Black soil basing?

[Ascanius]

Hi all,

 

I'm currently working on some Tyranids as a change of pace from my Space Marines projects, and the colour scheme I've come up with would suit a jungle/tropical rainforest sort of base:

 

 

Ideally, I'd like a kind of black soil look as a basis, and then maybe add some small jungle-appropriate plants here and there. The Citadel Barbed Bracken kit looks really good, but I know there are going to be plenty of options from mainstream modelling companies.

 

I could use something like Citadel's texture paint Stirland Mud as the base, and wash it down to the colour I want, but does anyone have any suggestions as to alternatives?

 

I've found some very cool-looking earth pigments available in the UK from mainstream modelling companies, that you mix with PVA glue or whatever, but unfortunately even if they ship to the UK we have some pretty strict biosecurity laws in Australia that would make them unlikely to get through quarantine.

 

Still, does anyone have experience using that kind of material? I'm sure I can find something either from a pigment supplier or via some kind of gardening shop. I just have very little experience making my own basing material with glue or whatever, so I'm hesitant.

 

To explain my hesitation, here's the PVA-and-sand basing I came up with back when I got back into the hobby a few years ago:

 

(please enjoy the terrible purple tint from my old HTC Incredible S phone camera)

 

I was trying for a red scoria look:

 

[Zhiv]

I think you ought to experiment with different mixes of sand / PVA, varying both the sand 'grain size' and PVA amounts. You can paint your experimental pastes on cardboard, coat them with paint and try seeing how you can highlight them.

[Major_Gilbear]

You might try looking at Vallejo's scenic products - these are normally very good value, and are widely available (even in Australia). In fact, it was due to stiff competition from Vallejo that GW started offering their texture paints in the first place!

 

Two other good sources of scenic products are Woodland Scenics and MIG. These companies make all sorts of scenic and weathering products, and their products have been highly regarded for a good long while.

 

For leaves and foliage, you might try looking for small scrapbooking punches. Some examples of these here, but there are absolutely loads and they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You can use these to punch suitable foliage from thick paper, thin card, thin plasticard, or even thick foil. If you use thin plasticard, you can use a heat gun to gently heat and warp the plasticard to give the leaves a nice 3D feel. For a few leafy bases, this may not be very cost effective compared to GW/other scenic products, but if you're doing an army and/or terrain for a table, they are easily worthwhile.

[Ascanius]

Thanks very much for the suggestions.

 

The Vallejo Dark Earth texture compound looks like a good starting point, for sure.

 

Making some bookmarks . . .

[Semper Fortis]

I can vouch for the Vallejo thick black mud. It can be a bit boring when used alone. I've had the best luck combining black mud with gloss varnish as the wet mud, with Russian mud in matte as the dried mud. Also, a mix of the two can make a fairly convincing section of drying mud blending in satin varnish. This stuff works best if you apply it with a spatula type tool.

[Delta.Skies]

testing out a base and trying something new. I attempted to use baking soda with a white glue. With a brush that wasn't damaged and water just moved it around a bit. Created a thick layer that I dipped into baking soda. Then put under a lamp to dry quick. Used super glue in dabs. And then placed it under scenery gravel. Colored it all in with watered down abandoned black. Then threw in Vallejo gray to lighten it up. Then a brown. Then a wash of black. Heavy Drybrushed the gravel with grey and a light drybush of white. Because I did the basing first and attempted to put the model on I realized when I miscalculated the position and moving the baking soda started to move creating folds. Which gave it a muddy layer which looked really cool to me. The only problem is you can't move it too much or the white from the baking soda will show. If interest I will take pics.

[Semper Fortis]

I'd be interested in seeing it. Post away!

[Delta.Skies]

 

Hope you can see, but this was a test run on my new army, and i was trying out basing. ended up creating this mud effect with the baking soda that folded when i moved it slowly. the only problem i would say you might encounter is rushing. I cooked mine under a light to speed up the process but when placing him on the base, my rocks came up and required to glue it back.

 

But thick glue. baking soda. super glued the rocks. watered down black. 2 parts paint 1 part water. dried. then 2 parts water 1 part paint, dark grey. then 1 part water 1 part paint of leather brown. then back to a black wash. heavy dry brush of grey on top, then light drybrush white.

 

Im sure you can do a better job than I. This was my first model in 14 years. but i thought about throwing patches of flowing grass in the mix, and maybe painting that (alien worlds) but we will see. I have to do more test runs, and get better. Hope this helps