 |
|
| HOME | COMPANY | TUTORIALS | ONLINE STORE | FORUMS | LINKS |
| SPRING SLATE ROCK BASE - Slate rock bases are fairly easy to make but on the other hand, they are fairly easy to make mistakes on. For this tutorial, I'm going to be making a slate rock base set in spring to show you some steps to try to speed up and ease the process. Keep in mind here that I do not claim to be the master at making slate rock bases, I'm just simply trying to share the information I've found useful over the years. I will, however, guarantee that you won't be disappointed if you follow the steps I've listed below. So, let's get started... |
| TOOLS - I will be using a pair of tweezers, a couple of paint brushes (size one round and size one drybrush), an exacto knife, a cutting board, a small cap to hold drops of glue and a tin lid to catch excess scatter to reclaim. |
| EQUIPMENT - I consider Skullcrafts Basing Kits, equipment. So I've listed them here. I'll be using Cork Slate Rock Tiles, PVA Glue, Black Texture Paste, a 30mm base, Spring Mix Flock Scatter, Spring Mix Static Grass, Spring Mix Leaf Scatter and acrylic paints (black, gray, white, green and yellow) |
 |
| SHAPING ROCKS - Shaping slate rocks isn't really all that difficult, you simply tear off small chuncks of the cork slate rock tiles until you are satisfied with the shape and then make sure it fits on the base. Always keep the excess cork pieces as they can be used for rocks on future basing projects. Once you get the shapes you want, you'll want to secure the cork tiles to your base with some PVA glue. I usually "dry fit" the cork pieces to the base before I commit to gluing, to make sure I have enough room to fit them. Sometimes I'll overhang the cork if I want the slate rocks to spread out over the lip of the base. I use a paintbrush to dab on the glue to the bottoms of the slate rocks and give them about 5-10 minutes to dry. If they slide around when you put your finger on them, they're not dry. Remember that less glue often leads to quicker drying times and stronger bonds between materials. |
 |
 |
 |
| Again, less is more as far as gluing the cork pieces down here. I start with the bottom pieces, gluing them down and waiting about 5 minutes for them to dry and then continue with the top pieces. Typically, I'll use tweezers to apply the top pieces so I don't touch the cork with my fingers. We're going to be applying texture paste and paint soon and I don't want any finger oils on the cork. I take the time to slide and position the cork to where I'm satisfied with the look. Once everything is in place, I allow the cork another 10 minutes to set up. *Optionally, you can fill in the bare plastic crevices with PVA glue and sprinkle some sand on top...this will give texture to the base to later bring out with drybrushing colors. I didn't do that here because I'll be using texture paste to fill in most of the crevices and cracks to represent mossy areas. Sand application would would be redundant. You may want to though. |
 |
 |
 |
| APPLYING TEXTURE PASTE - The Black Texture Paste provided in all Spring Basing Kits is a virtual wonder for basing. It is so versatile, it's hard not to come up with alternative uses for it. For this slate rock base, we'll be using it to represent mossy areas that climb up the sides of the rocks. I'll be using the provided wooden stir sticks in the kit for applying the paste though you may want to use a paint brush, toothpick, or similar items. One key thing to remember here is to keep the texture paste as thin as you can. The paste takes a while to dry, so globbing it on in large clumps will increase the drying times greatly. Also note that the black pigments in the paste are highly concentrated and will stain pretty much anything it touches. It's recommended that you use rubber gloves, I don't, but if I were smart I would. At any rate, there's really no scientific way for applying the paste. This is more of a "whatever looks good to the eye" type of technique. Give the paste no less than 20-30 minutes to dry, depending on the amount you apply. You may even want to give the paste a full hour to dry. Patience has always been a virtue when it comes to basing...in my experiences. |
 |
 |
 |
| APPLYING PAINT - Once the black texture paste is fully dry, you can break out some black paint and cover the raw cork pieces. This shouldn't take too long, blobbing and spreading the paint seems to work fine in most cases. Make sure that all of the cork is covered in black as this will later provide depth for drybrushing on subsequent color layers. Speaking of that, once the black paitn has dried, you'll want to grab a #1 drybrush and some medium gray paint. I mix up a little black with the gray and wipe most of it off on a paper towel and then apply it to the cork. Make sure that most, if not all, of the cork is covered in the gray drybrush mixture except for the cracks and crevices. This will make it easier for the highlights to pop out. |
 |
 |
 |
| Next up is grabbing some white paint and mixing it with the gray paint so we create a highlight color to drybrush over the gray areas of the cork. Remember where you want the light sources to go and only drybrush this lighter gray color in those areas. Allow this to dry and then add more white to the gray color and lightly drybrush highlights on top of the last layer. Once that dries, you can then start thinking about what type of green you want to apply on the black texture paste. I have chosen the spring theme here, so I'm going for a warm bright green. I take some medium green paint and go over the texture paste heavily with a drybrush. We don't want complete coverage here, but we want to cover up about 80% of the black in the paste. |
 |
 |
 |
| Once the medium green layer of paint dries, you'll want to add a small dab of yellow paint to the green mixture and drybrush it over the raised areas of the paste. Once that layer dries, add a bit more yellow to the green and do a final highlight with a very light drybrush application. Now we're going to grab the PVA glue again and the Spring Mix Flock Scatter and Spring Mix Static Grass. With a paintbrush, dab some glue on any areas you want to decorate with the flock. This can act as a base to place static grass on top of or be used as stand alone vegetation. I'm going to be doing both for this tutorial. Blending the static grass in with the flock looks more natural to me. Remember to use an excess tap off catcher of some sort to reclaim as much flock as you can. Give the flock and glue at least 5 minutes to set (I recommed 10-15 minutes). Remember, patience is a virtue. |
 |
 |
 |
| APPLYING STATIC GRASS - Once the flock and glue has set up and you've tapped off all the excess, you can gently blow off any remaining particles. Using a paintbrush, dab some glue around the flock areas and around the mossy areas. Dab more glue in various other locations you think need a splash of grass. Take some Spring Mix Static Grass and liberally sprinkle it all over the base...it tends to cover better rather than placing individual strands of grass down, not to mention how time consuming that is. Allow the static grass to set for about 5 minutes and then proceed to gently tap off the excess scatter (remember to catch it in a container of some sort to reclaim). Turn the base on it's side in your fingers and gently blow the static grass from several diferent angles. This will cause the grass to stand up (and some lay down) in different ways to look more like natural growing grass instead of a manicured lawn. Use tweezers to pluck stray grass from areas you don't want it in and to make other areas stand up straighter. |
 |
 |
 |
| APPLYING LEAF SCATTER - You can apply the leaves by hand or by using tweezers. Simply use a paintbrush and dab some glue where you want a leaf. Put the leaf on the dab of glue and let it dry. That's it. This is easily one of the best ways to over decorate a base. Too many leaves and it obscures more detail than intended. Not enough leaves, what's the point...right? Wrong! I have found that less is more, especially dealing with small areas on a 30mm base like the one we are making here. For demonstration, I'll put 7 leaves on the base instead of the planned 3 leaves I originally had in mind. You'll notice that it does indeed obscure a lot of the hard work we've done on the base so far. It still looks okay, just keep this in mind when you want to decorate your bases with leaves. As is common in this hobby, more often than not, less is dramatically better than more. |
 |
 |
 |
| Here we are at the final step, sealing the base. Here's where we go over the entire base to make sure we have all the dust, stray flock and ballast off. Anything we may have mistakingly painted over (like the lip of the base) should also be corrected. The actual base does not have to remain black, paint it any color you like...or don't paint it at all, personal preferences. Typically, I will use a spray or brush-on matte or flat varnish to seal the base. Allow the varnish to dry and voila! your base is complete. In these two pictures below, unfortunately, I forgot to remove the extra leaves I added to the base and they ended up drying. I just left them on, it looks good enough that I'll use the base for a miniature for sure...some time...some day. |
 |
 |