Intro
For those of you who have come directly to this page and thereby skipped the main basing page here is a quick recap on what this is all about. As the above title suggests it is an idea on how I go about basing figures for games of Song of Drums and Shakos. Although I am far from being any sort of basing master it is hoped that someone may find something new or useful here. At the very least I now have a record of how to go about basing any more figures I may add to this range in the future.
Step 1
Reload marker hole- Starting with a 30mm round by 1.5mm thick plywood base, drill a 2.5mm hole near the edge of the base. If you are not planning on mounting reload markers on your bases then steps 1 & 2 can be skipped.
Step 2
Add Marker Rod- I use 2mm Plastruct rod for this, mainly because the plastic is easy to cut into 8mm lengths before gluing in place.
Step 3
Glue figure in place– Having off set the rifleman to allow room for his reload marker I now fix him to the base using a quick set PVA glue. You may want to centralize your figures if you are not mounting reload markers on your bases.
Step 4
Blending bases– To help hide the distinct line between the figure and the plywood base I have added a thin layer of Caulk (no more gaps). You can use any colour for this as it will be covered when you undercoat the base later on.
Step 5
Adding Texture-Here I have glued on a 50/50 mix of Scenic Textures (Scenic Blends “Dry Desert” and Ballast ” Branch Line Ballast”). The scenic blends mix has some nice sized sticks and stones that can be strategically placed before covering the remainder of the base with the 50/50 mix.
Step 6
Seal with glue- I find painting the base with a generous coat of PVA glue mixed with water (50/50) fills most of the small gaps between the finer rocks. This also acts as a sealant that will help the paint stick to the more porous surfaces.
Step 7
Undercoat-Spray or paint with white undercoat. You could use any colour here, I just prefer white as it lets the other colours show through a lot better than black.
Step 8
Base Coat- For the basic brown first coat I use a cheap craft paint called Kaiser colour (Mud Puddle) which comes in a 75ml tube. I don’t really want to use pot after pot of the more pricey model paints on my basic base colour. Another option here is to buy small sample paint pots from your local paint store.
Step 9
Flock-The first layer of flock is now applied to the base. A 50/50 blend of light and darker green Noch flock is shown here. I have thrown away the Noch packaging so can’t give you any more product information.
Step 10
Reapply base coat- Repaint the base with your preferred basic brown colour. As you can see in the photo I have also painted the flock with this base coat.
Step 11
First Highlight- Dry brush the whole base, flock and all with a medium brown until you get a look you are happy with. “Leather Brown” 09030 from the Reaper Master Series was used for this, the first of two highlight coats.
Step 12
Second Highlight– Choosing a lighter shade of brown, now dry brush on a second highlight. In this example “Pale buckskin” again from the Reaper Master Series was applied as the second highlight. It’s strong yellow undertones really highlight the dead grass look I was aiming for (IMO).
Step 13
Detailing Rocks- Pick out and base coat any individual rocks you would like to stand out on your base. Vallejo’s “Black Grey” was the colour I went with here.
Step 14
First Rock Highlight- Reaper’s Master Series “Shadow stone” was used to add the first highlight to the rocks.
Step 15
Second Rock Highlight- Again from the Reaper Master Series “Stone Grey” was applied here as a second highlight.
Step 16
Final Rock Highlight- The third and final highlight on the rocks was done with “Weathered stone” also part of the Reaper Master Series paint collection.
Step 17
Final Flocking- Add the desired amount of flock to various base locations. I tend to centre these patches of flock on or around the areas of dry grass I’ve already painted on the base.
Step18
Final Dressing-After painting the figure, add any last dressings to the base. Here as a last touch I have added one of two old leaves for variety.
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