Weekly Waffle #382 – Back to Bases
14th June 2025
For this week’s Weekly Waffle, I have gone back to bases because I have a few vehicles that have been finished for quite some time but that have never been based. Mainly because the style of base I wanted to do was very time consuming and I just didn’t have the time or to be honest the inclination to build them. But because I’ve been juggling my hobby time lately, I thought that changing up the style of the base would allow me to actually crack on and get them built. So what hobby time I have had this week has been spent working on a set of bases that will allow me to finally finish my small fleet of Orc vehicles.
Up until now I have been basing my Orcs with a scrap yard type of feel. Which is easy enough to do for infantry units but it gets a bit more complicated when you are working with larger base sizes. Mainly because you need to have enough scrap on the base that it looks like a scrap yard. But on larger scale bases this can start to look a little chaotic. Trying to find that balance has been a real challenge for me so in the end I decided to switch things up and go with something a little bit different.
The upside is that it will finally allow me to get these vehicles based and finished off. The downside is that it may mean me having to go back and re-base my infantry units so that everything will be the same. I’m certainly not committing that any time soon and I may never do it. Given the fact that I’m not actually playing any full-size games, and these units are really only painting projects there is no burning need to unify things. But if things change in the future and I start playing larger games again then it’s something that will need to be addressed at that time.
So I’ve waffled on for a few paragraphs but what have I actually been working on and what have I done. First things first is that have made four vehicle bases to finish off some existing projects and to have one ready for when I finish my current project. The theme for the bases is really straight for being a damaged road. Ragged edges, cracks in the surface, some simple markings and one or two bits of debris on the surface and away you go. All of the bases are the same size, citadel xxx x xxx oval bases.
To keep things simple, I have used two layers of cork sheeting to from the structure. The first lay was glued to the plastic base using a lavish amount of PVA glue and then left for a few days, under a pile of books, to allow the PVA to properly cure and adhere to the base. Once it was all dry, I cut round the base to give a ragged edge to this lower part of the base. I just wanted to have something that looked like broken foundations of a road. This was only the lower part of the base, so it didn’t need to do a lot with it.
Then to try and bring a bit more character to the base I added another layer of cork sheet. However, this is where I tried to make things more interesting. To kick things off I made the second layer slightly smaller than the initial layer and I introduced more damage or weathering into this second layer. I also broke this second layer down into a number of sections to try and represent cracks in the surface of the road. Some brass rod linking the broken sections together to ack as rebar also helped to add some additional interest.
The final bit for this stage was to take some of the scraps of cork that I had left over, and I used these to add some broken slabs to the road surface to just add that extra bit of interest. So, whilst the bases aren’t that complicated, they do have enough interest to show off the various vehicles that will be going on them.
At this stage I hadn’t done anything to make the bases individual to the vehicles. My intention was to just add some brass rod to the wheels of the vehicles and then use these to pin them to the bases once they are completed.
With the basics laid out the next step was to add some texture to the base. For this I used mix of AK Interactive textures. Corrosion on the lower part of the base and in all of the cracks and then Asphalt for the upper level. Nothing fancy but it does add a nice mix of texture. Giving the feel of a broken road that these masters of speed are racing across.
There are some extra items that would look good on these bases such as signs, broken roadblocks, and other bits of debris but I just didn’t have time to do anything with those at the moment. But there are all things that could easily be added at a later date without having to completely rework the base. Just a bit of extra weathering around where the items are mounted is all it would take. And I think that would lift the whole, completed miniature, to a new level.
When it came to colour the Asphalt, texture is already a nice dark colour, as you would expect. But the corrosion is a rust colour is that needed a dark grey base coat to give everything a unified fell. Then it was just a case of using some lighter greys to dry brush the base to bring out some of the fantastic texture on the base. Before using a much lighter grey for a final edge highlight to really make the different sections of the base stand out from each other.
Then to try and add that extra bit of fun I added some nice bright road markings. I used yellow for all of these, regardless of what colour they may be in real life. It’s just such a nice contrast between the broken yellow and dark grey, black of the rest of the road. For me it’s these yellow elements that really bring the bases the to life. But what do you think.
That’s all I have for you this week. Not a long update and the content is a little on the borings side. But bases are mini display pieces for our minis, so they do deserve a little bit of love and attention. I like how they have turned out and think that once I actually the vehicles on them they will work well together. Getting that done may take me a while, mainly to remember which box I have the vehicles in and where I have it stored. It’s also been good to actually get some hobby completed and tops up the mojo pot a little. Giving me just a little bit more motivation to really eek out the time I need to get something new for you next week.
Until then I hope you all have a really good week, and I will be back with another update for you next Saturday.
