basic basing techniques

I thought i would put together a basic basing technique tutorial for this I'm going to base my French command base for my Grandeur Napoleonic rules for my Peninsular wars project.

Starting off with the base concept. I want the command base stand out, so I'm going to use a circular base i tend to use old Cd's for 28mm command bases. 

I use air drying clay for the construction of the base, this is ideal to build up any raised areas you can attach rocks and push the bases of any miniatures you want to use into the clay, this helps with the final look of the base.

For this base I'm going to use two mounted command miniatures both by Perry miniatures also a solider helping a fallen comrade from Victrix and Warlord games, with another unfortunate another Perry, near the two commanders also I'm going to put some battle debris on the base to. 

The air dry clay and rocks glued in place, after all has dried the dry river bed base is glued in i use PVA for this and sand 

Composition all the elements are in place as a test although things tend to change a bit

Sand it applied all over at this stage, make sure not to get any in the areas you are going to put the miniatures in

The base is given two coats of brown paint i use house wall paint for this as it gives a good coverage. You can also use small sample pots from your local DIY store. Dry brush the rocks you have added at this stage as this will help with the continuity of the base.

Highlight the earth paint, i use a light grey paint added to the earth tone paint you have used to paint the base this also helps with the continuity of the base i tend to give the base two coats of highlight adding more grey 

to the second coat. At this point i usually attach any main miniatures and sand and paint in the bases. I have also added the larger sand base to the dry river bed.

Adding larger sand to the base i use PVA for this. The sands i use come from a pet shops a great source of wargaming basing material.

Adding the flock, have a good look at your base first, you don't wan to add to much flock so keep it to a minimum you can always add more later.

Adding the tufts things work better if you use two or more colours of tufts as this will helps give the base a more natural look, some of the battle debris has been added .

The final finished base with the all the elements put together 

I try to make my command bases tell a little story as it adds a bit of fun to when putting the hole thing together.

Hope you have enjoyed this basing tutorial. 

Till next time