Saturday 25 January 2014

Justaerin / Cataphractii Terminator Bases - WIP



Gday again,

Keepy here with the latest in my hobby instalments. This is yet another catch up post, most of these were built at the same time as the Justaerin and Abaddon build. Once again, seasoned veterans of the hobby probably wont get much out of this, but people who are new to the hobby or not used resin bases before will definitely get something out of this.

I have used a combination of Secret Weapon's Urban Rubble and Urban Streets bases and had planned on adding to them to get a real Istvann III look about them, with plenty of rubble, razor wire, shell casings etc. This seems to be a thing with 30k at the moment and I really like how they add to the model and it's environment. They can be overdone, but if you keep it simple you can't go wrong. Macca promises me a full tutorial in our new "How to" posts, so stay tuned as to how to churn out a whole armies worth of basing in just a couple of hours.

As previously mentioned the Justaerin post, the first stage of your prep before painting should be to wash your models in warm soapy water to get rid of the mould release. This is done a bit earlier on the bases as I am using wood glue to hold on rubble etc so water will dissolve all that hard work! I started by test fitting the completed models onto the bases and worked out which models best suited what bases. This is another good reason not to glue the arms or the head of your models on before basing, as these have gutters, step downs and plenty of rubble that change the angle of the model and therefore change it's pose. Once the models had been allocated a base, they were all numbered off by using permanent marker on the reverse side of the base so no mix ups would occur and basing could begin.




Holes were drilled and pins were added so each model would be pinned onto it's base to prevent them snapping off in the future. Happens more often than you would think, particularly with resin. I have used thumb tacks cut from the head to use as pins, they cost a whopping AUD$1.00 for a pack of 100 from the local bargain shop. I added the larger articles of debris from the GW basing set, things like the steel with bullet holes in it, some mesh, cogs and checker plate (aka diamond plate), these were twisted with pliers to give a destroyed look. I started by trying to add varying grades of slate / sand / rocks but it looked terrible. I mixed up an aggregate of sand, small and medium slate / rocks and added it together - and the result was much better. I added larger rocks here and there, as well as patches of dirt sporadically around the base, taking care not to do anything that would prohibit the model from having a neat fit.


Final details of spent bolter casings from Secret Weapon were added, and the pièce de résistance, I found some Verlinden barbed wire to put on as well. This stuff comes in straight runs, so you have to clip it off and twist it around a pen or something to get it to coil like real barbed wire. Now here's the thing - It is model razor wire - but it is freaking sharp and might as well be made of razors for anyone who is considering using this stuff! It didn't draw blood, but it gets caught in your skin as you try to manipulate it. Yes it is really that sharp! nothing like a bit of realism on your bases and I can safely say that most of them have bits of my fingers on them, now sealed in black primer awaiting to be re-discovered in thousands of years for scientists to clone me and stick me in a zoo.





Keeping your bases separate to your minis has a couple of boons - not only can you get a highly detailed base but you can also get to all the hard to reach places on the model as well. To hold your bases onto the spraying surface (in this case an old Leman Russ Tank box) with a couple lengths of packing tape turned upside down. Just stick your bases (or models for that matter) onto the tape and viola, no more resin parts flying around the place when you put them to the spray can.









Well, that's all I have time for now, in the next WIP we will cover weathering pigments, washing and a spot of highlighting.

Till next time!

Keepy



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