Basing With Plaster

In a continuation of my last post... I made a round plaster base with foil and a container. After it set up I removed the mould and trimmed off the excess plaster. It doesn't need to be perfect right now, because we'll finish with a second cast to clean up the edges and make them sharp (right now it's got a bit of curvature). Be sure to save the off cuts as they make great rocks.

Grots live in caves (I think) so most of the ground should be rocks and gravel. I'm going to simulate this using old coffee grounds. Trader Joe's French Vanilla to be exact.  

After taking off the excess, priming with gray, and the first wash.

 

Here's a quick shot of the type of thing I'm going for. basically a bunch of random stuff all going on at once. Grot's aren't known for being big planners, and once the magic mushroom stew hits....

DMGWLFP... 

Metallic NMM?

Here's a guide to metallic non-metallic metal. It sounds stupid and it works.

Paint it black.

Really thin out your Leadbelcher, and go over the flats, leave the black in the recessed areas.

Now hit it with a good coat of Drakenhof Nightshade. It's hard to see, but the blue does make a difference.  

Break out the Runefang Steel and do your edge highlights. 

Finally, one simply considers where the light source is (as for NMM) and work up the highlights and such. Carefully bring things down with thin Leadbelcher and Nuln oil. 

Don't forget to stop when you're happy. If you want to add rust very, very, carefully go in with Troll Slayer Orange, and Fire Dragon Bright. As with many techniques, sometimes less is more. 

FFWD four steps, paint a shield, make a mannequin, and tada, the Grots have the beginnings of a quintain.

DMGWLFP...

Planning my 1st Diorama

Planning isn't my strong point, but im working on it...

I'd like the guy with the "beach" ball to be playing witht the baby cave squig,  and i think the other gots ahould be sparring or something. I can construct a wooden sparting tree thing, like knights used to train on. Maybe the little blue guy is sneaking toward the cauldron, or away? While the fanatic is just going off?

I'm pretty sure the base will be round, ideally without a preferred viewing angle, so you can keep turning it. But square or possibly even an oval could work as well.  The elevation of each piece is also something to consider. 

Grots with a woodeb sparting tree. Maybe it should have a sword or better yet, a helmet.

Also, I sprayed and did a quick wash of my "test" bases. The spray was super crap and left little lumps, but it should end up looking like dirt.

Leave a comment and let me know what you think.  

DMGWLFP.

The Base of Basing

Soooo. Working on some basing. I trying out using plaster of Paris and Al foil, so far the tests are promising.

I started by crumpling some foil and flattening it out then pushing it into a dish.  The harder you crumple it at first the more texture in the end.

My first attempt was the size of a normal base. It looks tall, but you want to leave excess that you can cut/sand off later.

The second was a little more ambitious, but it wasn't deep enough and cracked while trying to remove the mold. I'm planning on just pouring more on top. 

For the third mold I crinkled the foil a lot more. We'll see how it comes out.

Straight out of the molds.  It is very easy to sand and shape with a hobby knife. 

I'm not actually sure how i feel about the results, but I'm going to keep pressing forward.

Figure only to illustrate point...

Baby Cave Squig

A big gob-o-teeth! :D
Thats what cave squigs have. This one needs a cleaning.  I think i got the drool right, it was actually quite hard.

There's also a pot of bubbling magic mushroom stew. 

Little Green Men

So... finally got to sit down and do some painting. Still working on the Grots and their friends.
The little guys are really small, but I think I'm up for the challenge.

:)