How to base miniatures: texture, basing bits and tufts, step by step

A good base is the quickest way to make a miniature look finished. It ties a unit together on the table, hides the join between figure and base, and gives your model a place in the world: a muddy field, a ruined street, a rocky hillside. This is our step-by-step for a classic earth-and-rock base, with the paints we use and cheaper swaps, for 28mm bases, plus the simpler way to base 10mm and 15mm stands.

Time

About an hour, plus drying

Level

Beginner

Works on

28mm bases (10mm and 15mm: see below)

Paints

9, plus 2 washes

Step by step

1. Snip the base free and clean it up

   Our resin bases and basing bits ship washed and cured on their print sprue, like a plastic kit (more on sprues in resin vs filament). Cut each one free with flush cutters, cutting through the supports close to the part, then scrape the little contact points smooth with a hobby knife. Wash them in warm soapy water if they've been handled a lot, and let them dry.

2. Plan the base before you glue anything

   Stand the model on the base and try the bits around it. One bigger piece and two or three small ones looks more natural than an even scatter. Keep rocks away from the feet, and on units that rank up, keep them away from the edges where the next base touches.

   

3. Glue the model and the big pieces

   Superglue the model and any large bits in place first, so the texture can flow around them and hide the joins. A tiny drop is plenty: too much leaves a shiny puddle that shows through paint.

4. Add the texture

   Brush PVA glue over the bare base, avoiding the feet and the bits, and dip it in fine sand. Tap off the loose grains and let it dry, then brush on a 50:50 mix of PVA and water to lock the sand down. For a quicker result, brush on a texture paint like Stirland Mud instead. For paving or a wooden floor, glue on a disc of clay rolled with a texture roller.

5. Prime it

   Once everything is dry, prime the base and model together with any miniature primer. Texturing first and painting the base last is the easiest order: the messy jobs happen before the model is painted, and the base colours go on at the end. If you're basing a model you've already painted, skip the spray and brush the base colours on carefully instead.

6. Basecoat the earth and the rocks

   Paint the earth Rhinox Hide and the rocks Mechanicus Standard Grey. Two thin coats beat one thick one. It doesn't need to be neat where earth meets rock: the drybrushing evens it out.

7. Wash

   Flood the earth with Agrax Earthshade and the rocks with Nuln Oil. The wash runs into every crack in the stone and every gap in the sand, which is what makes the drybrushing pop. Let it dry completely.

8. Drybrush

   Dip a big soft brush in Baneblade Brown, wipe almost all of it off on a paper towel, and flick the brush lightly across the earth so only the tops of the grains catch the colour. Go over it again, more lightly still, with Terminatus Stone. Drybrush the rocks the same way with Dawnstone, then a light touch of Administratum Grey on the sharpest edges.

9. Pick out the details

   Paint skulls and bones Ushabti Bone, wash them with Agrax Earthshade, and touch the top of each one with Ushabti Bone again. Tree stumps get the earth recipe, then a little more of the lighter drybrush on the cut tops.

   

   

10. Paint the rim

    Paint the edge of the base one neat, solid colour. Black, with Abaddon Black, is classic and makes the colours on top look brighter; a brown like Steel Legion Drab blends in on the table. Whichever you pick, use it on the whole army.

11. Varnish

    A coat of matt varnish protects the drybrushing from fingers and knocks back any shine from the glue. Do it before the grass, because varnish flattens tufts and static grass.

12. Add tufts and grass

    Dab a small spot of PVA or superglue where you want a tuft and press it on with tweezers. Two or three tufts on a 32mm base is plenty; put them against rocks and at the base of the bits, where grass would really grow.

How do you base 10mm and 15mm figures?

At 10mm and 15mm a unit is a group of figures packed onto one stand, so there's very little ground showing between them. Keep it simple and let colour do the work:

• Glue the figures to our Movement Plates first: they're 40 mm wide, with a flat top that takes Wakes Emporium's 36.5 mm strips and Ten Kingdoms' footplates.
• Brush PVA into the gaps and add the finest sand you can find, or a texture paint.
• Basecoat the whole stand one broad earth colour, wash it, and give it a quick drybrush with a small brush.
• Finish with a scatter of flock or static grass in two or three patches.

Leave out grass tufts and sculpted basing bits at this size: our basing bits are made for 28mm, and at 10mm and 15mm they stand taller than the figures' knees and crowd the rank. A single well-placed rock on a command stand is the most a 15mm unit needs.

Paint the stand's rim the same colour on every unit and the whole army reads as one force from across the table, even before the figures are finished.

Which basing bits suit my army's theme?

Match the base to where your army fights, then pick one or two packs and repeat them across the whole unit. Each theme below has its own page with the packs that suit it:

Building a historical army? Our medieval miniatures in 10mm, 15mm and 28mm look right on plain earth, grass and rock, so the Rock Clump and Small Rock packs from the kit list above are all most units need.

How do you stop sand falling off, and other quick fixes

• Sand falling off: brush on watered-down PVA after the first coat dries, or prime it, which glues the loose grains down.
• White marks round superglue: that's frosting from the glue fumes. A wash or a coat of matt varnish hides it.
• Drybrushing looks chalky: too much paint on the brush. Wipe more off, and build it up in two lighter passes.
• Bits look stuck on: push a little texture up against their sides so they sit in the ground, not on it.