Basing Your 15mm 18th Century Artillery

In this tutorial we will be basing artillery. It is not hard at all to get your artillery based to a respectable gaming standard, it is quite easy to do and yes you can do it yourself, simple stuff indeed, with just a bit of common sense and a few easy to obtain supplies.

This particular method of basing will work just fine for other minis. I just used artillery this time, you can base a lot of different minis in this style.

Remember that even a poorly painted mini will benefit from a good base job and a good base job can take the attention away from a mediocre painted mini and will further enhance a well painted mini by following a few simple steps. You will soon have some game worthy artillery pieces ready for the tables.

		Products we will be using in this tutorial consist of: PVA glue or white glue - most hobby shops can supply a suitable glue. Sand - yes sand, easily obtainable and plentiful. You can use most types of modeling sand but I tend to use the free stuff, it works just as good as the bought sands and has the benefit of being irregular in size. A small amount of railway ballast will enhance the sand even more but is not necessary. Super glue - this glue is easy sourced from your LGS or two dollar shops. Remember, when using these glues caution is advised. Greenstuff or kneadatite or equivalent - Most two part modelling puttys will work, only a small amount is needed. Flock or static grass - This will help to get a more realistic look to the finished job.

And last but not least, we will need some good bases, I only use Brevet bases for obvious reasons.

		Next we need some tools to accomplish our aims, simply put we will need: Paint brush - an old paint brush that is no good for painting your mini`s will be fine. Hobby file - hobby files are easily obtainable from two dollar shops and not expensive. Hobby knife - or exacto knife will also be useful. Metal stylus - pictured here but this is not needed it just makes working greenstuff easier . Any type of rounded small tool will work fine. You can even use your fingers.

Step 1: With our hobby knife we first score our bases. A simple scratching or scuffing will suffice. It is quite easy to do and helps your minis to adhere to your bases. You want to just rough the top side of the base with your knife and put some shallow cuts on the base.

		Step 2: With our bases scuffed up, place all the minis that you will be using for this particular base on the base to judge were you will positioning the mini`s once complete. Simply position your minis were you want them to be, including your cannon.

Step 3: Glue your minis to the bases, don`t glue your cannon`s to the bases yet, just the minis. Now you know where to glue your minis because you have previously positioned them. A lot of people don`t put there minis on their bases first but this is my tutorial, and with artillery, I do, plus I find them easier to paint this way.

Step 4: With your minis glued to the base we now move onto the green stuff or putty. With the greenstuff, simply knead it thoroughly. Once it is mixed thoroughly you roll it into thin sausage like lines and break it into equal lengths of approximately 1" (2.5cm) and now we simply apply the green stuff strips around the base of the mini`s.

		Step 5: With the green stuff on our minis we must work it around the base of the minis, this can be a bit tricky because greenstuff tends to be sticky and sticks to your tools you can just wet your tools with water to help stop the greenstuff from sticking to them. This works for me. Work the greenstuff around the edge of the mini so that it reaches the top of the minis base, this helps to give an even look to the finished product and is not hard to achieve.

Step 6: With our green stuff now dry we can take our old brush in hand and totally cover that base with white glue. Apply a liberal coat of white glue and make sure you get plenty of glue all over the top of the base. Try to be a little neat here and don't get white glue on the sides of your base or it will make the next step rather messy. But be sure to go right up on the greenstuff with white glue till you reach the minis feet.

Step 7: While our base is now covered in white glue we can now apply our modeling sand. Sprinkle your sand all over the base and cover the white glue, you can use a little or a lot of sand, some people dip their bases in the sand, some sprinkle, the choice is yours now leave the bases to dry. Be sure you don't have any sand stuck on the edges of your bases or it will dry there and look messy and that is not what we are after.

Step 8: Cover your bases with some more white glue, yes more white glue. Yes, I know this means more waiting but this extra coat of white glue really does help to totally set the larger pieces of sand in place and will stop your larger pieces of sand from falling off when you dry brush the base.

		Step 9: With your bases now dry, it is time to undercoat the base. Use whatever you wish to undercoat the base. I find a black paint works quite well and now you can simply dry brush your bases with some earth tones, starting with darker browns and gradually working up to some slightly lighter browns or tans, the choice is yours. Painting is not my forte and above the scope of this tutorial.

Step 10: Now you can see the fruits of your hard work appear before your eyes. You can simply glue your artillery pieces to the base any time now but there is still one more thing we can do to enhance the base even further and that is to apply some flocking materials to the base. I tend to use some more of our old friend white glue for this job, a few simple dots of white glue and i use a pair of tweezers to apply pinches of flock, continue until you're satisfied.