By Gabriel Bartolotti
Versión en Español 

A nice model is not finished until it is not put on a base that simulates its natural environment. Here we will find simple techniques to create realistic bases for figures and armored vehicles. 

A solid base

Buy a finished or without finishing wood in an art article shop or a trophies shop. Choose one that be attractive and sufficiently big to lodge the model comfortably. The "land" not going to completely cover the base, so mask it until at least 5 mm of the edges. Next, put in the center some small nails, but not totally, leave excel a little (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: With the base edges masked, nail some little nails to help the "subjection" of the terrain.

These nails will help to hold the "terrain firm". Before following with the next step, collects some small amounts of sand, burdens and small stones for make the road. This adds texture to the terrain. Mix stucco with white gluel for the earth; the glue helps that the stucco not cuartee while dry. Distribute the mixture on the base and while is fresh mark on the footpaths, roads or vehcles tracks. Try not to make the terrain very flat, an irregular terrain is more interesting and realistic. When the mixture of stucco and glue is almost dry, press the model in the site in which go located to create the tracks of wheels or chains. Do not forget to mark the tracks behind the vehicle. Next remove the model, because it is left work to do in the base. When the mixture is completely dry, remove the sand and burdens loose with an old toothbrush. Add static turf (the type which is sold for scale trains, that is left "stand up" by the static electricity) sticking it with white glue, following the instructions of the manufacturer (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Bushes of static turf, burden and small stones on the land made of stucco and white glue. Plastic strips define the edges of the scene.

For the tall turf, insert handfuls of bristle of an old brush in holes done in the base. A cutted trunk was also added made with a branch in the scene that is seen in Figure 3.

Fig. 3: And in this corner... a trunk of tree made with a piece of branch and roots exposed done with epoxi putty.

Painting the scene

Firstly airbrush the areas of turf with dark green, and soon the parts of exposed earth with dark brown (fig. 4).

Fig. 4: We colored the dark land with green and brown tones with the airbrush.

There is no problem in which some of the colors goes over the other, because we will mix the different tones by means the drybrush technique. Can be defined the limits of the scene with black painted plastic strips, beaten to the base with cyano; this mainly for when is left the "high" relief just in the edge of the scene. After this first painting stage, the set is going to see itself quite dark, but it does not worry then these colors are going to represent the shades.

Emphasizing lights with drybrush

Now we will need to add "lights" to the upper areas. The artists oils are ideal for this because they have good tonalities, the colors are opaque and dry slowly, ideal for the drybrush technique. They were obtained in the artist painting stores. Drybrush the areas with turf in the first place, using a light green and white mixture. Using a brush of hard bristle, takes a little of color of the trowel and clears most of the paint on a clean rag. Carefully brush on the turf several times. Now the turf would have to be seen lighter. If with a single one brushing see note lighter, probably we have the brush loaded too much, clean again with the rag. Next mixes ocher yellow and white to light the earth areas. Dot does not worry if brush on the turf area, because we want each area mixes with the adjacent one (fig 5). Experiment with different colors to obtain the terrain decipher in the scene.

Fig. 5: The drybrush done with light tones emphasizes the reliefs of the turf and the exposed earth.

Emphasizing the details

The tree trunk was painted with brown, gray and red oils, mixed to produce realistic tones. Some of the greatest stones received an individual treatment with tones gray and oxide. The water of this diorama was maked mixing Kristal-Kleer (a product to imitate water used in scale trains) with alcohol and olive green acrylic paint. The alcohol helps to that bubbles do not form. It can be used also transparent resin or colored the type of which sell in the shops that work with fiberglass. Apply this mixture in fine layers, and the last layers apply without adding paint. The finalized scene (fig. 6) is seen like a piece of landscape in miniature, exactly what we were trying to create. Place the model in the scene and observe how it wins in realism.

Fig. 6: Like a miniaturized piece of terrain, the base is finished.

Fig. 7: Far better that if it were supported on a table, the model is seen much more realistic on the terrain.