How do you base figures & terrain your bases?

[UrbinoPrince]

Instructions & pictures welcomed!

[imp522]

moved to more appropriate forum.

[Norseman]

I always prime everything with a MATT Enamel spray. Black for realistic minis and white for lighter coloured minis or cartoony/comicbook style. I live in Canada so I use Canadian Tire Generic brand for $2.93 per can. All these guys spending $20 on GW spray. (Shakes head)

[NuWishA]

I just don't primer anything.

Because painting is lame.

[jul]

Dragonforge bases... simply the best ones!

when i was student and poor, i used cork and sand.
just stick a piece of cork on the base with enough surface to glue the model, cover the edge with sand and glue and that's it, pretty simple, quite cheap and can be painted in different effects.

painting was quite easy after that, black primer mixed with small amount of varnish, then successive dry brush over it from dark to light. ends fine a fine lining over the prominent edges. finish everything with a glaze of darker color, Matte varnish at the end.

J

[MagickalMemories]

I love my resin bases.
My first resin bases were Epicast. They're VERY GOOD, but they do not compare to Dragonforge.

Eric

[Smedley]

Black primer, always. I use dark or dusky colors as my basecoats so I start with liberal drybrushing of that basecoat over the black, which leaves some spotty areas in crevices but that's a good thing. Then I start building up layers and doing my highlighting, so the areas that the eye is drawn to look smooth and even but the shadowy recesses are a little gritty. For basing, I've always liked basing that is irregular/uneven i.e. not a perfectly flat surface with just a little flock and static grass. I found Home Depot has a small (1-2 lb) tub of pre-mixed concrete patch that you can spread like paste, it's got a sticky wet sand consistency, and it's also an adhesive so you can stick things in it/onto it and it'll hold them in place. It dries rock hard and with a texture that takes very well to washes, drybrushing, or just about any kind of painting you'd like. Since I found it I've hardly used anything else, except for the odd pieces of bark or cork for specific details.

[kturock]

I use to only use flat white or flat black primer from the mart stores.
Now I've found a primer and base coat all in one. Two companies; montana gold, that's the line, gold, not the color and Liqutex.

Both are found it art stores and...most Michaels. Michael's usually has a 50% coupen for 1 item each week. or 49% off the entire sale. It's locked up in a cage usually.
The paint runs about $9 a can, before the discount; but you can get any color you want and incorporate base coating and primering in 1 step.
Liqitex seems a little 'thicker' so I use Montana whenever possible.

I'll be posting some necron warriors I painted Montana silver in the constest in the next week or so. I also have some Crimson Fists chapter marines. I've based them blue, and just have to paint the fists and details. They actually have an Ultramarine Blue. [the models were named after the color paint, not the color paint after the models. no matter what GW tries to say.]

For baseing, I use craft sand glued to the base and then paint/wash/drybrush as needed.
I recently found in Home Depot, Martha Stewart paint. The have a 10 ounce tub for $6. They have most metalics and textured paints. Bolt gun metal for 60 cents an ounce. They also have a 'crackle' paint that shrinks as it dries. You'd have to put it on the bases before you build the model. It has the color of dried mud. Add detail and you'd be done. I want to experiment with it and see if it can be painted lighter colors, like snow.

A couple of the local players, use self-adhesive cork stips and layer them on the bases. Then they've painted them as volcano/magma and are experimenting with ice/snow.

[bluemeenie]

Michaels also has come matt paints in teh oils section that will dry with a gritty or rocky texture. They also have some really cool stuff that dries like big rock-crete sections. slap it on generously and then use some of the newer GW texture paints and it is amazing.

I use everything when it comes to bases...just depends on what style I want. Dragonforge or other CMON store bases are cool if you want to put know thought into it and get really cool results, but sometimes you end up seeing your basese everywhere. If you have the time and inclination then I raid train hobby stores, I use platicard...or anything else I can get my hands on.

If you look at the dark angels pics I posted in the painting challange that is just a fairly thick piece of plasitcard cut to look like bricks and then a bag of rocks I got at the train hobby store white glued on and sealed with primer. I then black airbrushed it and painted the bricks different shades of red and dry brushed the rocks muliple shades of grey.

I use old spruces to make tank traps and battlefield debris..terrain is the funnist part of this hobby as there really is not restrictions...it is all YOUR creation.