holds up. My reasoning is as follows: - Its a Bones mini - I'm not going to hurt the mini itself unless I take a knife to it. - Similarly the fender washer is not going to get damaged. This makes it a great test of the basing material. - We can see just how much the air-dried clay endures. - If I destroy the base, I can just redo it with another substance. Tune in tomorrow! I'll probably use a camera at that point to record the damage.

Some of these minis are done, but most I'm still working on, which is why this is in WIP. These started as plain flat bases except for the little green and grey one in the middle, which is an RAFM mini with a nicely-sculpted but too narrow base which I glued to a penny. The two on the far right are Reaper minis I glued to one-inch fender washers. The rest of them are Hasslefree minis on the slotted plastic bases that came with them, 25mm except for the little girl who is on a 15mm base. The three on the left have asphalt-effect, which I did by stippling with a small round hog's bristle brush in shades of black, white, grey, and brown. It's hard to see in the photo, but the lower left figure, a vampire, doesn't have a shadow where the other two do. The four on the front and right are stippled for grass, with a small flat hog's bristle brush held parallel to the base and subtle shades of green mixed with yellow and brown put on. The three in front center also have rocks painted on, using similar colors to the asphalt but with sable brushes using washes and blending. The two in the back have rocks and flagstones painted on with shadows and in one case lighting effects from fire, painted with sable brushes, washes and blending. All of the bases (except for that RAFM one) are flat as pancakes. A different view of the bases. A view of the grassy bases. A view of the asphalt and stone bases.