Making a textured base Stamper.

I cannot claim credit on this idea. I found it on a blog years ago. I would credit whoever I got it from but it is lost in the mists of time.

So this is the way to make a textured base like say cobblestones or Wood Decking for your figures without having to sculpt each one of them or buy premade bases. It's a little more work upfront, but down the road it pays off.

1.  Find a texture you'd like. In my case I used a cobblestone piece my friend Lou sculpted for me.


2.  Get some Modeling clay. I used an oven drying clay.

3  Using the clay, make your stamping tool with a small handle. Press it onto the surface of your chosen texture. Then Bake as directed.

4  Once your stamper is done, you are ready to stamp textures onto bases. The original post I got this from used a Plumbers Putty, so I did as well. I imagine you can use Green Stuff  or any other 2 part epoxy putty. So using your putty of choice, put a layer onto your base. Then stamp the base. You might want to wet it so it doesn't stick to the stamper.

5  Trim off any excess putty. Let it dry and your done. Depending on your putty you might want to cut it off before it drys or after. You can crank out a lot of bases this way.

The figure on the left has a stamped base on a fender washer. The figure on the right has base stamped on a GW slotta base.

 Cheers, Xin

Basing my Gondor troops

Ok I cheated. I got very lucky when it comes to painting up my figures for LOTR. My good friend, who I like to call Thor, paints about 1000 times faster than I do, and he doesn't mind painting up my figures as long as he gets to play with them.  Maybe he's impatient cause if he waited for me, the 5th Age of man would start.

So anyway he painted up 72 Warriors of Minas Tirith and 6 Knights of Minas Tirith. I think that is 3 box sets and all the figures in the Return of the King box set. Here are a few of the figures.

I had him not paint the bases as I wanted to do it. His basing style is different from mine, so if I did the bases that would help give what he did and what I did a more uniform look. Now I am in the process of painting and grassing the bases.

The steps I take to finish the bases is not that hard, but I think looks pretty good on the table top. The first obsessive compulsive thing I do is weight the base. The plastic figures are so light and can bounce all over the place. It bugs me enough to take an extra step basing my figures. I buy lead fishing weights at Walmart, smash them flat with a hammer and Zap Gap them to the bottom of the bases.

Then I texture the bases, with a Liquitex Texture Gel, Resin Sand. That's the white stuff drying.

  Next I paint the whole thing brown with a craft paint, Americana Dark Chocolate. After the first coat dries, I dry brush a mixture of the same paint with white mixed in.

The next step is a few random highlights. If there is a big chunk of the texture gel, I will painted it gray as a stone. Not to many, just a few here and there.

 
Then add static grass and paint the base ring green. I might also add in some grass tufts, again not to many. I use Army Painter Highland Tufts. I like the contrast of the darker grass on the greener static grass. Army Painter Tufts

And Done. 24 Minas Tirith Swordsmen ready to battle Evil in Middle-Earth.

Only 48 more to go.

Ciao for now, Xin