Plasticard Basing

[Honsou]

Hello all, there's a reason I've been posting lots of these threads. This article is part of the project that I am working on to collect articles from around the Warhammer community to have at Astro. Brannick approved.

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Author: Starks333

Plasticard Bases

Ok so you have textured plasticard, what now? Well applying it straight to the base is ok but then its super flat and boring...

So here's what we can do (and a little extra added in for fun)


Materials

• Milliput
• Textured Plasticard
• Mixed Flocks/Dirt
• Wooden Dowel and a thin sheet of Wood (Balsa Wood works)
• Plastic Wrap
• Hay or Dried Grass

Step One

Take your plasticard and mangle it, bends it all to hell and back... if you want potholes in your road, make small cuts into the card:



Step Two

**Note for these two examples my plasticard piece is tiny, and my milliput is dry, simply because I didn't remember to take pictures during the actual original bases construction**

Apply milliput to the base in whatever shape your want your mangled plasticard to take:


While the milliput is still wet, press in your plasticard, you will need to hold it in place and keep pressing it down every now and then so it stays...the alternative is to allow the milliput to dry, and then simply add superglue and press on your plasticard:



Step Three

After Milliput has dried, start filling in gaps or areas your plasticards edges still show:



Step Four: Building a Fence

Ok, so to build your fence, grab an appropriate sized wooden dowel (round peg like wood) take a knife and shave it down a bit since it will probably be a bit too big ... the knife shaving also allows you to add random shapes to the wood, so dont worry about being perfect when shaving it down.

Next take a screw with finer threads and repeatedly go up and down the wood while slowly turning it, this will leave striations (lines) in the wood and tear it up a bit which will seem more natural:


For the thinner pieces especially if you use Balsa Wood, I'd simply use a knife and random cut in lines, make sure to just cut away dont be precise, precision is what will make it look fake:



Step Five

Put the fence in place, glue it together and cover it with plastic wrap...then proceed to prime the base, I chose black, white might of been better for this because of my painting step...also dont forget the nails, I had Greenstuff nails sculpted on but apparently they fell off....



Step Six

Add some colour! Have fun if you want!

How I did it:

Taking colours I used on my model, Liche Purple, Golden Yellow, Dark Flesh and Catachan Green and an offwhite, I wet the paints a lot, and applied them in a big puddle placing colours more so where I wanted than complete randomness (some like the randomness, I find it more attractive with some more precise placement) as you can tell the paint is still very wet in the picture and this was about 5 minutes after first application:

[Honsou]

Step Seven

Ok so in this step after the puddle has dried take your dirt nature mix and apply it, let it dry, and while its drying drybrush your cobblestone with a brighter off-white:



Step Eight

***the next steps go together, I didn't have pictures to do it in order...***

Paint the fence... using the same colours and a bit of brown and black, I paint the fence, applying colours as I see fit

After painting the ground more (step below):
Apply the hay/dried grass behind the fence along with some random pieces of stuff:




Step Nine

Apply controlled washes of a darker brown to areas needing shading...applying several layers of thin paint helps you keep some areas lighter while darkening others.... I do a very thin layer over the entire cobblestone except the very brightest... I also washed with greens near the greeny patches.

After attaching the grass after painting the ground:
You can paint the grasses... make sure that the glue has dried completely before, otherwise it will turn your paint whitey... same thing, paint shade and highlight the grasses as you would anything else...thin/wet washes are the trick as always:



and that's that... rural bases, how to use plasticard without getting flat results (hee hee good pun) and some fence building


Thoughts
Haven't done this myself, so if anyone tries it, let me know their thoughts.

[The Dim Reaper]

Wow Starks still does some lovely stuff doesn't he

For those of us too young to remember Starky333 was one of the first mods here on Astro

Cheers,

Dim

[Consadine]

Lots of his tuts are in the database... I didn't know he did that model! Seems he outgrew us

[Hephesto]

One of the last ones he posted pics of here!

[Honsou]

Whatever happened to the old chap, haven't seen him in... well, a long time

[Skrall]

Lots of his tuts are in the database... I didn't know he did that model! Seems he outgrew us

despite his skill, starks333 was highly arrogant, presumptous and knew about politeness. its something other people did, paticularly towards him.

hawke

[Honsou]

Oh the irony.

[NathanS]

@ hawke your not kidding there. I saw him on another site and asked if he was the same person no reply.
He was only a mod in the Hobby section wasn't he?

[Skrall]

@ hawke your not kidding there. I saw him on another site and asked if he was the same person no reply.
He was only a mod in the Hobby section wasn't he?

yeah, he left after coming into conflict with the mod team, we felt he should be here for the forum, not because members give him 'karma' (the old rep) for posting pictures of his models.

hawke