When you look at a figure on the wargames table, you’re usually looking down and across at it. You can often see a fair bit of the base and it’s not unusual that you can see quite a lot of base. If it looks good then your figure, as a whole, will look better. There is a gotcha here though. You don’t want to overdo to base. If it looks better than the figure or is an inappropriate colour it can detract from the overall effect.
Don’t know about you, but I never heard of anyone going off to war carrying a plinthe to stand on. Thos figures which come on metal bases already need filling around this so it doesn’t look daft.
Those readers who only play GW games might be a little confused. Let me assure you outside the world of GW slotta-bases are in the minority.
I like to fill bases after painting and varnishing is complete. I don’t seem to have a problem avoiding getting the filler on the figures and you need to wait until this stage if you’re mounting a bunch to a stand like for DBx.
I use any old filler – tetrion or pollyfilla. Doesn’t much matter which, although tertrion is kind of grey which is arguably a plus. To this I add some cheap acrylic black and umber. Not only will this set tougher, it will not be as noticeable if it chips later.
I believe filler is called spackle over in the states.
Recently I had to do some tiling and tried some of the grout. This also works fine. Don’t know about mixing paint with it so I just painted it once set.
If you’re broke you can save a few pennies by mixing sand with the filler.
Where you have multiple figures on a base, there is another technique you may find useful Daub PVA on the base and sprinkle sand on. You may have to repeat once dry. This will become rock hard. Particularly with small figures like individual 10mil then it can be tricky to get around the bases and you can use the PVA to stick them on at the same time. Paint the tops of the bases with PVA first.
You can sort of mix and match the sprinkling with filling. Mix your filler thin, slap it on and sprinkle sand to thicken up.
The current fashion is for patchy grass and whatnot over earth rather than plain grass. For this you need some earth.
With the sprinkling methods you already have texture so you just need to add colour. Slop on a thinned mix of cheap acrylics. For “normal” earth I use a mix of umber and black. Lighter colours include leather or fawn. Once dry you need to damp brush this with a lighter colour. Fawn for regular earth. Fawn and leather or off-white otherwise.
If you filled the bases then you have no texture and have to glue sand or regular dried earth over this. I often use dried earth out my back garden. It’s advisable to slam earth in your oven for a while before using it like this in order to minimize the risk of anything growing later or even tetanus.
You want a thinned mix of that cheap black and umber acrylics and PVA thinned to about single cream consistency. Paint it on and then dollop a little more on to make sure it’s good and thick. Dip your base into a small container of earth and shake of the excess.
Soil like this will look more interesting if you have “Bits” in it. You can add various things in but I recommend dried tea leaves. These contain so much tannin that little can live on them. Check some out, they don’t look like you expect.
I reckon too much bits and bobs is distracting, YMMV.
My preference is for something will look like tufted rough grass. I mix up a variety of fine cork flock or fine foam that seems to be easier to get hold of nowadays.
My mix includes dark, mid and light green, yellow and brown. This is stirred up in a small container has a top to it.
Thin PVA with water and dob splodges on the base with an old ragged brush. Dip in your container of greenery.
Once this has dried, complete the process using mixed colour static grass.
You might be wondering why bother with the initial flock if you’re using static grass?
SG goes on quite fine and you’ll be able to see the earth through it so it looks too dark and “thin”.
I’ve seen a few people asking how to get static grass to stand up. I’ve never had this problem. I keep the stuff in a plastic container with a lid, sprinkle it on… it stands up. If I keep in a cardboard box it also stands up…. If I just dip the base into a container of the stuff, guess what? It stands up.