Urban Basing Interest Question

[Ahistorian]

Long time lurker, first time poster!

 

I've started putting together the Dark Imperium Primaris, and I've put cobbled wallpaper on their bases. This is a nice enough basic texture, which can be nicely brought out with a wash and a highlight, but I'd like to add some 3D/visual interest to the bases.

 

However, I have never done 28mm cobbles before, and it's not quite futuristic enough for slabs of ferrocrete and rusty decking all over the place. My initial plan was to wend some alien-looking flock between cobbles to look like an overgrown and long-lost city from the DAoT, but that seems a little flat. The cobbles will be shades of grey, and I was hoping B&C could give me some ideas on what else to put on them to make them a) more interesting and more 40k. My current ideas are:

- Spent bolter shells

- Crushed-up bricks as brick-rubble

- Chunks of cork tile concrete with paperclip rebar

- Skulls? Alien skulls? A bit OTT.

- Identifiable scraps of my last few bits of City of Death

- Blobs of polyfilla/blutak/green stuff covered in sharp sand as rubble

 

The army are in cream, brass and green if that affects anyone's ideas.

 

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

Edited August 1, 2017 by inventedregiment

[Isolia]

Cork, sand and pipes would look like some ruins from an industrial zone and would be a good cross between urban and more suburban/wasteland bases , and if you make them in a Martian tone the reddish orange would contrast well with your colours . Tones of grey would be great too, the purpose is to highlight your mini :)

Plastic Q-tips are great for these pipes, some mosquito mesh or other fine grid sieve from an old kitchen sieve would work fine for the fence bits .

 

Something like this pic,but I like them with less cork and more sand/rocky dirt:

 

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tl2T0L9__lk/UhzttJeslkI/AAAAAAAABIo/3bw1ISIA_vk/s1600/PICT0023.JPG

Edited August 3, 2017 by Isolia

[Kyor Degremon]

That looks like a nice base! Is that cork you used for the slabs of broken ferrocrete roads?

[Isolia]

That looks like a nice base! Is that cork you used for the slabs of broken ferrocrete roads?

It's not my work, I pulled it from google images.

 

Source, with not much more explanations :

http://mysteriouseffigies.blogspot.hu/2013/08/urban-base-for-dreadnought.html?m=1

 

Looks like the 1-2mm thin cork sheets you can get in modelling or art stores.

 

It's definitely something I'll be trying on my current plague marines, I'll post the result :)

[Kyor Degremon]

I see, well thanks for the link, I'll go and check it out!