Hobby Basics - Basing material | Part I

From time to time you will hear the question "Oh what do you use to do this and that on your bases?" or "Where can I find some stuff for basing my miniatures?". Therefore I thought of making a small list of the things I found work well with miniatures and what stuff I don't like.
And to be mentioned at the beginning: I will not talk about premade bases! This stuff is great but most of the time too expensive for big armies.

Today I will talk about the different basing materials I use especially the stuff you can get for free (or with very small costs):

 Sand / Bird grit

The most basic material for your bases. Sand you can get for free at nearly every childs playground or construction site. But don't forget to give it a good washing before usage. Cats also like the sand... Most of the time I don't like it, because on the one hand it lacks  structure but on the other hand it is too rough to create a smooth surface.
I prefer bird grit. It consists of fine sand, crushed shells and tiny pebbles. If you mix in some loose gravel or other stuff it gets a really cool structure. And its really cheap, I think a bag of 2.5kg costs arround 1€ (and this is more than enough for many many bases).

Tea leaves

Ever wondered what you can do with all the tea bags you used? Dry them, cut them open and use it for bases! The structure you get really depends on the tea you drink. But you can get some really interesting textures out of it. If you have the right mixture you can leave out the painting and just springle it over you bases (like some do with static grass).

Earth/Dirt

Best place to get this is your own garden or your neighbors. If you haven't this in your reach, earth from a nearby wood or meadow. Or you can scrab it of the curb. Again don't forget to wash it, dogs and cats like this places too...
Most of the time this will give you a very fine structure, something you can not achieve with sand. In many tutorials I found that glueing it with superglue will work best but I am still in the experimenting phase and have no real opinion for that.

Stones/Pebbles

With small stones or pebbles or even some bigger pieces of slate you can achieve some really nice effects. Stones and pebbles you can find nearly everywhere. Just have an open eye when you have a walk in the woods.
Slate you can often get in your hardware- or pet store. I don't use it because here you can only get big packages and I don't want them to lie arround and take away my spare place.

Bark

If I ever need larger stone structures (be it for terrain or on a base) I use bark. As with most of the stuff you can get it in your local woods OR you can buy it in a nearby pet store. I prefer the free version and if you have a wild wood you will find more than enough bark pieces there.
In my opinion you can nearly completely replace slate with bark and bark is much easier to work with.

Birch seed

Ever wondered how these pretty leaves are done on autumnal bases? This is the solution.
You can either buy them (be it as sheet metal, paper version or the real stuff) or you can collect it by yourself and invest the time to seperate and dye it. It is a boring work but if you have some of them together it really looks very nice.


That's it for now. In Part II I will talk about the stuff you have to buy and where there is no free replacement to find.
Perhaps I find the time to do some example bases with the stuff.


So long,
Paradox0n