Basing Warmaster

[amnar]

Hey guys, I'm curious what your advice for basing warmaster is.  On 28mm my fave is sand, but I always base before painting.  With my WM, I'm painting my minis on popsicle sticks and then basing after.  The area between strips is quite narrow...

Any advice?

[Geep]

Although it's a bit tricky when I base infantry or cavalry I always glue one stand to the base (front stand of infantry), attach that stand and the other stand(s) to a popsicle stick, then paint.
I can then add sand to the front of the base and a tiny amount of sand behind the front sand and paint it. I then glue a small amount of sand to the front of the loose stands (or whatever part will be hard to reach later) and paint that. Finally I glue all stands to the base, add extra sand where needed and paint this. Usually this involves needing to paint some sand between the strips, but only a thin line- not too hard or fiddly.
I'm sure other people have far more time-efficient ways of doing this, but I find that this gives a decent result and also goes a long way to hiding the edges of the stands.
I should get back to painting more WM stuff, then I'll post some pictures.

[fracas]

I usually paint each strip then glue them to the stand. I use elmer's glue and with a brush push the glue between the strips as well as a bit onto the strip to cover the feet some. Then flock.

[azrael71]

same as fracas.

[pw]

My method is the same as Geep's but instead of sand I use Vallejo pumice (the grey one). Essentially it's a mix of sand and glue and it's quite co-operative when it comes to getting it inbetween the two strips. It's time consuming though, perhaps glue and sand is quicker.

[Lex]

diluted PVA and decoration sand AFTER the strips are glued on the base (and some of my bases are upside down, wich WILL warp them !!)

I try to determine beforehand how I will base them, then depending on the type of unit I will stick the strips VERY close together (in which case I will undercoat them, and use either a black undercoat OR use a dark brown or dark blue to paint the front of one stand and the back of another, then stick them to the base before painting. This way you only paint one front + one back + some topside highlights.

If the stands are glued more apart then then after they are glued (and the glue has set!) the base gets a liberal covering of PVA and is placed in a container of fine (floral) decorationsand (the almost translucent kind). Shaking the container till it covers the glue, and take an old brush to remove grains from the models. Generaly I will use a darkish brown or grey near the models feet, which will nicely soak into the sand and provide some "shadows" before applying the generaly lighter colour on the bases itself.

[Haranin]

I mount everying on popsicle sticks, prime and paint.

I then examine each stand and put it into one of three catergories - 1. front stand, 2. rear stand 3. either. Basically based on the quality of the paint job on each side.  Best front stands get glued down.

I then use pva glue to brush the base coat of basing on the front of the rear rank. Dirt flock, sand or whatever. I let that dry and then go in with the secondary and teriary materials (static grass, rocks, marsh grass whatever is appropriate for the army). After that is dry I then go in to the base, and lay down the first material, and while that is still wet, glue down the rear rank. It lets me get materials inbetween the stands with out the dangers of putting a glue brush in between the ranks; and allows me some time to get the rear rank in place correct.

the stand is then finished up, allowed to dry. Examine a few days later for touch ups, and about once a month I will take the production outside for dull coating.

I really like gale force 9's basing materials.

I use the Basing Grit as the base for dwarves and goblins; and foundation dirt for elves and humans. Dwarves get the grit one size up in spots. Dwarves, elves and humans then get static grass. Gobbos get marsh blend.

the eco bases are nice to. I lost my warmaster bases for my dwarves (prior to any painting) in the last move. A nice big box of gale force 9 bases is $15; I got enough bases for 3500 points of dwarves and a BOFA box set.

[Carrington]

I use white PVA (elmer's) to affix strips to popsicle sticks for painting.  I began to realize that the strips stay on the popsicle sticks really well, until I soak them in water.

This prompted me to think about basing on wood (Litko) using white glue as well.  This seems to work well.  It has the advantage that you can 'paint' on full strength white glue around the strips. Also, I've found it quite easy to paint the entire base with glue, perhaps add a little extra glue to the bottom of the strip, put it down on the base, then shower the whole assembly with flocking material (I persist in using beach sand).  Puff on the base, spray with a bit of water (to draw glue around the flocking via capillary action) and let dry.

Easy.


I've been inspired by Lex's basing to start cutting strips apart (there's often a break-point when you can cut the base without hurting the figures themselves) to allow for more 'mobility.'  Somehow the peasant and ork castings look weird in two nicely organized ranks!

I'm also moving to under-basing cavalry -- with two or maybe three castings to a stand -- the 4/per stand just looks too dense to me.
I find that 60x40 cavalry stands (or eagle/carrion) with 5-7 heavy cavalry look quite good, while 60x40 light cav stands look good with 4 castings or so.  It is a bit inconvenient to swap in single stands for the 60x40 stand when the cavalry takes losses or adopts an irregular formation.  That said, I suspect the inconvenience nets out fairly well with the status quo inconvenience involved with moving single stands.

[amnar]

Fantastic replies guys, please keep them coming.  Also, would it be possible to get some sample pictures of the different basing methods?

[azrael71]

I do the under basing for light cavalry, it helps spread out models/units.

[Carrington]

Funny thing is that GW seems to have picked up the idea of under-basing for its Steppe Cavalry, with the result that they seem to sell only 9 per unit.

:-/

[azrael71]

Really?

[fracas]

i like crowded basing. i routinely put 5 strips of archers per base.

[Geep]

Another basing method I've used was for a Flames of War commission- Not Warmaster obviously, but still small and it worked quite well.
The FoW models had very thick stands, and a fair bit of a gap between models. I used  a basic clay (some stuff I bought at a local newsagent), rolled it into strips and pressed it around each stand, before smoothing it out onto the rest of the base. To help break up the weird look that every model had found its own personal hillock I added extra clay to sculpt small bumps where there were no models and joined some of the small hillocks together. Finally I added sand and painted the base- there was little issue with gaps between models here.
I've used a similar method to the one above when basing some Warmaster characters, though it's not too common that WM stands are exceptionally thick (nothing a quick filing can't fix).

[someone2040]

Basing WM is a dilemna to me, since on my Warhammer Fantasy miniatures (and all the other 28mm miniatures) I base before I undercoat. But it's not really possible when you want access to both strips to paint.

What I did for my test strip of High Elves (and intend to replicate) is I glued the front stand in. Painted both stands (I guess you could glue it in later, but mine were second hand with some already glued in on the front). Use blutack to put the 2nd stand on the base, and then use pva and your desired basing material to base around the first stand (front, back, sides) but not the sides or back of the second stand.
Take the 2nd stand out, then you can paint and flock the basing without the 2nd stand being in teh way. Once done, I glue in the 2nd stand, and finish off the rest of the basing.

That's for infantry, haven't gotten around to doing anything else yet.