Anne: one more question

[Hells_Clown]

Well, one more for the moment, how's that?

 

What do you use on the bases of the figures in the Showcase? It looks like real dirt and grass.  My bases tend to look like golf courses and fake rocks.

 

Once again I invoke the power of the Paint Goddess to assist me.

 

Now you'll have to excuse me, I have to give my Lightbringer and Good Priest a green bath and make them look less shoddy! :p

 

Help me Obi-Anne Kenobi, you're my only hope!  :laugh:

[Kheprera]

Unfortunately, unless Anne has access to a computer this next week, she's at GenCon, so we'll probably have to wait on her answer.  

[Hells_Clown]

ttt

[FreeFall]

This is a great question though.  I want to take my figs tot he next level, and to me that seams to scream for a great base.  I'm one of the fill and flock crowd, but I need to move on, but I'm not sure where to start.  Perhaps some ideas and examples would be helpful.

[Domni]

I'd say she paints the bases rather than just letting ballast and misc colors remain.

 

Take a look at this:

 

CMoN base tutorial

 

I am looking foward to her reply ..but figured this was something to look at til she returned :)

[Vaitalla]

Domni's hit it on the nose, I paint 'em.  I'm ashamed to say that I just find it too bloody convenient to use GW's sand and gravel mix for basing, rather than mixing my own.  It's just got the perfect size granules for what I'm looking for...though I do add in a tiny bit more of the gravel pieces when I've gotten a bag with a really high percentage of sand.  Most of the time I'm going for dark earth tones, so I basecoat with Walnut or something just a bit lighter, wet/dry brush with a bit of Woodland or other medium brown, then a little Oiled Leather or Hawkwood if I feel like bringing it up a bit more.  Static grass varies; usually it's pure Woodland Scenics Burnt Grass, but I've made up two static grass mixes as well which incorporate bits of leaves, herbs, flocking, static grass, and even a touch of gravel or crumbled moss-type stuff.  Static grass is still the main ingredient to these mixes, though, making up about 80% of the mix.

 

--Anne

[Coyote]

I have some questions about static grass.

 

I also use woodlands scenic static grass, but it doesn't look as thick as what you have.

 

I was looking through the gallery and was amazed about how thick and lush the static grass looks on Jason Glocka's bat king.

 

What is the secret.

I've tried white glue and superglue. I used the squeeze the static grass method, so that it's staticky and doesn't clump. I've dunked and dusted, but there's always grass not sticking up, and there's always too much space between each piece, so that it's easy to see the colour of the surface underneath.

[ixminis]

Dunno if anyone has mentioned this, but get alot of static cling going on your fingers and "lift" the grass up just after you put it on the base....

 

How about I share the technique I use *when* I want really thick grass:

 

Put a manageable amount of superglue on the base:  Dump an excessive amount of static grass on top of the glue.  So much, that the glue doesn't get to your finger (at all) when you pat the grass down into it.  This should give you a really dense pile.

 

Repeat until you have as much of the base covered as you want.

 

Let it dry

 

Add extra layers of grass on top of your original grass (I tend to make the height of grass more or less "even" depending on how "civilized" the mini's subject matter is)...

 

Okee,

MG

[Crusoe the Painter]

Static grass...

 

Go to michaels, buy bottle with applicator tip/nozzle. Trim nozzle so the opening is about 1/8".

 

Fill with static grass.

 

Apply dots of superglue to base where you want grass. Shake bottle with static grass up to get it fluffy and staticy. Puff big ol pile of grass on glue. Really heap it on so all glue is covered. Shake off excess grass, and then puff with air to fluff it.

[Frankthedm]

er, bad joke, didn't work, gotten rid of

[Vaitalla]

My static grass method:

 

Use superglue.  Do only one smallish section of the base at a time, so that the superglue is always wet and doesn't start to set (the most I do at a time if grassing the whole thing is one quarter of the base).  I use glue that is halfway between runny and gel:  Zap a Gap CA+ (in the green bottle) most commonly.

 

After you apply the glue, dump a vast heap of grass onto it.  Tap the base lightly with a finger to get the grass to settle down into it.  Count off five seconds to let the glue "fix" the grass into place.  

 

Turn the mini over and tap the bottom of the base to knock off the excess grass.

 

Turn the mini right-side up, put your mouth on a level with the base, and blow across the base from two opposing directions to get stubborn grass to stand up better.  

 

You will always have some pieces of grass lying flat, it's the nature of grass!  :)  If you're having problems seeing through the grass to the base, paint the base a like color before grassing.  I also think that static grass looks a lot better applied in clumps or swathes over painted sand and/or gravel because the variations in the gravelled surface give it more to stick to than a dead flat base.

 

I'll ask Jason what method he uses to grass his pieces, he does get really nice results...

 

--Anne