Making a custom cave display base
In this article, Matija Koružnjak, a member of the FB group Miniature Painters Croatia, describes the creation of simple display base for warband Zarbag's Gitz, a set of miniatures for the Warhammer Underworlds by Games Workshop.
We start the base with a foam board surface on which we have already drawn the desired position of the miniatures on the base and determined the relative size of the surface. I cut openings for the bases with a scalpel.
I then glued the foamboard to 15 mm thick HD styrofoam with PVA glue.
I covered the entire base with electric plaster. Easy to coat, and dry within 5 min. Used to fill and erase textures.
The base for the base is made of 5mm thick balsa wood.
I wasn’t happy with the final layer of the base and decided to line the edges with thin plasticized cardboard cut from a box of socks. Eventually, everything was taped with masking tape.
Considering the "cave" bases of miniatures, it was logical to present the base as a cave and simply conjure it up with stalagmite terrain.
I shaped the stalagmites with my fingers using Fimo air, and sanded all the shortcomings and filled them with liquid greenstuff. I did not touch the irregularities that added to the impression of stalagmites.
Everything was then coated with a mixture of fine sand and PVA glue, with a higher ratio of glue to get a smooth "eroded" surface.
For the puddles, I simply cut out the plastic of the document liner and pressed it into the glue. For a better impression you can paint the substrate and then imprint a piece of plastic, I just wanted a smooth surface to paint later.
For an extra detail, you can add a few homemade mushrooms or some leftover stray dwarf.
And that's it!
Paint it as you like.
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