I've been packing up my stuff to take to University and I thought i'd experiment with basing a figure. So I covered his base in some PVA I found and covered it in sand. I waited for it to dry for a day and then painted it a dark brown. I then used Foundry's base painting system and used the three colours to dry brush on the highlights. It looked great! But then I had it in my head that dry-brushing brown onto it again would look good. It didn't. It just looked brown. So I repeated the process and then thought it a good idea to highlight with white which then made it look like the figure was fighting in the snow! So I repeated the process and finally left it at that. After 16 coats of paint, the result is shown above! I'm just waiting for my grass tufts to arrive and then his base will be finished! I might leave the overlap of colour on the brown part of the base as it hides the harshness of the corners which adds to the realism!
5 comments:
When painting the base I use Winsor Newton peat brown or chestnut brown ink to initially shade the sand before lightly drybrushing with lightened brown and then darkened parchment white. Less is more, I find.
All the best!
Yeah that certainly sounds like a good idea! 16 coats is going a little too far!
I'm going to base the other figures in this unit by painting the basic brown then the three layers of drybrushing but in future, use a method similar to that you use by using inks. Where do you get your stuff from?
You can get the ink from any art or craft shop or stationery store. I find ink is best as it seeps nicely into the contours etc
If the painted sand approach leaves you frustrated, you could try gluing brown ballast (Woodland Scenics brand) over the whole base instead. Then glue the tufts over the ballast.
I've just had a look at the Woodland Scenics website and that's a really great idea you have! Thanks for letting me know! Have you used that yourself? If so, do you have any pictures?
I think i'll invest in some of the brown ballast but may not use it for my Legionaries to start with, perhaps the Auxiliaries or Macedonian though (this is for continuity so far).
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