Tutorial - Street bases from plasticard

[Skits]

Hey everyone! Here's a step by step on how to make your own custom street bases out of plasticard!

 

1.

 

The pavement/sidewalk area beside the street is made by layering two pieces of plasticard - a larger one on the bottom for the gutter, and a smaller one on top, cut into sections, to show the kerb/pavement.

 

For this I'm using plasticard that's about 1mm thick. Roughly cut out a circle or two that's about the size of your base - for this one I've only used one circle, since the street area will take up almost half the base. For bases where you want less street and more pavement, you'll probably need to use two circles since the smaller part of the circle won't be enough for the pavement/sidewalk area.

 

2.

 

Cut out any grill work for drains etc. from the gutter piece, and cut the pavement piece into sections. Using a knife and/or sandpaper, round off the top edges of the pavement sections, and also the bars in the drain.

 

Then glue the gutter layer into place on the base. Don't worry if the piece overhangs the edges of the base a bit - once the glue's dry, you can trim the excess off.

 

3.

 

Glue the kerb piece into place, then glue the pavement sections on. I've also roughly cut one corner of a pavement section off to show a bit of cracked cement.

 

4.

 

Again, don't worry about overhang, just trim off any excess afterwards once the glue's fully dried. You can also use sandpaper to help smooth out the edges.

 

5.

 

This part is optional! For this particular street, I wanted a build-up of mud and gravel and such, so here I've used some Agrellan Earth, heaping it on thicker where I want larger/deeper cracks. You could also use any other texture paint or just plain gravel for the road surface.

 

6.

 

For this base, I've also used watered-down PVA glue to add some fine gravel, then coated the whole thing with a thin layer of watered-down PVA glue to help seal the Agrellan Earth and hold all the gravel in place.

 

7.

 

Once everything is dry, spray primer the base. The spray primer will also help seal down any still-loose bits of gravel that the glue may not be quite holding.

 

8.

 

Finally, paint it! I didn’t step-by-step this part, I mostly just used drybrushing of lighter grey/browns over a dark grey base, stippled on some yellow to get the road line, used a bit of bronze for the drain bars, hit the whole thing with a few washes of Agrax and Sepia, then a bit more drybrushing of light brown/bone afterwards.

 

(And then of course tidy up the base rim with black, which I haven’t done yet here, oops.)

 

I hope this is helpful, and let me know what you think!

[Pearson73]

Nice and simple but with a great outcome, thanks.

[Quixus]

Looks nice and easy. A minor nitpick though: the gutter should be lower than the road, otherwise water wouldn't flow into it.

Edited May 28, 2017 by Quixus

[GrandMagnus]

Now that is cool looking, I need to try this some day.

[Kierdale]

Excellent work!

I've occasionally seen lines on 'road' bases, but a drain too is a first :tu:

[Skits]

@Pearson73: Thank you!

 

@Quixus: Ahh, good point! Best way to do that would probably be the gutter layer covering the whole base, then a thin piece of plasticard and/or texture paint for the road surface, and a thicker piece of plasticard for the kerb. I'll keep that in mind next time I make a base like this, cheers for the nitpick!

 

@GrandMagnus: Thanks! Let me know how yours goes!

 

@Kierdale: Cheers! I find it's the small details that can really make something stand out! On a larger base, I'd probably be tempted to include maybe a manhole cover in the road as well! XD

[Laserplane]

That final pic sold me 110% even though it won't match any of my current basing.. gotta get some plasticard.. Edited June 28, 2017 by Laserplane

[E_50_Panzer]

Looks great, I might try it, but I've never used plasticard before. What size should I use and do I need any special tools to cut it, or will my modeling knife do?

[Skits]

Looks great, I might try it, but I've never used plasticard before. What size should I use and do I need any special tools to cut it, or will my modeling knife do?

Sorry for the delay in replying! If I remember right (I don't have the base anymore, it was for a commission), I think I used plasticard that was about 0.5mm - 1mm thick for this. You could also use slightly thinner or slightly thicker plasticard with no worries.

 

And yeah, a hobby knife is fine to cut plasticard! Although once it starts getting over 1mm thick it takes a bit more effort to cut through it - make sure your knife is sharp, and use a cutting mat! Plasticard works fine with regular plastic glue, too, it's pretty much the same material as plastic models.

Edited July 9, 2017 by Skits

[E_50_Panzer]

Sorry for the delay in replying! If I remember right (I don't have the base anymore, it was for a commission), I think I used plasticard that was about 0.5mm - 1mm thick for this. You could also use slightly thinner or slightly thicker plasticard with no worries.And yeah, a hobby knife is fine to cut plasticard! Although once it starts getting over 1mm thick it takes a bit more effort to cut through it - make sure your knife is sharp, and use a cutting mat! Plasticard works fine with regular plastic glue, too, it's pretty much the same material as plastic models.

No problem!

 

I am pleased to hear that it will be easy to work with though, I have some ideas for my Dark Eldar bases.

[philsminions]

Excellent results!  I absolutely love the dirty look.