Basing Tutorial

I've had a few requests to show how I do the basing for my miniatures.  I'll demonstrate on an Uruk Hai Scout.

Here we have the miniature on its base.

I add White Putty all over the base, until it covers the entire surface.

I use a sculpting tool to get it all on there.

When it is dry I use my handy dandy sanding stick to sand off any putty that got onto the sides.

I have a clamshell blister filled with a mix of different types and sizes of ballast and small rocks which I use to add to the bases.

After putting little dabs (almost as small as I can get them) randomly across the surface of the base, I dip it into the basing mixture.

After shaking off any excess sand back into the blister, we put him aside to dry.

When dry, I slather Vallejo 822 (German Camo Black Brown) all over the base.  When that is dry I put on another coat to get the spots I missed with the first coat.

Using a paint mixing pallette (the cheapo ones from Walmart) I mix in 3/4 of Army Painter's Dark Tone and 1/4 Strong Tone.  This mixture is put liberally over the base, then put aside to dry.

Here he is after his bath.  Note how shiny he is.

Using that same Vallejo paint I used before on the base, I drybrush it over the base.

The next few drybrushes I use a mix of the German Black Brown and Vallejo 826 (German Camo Medium Brown) and then the Medium Brown mixed with Vallejo 875 (Beige Brown).

After the first drybrush with the 50/50 Black Brown and Medium Brown.

After the drybrush with the 50/50 Medium Brown and Beige Brown.

So now that we're done with painting the base, we move on to putting on the static grass.  I'm using Gale Force 9's Winter/Dead static grass.

Like with the sand mixture, I add little blobs (the smaller the better in my experience) to the base where I want grass.  Then I put lots of grass all over the base and put it aside to dry.

When it's sat for a few minutes, I shake off any excess grass back into the original container by tapping with my index finger on the bottom of the base.  Then I blow on the base a few times (do not blow into the container of grass!) to get any loose grass off there.  I usually use my finger to push up any grass that is leaning over the side of the base to make it look more tidy.

Next we add the final touch to our base - grass tufts.  I use the ones my Tajima.  You get a lot of them in the box and he does different sizes.  Not as fancy as the ones by Army Painter, they lack some of the highlighting and have more loose grass on them.  However, Tajima tufts are cheaper and you get a lot in a box.  You can even get different sizes of the same colour of tufts in the same box!  I highly recommend them.

I use one or two tufts (sometimes of different colours and sizes) on the base, added on top of a bit of super glue.  The tufts are quite sticky on their own, but I don't feel comfortable without gluing them down.

So that's it!  I just paint the sides of the base whatever colour I want (in this case Medium Camo Brown) and he's done!