28mm Basing guide - techniques

28mm Basing guide.

This is a short guide to basing 28mm miniatures, this is one of the last steps ideally after you have finished painting your figures. I generally base on plasticard: High Impact Polystyrene Sheet (HIPS) commonly known as plasticard in the UK or styrene sheet in North America. The best way to cut it is to score it to the desired size and then snap off the waste.

Alternatively laser cut mdf could be used, for 25mm round bases I use U.K. two pence pieces which give a nice weight to the base.

Stage.1 - glue & filler.

I use superglue flooded under the figures base to secure it, remembering you don't need a lot to safely glue the metal miniature to its base.

Then I use filler to the base, ideally some of it covers over the edge of the metal miniatures base to help the whole thing a bit more durable.

filler with a sandy rough texture which hardens rock solid.

various tools to apply the filler

filler added no need to be too neat in the application yet.

 Stage.2 - grit & texture

select your basing grit

PVA glue applied neat with a brush

Large coarse rocks are applied first then gradually sprinkle on the smaller grades.

Tea leaves from a teabag are the final texture to be applied, the tea leaves will represent grass.

 Stage.3 - painting the base
Wait for the PVA to set hard, heat can help to speed up the setting process. Then brush off the excess scatter material with a soft brush.

I use enamels and oils to colour the base.

greens flooded into the tea leaves

browns added to the areas to represent the dirt.

 Stage.4 - Drybrushing.
This stage involves the most amount of work as the various tones of colour are brought up:
Greens have yellow and tan added.
Burnt umber browns have tan added, then tan + yellow and white for the extreme highlights very gently brushed on. Any mistakes can be corrected by flooding in a darker colour to take it a stage back.

Then the grasses are added, I make these myself and sell them occasionally on eBay at pjw_wargames_supplies , the shrubs represent low lying bushes, nettle patches etc.

The finally the whole model receives at least one coat of 'Testors Dullcote' matt varnish, it's stinky stuff but the best varnish spray on the market.

Austrian Hussar squadron of the 4th Regiment (Hesse-Homburg)

miniatures made by Perry and painted a few days ago.

The finished result, remembering a little care and avoiding rushing the basing stage can produce a nice neat effect which will last a very long time, I've occasionally bounced some of these bases off a hard floor with little to no damage to the model.

Anyway that's all there is to it.
All the Best,
Peter.