gaarew

OK, so in my last entry, I talked a little bit about preparation. It was probably a bit muddled, as I'd been nightshift, well, guess what... I was nightshift last night too. Still, I did take a picture of my (relatively clean) scratch-built Spartan workstation. The reason it is a Spartan workstation, is because it holds 300 paints...


This picture has all the makings of a name all the models in sight competition...

Sadly, it doesn't hold all my paints, just the Foundry, P3 and Vallejo's. The GW paints have been relegated to a drawer. I don't know what I'm going to do when I pick up more Foundry paints and the Army Painter ones. Maybe buy a bigger desk...

Now, I must admit, I've taken part in one of these challenges before, although, it wasn't for any sort of competition, just a full twelve month thing. I found it pretty simple, because, I just picked up whatever I wanted based on the budget, and painted it up. This time, things are a little bit different. The main thing being the actual Clash of Kings tournament at the end of the challenge. It means I need to plan things out a bit more, rather than just dodging along doing whatever takes my fancy on budget day. This is the real challenge.

I've done a bit of thinking about this, and, as I've said before, tournament play really isn't my thing. I'm not super competitive, and I'd much rather just have a laugh pushing cool models around the table for a couple of hours with some mates. Still, I can't let the Overlords down, so I guess I have to actually look like I'm planning a highly competitive force, that I'll be wielding like a master-crafted weapon at the event...

That's one of the things though, because we are building our armies up bit by bit, I need a way to actually get some practise games in before the list is finalised, otherwise, I'm stuck with it, and if it is going to be a flop, I'd rather know now, and see if there is some way I can salvage a little bit of face.

One idea that appeals to me, and ties in with all my past planning, is to build up all my unit bases for my list. This means that well, I don't have to worry about them for the rest of the challenge, and more importantly, I can use them on the table, as they will be the footprint of whatever unit is still to be bought. Yes, it's hardly the most aesthetic way of gaming, but, it's the only real way of giving the list a proper workout before the Clash of Kings. Worst case scenario and my list sucks, all I've lost is a few hours making bases, rather than a lot of time and budget buying and painting up full units. Method in the madness, see? I could use proxies, but, then I run the risk of being distracted by something else and not concentrating on the Orcs...

So, having deceided to build and paint all the bases, I figured I'd do a little tutorial on how I went about making mine. It's not the only way of doing snow type bases, and the finished results have a cartoony element to them, which I like, and think fits well with my painting style. Your mileage may vary.

So, here is a bit of a run down on how to get a set of snow multi-bases, just like mine. Of course, if you don't fancy snow, some of the first steps are still applicable to any type of multibase. I'm not entirely sure if there is an image limit on blog posts, so this may have to be done in multiple parts. In any case, once it is complete, I will stick it all up in a thread in the Painting section for future reference.

Snowscape Unit Bases - A How To.

You will need -

Materials

2mm mdf sheet, or pre-cut bases
double sided tape
foam card/foamcore
polyfilla
pieces of slate/cork/gravel
clump foliage/static grass/tufts

Tools

scalpel
file/sandpaper
long bladed knife/bread knife
sculpting tool or coffee stirrer
old paintbrush
araldite/hot glue gun
cutting mat

Paints - these are the exact colours I used, if you don't have them, look them up, pick something similar from whatever manufacturer you like.

Army Painter Uniform Grey primer
Games Workshop Charandon Granite (Stormvermin Dirge)
GW Kommando Khaki
GW Dheneb Stone
GW Devlan Mud
Wargames Foundry Tomb Blue light 23C
WF White 33C


Step 1

Cut out a piece of mdf the size of the unit footprint you want to make. Alternatively, just order them pre-cut from an online supplier. I recommend Warbases.co.uk, as Martin is local, and doesn’t mind me turning up at the door with any unusual requests.

Step 2

Attach the doublesided tape to one side of your base. Press this firmly against the foam card, and allow to bond.

Step 3

Cut around your base using your scalpel, aim to keep the edges as straight as possible. Once the base is free, bevel the edges. You don’t need to aim for perfection, a gentle slope works fine.







Step 4

Using your long bladed knife or breadknife, remove the uppermost layer of coard from the foamcard, and break up the surface a bit.





Step 5

Using araldite or your hot glue gun, stick down a few pieces of slate to the top of the base. Pay particular attention during this stage, as you will need to leave enough room to attach the figures. Let this dry thoroughly. For added realism, you can add small pieces of gravel or sand around the slate, but this will probably end up hidden so is entirely optional.



Step 6

Apply a layer of pollyfilla to the top and sides of the base using your paintbrush/coffee stirrer. Keep it pretty wet, and try and avoid getting any air bubbles in it. Make sure you cover all of the exposed foam, or the spray primer will cause it to dissolve. You can also add some to the top of the slate to represent more fallen snow. Allow this to dry, preferably overnight, then file or sandpaper the edges smooth.

Wet


Dry


Step 7

Spray the entire thing with Army Painter Uniform Grey Spray primer, or any other grey primer for that matter.




OK, so, it looks like it is a 10 image limit per blog post, which is fine as that is us up to the ready to rock 'n' roll stage. I'll continue this in my next post, which means, if you are so inclined, you have a week to get a hold of the materials, tools and paints, and play catch up. So, that's it for another week, join me next time for another harrowing journey into the deep dark places of my mind.

Comments and criticism welcome.

Cheers,

John