Ship Deck Baseing

[Jaster]

So, I've started the first unit for my Cryx Ship Boarding Party team (Cryx undead pirates, Ogrun Boarders, Satrix and real pirates), but I realized, I'm not sure how to put good looking wood planking under them all! Anyone able to direct me to a tutorial or simply tell me any quick and easy ways to do this (Crosses fingers that he can still avoid buying puddy).

[Ravenwood]

Easiest way that looks good? deck bases from Back to base-ix. Good prices & fast shipping (at lest to Maui)

[Nuriochi_sol]

Second vote for these bases... very nice stuff!

[Jaster]

Not bad at all, any other other thoughts that would work?

[ExquisiteEvil]

ok, little secret here...

Go to Starbucks.

Stay away from the god awful over priced excuse for coffee - head straight for the 'condiments' table and grab a handful of those little wooden stirrers.

I find its good to add a bit more 'wood grain' texture first (a dull blade, or biro to score the lines in) and then cutting them in half lengthways down the centre makes them look better.

Then just chop into desired lengths and stick on your base - done

oh and theyre free!

[teejayv]

Go to Panera or Whole Foods if either are by you (Whole foods ones are easier to work with) and steal a bunch of the coffee stirrers. A list of supplies and the steps provided are as follows:

Coffee Stirrers
Scotch Tape(Matte finish)
pencil
Xacto (not necessarily branded) knife
CA Glue (to glue them down, much better than woodglue for this application)
Small Flathead Screwdriver

**NOT NECESSARY, BUT QUITE HELPFUL**
Wire Cutters, small hobby snips or something that can make nice clean cuts
COMPASS (makes it MUCH easier to get the perfect circle)


1) line all the coffee stirrers up side by side, and try to keep them as parallel as possible. If some of them are warped, try exchanging them for ones that aren't. Try to get them to fit together edge to edge as tightly as possible, it'll be a lot easier if they do. Apparently, you only need to use as many stirrers as you would need to cover the diameter of the base.

2)Use the scotch tape to hold all the pieces together going perpendicular to the direction of the coffee stirrers, and you could, though not necessary, tape them entirely on both sides

3)Use the compass, or some stencil of some sort to mark the circle that you need to fill the recessed area of the base onto the taped coffee stirrers(with the compass, you need to find the center of the base first and then just work from there for the size)

4)For an easier cut, you can use the snips as recommended, but I find that using an xacto knife allows you to get a more rounded cut for a better fit. This is where the Whole Foods stirrers are better because they are a little bit thinner than the Panera ones and easier to cut with the xacto.

5) after it's been cut into a circle, check for fit to make sure you don't have to kill yourself in order to get them on properly. Small adjustments are expected so keep the xacto handy.

6)Using the tape to your advantage, take the pieces off individually and using the CA Glue, glue each individual piece down, but make sure your gluing them down all the same side so fitment isn't an issue later.

7)after all the peices are glued down and dried, make any minor adjustments by cutting any excess off of the stirrers, insuring a more uniform circle.

8) This is where I use a small flathead screwdriver (watch screwdrivers work best) to make it look a little more realistic. Use the tip of the s.d. to put butt ends in the wood. Let's face it, the wood planks shouldn't be perfectly aligned with each edge so sporadicaly place breaks in the planks by putting the tip of the s.d. on the board and apply a little pressure, enough to cause an indentation that drybrushing will not pick up.

9)After that's all done, I suggest priming it with black primer and using drybrushing techniquest to paint it using three shades of brown, all according to your own taste. In one of the NQ magazines, it tells you to use "americana" craft paint or "Folk Art", not sure which, but they're extremely cheap and you could buy multiple colors to test different shades. The important thing is you drybrush Darkest/heaviest to Fairest/Lightest in color and pressure.

I'll try to post a pictrue of one that I did and I hope it helps.

[teejayv]

[pipeline]

came across these

they make inserts that drop into the standard base

https://ironhalo.net/

anyone check these out able to review them?

[Neomorte]

I make all my own plank bases. A bit of green stuff and a sharp instrument to create the boards and you are great. I will dig out my tutorial pics for you.

[asoka]

I use Back to Base-ix wood plank bases for my merc's and I can wholeheartedly recommend them. Great product and easy to work with.

[Jaster]

Very nice idea with the use of the wooden stir things, I happened to have gotten a bunch of those laying around (and wood stick things I was gonna make into hastily made pike walls for terrain), but this is a much better home for them.

[MetalsMike]

Try Brushthralls, perhaps