At a loss as to how to base my High Elves

[Stormwind]

Thought I'd put this in WM general rather than modelling as it's a question rather than a show-and-tell!

I have been working up about 2000 points of High Elves to get them ready for painting - and finally have some new high pigment white paint to go on them over a black undercoat - but then I realised that 10mm is so much chunkier than 6mm, that my GW sand isn't going to look very substantial next to them.  I sanded a test base and put my spearmen on it and it looked --- silly.

I've kept telling myself not to spend more money on modelling things - have spent so much the past year and still so anxious about picking up a paint brush!  But I am seriously considering these:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/294736.page

I've seen people put it on Flames of War bases and it looks good!

Any thoughts or experiences with this kind of product?  I really don't like the look of leaf scatter - and my initial pitch for my High Elves to myself was that they would be on beaches sallying forth against invaders, so I guess that's the kind of texture I'm looking for.

[David Wasilewski]

PVA and sand (don't use GW sand or playsand - its too fine and uniform, use builders sand or real beach sand) - leave to dry
Paint a darker colour - leave to dry
Drybrush a lighter colour and then add static grass and/or silflor tufts according to taste
Paint the edge of the base a colour you like (I use graveyard earth)
Varnish


Takes a while but I like the effect.

Dave

[BlackEd]

I gathered up some sand from the side of the raod.  Here in the Northest USA a fair bit of sand is laid down on the roads every winter.  The result has small pebbles and variable sized grit.

I use a mix of white glue and water and sand to fill the areas between the stands.  I do this to provide a level ground for the figures -- so they aren't standing on small hills.  If I do nothing else, the overall texture is fairly smooth, broken only by the occasional pebble. 

If I want more texture, I take some dry sand and sprinkle it over the base.  When this dries, I have much more texture. 

Either way, I let the white glue dry over night.  Then drybrushing.  I then add flock, either over the whole base or just in spots, depending on the look I want.

Does this help?

[Dave]

Getting a beach effect is going to be tough. You'd have to build up some putty around the edges of the model strips as they're 1mm high at least. Without doing that you're going to see the lip when using fine sand or any kind of acrylic basing medium.

[pw]

I use that Vallejo putty and really like it, the grey one is about right and can reach high enough to cover the tab thing in one go. It is also slightly flexible and can be cut after application. I tend to glue the front strip to the base and put this stuff at the front and behind it and inevitably put too much behind so have to cut it straight to get the next row on when they're done.

If you haven't started yet I'd take a look at GW's new textured paint, it looks like it could be very similar to the Vallejo stuff and is already coloured. Might be worth a try (but it'll cost more by far).

[Lex]

I generaly use (thinned down) Elmers and stuff that is called Florist Sand of Deco sand, which some very cheap in home decoration (and obvisous) Florist stores. This is VERY fine sand that works realy well.

As part of the silicone mixture is almost transparant crystals that WILL soak in the color applied it will actualy "soak"  the color from a brush !!

Lazy as I am, I learned to use the darkest color between and close to the strips, and the paint tends to soak in and spread olmost over the entire part of the base, loosing pigment down the way so near the edges it will blend out.- Just pickup any places without color after that (or put some static grass there.

On the beach theme thing:  I noticed that more then anything the basing of the individual models tend to enfore the general " grasp"  of the terain supposedly based on the entire army. So as long as THOSE bases clearly state "beach"  the similarity in material and color will tie in the units bases.

[jchaos79]

I use that Vallejo putty and really like it, the grey one is about right and can reach high enough to cover the tab thing in one go.

@ I wonder just last week to buy and test vallejo putty, but finally my lazy part of the brain drop the idea. Is your Emipre stuff based with vallejo stuff? If it is so maybe I could reconsider the vallejo putty...

[Stormwind]

Thanks for the replies - mulling over ideas now!

Yes I am eager to see the textured paints from GW in action but I don't think they are thick enough for me, and only 12ml for £2.30 a shot... =-/

I'm planning on mounting all my units on lollipop sticks to paint them... painting the bases separately, THEN superglueing the units to the gaps I've left in the bases, if that makes sense.

[pw]

@jchaos: yes, the Empire are based with the Vallejo putty. All my WM stuff is, I also use it for 28mm stuff.

If you're planning to paint and then base, the Vallejo stuff would work, it paints on with a brush so it's easy to get it where you want it (it is like painting with gritty PVA. I think you can add paint to the putty to colour it before use but I haven't tried this (if it would work then it'd be very similar to the GW stuff but much cheaper).