I can’t find anything in the rules that says you have to base your ships for Dystopian Wars but they do look much nicer on the table top if they are based. It took me a while to get round to basing by fleets but once I found a method that I thought looked ok and was reasonably easy to reproduce there was no stopping me. Now if something isn’t based it just looks wrong. So having been through the anguish of wanting to base but not knowing how I thought I would share with you how I base my ships.
First things first and that is what size should the base be. The friends I play with all work to the same rule of the base being 5mm larger, all round than the ship sitting on it. So if you have a ship that is 50mm long by 25mm wide its base would be 60mm by 35mm. Nice and simple. I also keep all of mine oblong to make it easier to make them, rather than following the profile of the hull. But if you want to make them follow the profile of the hull then go for it. With the size decided I then cut out a piece of plasticard that I will glue the model too. Once cut out I use a bit of sand paper to round off the corners. As well as making them look a little nicer it also stops them getting caught up on the foam in packing cases.
With the base cut out I then use a bit of superglue to stick the ship to the centre of the base. I find that drawing a centre line down it first with a marker 5mm from the front helps me line everything up without being overly fussy. Then once the glue is dry I add some colour to the base. You don’t really need to do this as the Vallejo water effect we use next does have a colour to it. But I find adding a colour at this stage give a more uniformed end result. It also gives you the chance to change the overall effect. So if you want one fleet with a dark water base and one with a lighter base this is the time to do it. It also means you can paint the edge of the base that makes the end result look much neater.
With the base colour done it’s time to add that water effect. I use Vallejo Mediterranean Water effect but they do other colours. As I mentioned above if you give the base a lick of paint first you can greatly impact how the end result looks so it’s worth playing round with some scrap material to come up with combination that works for you. For me it Scale 75 Mediterranean blue. The water effect is looks like a gloopy past and I find the easiest way to apply it is with a coffee stirrer. I start at the front and work my way aft trying to get a reasonably even distribution onto the base. Don’t worry that it will be lumpy and will look really messy, just make sure all of the base is covered. Then I switch to a cocktail stick to add some detail. Because I want to try and make it look like the ship is cutting through the water I lay the cocktail stick across the front of the base and pull up and back to make one wave all the way across the base. I then repeat this up and back motion down the side of the ship angling the stick give the effect that the water is running from the ship backwards to the edge of the base.
Now comes the boring part. You need to put the model to one side and leave it for about 24 hours for the water effect to harden enough add some paint. The thicker the effect the longer it will take to go off but I think it’s worth the effort. Once everything is nice and dry the final touch is to give it a bit of paint. I like to use a Vallejo Off White to give the whole base a light dry brush, starting from the back and working your way forward. I do it this way as to me the ‘speckles’ that you end up with between the wave look a little bit more natural. But that could just be me and my imagination. Then I take a bright white and do what is essentially an edge highlight on the tops of the waves. This may not be really necessary but it’s what I do. However you do it adding some which to the waves really makes a big difference and is a step that I think is essential.
And there you have it. A nice simple way to give your Dystopian Wars fleet that little bit of extra pop on the table top.
