Hello guys, welcome back to Not Just Mecha, it s Marco here and today I ll show you how
I m making super cool swamp bases for my Kruleboyz army!
It doesn t happen all the time but there are models and armies that in the lore are so
tightly connected to a specific setting to make that environment an obvious and almost
mandatory choice for their bases. An Ultramarine army will look cool, or uncool
if you don t like the Ultrasmurfs, on any kind of base but a Space Wolves army for example,
needs some ice and snow to deliver the space Viking vibe.
In the Age of Sigmar setting I think instantly do the Idoneth Deepkin that are all about
deep sea and water and now we have the Kruleboyz that in every bit of lore and active rules
on the table are all about bogs and swamps. These strong themes can be a double edged
sword because even if they quickly solve the general idea of your bases they can easily
kill the originality of your army so in these situations I feel the need to do something
more to make my models really unique! I always had a problem with the classic water
bases where a circular pool of water seems to magically float around the figure and on
top of the ground. In nature you never see the lateral walls of a mass of water but only
the top and its depth in transparency so moving the water effect inside the height of the
base creates instantly a realistic look because the ground level, where the model's feet rest,
is still the highest, top part and you are looking inside something like a realistic
big puddle. Don't forget to SUBSCRIBE and hit the bell
button to always know what happens on the channel and if you want to support my work,
like, comment, share watch another video and maybe check my Patreon page where you can
find the real time footage of my videos with every single little line and brushstroke!
Thanks a million guys! The main protagonists of this build are my
concave insert bases! I put a lot of thinking on these beauties
and, in reality the project started like an imitation of lip bases like the ones used
by Malifaux and Warmachine where you can put a printed or casted insert inside the lip
without seeing its edges on top, like on these ones I made for Infinity, and with this concept
in mind the jump to water bases has been a very natural consequence.
Since I never saw a product like the one I had in mind I took the long road modelling
my own 3D sculpts. Noting super complicated, I just started from a file of standard solid
wargaming bases and I dug a hole in the centre on Chitubox.
If you own or you have access to a 3D printer, I put in the description a totally free link
to my files that covers all the shapes and sizes for the Kruleboyz models inside the
Dominion Box; 25, 32, 40 millimetres and the big oval base for the boss and of course they
cover also the Order side of the set that s all on 40 millimetres.
But you don t have to despair if you can t 3D print because only after the design work
and all the test prints I discovered that GreenStuffWorld has in its catalogue 32 millimetres
bases for water effects exactly like mine and soon they ll should add new sizes and
shapes so you have several options to choose from!
Of course you can also cut the top of standard bases to create this kind of depth and seal
the bottom with plasticard but that s a time consuming option good probably only for single
models. Before moving to the artistic part of the
work here s a solution to the only real issue of these bases.
I store and move my models inside magnetic boxes usually gluing one or two powerful N52
magnets to the bottom but there is no space for that here so I switched to magnetic foil.
I ll never say this word again on YouTube it s too dangerous with my accent.
This stuff doesn t have the same pull of a fat neodymium magnet but thanks to the larger
surface and the perfect contact with the tray the models cannot really go anywhere!
I started cutting these circles by hand, then on my Cricut, then again I discovered that
you can buy this stuff in every possible size ready to go without wasting a single minute
of extra work. I m trying to invent something new here but
with no results! By the way this is not a sponsor, I m just
pointing out a product that saved me some time and stress.
The only upgrade I made to this system is to permanently fuse the two sides with a good
amount of CA glue. The magnets are self-adhesive and again the pull is not so strong to leave
it on the tray when you pick up the model but that kind of glues quickly lose their
power especially in the bound with rough plastic so I prefer to play safe and make everything
super solid. Here s my all-time favourite basing material:
bark chips! This is the stuff you can find in public gardens
and kids playgrounds and you can buy huge bags for almost nothing from hardware stores,
gardening shops and florists. Every chip looks like a cool realistic layered
rock full of textures and details with the right scale for gaming models but it weights
nothing and it s super easy to cut and drill or you can even simply brake it and shape
it with your fingers. Depending on your climate you may need to dry the chips from extra moisture,
and you can do it keeping a batch a day or two under the sun or an hour in the over at
60-70 Celsius degrees. The work on the troops is extremely quick;
GW models are pretty easy to analyse and deconstruct and 90% of the times they have a power pose
with their feet on the edge of the bases. Knowing this I can speed up the work and place
the two main stones that will bring the feet to ground level, on the outer rim, touching
the edges on the diameter of the circles. The system works both for orruks and hobgoblins
and I just add one or two extra stones wherever I feel the base is too empty. I had the temptation
to put some of their feet on the bottom and into the swamp s water but this way I don
t lose the height and visual presence of the models and I can create the illusion of deeper
or bottomless water. Working on armies my main priority is always
the general picture, the first impression that hits you when you see the full force
deployed on the gaming table, and the story I can deliver with that single image. I want
these bases to be eye catching and unique, but a very good base shouldn t steal the scene
form the model being more a complement and visual support for the sculpt and paintjob
that s why I usually keep their structure simple, and their volume contained.
The work on the heroes takes a bit more time, part because I want them to watch the horde
from higher ground and part because, like on the Warboss, I have to integrate the ruins
and all the extra details with the bark. I start marking is best position on the base
with a sharpie and working inside the shape I build volume little by little. I want to
increase the angle of its pose enhancing the idea that he s climbing down from a low hill.
I can always adjust shape and size of the bark adding or easily taking away material,
so I just put together stones until the general silhouette starts to feel right.
This is a tip for all the commission painters out there: be sure to know at least a bit
the rules of the game you are painting. I ve seen a ton of oversized bases on Warhammer
armies that make piling models very difficult, the same in Warmachine forces making the precise
measurements needed by the game almost impossible or even worse very tall bases for skirmish
models that don t fit anymore inside buildings and terrains! So, check a battle report on
YouTube to understand the flow of the game before start building.
When I have my rough shape, I drill holes in a couple of solid spots on the model, I
add short temporary pins without using glue and I mark their position pressing the model
on the bark. Then I can glue the final pins, add a bunch of glue on the bottom and squeeze
everything together into a solid single block. And I cut the extra length of the pins from
the bottom! The contact between model and bark is far
from being perfect so I add smaller pieces to close all the gaps and hide uneven points
of contact blending the junction under new material.
You can see how the flow of model and base is much more natural and fluid now.
At this point I can I add grass tufts and vegetation. Again, I don t trust the original
stickiness of these products and I glue them directly to the plastic with a drop of CA
Glue. I close the sculpting process adding different
layers of textured compounds. I start with AK Interactive wet ground on
the bottom. As you can see it s very liquid and fluid and when it s dry it keeps a soft,
wavy look perfect to simulate the dirt slowly moving inside the water.
Then I move to muddy ground as way to gently connect the rocks under and out of water.
These products have a dense creamy body easy to control and brush on the models and able
to fuse together all the bits of bark and plastic in a very natural way, sealing obvious
seams and junctions almost like putty when you use a good amount in a single spot.
Last application is a generic rough terrain texture for all the top parts applying just
a thin almost dry brushed layer, trying to preserve all the bark s texture and just adding
some extra roughness. Like working on the boss every model is pinned
with one millimetre wire that goes from a hole in one foot to the bark and the plastic
base. One peg is more than enough, and I fix the second foot with a generous drop of CA
glue. The result is monolithic, super solid, very
natural, and organic and all the parts will take the paint at the same time making every
single bit an integral part of the model even from the chromatic point of view!
The bases are painted with the models using the same colours: the bottom, underwater part
is painted with the same green tones used for the skins but with a more aggressive and
opaque application. And I left the rocks in the black and white of the priming stage to
paint them using oil washes. When everything is painted, I can move to
the final stage! The remaining open volume doesn t seem much, but at the end I used fifteen
millilitres of resin only for the 10 Orc boys so for this kind of volumes I strongly suggest
you use a two components type of resin that dries for a chemical reaction and doesn t
care too much about its thickness. I add colours to the resin using microscopic quantities
of oil paints; this specific resin is mixable with solvent based products like oils and
enamels, and it really doesn t like water and water-based colours so read well the instructions
of the specific resin you are using before adding stuff to it to avoid really nasty surprises!
Also, I know well the paints I used, their drying time and their interactions but in
your first experiments with resins I suggest you seal the base with a solid coat of varnish
to prevent unpredictable reactions in the contact.
This mix is so fluid that I can easily pour it using a dropper and it finds its way around
the rocks by itself, I just need to help the flow here and there using a toothpick basically
only in the narrowest channels where its surface tension beats capillarity. And now it s just
a matter of waiting 24 hours! I don t plan to add splashes or more complicated
effects for the moment because these figures are quite static and I like the idea of them
slowly and stealthy moving around the still pools of the swamp but I ll add for sure some
special effect on heroes and monsters that I ll show you in their own videos working
on these foundations! I hope you liked this approach to water themed
bases that of course can work for any other water setting simply adjusting the look of
the solid part of the build. Thanks to the insert bases what is usually
a tricky and messy process with honestly unrealistic results becomes simple like making a standard
gaming base and I cannot wait to see what you are going to create with these ideas!