Often the base of miniatures are overlooked as last minute things to rush, and finish as quick as possible. Despite the plethora of basing material, too many times I have seen a beautifully painted miniature stuck onto a round base covered in bright green flock. What we all must remember is that a miniature’s base can set a mood for the piece. When a unique basing method is applied across a whole army, it serves to both thematically set your army in a certain theatre of war as well as unify the army as a whole. However, it is often difficult to assemble ass the disparite basing material into a single, themed kit. With the arrival of a new and very nice line of basing material by Ziterdes, I’ve compiled their various materials into seasonal “kits” with which you all can use to spice up your army’s base! I recommend putting the substrate down first before priming, and painting that in whatever color you would like. The flocks/extras can be added on without paint, or colored/tinted with inks to further blend them into a single cohesive environment for your bases. I’ve included the product codes that we employees use in our system. Give one of the many friendly gk employees the list of codes for your kit of choice, and they can happily and easily compile it for you.
First, we start off with the very base material. This would be rocks or gravel of your choice. How rocky or how soft you want the earth to be on a miniatures base is up to you, so for each of these seasonal “kits” I’ve included both Brown gravel and modelling sand. The choice is yours! For a varied look, try combining both! To even further your variety of substrates, add in boulders and rocks
Now that We’ve dealt with substrate, it’s time to truly add some theme for that base. I’ve included a flock in each for grass or bark, as well as extras like tall grass and lichens.
Spring: Everything is in bloom, so all the colors are lush greens. Try combining different tones of green to demonstrate the myriad of plant life in bloom.
Substrate: Gravel or modelling sand
Flock: Forest Ground–very lush, bright green and/or Forest Ground –this has more of a natural green tone. This contains a small amount of the other forest ground, giving it a multi-tone look
Extras: Lichen This bag contains excellent, realistic looking lichens in a few different green tones.
Field Grass. This is a bag of lush green reeds/ tall grass.
Summer: There are two different routes you can take with this season. You can use lush green tones, similar to spring, or go a dryer route and use more tan colored grasses. I’ve included both.
Substrate: Gravel or modelling sand
Flock: Light Green Flock Great for grass and/or Light Brown Flock This would be good if your going for the “dry” or “brittle” Summer look
Extras: Lichen This bag contains excellent, realistic looking lichens in a few different green tones.
Field Grass This is a bag of lush green reeds/ tall grass.
Fall: I’ve compiled rich browns as well as dry khakis for this season. To drive home the feel, use reds and ochres in your pallet if you choose to paint the base
Substrate:Gravel or modelling sand
Flock: Dark Brown A very rich brown that could work for grasses, barks, or loose tops soil
and/or Veld Grass a light tan flock, great for dried/dead grass
Extras: Field Grass Brown This is another color in the tall grass/reeds series. It has a rich orange-brown color that works great for any fall base themes
Winter: Keep your tones dry, and cold. I’ve included two grasses i encourage you mix together. These would work well for a Tundra theme
Substrate: Gravel or modelling sand
Flock: Veld Grass and/or Swamp Grass great dark green grass that looks “dry”
Extras: Winter Lichen it’s just like the green lichen bags, except it is all in tan and khaki tones. Great for Tundra themes Field Grass Biege another color in the tall grass/reeds series. A great dry tan color
Snow flock/paste: Ziterdes does not currently have a snow flock, but fear not! For freshly fallen snow i recommend i healthy dose of GF9’s Snow Flock. Try mixing it with equal parts white glue for a thick, heavy layer of snow.
Happy Basing!
-Shane
