Quick Basing Tutorial

I was working on my 1st century Celt army this weekend, and thought I might post a tutorial on basing for anyone with an interest.

First off, I super glue the fig to a 1" square metal base. I've been doing this for years...mostly to facilitate storage, transport and ranking up figs into units. The metal base is magnetic, and all of my figs are stuck to magnetic stands.

So...to quickly base a fig, spread around some white glue.

Dip the base into a tub of sand...this is the stuff from GW; crushed walnut shells and all.

Let this dry.

Next, slather on some Scorched Brown paint, then let that dry. As you can see, this process is good when you're doing a lot of figs at a time...by the time you're finished the last in the batch, the first one is dry and ready to move onto the next step.

Next, I dry brush on some Vomit Brown...but of course, any orange-brown will do.

Next, dry brush on some Bleached Bone...or any off-white. As you can see, the base that the figure is on pretty much awkwardly stands out from the 1" metal base. Never fear...that's where the static grass comes in.

Finally, dab on some splotches of watered-down white glue. Make the splotches irregular in shape, but cluster them around the joint between the figure base and the metal base...this will hide the "seam" between the two bases. Then sprinkle on some static grass, tap off the excess, blow on it to get it to stand up as best it can, and presto...the fig is based and the seam is really tough to spot, especially on the game board.

Here is the current state of the Celt army project. Stuff is mostly painted, except for the details, and basing is underway. Sunday was a big production to get the shields finished off. Shield finishes are a mix of Warlord, Wargames Factory, Little Big Men and hand painting.

'Til next time!