Following Hal's obvious interest in this subject I thought that it might be nice to follow up the article I did recently on painting figures with a more comprehensive look at basing and texturing.
I think that this is a task that is too often ignored by gamers. A decent basing job done to figures in any scale can often make an indifferent paint job look far better than it really is. The reverse is true and I have seen many an army of nicely painted figures present a really tatty and downbeat appearance because of poor finishing on the bases.
I suppose the first thing I should do is set out what I wish to achieve by spending time on this process. Firstly, I want to place my painted figures on a piece of model ground that emphasizes my superb paint job (heavy irony here folks) and sets them off to best advantage. Secondly, I wish to provide a practical means for moving them around on the battlefield. Thirdly I want to have them ready for use for my chosen rule set(s). I suspect that these are actually common for all scale figures, but 6mm presents its own problems.
For a starter - do you use thick bases or thin bases? What material do you mount your figures on'? Because 6mm figures are relatively small, the thickness off the basing material can have a definite effect on the finished article. For example many of you with 25/28/30mm- figures will use mounting card that is about 2mm thick. Given the current gigantism of modern day castings, placing your figures on this card will have little overall impact on the appearance of the figures as 2mm represents a height increase of just 6%. Using the same card with 6mm figures means the figures growing a massive 33%! So, logically using 2mm thick card is out for basing your figures. Well, not really, I actually recommend it. Here's why.
With 6mm figures you must not only consider the increase in height of the finished piece, you must also look at the way that this scale uses ground area to much greater effect. A common practice nowadays is to base lots of 6mm figures on l5mm ground scale bases. This means that the distorting effect of raising a single figure up on a card'pedestal' can be spread over say sixteen figures over an area of 40mm x 20mm, and the final appearance is therefore much more pleasing than would seem to be the case at first thought. By the time the bases is painted and textured and the base joins its comrades the 'step' effect will effectively disappear.
So, if you can get over the psychological barrier of using what at first seems to be excessively thick basing material, we can look at the advantages that it gives.
Firstly, you have a strong, sturdy and robust base that can be used to handle and move your small soldiers instead of having to hold the castings themselves. This is important, as 6mm figures are more fragile than their larger counterparts.
Secondly, a nice thick base, when textured, becomes a nice heavy base. This gets round the other problem with 6mm figures, which is that they are comparatively lightweight. A good base gives them a bit of 'presence' on the table.
As for basing materials. By far the easiest to work with is good quality card such as that used for making mounts for paintings. It can be cut with a knife and the best quality is dense and resists warping. Many people also use sheet balsa, which is again easily worked and widely available. Plastic card is a good standby. It is a bit more difficulty to work, but doesn't warp under normal circumstances and is stronger than the first two alternatives. Personally I used acrylic sheet. It is tough, it is easy to work with once you get the knack of 'score and snap', and because of its weight it provides good strong bases for my figures. The disadvantages of the latter two materials is that they leave you bases with shiny undersurfaces that makes if difficult for your soldiers to assault or hold model hills as they keep sliding down them!
Once you have cut your bases out of your preferred material you next job is to stick your painted figures to the bases. (Those of you worried about the 'step' effect of thick bases can take some fine sandpaper and chamfer the edges of the bases down.
Before you start the next phase I recommend strongly that you paint the bases of your figures using the colour that will predominate in your base painting scheme - in my case, green. Secondly, it you are using plastic card acrylic sheet or even metal bases, you should score the surface to provide a 'key' for gluing the figures down and for the filler material.
Once these steps are done, glue the figures to the base. I used a good contact adhesive for this job. When this has cured, the fun starts!. We must now apply some filler to the bases. I would suggest the stuff that you buy at DIY shops that is used for filling small holes in walls. There are lots of different varieties and they come either ready mixed in tubs or squeeze tubes, or in powder form. You can also get different grades and textures, but for the moment I will assume that like myself you get a smooth finish version, and one that is also quick setting. I have two home made tools for applying the filler to the bases. For larger areas I take an ice-lolly stick and with a sharp knife carve the end into a broad but thin spatula. Recently I invested in a metal spatula to do the larger areas and can testify that is was well worth paying the money out for it. For small, hard-to-get-to areas I use an old paintbrush handle again shaped with a knife to give me small narrow spatula to get to those inaccessible spots.
The aim of applying the filler is to fill in the gaps between the individual figure bases. You should be left with your soldiers standing in a field of white filler. A word of warning. Do not be tempted to use too runny or sloppy a mix if you using cardboard, as this tends to make the base more liable to warping and distortion.
Put the base away to dry out thoroughly.
Tricky Bits
Now we come to the tricky bits. I use sand to provide the texture for my bases. The key to this is to use the finest sand that you can lay your hands on. The stuff that people use for 15mm and 25mm figures will not do as it is out of scale for our more delicately sized figures and will make them look as if they are walking across lava flows! My children introduced me to what is my favored medium. They have two hamsters that clean themselves using a dust bath. The stuff they use to bathe in is called 'chinchilla dust' and is absolutely perfect for 6min basing. One of my customers also recommends bird cage sand, so it looks like you all need to take a trip to your local pet shop - just don't let the assistant know that you are really buying it for.
Once you have your sand put some in a small tray or box, covering the entire bottom to a depth of say half an inch. I use a plastic box measuring about 8 inches square by 2 deep.
Use a watered down mixture of white PVA glue, (I believe its called 'Elmers' in the US) and paint the base, working the mix over the filler and on to the metal base of the figures. Now place the base into the box containing the sand and ensure that it is thoroughly covered by the stuff. Remove it gingerly keeping as much sand in place as you can and put it to one side to dry. Once dry; shake the excess sand off back into your little box. Your base should now sport its texture.
The next stage is vital. How many of you out there have put sand or flock on a base and found it gradually moulting in use? To avoid this, mix up some more white glue and water, add a squirt of washing up liquid (yes, the stuff you do dishes with), and paint this mix over the top of the sanded areas. This seals the sand in place, the washing up liquid serving to dramatically improve the flow of the mixture and importantly sealing in every last individual grain of sand.
Once dry you can start painting. This really is a very individualistic thing, so once again feel free to take up or ignore, as you feel fit.
As usual with all my painting techniques I start from a black base coat. What I actually do is to add black acrylic paint to the glue/wash up liquid mix above so that I am sealing and undercoating all in once go. Once dry, the actual painting can be done very quickly indeed. The base coat, usually green is heavily drybrushed over the base. I generally paint 65%-75% of the surface area with green, leaving irregular areas of black showing. These are then similarly drybrushed with light grey or grey brown. Because you are drybrushing, this coat will be dry and ready for the next stage quite soon. Take a bright yellow and SPARINGLY drybrush over all areas, taking care to ensure an even coverage of the whole base. Then add a further drybrush and EXTREMELY SPARINGLY drybrush a topcoat of pure white. Too little is just enough, as an over-zealous approach at this stage will leave you with Winter Wars...
The result you are looking for is one of predominantly green broken up by bare patches of ground. The contrast between the black and white softened by the green, grey and yellow gives a depth to the basing that you cannot achieve in any other way.
Desert effects can of course be done using sand colour, brown, yellow etc.
Like any technique, this has its good points and its bad points. Against it. It takes time. It is fiddly and you do need to take care and concentrate. It works best with bases taking a large ground area such as those used for Volley and Bayonet. It is not advisable if you are in the habit of rebasing your figures! In its favour, it rewards effort. If you have spent the time painting the soldiers, you may as well spend time getting the basing right. If you get the correct grade sand, it give a better scale finish for 6mm figures than flock and static grass which are really meant for bigger scale models. The finished result is strong, sturdy and protects your figures. It will last without degradation of shedding Once you have mastered it, it really does look very, very good.
Things I haven't mentioned in this article. Alternative systems such as basing on thin card, or flocking, or adding scenic models to bases or using textured fillers or textured paint.
Thin card doesn't give the durability or 'presence' that a heavy-duty mount provides, Flocks are designed for the bases of big boy's toys and not proper sized wargames models. Scenics can look good, but I find that they detract from the magnificence of your massed units, although I do like the idea that someone put forward of ensuring that there is a model tree on every base and this can be used to pick the bases and move them around! Textured fillers and indeed textured paint such as the 'Basetex' ranges are all too coarse and if used with 6mm figures create a rocky landscape rather than a scale terrain.
Examples of bases done in this way can be seen on my WebPages; http://baccus6.wargame.com. Those of you who can get to the bigger UK wargames conventions can see them 'in the flesh' as I have lots of examples to hand on my trade stand. I'm afraid that any US readers will have to wait until I can save up the money and carve out the time to get over to see you at a convention where I can extol the joys of 6mm gaming to you all.
I'm happy to expand on any of the techniques outlined here. If you access to the Internet, my email address is baccus6@aol.com
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© Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum
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