It's been far too long since my last post here on the blog, I lay the blame partly on the fact that we've been incredibly busy during the height of the "festival season", and the rest lays at my own feet - I've had some hobby time, but have used the majority of it (not all, but more on that later *) to catch up on painting and modelling, which I don't reckon has really been 'blogworthy'.
"Touching Bases"
Having said that, I thought you might be interested in one of the projects though - basing material.
Before leaving the hobby many moons ago, the common method for basing minis was to glue them to pieces of thin plywood, and then texture them with Tetrion (a kind of polyfilla/sand mix) and then paint them (usually a green base coat followed by yellow drybrush). Immediately upon my return to gaming, I did exactly the same thing before realising how much things had changed!
Over time I tried to improve my basing technique, tryng to emulate what I saw in photo's and following youtube tutorials, but was never quite satisfied with my own results. Then Luke (of Lukes APS and Geek Gaming) released his "Base Ready" product line. A basing material with the sales pitch "glue it, dip it, done it"! I bought a 180ml tub of 'Wasteland Soil' and was over the moon with the results it gives - and would highly recommend the range cos 'it does exactly what it says on the tin'!.......
The only problem was that there's nothing in the Base Ready range that would "look right" both in a dungeon crawl and on a battlefield - and I didn't want to go down the route of rebasing my minis on clear bases, so it was thinking cap time, followed by some experimentation.
I ended up buying a huge 25 kilo bag of "2mm to Dust" granite which I put through a sieve (no, not the one from the kitchen, but a cheap one from Wilko that I bought for the job) and added a small quantity of very fine sand, a small amount of mid green sawdust flock and a darker green 2mm static grass. I just varied the quantities until I was happy with the mix.
Here's some recently painted minis based with the concoction.........
I went on to add a little dark green sponge flock, plus some larger "rocks" to one batch of the mix, with the intention of applying this to sabbot bases. This should allow me to form "units" from my individual dungeon crawl minis and field them in Dragon Rampant games..... and maybe "Song of Blades and Heroes, which I've been intending to take for a spin for a while now!
* The rest of the time?
After chatting to Stevie over on The Game Cupboard blog, and discovering just how much we share in common in our wonderful hobby, we hatched a cunning plan which would see us collaborating on a fantasy campaign project.
This has involved a fair amount of emailing, plus more modelling and painting in preparation of what's to come, and I'm delighted to say that this project is now underway, and if anyone would like to see just how Beska, Trebbelos, Krago and Pendora (from the previous post here) are now getting on in Waterdeep, you can find out here - Foreigners in a strange land and my own "first post" has just been hosted too if you're interested in my foray into D&D 5e.
For anyone who hasn't already, I'd recommend visiting The Game Cupboard (either via the link above or click on the link in my 'Favourites' to the right of this post). While you're there, why not click the "Follow" button and keep up to date with our shenanigans??
Thanks muchly for visiting (and putting up with such a long break between posts), there's a game currently on the table, so a write up won't be far behind as I settle back into "business as usual" now the nights are drawing back in - blimey! it'll soon be Zomtober again!
Lovely stuff
ReplyDeleteCheers Phil - the first photo is a Reaper Bones mini, which reminds me to ask how you're getting on with your Kick Starter stuff? (especially the 'Horror' expansion)
DeleteThe Horror stuff is cleaned and undercoated. Things have ground to a halt as I finish my dissertation and have been job hunting.
DeleteBasing is a subject that has changed a lot over the years, but finding a mix that works for you is the only thing that matters Greg
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right Dave, long gone are the days of figures (they weren't called "minis" back then) simply glued to bases cut from beer mats and then painted green :-)
DeleteBasing is a very personal thing, I started with green card or plasticard and have "advanced" to scenic (ish) bases, mostly due to popular practises (and peer pressure).
ReplyDeleteIf it works for you then it's great !
Cheers Joe, we're "of an age" when things were a LOT simpler when we started :-)
DeleteTo be honest, I've always found basing to be both a chore and my Achilles heel, so the Lukes APS "Base Ready" stuff was a godsend. Going down the DIY route to make my own version has been a satisfying exercise, and of course a huge money saver since I can see this being my basing method from now on :-)
Excellent post Greg, and an interesting topic too. I`ve been giving a lot of thought of basing lately, wondering if I should (or shouldn`t) make my D&D bases more unified in their overall look. In the end I concluded that over the last forty years of gaming I have witnessed several changes in public `style`... as what is the popular way of doing something one moment, can alter and be totally different later as public tendencies alter with each respective half decade or so changing trend. Obviously for a gamer who counts projects in terms of multiple years (like a 12 year old campaign or something), this can be frustrating, as what is popular when you try follow a trend in good faith, it can quickly just end up look wrong in other people`s eyes a few years later. Soooo what do I do? I don`t worry about it. My desert adventures tend to sport sand bases and my dungeon models have grey stone, and my elves might well have green bases and my generic D&D ones will have black, and so on and so on. But I often mix my miniatures and put them together in games, so my dungeon-y looking Thessalhydra might very well be on table with some desert nomads, or my desert nomad smugglers might enter a game alongside some city dwellers delving into in the Underdeeps, and so what do we get.... lots of different colour bases all stood alongside each other. The only answer for me was simply not to worry about it all: and I`ve carried on that way of thinking for years now (the other way lay madness and frustration at the thought of "do I need duplicate bases I can interchange between adventures" lol).
ReplyDeleteBut.....
With a stand alone project (such as Massive Darkness lets say) where I really want the minis all to have a unified look, to increase visual aesthetic appeal, the way you describe is VERY interesting, and I read with keen and hungry eyes.
As with a lot of "trends" in the hobby, it's all to easy to become a slave to fashion, so I know EXACTLY what you're saying Stevie :-)
DeleteI can honestly say though, that since the days of Humbrol paint, gloss varnish and just stick 'em on a green base (no offence intended to anyone who still uses Humbrol or gloss varnish out of preference- I was merely referring to the age when it was "de rigeur"), I've NEVER been happy with my basing results......... until now :-)
I've no intention of working through my painted minis to re-base them, though no doubt some of them will come in for a little TLC!
Basing for me is simple Greg, clear plastic all the way :) but I know where your coming from & it's always great when you find something that works for you.
ReplyDeleteI've hit the link but wanted to comment here before I get lost over there :)
I've looked long and hard at your plastic bases Frank (ans Ivor's), shining examples of the medium, but I came to the conclusion that they wouldn't mix with my existing collection and there's no way am I going to rebase my entire collection - IF I was starting afresh, it would DEFINITELY be the method of choice though :-)
DeletePlywood and tetrion, crikey you were ahead of your time Greg, when I started it was beer mat cardboard and green paint.
ReplyDeleteI'm with Frank on clear pvc bases for skirmish style games, not the commercial bases but homemade from blister material. However I don't plan on rebasing my figures and will still try and match my existing styles on new figures.
You go with what you like, it's no good trying to run with the herd, we'll just get trampled.
Do you remember who makes the 2 female figures in the second photo? They look very nice.
It was Airfix Napoleonics on painted beer mats when I started John, and Hinchliffe on textured ply when I went cold turkey and left the hobby :-)
DeleteTotally agree with you on the "thin" clear bases, and would go this route if I was starting again.
It's a struggle to resist the "shiny stuff", but yeah, the road less traveled leads to a more peaceful destination :-)
I certainly do remember - since I only bought them this week! (if you'd asked NEXT week, it might have been it different kettle of fish). They're Hasslefree minis (Matt Dixon) and the barbarian on the right is "Aneira", the lady on the left is "Katarina".
Cheers Greg, thanks for the info. Like Frank I followed your link but decided to start at the begining of the blog rather than at the end.
ReplyDeleteI then followed their link back to your blog and reread the blade runner game again, its still an inspirational read. That has rekindled my interest in the detection games we spoke of all that time ago.
Must try and do something with it.
Cheers again
Did you ever do any more with your 221B Baker street idea John ?
DeleteYou're welcome, and good question Frank - I've got an old copy of 221B Street and would LOVE to hear if you've got any ideas for using the game mechanics from it :-)
DeleteI did buy the game and think there's some mileage in the idea. I have some Copplestone gangsters, un painted and some printed buildings, unprinted, so its going to be quite a while before I get there.
DeleteI did concider moving it to the 11C and using vikings and Vagabondy as the town. A bit alternative I know ;)
This is a very interesting post. Lots of food for thought. I think most of us as one stage or another have bent our minds over the idea of better basing.
ReplyDeleteThanks T, as with so many things "it was all so simple back in the old days", and then off we go searching for a yet another Grail ;-)
DeleteThe general consensus is to base your minis how YOU want, and if YOU'RE happy with them the job's a good un. My problem (since coming back to the hobby) is that I've just NOT been happy with 'em, and they've always niggled me - aren't we a funny lot?!
i just picked a company at random (it happened to be warlord games because i like the thinness of the bases) and stuck with them ever more. for the detailing i use a combination of grass, stone (garden centre cork tiles) and rubble effects.
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent approach Luke, and typical of your "focus" when it comes to hobby matters - I have seen some of your minis (a little bird pointed me in the direction of your superb You Tube channel), and I'm highly impressed :-)
DeleteSshhhhhhhh!!!! im still just learning -wink-
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ReplyDelete