Desert Basing

[Luca]

HI all, I'm currently rebasing all my minis. I bought a first batch of 100 precut bases and made some practice (I'll try to post soon the results). Now I've oredered further 300 bases.

The problem is that I don't have any clue on the material to use for the desert base. Maybe just painting it yellow and adding some desert flock?

thank you! L.

[pmskaar]

Hi Luca

I have based a fair number of infantry and guns for desert use. Here is how I do it.

I mount my infantry on the base. I actually flock the tiny bases they come on prior to mounting on the group base. I then paint a layer of paint on and then use Woodland Scenics Earth flock and sprinkle it on while the paint is still wet. You can use another color if you want because the flock you use is not going to be the final color.
The next step is to take the color you have chosen for your desert color. I use Sherwin-Williams Ligonier Tan but you have a fair amount of latitude. I would not go too dark, too red, or too yellow in my color selection although you might want a slightly yellowish or even reddish tint to the paint and maybe not. Ligonier Tan is what I use to paint my terrain maker with as well so everything is the same base color.
What you want to do is thin the paint and carefully apply it over the floclk. Let the paint dry. Apply another coat and let dry. You may have to do this at least twice and maybe three or four times. The final result looks very nice in that the infantry will look like they are part of the base and not sticking out on top of it. The flock also gives a more rough look to the base to look like very small rocks or gravel or sand.
I have some pictures of my desert terrain on the Show Us Your Games thread on this forum. I hope this helps you out a bit.

Pete - Binpicker, Out!

[David F]

Battlefront (Fow) has a rather nice article on doing desert bases. The techniques and colors can work for any scale:
http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx ... rt_id=1744

David

[Luca]

Thank You both, but I think I'll first try Pete's system. But I was thinking that instead of glueing the figures first and then paint layer after layer, I would try to first prepare the base, carve a little hole for each figure, and try to level them, hoping that doing in such way I can speed up the production.

Bye! L.

[Mk 1]

Thank You both, but I think I'll first try Pete's system. But I was thinking that instead of glueing the figures first and then paint layer after layer, I would try to first prepare the base, carve a little hole for each figure, and try to level them, hoping that doing in such way I can speed up the production.

I have never done full desert stands. But as I now do dedicated Tunisian forces, I am trying a couple of approaches. A varient might work for desert.

First, I do like Pete's suggestion of painting the base molded on the figures before mounting them. I have not yet tried flocking them too, but I think it is worth trying.

Rather than build-up the terrain on the stands, and then carve out room for the figure's base, and rather than making the painting a seperate task, I suggest trying acrylic medium gel as your basing material. I learned this from ACWBill.

Acrylic medium gel has a texture like pudding. It starts with no color -- add whatever acrylic paint you want to make it the color you want for your stand. I use a craft acrylic paint color called "mushroom". Glop it on to a depth of about 1/2mm. Now set your figures into it, squishing around a bit so the are fully embedded into the medium. Now sprinkle with your flocking materials. I use, in order, some sand (at this scale regular sand looks like scattered rocks), some model railroad shrubbery, and some model railroad flocking.

For my Tunisian forces I am using a bit less shrubbery, a bit more sand, and then first using a dusting of flocking that is dirt colored, followed by small pinches of yellow and green grass flocking. So far I think this gives a good rough-and-dried-grasslands kind of look.

I expect using some desert yellow tinting for the medium, some extra fine sand (or railroad talus), a little bit of tan or green shrubbery (for dead or live clump bushes) and some dirt colored flocking would give a nice desert look.

The advantage of the acrylic medium gel is that you get your ground color, raised texture, and adhesion for both the figures and the flockings in one step. Much quicker. At least, to my experience.

[ferret701]

I've struggled wit this also. Currently, (and I make no guarantees this won't change...), I mount the infantry or artillery piece on Warmgames Accessories metal bases. I then use a slurry of Elmer's glue (PVC glue, IIRC, across the pond) and sand from my kids' sand box, and paint it on good and thick. This obscures the figure bases and give the terrain a nice rocky feel. I then paint the base a flat desert yellow, putting it on nice and thick. Then I dry brush a lighter sand color over it to give it some depth. Finally, I wash random bit with a darker reddish or brown color to add some variation. Not perfect, but looks decent. Here's an example:



I'm always messing about with different methods, but this seems to work reasonably well. I've never really used brush or flocking on desert bases, but not for any good reason.

Pat
www.microarmormayhem.com

[opsctr]

Here is another way...



The white powder is regular baking flour.

1. Prime using your intended final color.
2. Use white glue to cover the entire upper surface with a thin coat.
3. While the white glue is wet sprinkle the flour making sure to cover the entire base
4. After the surface dries paint again with your final color.
5. Add details as necessary.

An option to step 2 is to sprinkle the flour while the primer is still wet though this method doesn't handle as well as those bases with the white glue step. They've lasted through all the games I've played with them but they chipped more easily when accidentally dropped.

You can see the surface in this photo...


This isn't the best modeling job but it illustrates how you can make the base look a bit better with tank tracks, etc... Tank is a very early GHQ Mk III.


The Italians below are on very basic bases which can be detailed with scrub, rock, etc., etc...


This link http://commandoperationscenter.com/products111.htm will take you to a page with more detail... Will