A couple of posts ago I was in a quandary: attempting to
fill the bases of my Splintered Light miniatures to give a natural look, and to
conceal the little moulded bases they come with. The dichotomy of choice I faced was whether
to use a wall poly-filler, or whether to use air-dry clay. Both had their advantages – clay was easier
and quicker to get on, while the filler dried harder and was better to cut and
chisel afterwards. They both also had
their disadvantages: the filler was harder to put on, and I was concerned the
clay would just break away from the base.
Sadly and happily I was right, the clay did just break away
from the bases – making it next to useless.
This was sad because it had seemed the easier option, and not being
desirous of too much work I was thrilled with that. That the clay failed so dismally turned out
to be a happy occurrence however for one key reason: and that key reason came
in the shape of a little artist’s trowel.
The little trowel of mine turned out to make the process of getting the
filler onto the base (and in the right places) a very easy and quick process. In all it took about 30-40 minutes to fill in
the bases of all my minis – about 20 or so. I also used the end of a wooden skewer to
flick any extra bits out of the way and to roll the edges of the filler where
they met the miniature’s moulded base.
All in all I am very happy with the result, the bases are
uneven, with little bumps and ridges and so forth, but this is exactly how I
had hoped they might look. In all
honesty – it’s probably a level of detail that will get erased as I add grass
and other bits to them – but hey – I’m happy – and it’s been an interesting
process.
My last act, before dusting my hands off contentedly, was to
add a few little rocks here and there while the filler was wet – other thematic
detritus I’ll add after the painting process has been completed. Voila! Done.
Now all I need to do is undercoat, paint and base the miniatures and
they’ll be ready for whatever anthropomorphic conflict I can throw at them.
Cheers,
Giles.
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