Sand Basing

[KaosRaptor]

Hi guys, I've just recently started basing my chaos forces, hoping to make them seem like they are in a desert...I don't know why, :P

I've based my first Daemon Prince, and if I say so myself, it turned out extremely well. Now, however, my basing attempts never seem to work.

I'm trying to base my second DP and my terminators, but the sand never seems to glue to the base, it strings together, but not to the actual base itself.

My process is as follows:

Spread PVA over base with an old brush.

Dip base immediately in sand. Leave for a few mins, then shake off excess.

Next, I leave it to dry for a day or two...but when I come to paint it, the sand sticks to the brush or falls off completely! :sick:

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Tanhausen]

Suggestions:

 

- Try and get the PVA a bit watery (its more an art than a science... about 1 drop PVA 1 or 2 drops of water)

- Don't try and get too much sand on it at the time.

- Actually, you don't have to wait minutes... just "paint" with PVA, put it in the sand, take it out, shake it a bit and let it dry.

- When its dry, if your not happy with the result, just brush some more PVA (more watery this time) and repeat the process.

 

Hope it helps!

[Solid Zaku]

Here's a repost of what I said to another person trying this:

 

Here's some advice. I'm a desert dweller. I've lived in one all my life, and I figured using desert sand was the easiest thing to use ever. It's plentiful, is totally dry (in other words: took paint well) and was, of course, desert tan.

 

I was wrong. Way wrong. When I put it on the base, it looked just silly. There was no definition to the base, the color of the black base bled completely through, and it fell off like it wasn't even glued on.

 

Don't fret though, desert bases are doable, just don't use sand, for the love of the Emperor Enthroned. GW Basing Sand, used after the model is finished, works wonders. Just don't prime it, finish the model, color the base with Calthan Brown, and apply the glue and GWBS. It looks just like I wanted. There is the depth of the 'rocks' and differentiation in color.

[Hubernator]

PVA isn't suited for GW basing sand IMHO. I use Alradite for my gluing. It's much more of a rush but by Terra it works a charm.

[KaosRaptor]

Thanks a lot for the helpful posts guys! I'll try thinning out my glue to start with...will this help it glue to the base? Because after leaving it to dry for a couple of days, you can run your finger lightly across the base and the sand will fall off...

And sorry, but I forgot to mention that I don't use GW sand...I don't live anywhere near a GW store, so I'm using medium (I think?) ballast for use on model railways.

Thanks regardless guys, I'll try what you've said! :(

[Tanhausen]

I don't know what ballast is, so can't help you there.

 

I'm lucky enough to live close to the sea so... easy. If not, you can always use "cat sand". Keep in mind that the finer the grain, the easier it will stick.

 

Also, be generous with the glue... cover the whole base in white!

[Solid Zaku]

Ballast is a fancy term for model railway sand. It's good stuff and, supposing you can mix ballasts properly (unlike GW basing sand, most railway ballast is sold in single color, single size bags) you can have a LOT of basing materiel.

[Prosedragon]

Something I do to secure basing onto a base is use Future Floor Wax. It's a liquid I originally heard of being used to make washes (something about it cutting surface tension), but when it dries it leaves an acrylic finish. If I use PVA glue, or some other fiddly, loose method of securing basing, I'll pour some Future Floor Wax over the base *after* the glue has dried, and that acrylic layer will stick it on pretty firmly.

 

I didn't care for PVA glue before I started doing this - my basing tended to come off when I dry brushed it, but with the Future Floor Wax layer it does fine.

[Thorsell]

When I make terrain pieces and use sand, I glue it on with pva (either dip the piece in sand or spread sand over it), then, after a while when it has dried up, I coat it again with another layer of pva to make it stick, as Prosedragon does with the floor wax. After that it's ready to be base-coated or painted as you like. The size of the sand or gravel does not really matter when you do it like this. Some water could be used to water up the pva a bit too. Use an old, larger brush to shape the sand a bit when painting on the second layer of pva.

 

EDIT:

You're basically "making" a simple version of structured paint here with the sand and pva. I'll try to find a picture of some terrain piece to show you how it looks.

[mrtn]

I use non-watered down PVA for my bases. Spread it out, sprinkle on coarser sand, dip in fine sand, and put to the side to try (don't tap off the excess yet). All this is done before painting the model BTW.

After the glue is dry I brush off the excess sand with an old toothbrush, and then prime it at the same time I prime the model (in my case with black gesso). Then I just paint it at the same time as the model, has worked great for all my armies.

 

Example.