Basing Tutorial - Temperate Grasslands / Forest

It's been a while since my last basing tutorial, and my basing has come a long way since then. This is the method I use for all my grassland bases - from the Lord Of The Rings figures seen here, to my 6mm Napoleonics and 40k Eldar.

For this style of basing you will need:

Paints

I've included what I think are the closest colours of GW paints, but for my bases, I use cheap craft paints.

Dark brown - GW Rhinox Hide

Medium brown - GW Baneblade Brown

Light brown - GW Karak Stone

Off-white - GW Rakarth Flesh

Dark grey - GW Mechanicus Standard Grey

Black - GW Abaddon Black

Basing material (sand)

Static grass / vegetation

Dark Brown, medium brown & light brown

Off white, dark grey and black.

Start by painting on PVA glue and covering the top of your base in your chosen material - I use sand, mixed in with some model railway ballast for variety.

Once the glue is dry - it's best to wait overnight to be sure, cover the base in your dark brown.

Now do a wetbrushing (like a drybrush, but with more paint) of your first highlight brown - you want to be able to see where your brush strokes are falling, but still only catch the raised detail.

Next is a heavy drybrush with your second highlight brown - this one needs to be a true drybrush, but you still want decent coverage. The aim here is to lighten the uppermost parts of the sand, but leave some of the first highlight showing through, to lessen the contrast between the highlights and the basecoat.

With a smaller brush, paint in the rocks (the ballast from earlier) with a darkish grey. This step of course does not apply if you've not got any rocks.

Now do a final, light drybrush with your off-white. This serves the purpose of highlighting the rocks, and tying them into the rest of the base.

Next, paint the rim of the base with a suitably dark colour - I like to use black, but lots of people prefer a dark brown instead. To me, the black rim makes works because it's visually distinct from the base, and neatly delineates the messiness of the basing material from the smooth base rim.

Finally, apply static grass, flock or tufts to taste. I like to use static grass glued with cheap superglue from Poundland, which looks the part and costs a fraction of what professional tufts do. Alternatively, leave off the vegetation for a bare, barren look.

At this point, the base is done, but if you wanted, you could add extra items - broken spears, arrows, shell casings, logs, etc

Next up - some Gondorian infantry to join my Rangers from last month.