So, I have never based any of my miniatures before, and I would like to start with Runewars. Does anyone have a really good tutorial that they could point me towards. Mostly looking for what kind of basing materials look the best, what the best type of glue to use, etc.

I'm trying to find a video I like, but they either talk too much, or use advanced techniques. I'll try to give a quick description, and hope that helps. It's not terribly complicated.

As an aside, I think the how to paint Waiqar guide covers basing.

I like to paint my figures first, then base. Others suggest gluing ballast on before priming. Either works.

Ballast, sand, tiny rocks. These will simulate your ground. I'm currently using a tub of Citadel Sand, but Army Painter and Galeforce 9 make comparable products. Go for the cheapest, it's just sand after all. The important part is to make sure it is of a fine consistency.

Get some white glue (Elmer's) and pour a bit into a pallete or very small bowl, add a bit of water to help it flow (say a 3:1 glue to water ratio, doesn't have to be exact, just eyeball it, or skip it and go straight elmers).

Take an old paintbrush, mix the glue and water together and paint it onto your base. Once done, take your figure, set it into your sand container and get sand on the base. Lift figure out, turn upside down, tap bottom of base to knock off loose sand.

After the sand dries, get a brown paint, mix it 1:1 with water and paint the sand. Use a lot, but don't slop it on your figure. P3 Umbral Umber is my usual paint for this, Army Painter Leather Brown or something similar will work fine too.

After the brown dries, give it all a good drybrush of a lighter color (P3 Rucksack Tan for me, AP Desert Yellow as an alternative). Then a lighter drybrush of something like P3 Jack Bone or AP Skeleton Bone.

To be continued....

I cant for the life of me remember who i learned it from, but if you want rocks goto any office supply store and buy cork sheets (theyre replacement cork pads for pin bulletin boards). Rip them up, glue to the base, paint with rocky colors, add some sand via PVC glue (elmer's glue), bam good rocks. I tend to prefer to use them for ruins or concrete and take advantage of their smooth side, stabbing them with wire for "rebar" poking out of the smashed concrete is awesome (though that doesnt exactly fit this game sadly)

Dont use straight sand either, before you add any grassy stuff hit the sand with a bit of drybrushing to make it pop a little.

Let all that dry and then apply your grass. The two main options are static grass or tufts. I've mostly used static grass in the past, but have started playing with the tufts recently, and will probably use a mix of both going forward. Lots of colors to choose from, from the usual suspects. Galeforce9, Citadel/GW, Army Painter.

For static grass, get your watery glue mixture going again and paint dollops of glue wherever you want grass to go. I aim for about half the base to be covered, paying attention to places where I've made mistakes (maybe a bit of paint drybrushed onto a boot) or places I couldn't get the full colors of the dirt drybrushed (between feet for example).

Set your figure onto your work area and rain grass down on your model, it'll be messy, that's okay. Get plenty on. Then turn your figure upside down and tap the bottom with a brush handle or something to knock off excess and hopefully get the static grass to stand up a bit.

For tufts, just apply a dot glue to a spot, take a tweezer, and stick a tuft onto the glue-dot.

And that's it, basic basing like you'd see in a GW or Privateer catalog. You can add tiny rocks, different grass materials, use pumice gel, or half a thousand other things, but that's the start.

--Edited to add

Grass should be the very last thing you do, by the way. If you put a sealant on your figures, it'll catch on the grass and glob onto it.

The options for basing are endless, so review what people tell you, but decide what method to use based on what works well for you. I sculpt my bases with green stuff and use kitty litter for rocks.

I'll try for a brief basic guide.

Lay down some glue on the top of the base (I use the same stuff you'd use for arts and crafts in kindergarten). Some people water it down a bit, I don't.

Spread the glue where you want it with a toothpick.

Dip that glued base in some sand. (Playground, basing, whatever you got, I keep mine in a tupperware box).

Let dry about four hours.

Paint your choice of brown.

Apply a black or brown wash.

Drybrush a lighter brown on top.

Apply some random glue in a few spots.

Sprinkle static grass on top. Tap off excess.

Done for a simple job. Add more details as desired. Ripped up cork makes great rocks for example.

Great suggestions above, the one thing I'd add to them is that if you want slightly larger rocks, glue them down before your sand.

Three other tips.

-If you want a really fast basing you can get a good tabletop-quality result simply with sand, painted brown and drybrushed tan.

-You can speed up basing alot by using superglue instead of elmers. It will cost a bit more and be aware that there will be significant fumes if basign many figs. I use

-A 20-40 pound bag of sand at the hardware store will cost you the same (or less) as a tiny couple-oz tub from your hobby shop.

I highly recommend the Army Painter basing supplies. They are easy to use [like most of their products] and give great results. Try looking at this: http://admin.thearmypainter.com/files/downloads/guides/Battlefields-Basing-Guide.pdf

32 minutes ago, Ogrekin said:

I highly recommend the Army Painter basing supplies. They are easy to use [like most of their products] and give great results. Try looking at this: http://admin.thearmypainter.com/files/downloads/guides/Battlefields-Basing-Guide.pdf

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for.

Great advice guys, thanks a lot. I love minis and painting even though I'm mediocre at best. My bases probably won't turn out amazing, but I'll post some pictures for critique when I finish.

Looking forward to seeing your results. Don't beat yourself up if your paintjobs and basing are only tabletop quality. Most folks are going to be seeing them while standing up at the edge of the table (hence the term Tabletop) which is usually 3 or 4 feet away. If you're paint is applied neatly you've got at least one additional technique (a wash or dip or drybrush) and virtually any basing at all, they're going to look good on the table.

Plus, if you just have a painted army, you're already asthetically far ahead of 50-75% of the forces you're likely to see at your FLGS.

Happy Painting!

18 hours ago, Ogrekin said:

I highly recommend the Army Painter basing supplies. They are easy to use [like most of their products] and give great results. Try looking at this: http://admin.thearmypainter.com/files/downloads/guides/Battlefields-Basing-Guide.pdf

I couldn't agree more. Army Painter is my go to for basing stuff.

Check out warhammer tv on YouTube and search for how to paint blood bowl bases. Simple technique with pva glue and sand, when dry use steel legion drab with a good mix of water to cover the base. Then when dry dry brush with tyrant skull.

Then more pva glue and some grass. It works a treate. Example below pre grassing.

And here's an example post adding grass (excuse the blood bowl figure)

Another option is to look at the GW texture line:

https://www.games-workshop.com/en-NO/Citadel-Texture

I've used almost all of them and they really are great. Very fast.

Few spots where Sorastro highlights their use, spoilered for size:

Citadel Texture "Agrellan Earth" is also interesting.

It is applied in a relatively thick coat and when it dries it cracked and looks like desert/drylands kind of surface. Maybe a little boring type of base but with some additional work and details I think it can look really nice if ones into desert look.

This guy has some great paint-by-airbrush videos, and his basing is pretty epic too:

https://www.youtube.com/user/SchnauzerFaceMinis

I use citadel astrogranite turf and vallejo european mud, paint it on and go. Simple easy. Then you put some pva glue on the base and glue flock down and then super glue some grass tufts and done! Army painter has some great tufts and flock!