Basing Guide Book

A socket is a base for your display.

Making a simple socket

due to some requests on how I do my bases, I do not want a simple and affordable option being denied
to anyone. That is just one option, there are for sure... ahm, many.

What you need:

1x strip of wood from the Hardware Store (i would prefer hard wood sorts after making my experience)
1x Backsaw (mine is a Japanese Fine Saw, called that way, works not on pushing, either on pulling, more
comfortable)
(1 ~ 2 clamps)

A simple strip of wood from pine has been cut to length by eye with the fine saw. Here you could mount
the 2 clamps around the bar to fix it properly, otherwise go with your arm strength. Pay attention here,
however, that you put small spacers between the bearing and pressure surfaces of the clamp on the bar,
because otherwise there will remain slightly unsightly marks in the wood.





After it was cut to length, I have cleaned the wood with sandpaper at the edges, since they are
sufferingusually quite fast when sawing, unless you have a special circular saw in the basement.




I caught myself a bigger brush and the wood block has been painted with black - 2x wait times (to dry the
first layer):




Once this was dry, I've got myself the corresponding figure on it and i did fixed it there with Pattex glue
where the center was seen by eye (here often enough very little glue, because it really attracts hardcore)
- you may also go there with different fixing methods, like magnets for example to use the miniature for
gaming later on:




And done... you could do another sandpaper session again, repaint in the colour you want and/or add
some varnish, how ever you like:





Conclusion

As an easy and simple to use version which brings the figure more into a good view without having to
touch it always on the carefully painted areas. Alternatively, offer an incredible number of possibilities and
qualitys here, for example as a piece of a cross section of a branch ... Also the integration of this kind of
shelf in the final design at the beginning of the project can be implemented with it.

Here I have cut off the base, for example, in approximately 60 angle at a corner install to add a corpse:



Building a display base on a slim socket

I was in the mood for a change. When i look into my cabinet there is a lot of finished stuff, done on big
sockets. I was in the mood of something more elegant. I did shot some pictures and maybe this could be
an inspiration for some of you.

I took a slim 4-edged wooden batten and cut it in small pieces with a saw. I planned to have two sides
plain and to make this look good i choose to try a method i saw over at Jim's cool blog - Figure it out.
Using plastic card for the plain edges was my goal. I did cut the plastic card into fitting pieces and made it
clean from the cutting process by using fine sandpaper. Then i glued the plastic card in place by using
super glue.



Next step, all glued together, another go with the sandpaper at the upper edge to make it plain was
needed:



Preparing Milliput Standard Yellow by mixing it together 1/1 to fill up the empty space. I also prepared
some slate stones which i did cut in pieces with an old knife. Don't use a scalpel for such things, they are
not hard enough and you might hurt you badly - old knife is perfect or you can also use a hammer - you
know hammertime!





After i brought the Milliput in place i also placed the stones into it and arranged them as i wished. It is
pretty cool as you can move the stones to the place you want them while the milliput is still soft. I tried to
fit the miniatures in place and moved the stones like i want to. I also build up another slim base with
somegypsum pieces because the mood was so big. After everything was dry i cleaned the edges again
by using sandpaper (not done at the photo yet, haha):





The models which i put up to the base are from the left, Pulp City's some kind of evil Little Red Riding
Hood and a chinese warrior of Helldorado, both in 28 mm. I am not sure if i will paint them up soon, there
is still something else to do but i was in the mood to build a base as i told you.
A standard base from the Sockelmacher.de has been used.

- Socket
- a Putties by Guardi - Type A (not granular)
- Stones
- Soil in the pot
- Two small twigs
- Fragments of a dried tree slice *
- Wood glue
- Zinnkleber
- A skull of Tin Bitz's
- Half a statue of Confrontation
- Tape


* Of such things - are found in the woods ..



Masking/Preparing of the base

To protect the socket from dirt, paint, primer and adhesive accidents I've taped it with an usual tape.



Watch for the upper area and really get the tape plain to the socket by using your fingers or the back of a
kitchen knife or the back of a brush or whatever, then wander down to the base, smoothing everything, to
avoid gaps through which paint or whatever else could get onto the socket and make it look not so nice.

When buying a tape don't buy the cheapest ones, because they don't work as good as you might think.



Bringing on the Putty
With a knife, I have brought the Putty by Guardi on the bread ... uhm, Base (in the end it is just like
making a morning toast). Already at this point the tape works its task.



On display are here already the first components. The half cutted pieces of the statue and the pieces from
the tree disc, which are still quite porous.


Smashing the pieces into the Putty

Well, the "components" pressed into the putty and have been moved how the mood wanted to take them
place.







Once the filler is completly dry (about 5 ~ 6 hours, depending on how thick the layer is) t is time to
proceed.


Garden Potting Earth?

I am using so many material Mother Nature offers, so here instead of sand have used earth from the
garden.




I gently put some PVC glue on the areas where i wanted to put the earth and pressed it onto the base.
You can, for example press it down with the back of a brush.






After the glue dried (it was about 1 hour, then i blew over the base - outdoors), I have watered the earth
and the other wood parts with Super Glue to guarantee stability - sure this is not a very good idea but i
like the smell and it works. There is certainly a less wasteful solution to this problem, for example - should
work well - a dilution of water / PVC glue.



In response, I blew the base again and again to reimplement the process with the earth repeatedly for
unsightly holes or other places.


Ready to paint ...

Jupp, that's it, after all glue is dried:




I recommend to paint the entire figure to the end and then removing the tape - why? The reason can be
seen here quite good ... WIP:


A standard base from the Sockelmacher.de has been used.

- Socket
- a Putties by Guardi - Type A (not granular)
- Stones
- Soil in the pot
- Two small twigs
- Fragments of a dried tree slice *
- Wood glue
- Zinnkleber
- A skull of Tin Bitz's
- Half a statue of Confrontation
- Tape


* Of such things - are found in the woods ..



Masking/Preparing of the base

To protect the socket from dirt, paint, primer and adhesive accidents I've taped it with an usual tape.



Watch for the upper area and really get the tape plain to the socket by using your fingers or the back of a
kitchen knife or the back of a brush or whatever, then wander down to the base, smoothing everything, to
avoid gaps through which paint or whatever else could get onto the socket and make it look not so nice.

When buying a tape don't buy the cheapest ones, because they don't work as good as you might think.



Bringing on the Putty
With a knife, I have brought the Putty by Guardi on the bread ... uhm, Base (in the end it is just like
making a morning toast). Already at this point the tape works its task.



On display are here already the first components. The half cutted pieces of the statue and the pieces from
the tree disc, which are still quite porous.


Smashing the pieces into the Putty

Well, the "components" pressed into the putty and have been moved how the mood wanted to take them
place.







Once the filler is completly dry (about 5 ~ 6 hours, depending on how thick the layer is) t is time to
proceed.


Garden Potting Earth?

I am using so many material Mother Nature offers, so here instead of sand have used earth from the
garden.




I gently put some PVC glue on the areas where i wanted to put the earth and pressed it onto the base.
You can, for example press it down with the back of a brush.






After the glue dried (it was about 1 hour, then i blew over the base - outdoors), I have watered the earth
and the other wood parts with Super Glue to guarantee stability - sure this is not a very good idea but i
like the smell and it works. There is certainly a less wasteful solution to this problem, for example - should
work well - a dilution of water / PVC glue.



In response, I blew the base again and again to reimplement the process with the earth repeatedly for
unsightly holes or other places.


Ready to paint ...

Jupp, that's it, after all glue is dried:




I recommend to paint the entire figure to the end and then removing the tape - why? The reason can be
seen here quite good ... WIP:



This article shows an easy way on how you can pimp those up swiftly by using some of your unused
gaming bases and superglue. Here are two bases i found in my unused base box - i have already sanded
the edges and removed mould lines from the casting (the one on the right is from Warmachine i guess
and the one the right is unknown):



I was pretty happy that these two were compatibel - i just glued them on top of eachother and brought the
wooden simple socket on top by using superglue. This is pretty easy and really no big deal - it's written for
your inspiration (model still in progress at the photo):



For sure you could also use a round wooden piece, might be a good idea for the next one i will do in the
future. You can also do this in different ways, just as you like - another example:



How to attach a large figure to a base
Sure it is no easy task to bring up a big miniature up to its standard gaming base. Unfortanetly i am
having a comission piece that really is big and heavy made from white metal alloy - the Greater Demon
of Tzeentch by Games Workshop in 28 mm.

The comissioner wants him to stand on a temple base from Micro Art Studio which is made out of resin.
So far so good. This guy is really heavy when assembled. Now it is up to me to bring him up to this resin
base and make sure he won't fall off while he runs wild on the gaming table.

For this i did use a drill first and put a hole in the left leg, which stands on the floor ( i did not yet fill all the
gaps at the model, so please hold your breath about telling me, haha). Try to drill really deep and take
care to get a place where you can do so. If you chose the wrong place your drill comes out at the other
side and puts a hole in your models leg - you only will do this once in your lifetime, believe me...



I did get back to the base and also drilled a deep hole in the base where i want that leg to be placed,
same seize for sure. Make sure to keep that model in balance if it is as big as this guy here - make some
testing before drilling and glueing:



Now get a pin, i often use a needle pin for this action also you can use the metal from a paper clip to it.
Bring it in length with using a gripper and make sure the model's feet stand plain on the base. Glue the
pin at one piece first, for example the leg and then glue it into the base with superglue.

So far for the first step. Everything should be fine if the model is half seize and weight as this guy here.
With this great daemon the comissioner really would get problems someday when playing and moving it
around. So i did get back to the base and leg area and really put a big drop of super glue around the foot.
Now i did distribute fine sand on this place and let it dry to get more foothold of this alliance. In this case it
doesn't matter if there is a bit of sand around as the base also got some in its resin cast. This alliance
really can hold a lot weight, for sure i can not promise you that it still works when your best friend drops
your model from the gaming table and it'll fell, but i wanted to show you how McGyver Kong goes at this
task:




The easy to pin figures
Raffa and I are both lazy guys when it comes to basing for gaming figures. Maybe it is because we build
up so many bases already in the past that we don't find motivation for it, but after we decided to really
paint our figures just for gaming we choose to use some of Micro Art Studio. Quick and dirty.

While we sat there preparing some of our first figures we thought about that white metal bar under the
figures of Infinity and that there is a reason why they got it. It will keep the figure fixed when used with
gaming bases where you can glue the bar in. Our resin gaming bases do not have such a port and ...





... we thought about pinning our white metal figures to the base, but really we have no motivation to drill
those fragile Infinity figures. At least that is what we found out during our conversation. So we decided to
pin the figure with just two small pieces we left from cutting of the bar. Done with a forceps, cleaned with
a hobby knife, but not to serious.






Next step was taking the drill to bring in the holes for these uncommon pins. You can easily work resin
bases with a drill, so if the hole is too small, your drill might be too tiny. Pick a bigger one or keep the
small one and drill four holes close together, they will turn out as one in the end.








The figure was then glued to the holes.
Make sure to test the fitting before you glue. If it doesn't fit drill until it does, then glue. For us this is a
pretty quick method to bring our figures to the table and we are surely safe from drilling and destroying
tiny white metal parts, but for sure we hope that the figures will hold :)

ready for painting


Yesterday I asked you what this structure above could be.
Definatly interesting answers were dropping in and some did already point in the right direction.
This little article will explain what happened. Before I start please take your time to vote for the next big
article ahead. Arkvenger or Zombies? It is up to you until next weeks Monday!

__________________________________________________________________________

Back to the article. I do not think that this is new to everybody, but I hope some might find inspiration in
it.MV's "year of the painter" means for me, that I have my camera at the ready all the time when I make
my own experiences at my table.

While I was glueing something with superglue by PK-Pro (High Viscosity) I made a little dot of superglue
somewhere and used the toothpick to put it in place for detailed glueing. On another day I realized how
this small dot dried out and was amazed: A little vulcano!!!

Or is it an alien's nest!


So amazed by this little piece I gave it a quick second try on the same spot, but I had to wait for it to dry
until the next day. I already imagined to make thousand of those pieces to make a wonderous lava
landscape. Well, and I wanted to check if it dries the same twice.

I want more Vulcanos!!!


While I had to wait I realized another wood piece on my table where the same happened before but to a
larger area and I quickly realized: Small dots will bring you "volcanos", maybe, but bigger areas bring you
the looks of wrinkled brain or a cool alien structure. With this thought in mind I did put much more
superglue on the wood piece - around the initial brain pattern, a lake of thick superglue.

After a little while I checked back on how the drying process is doing. I already could see it start at the
edges. Maybe this will become an ultrabig vulcano. Please! Please!



Well I went on with my usual work and let that piece stand beside to try. Maybe you are asking why the
piece of wood is green on top - here comes the answer: This is a piece I did put some figures on top to
prime and paint them. The last figure was done with a green start from the airbrush, that is why you find
green on top of that wood piece. After five hours or so I checked back and it looked like this:

No ultrabig vulcano, but a hell of a structure...


Now I was really able to see it dry with my own eyes. Don't get too close, it smells horribly and burns your
nose hair, but it was great to look at from safe distance.

As night turned late this painting day I had to leave that experiment and went home for a bag of sleep.
Next day I found it completly dried and was really amazed by the structure. With this base especially I will
definatly work on to make some Sci-Fi base with alien slime on it, using this structure. I will also try to
make a thousand vulcanos and get control of the random effect in small dots. I even think this experiment
offers even more, only one thing for example: A stamp for sculpting putty ... oh well, too much ideas
exploding in my head! What happens If I do two lakes opposite to eachother? Will it look like the ocean is
splitting and I can put Moses there?? Can this be used to create small roots around a tree or a massive
brain monster? Some brain splatters on a warriors shield??




I will definatly leave you alone with this inspiration. Let me know what you think, even some of you might
know this effect as a side product of your work. I am sure there is a lot of use for it available.
I am not sure if this works with every superglue available as they are produced with different mxtures.
Give it a try. Make your own experience as this is the most important of all.
I had the idea a while ago to produce a dried Desertbase therefore such a parched land, as in a dried-up
salt lake or deep in the desert without sand where it is 1000 hot. Just like here in the way: Example...
He himself did not have the time to do test around so he asked me. In fact this is more like an experience
report of mine, and certainly not the non-plus ultra, but perhaps for some still interesting.

Materials:

- Base
- Putty (there are in most craft stores)
- A hammer




Approach
Put the putty on the base and move smoothly with water. Here take care to bring the Putty over the edges
of the socket so you can clean this up later with sandpaper and get a plain surface to the edges.


Now you can also stick something in, such as a root, just as an idea, wihile the 2nd base with the root will
leave us once again to pursue a different path:



Allow to dry - about 5 hours until it was dried completely at this example, always depends on your putty.
Then it gets interesting:



Rock it with the hammer - in the beginning I was very hesitant at the end i simply enjoyed smashing and
beating on it - tenderly ... :)
When pieces will leave your base, because you went for it with titanious power try to glue them on place
in the end again.


Result

With the result I'm quite happy for the first attempt. I did already clean the edges with sandpaper here.



The Painting result can look like this:




Experience during the knocking and hammering:

- The Putty breaks, unfortunately, sometimes so that you can not control, so I had 2 larger parts that had
broken out - i just glued them on place again - not that bad

Basing with cork

What you need:

- A base (gaming or socket)
- A miniature
- Some cork
- Some additional bits if wished

What i have thought while doing and how i had done it

I thought about making another snow base again in a rocky landscape, a simple but nice base. Miniature
is another Space Hulk Terminator, who just will be a Blood Angel Terminator fighting against Necrons
with his two "Blink! Blink! Chink! Chink! Blink!-Energy Claws".

I did take up some cork and a socket. Prepared the socket (again it is one from Sockelmacher.de) with
tape for its security while painting:



I have used Super Glue to bring the cork parts up to the socket. And i did start to rip some areas off the
cork to make it look like more natural randomly stone - used my fingers for this.



After ripping a lot of and glueing some parts on top of eachother, i took a sculpting tool with a knife-like tip
and ripped of some single cork areas on the upper areas to brake them up and make them more
intresting in the end, when painted.



My computer mouse seems to be way too close to my colours, haha:



After everything was done i did prepare the Model and fixed it with a metal pin and super glue at the base
in the pose and direction i did choose out of a feeling from the stomach, even the plan was in the different
direction first, haha.

As i will add snow to the base, unclean areas are not that important to me at the moment. In the end there
is still the option of ripping something off or adding snow at this place.



After i butchered a plastic Necron warrior and glued those parts to the base the priming has been done:



Now start off painting if you like. Snow comes final later on.



Here are some more base examples where cork has been used to addition for the sanding on some
gaming bases of Helldorado Miniatures:


Building a base with parts of old electronics

What you need for building exactly this base shown here:

- a socket
- an old electronic piece that doesn't work anymore
- small screw drivers
- arm power
- Attention to not hurt yourself
- whatever tool kit might be good for yourself
- bravery
- super glue
- sand
- some straws
- some old cables, for examples from your old stereo


Get it on...

Ok, first of all i want to mention that this is for sure won't be everyone's favorite idea to build up their next
bases, haha. This is just a thought, that might inspire some of you.

I did this, because the miniature, Carlos from Artefactory was standing around a long while now in early
Work in Progress without a base and i really got inspired by Raffa's great version of this model. Mine
isn't converted at all, simply paint him out of the box with no big story told around him. But i wanted to
have a base, which makes him look like a working machine on a rusty, chaotic carbage planet.

As my old camera, which got broke a while ago was still laying ahead of me (it was about 6~7 years old,
so no consideration of having it repaired), i thought of playing butcher again as i did with my old MiniDisc
Player some months ago.

Pay MASSIVE attention to the following quote of the Chapuchin:


"Before we forget:
Never destroy electronics when you don't know what waits for you inside. For example, a PC power
supply or a television have capacitors that can store enough energy to give you a nice shock. I would
advice to stick to small, low-powered stuff that, in the ideal case, runs with batterys.

Cheers,
Raffa"

Miniature, socket, dead camera - ready to go.



Putting the miniature and the socket away again and preparing myself to ripp off that broken camera,
yeaha!. Please pay attention not to harm yourself while using uncontrolled Kong-Power, always think
first and then act.

I did start with screwing out the tiny bolts on the outside of the camera while using small screw drivers for
this task.





The butchery went on carefully ripping out whatever i could, first always driving out the bolts, then using
enourmous Kong-Power for the ripping parts. Please make sure to really pay attention to avoid hurting
yourself. Slow and precious working at this point. If you are scared try to throw your old electronic from
your balcony for the first steps. Please make sure that you always use small electronics that broke up for
something like that, not a TV or Computer, that is too much as we work with tiny miniatures in here, we
won't need a lot of this stuff.





Building the base...


Before i did start building up the base from this chunk, i did check my metal part box, where i collect such
weirdo things from such experiments for more parts to bring them up to the base.









I put everything together and build it up on the battery case from the camera for the main part. Super glue
was used to bring everything in place - it's like making corn flakes in the morning, haha. I did bring in
some sand in the wet super glue to make it more harmonic in the end, more realistic, there would never
been a place where chunk lies around without dirt around in my oppionion - also checked back the
kitchen for some straws i want to lay under the main base as there has been some space left.





Gluing the straws in place i did take some old cable strings and also put them in. The finished chaotic
junkyard base looks like this:





































AfterPriming the base, i did put a hole in the base to set the miniature up to with a pin. Unpainted result
does look like this. Painted result for sure will be delivered in the upcoming days. Everything still Work in
Progress, also the miniature ;)



Hope you like this strange way to build up a base. Keep doing experiments and always pay attention to
your safety.

Here is another example where i had used some parts of my old MiniDisc Player: