Basing: Easy Tile bases

[John Thompson]

++ How to make good-looking tile bases, in an easy way ++

 

This tutorial was first done by Kreagus but it was lost in the Great Crash. So I decided to do new one! Here goes:

 

Step 1:

The materials used for this are basically a sharp knife and (for this tutorial) a 40mm round base.

 

Step 2:

Use the knife to carve thin cravices in the base. To do this, I made 2 cuts per joint in a 'v' shape, instead of just cutting straight down. Watch out for your fingers here and make sure you don't go through the base.

 

<!--ImageUrlBegin--><!--ImageUrlEBegin-->http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/John_Thompson/Tutorials/Tile%20Bases/TileBase1-2.jpg<!--ImageUrlEnd--><!--ImageUrlEEnd-->

 

 

Step 3:

Dammage. Use the knife again to make some damage to the tiles. I made a single small 'impact-thingy' in the form of a star and a few cracks.

 

Step 4:

Some small spots of sand were glued to the base with basic PVA (white) glue. This, I usually place around the carved damage, to make some small debris of some sort.

 

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Step 5:

Undercoat. When painting this along with the model, step 1-4 should be done before glueing the model to the base. I used black for ease, if you use a white undercoat on your models, I highliy recommend painting the bases seperately.

 

Step 6:

The base was given a quick, sloppy coat of Scorched Brown. I thinned it down a bit and painted 2 layers on, to get a good covering and still being able to get paint in the sand better. It doesn't matter if theres any paint in the cravices.

 

<!--ImageUrlBegin--><!--ImageUrlEBegin-->http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/John_Thompson/Tutorials/Tile%20Bases/TileBase5-6.jpg<!--ImageUrlEnd--><!--ImageUrlEEnd-->

 

 

Step 7:

A heavy drybrush with Bestial Brown. Again, this doesn't need to be especially neat, just make sure you whipe your brush well enough not to leave too many brush-marks.

 

Step 8:

A medium drybrush of 1:1 Bestial Brown and Bleached Bone. This drybrush schould be a neat drybrush, as this brings out most of the detailing on the base.

 

<!--ImageUrlBegin--><!--ImageUrlEBegin-->http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/John_Thompson/Tutorials/Tile%20Bases/TileBase7-8.jpg<!--ImageUrlEnd--><!--ImageUrlEEnd-->

 

 

Step 9:

A very light drybrush with pure Bleached Bone. This is done mostely around the edges of the base, around the edges of the tiles and around battle damage to bring these parts out more.

 

Step 10:

Use a mix of 1:1:3 of Scorched Brown : Black Ink : water and a small (detail or fine detail) brush to paint the cravices. This gives them more depth and keeping the paint thin means you can easily paint them as the paint follows the recess automatically.

 

<!--ImageUrlBegin--><!--ImageUrlEBegin-->http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/John_Thompson/Tutorials/Tile%20Bases/TileBase9-10.jpg<!--ImageUrlEnd--><!--ImageUrlEEnd-->

 

 

At this point you only need to paint the edge of the base in a colour of your choice (I like tham black with this as it draws more attention to the tiles) and then you have your basic tiled base!

 

In the next few steps though, I'll explain how you can make it a bit more interesting by adding a cool Imperial Eagle freehand.

 

 

++ Detailing the base ++

 

Step 1:

To paint the Eagle, I first drew the basic shape for it in Fortress Grey. The basic shape is a triangle, ofcourse.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/John_Thompson/Tutorials/Tile%20Bases/TB11.jpg

 

Step 2:

The heads are painted on. Reason I started with these? Now you know the lokation, they're easier to paint as you've got more space and you can draw the rest of the eagle around them. The heads are basically just to elongated dots, connected by a thin line at the bottem to represent a neck.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/John_Thompson/Tutorials/Tile%20Bases/TB12.jpg

 

Step 3:

Here, I've painted the body and upper part of the wings. To do this, I started by painting the wing parts starting from the head (a little bit away from the head ofcourse) and drew a line to the wing tip. This way you're sure you won't paint over the heads! From there I painted a small arc under the heads, connecting the wings, and drew a line down to the tail, widening at the end.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/John_Thompson/Tutorials/Tile%20Bases/TB13.jpg

 

Step 4:

The feathers are painted in. These are just lines with some space in between them and not touching any lines drawn in the previous steps.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/John_Thompson/Tutorials/Tile%20Bases/TB14.jpg

 

Step 5:

Some moss/colouring was painted on using a 1:1 mix of Catachan Green and water. After painting some patches with this mix (usually in 2 thin coats) I painted some spots with pure Catachan Green around the center of the patches for some extra colour.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/John_Thompson/Tutorials/Tile%20Bases/TB15.jpg

 

 

After this the base is fine for using under your marines, but more details can be added like bolter shells, or more debris or skulls.

 

I hope this tutorial has helped you or at least given you some ideas!

 

Cheers and thanks for reading.

John Thompson

[The Angelus Sanctus]

Fantastic work there John, yet another simple and easy way to create tiled bases. Thanks for your time and effort in this tutorial :cuss ;)

 

 

Not to be a pain in the backside, but would there be other paints you could use for the eagle? I noticed in the pics the eagle doesnt seem very clear (its quite possible the pic process has over exposed the bases and thus making the eagle harder to make out). That lil nit pick aside, once again great work and thanks for your contribution ;)

[Horuswaspretty]

Nice tutorial, I think I will give it a go!

[Slowhand]

Genius! Thank you very much fpr sharing this ....

[Magnus the red]

Fantastic work there John, yet another simple and easy way to create tiled bases. Thanks for your time and effort in this tutorial :tu: ;)

 

 

Er you do know this was done by the Messiah Kraegus the blessed. Such an awesome BA has nver again been seen. It had everyone checking the topic every half an hour for updates. What ever happened to him JT. By the way your B&C mini is done look in the hall of honour. Should have better pics soon

[Galahad_Knight]

I always did the old thin coat of GS + wet toothpick method, but this looks fun and requres no expenditure of precious putty

[Galahad_Knight]

Just whittled out a standard troop base in a minute or two. Definately quick and easy

[Starks333]

i found it quit a pain to get the cuts right especially the damage, but it did turn out nice none the less

 

Starks

[Galahad_Knight]

It was easy for me. I just laid my hobby knife blade out on the base and slid it back and fourth a couple times to score a nice straight line, then ran the tip (which on mine is broken off) through the line a few times to dig it out and widen it. The battle damage I just stuck a good blade in at an angle, gave it a littlewiggle, changed angles, repeated, etc.

 

It was easy for me. I just laid my hobby knife blade out on the base and slid it back and fourth a couple times to score a nice straight line, then ran the tip (which on mine is broken off) through the line a few times to dig it out and widen it. The battle damage I just stuck a good blade in at an angle, gave it a littlewiggle, changed angles, repeated, etc.

[Primarch16]

Great tutorial, I was jsut wondering how I could acheive the same effect with the use of bases with the hole in them (for metal models). Or should I just pin the metal model afterwards and remove the tab?

[John Thompson]

I'd suggest you do the latter; just use a 'closed' base, and glue/pin the model on it afterwards..

 

John

[Pegasus]

I'll definitely be having a go at this at I get into some serious painting of the troop sections of my army. I think this thread deserves a sticky somewhere!

Two thumbs up!

 

Pax vobiscum,

Pegasus

[Gurth]

It was easy for me. I just laid my hobby knife blade out on the base and slid it back and fourth a couple times to score a nice straight line, then ran the tip (which on mine is broken off) through the line a few times to dig it out and widen it.

An easier tool to do this with is an Olfa plastic cutter:

 

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/tnt1/101-200/tnt105_OlfaP-cutter_Aleong/01.jpg

(pic from aircraftresourcecenter.com)

 

They're also sold by Tamiya, but only the color and name on the thing are different. Anyway, What this does is score a line by actually removing a sliver of plastic, instead of pushing the material out of the way to the sides. That way, you get a neat groove with a single pass of the blade; if you want it to be deeper, just repeat.

[Skirax]

Could possibly post a tutorial on just that Imperial Eagle? I would very much like to know how todo a free-hand.

[BlOoD_GoD]

Im DEFINATELY going to try this next time a have a model that ahs a bland base!

[BrotherMoses]

I think I've found my new basing technique. Definitely creates nice bases that don't seem like they take three days, I don't have to buy any expensive resin or putty, and they seem muted so as not to draw attention from the model or overtly TO the base. Very nice.