How to make Stinking Marsh Bases.

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Abbysal

Crypt Horror
Feb 16, 2010
565
Beijing
Zombies
374
Here we go.....................

This is my first How To log so go easy on me. I am going to attempt to pass on some recently discovered skills.

OK so this here is what I am blathering on about,
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This is the first one I created for my flying Terror, here is the second one waiting for me to pull my finger out of my ar@# and sculpt a Fell Bat!!
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Now for the step by step guide.

Apologies in advance for the crappy quality.

Tools
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As you can see you don't need much just some flat edged sculpting tools, your modeling putty (obviously) the base you want to model, some Skulls, Shields etc, something the size of a spear shaft (cocktail stick would probably do fine) and a rough design.

First things first
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prepare your putty.

Step 1
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flatten out enough putty to cover the desired area and a little more, I found that about 2 mil thick or so is about right (I didn't get my ruler out!!)
and ends up about 3 mil or so thick once sculpted.
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Kneed it roughly into the intended shape of land you want and then slap it down with a little over any edges it's touching, now lick your digits and smooth away your finger prints, smooth the edges down while your at it. Don't worry too much about the edges though as you will slice off excess once everything's set.
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Step 2
Now for the fun part, start to make horizontal ridges along the edge of the putty, you can make sloped edges by starting your ridges at the top and pushing them inland a little or by pushing down a touch from the top which will cause the putty underneath to squish out a little creating the stepped effect. Alternatively do the same but in reverse ( start from the bottom ) to create eroded effects.
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With the nature of this project you really don't have to be to careful, try to treat it as a sketchy sculpt, kinda like doodling and experiment for a while.If you are adding Skulls and stuff now's the time and just take the ridges as close to the edges of you trinkets as you can.
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Step 3

Now for some detail (If I can call it that).
Take your Pointier sculpting tool, or a cocktail stick and start lightly jabbing the surface leaving about 1-2 mil smooth around your sculpted edges. You should be creating a pock marked water logged surface, again go nuts and experiment, you should then try to lightly flick up about half of the pock marks with your sculpting tool/cocktail stick creating slightly larger dents and scuff marks.
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Step 4

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Using your spear shaft (well lubed!!) make some neat clustered holes, try to be spare with these as the will hold your reads (dustpan bristles)

Step 5

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Leave to cure over night and the carefully SLICE not SCRAPE the excess putty from the edges, trying to keep the angle of the base.
This is really the only thing you have to be gentle with.

All that's left to do now is paint it!!
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I used a very simple scheme,

Graveyard earth,
Devlan mud,
Chaos black,
Dark angels green,
Dheneb stone.

Base coat,Dheneb stone then apply 2 or 3 watered down coats of Graveyard earth. next wash with a 1:1 Devlan mud:water mix twice making sure it's thoroughly dry before each layer. next a 2:1:1:1 Devlan mud:chaos black:Dark angels:water mix on the water areas followed by a slightly Dark angels heavier mix concentrating on the middle areas of water. Skulls I just highlighted up from Graveyard earth with bleached bone.

Well that is that!!
Hope it was informative, invoked your imagination or at least just worth a read, and again sorry about the quality.

Have fun.:zombie1:
 
Thanks for the comments, I'm happy you like it and hope it helps a few people out. Forgot to mention that I will be filling it with water effects. I'll let you know how it goes.

Cheer's all.:zombie1:
 
Very nice tutorial, as has been said by others they look very nice. Plus they can help with some pesky fliers by adding some needed weight to the base too. I like it!
 
Oh lawds, this is perfect. I am planning a swamp theme for my army, and was scared about making the bases. Green stuff looks like a great idea! Only problem is it will be a lot of green stuff to use on 100+ zombies :zombie: Does anybody know of a cheap putty alternative. And furthermore, perhaps you could put up a tutorial for water effects? I'm a bit lost on that, and am not looking to spend 25 USD on the GW effects if there is something better.
 
I just gotta ask.... how do you make the marsh bases "Stinking"?
Do you rub them under your armpits or just fart on them? How do you get the odour to stick?
 
It's powdered dried lion exrement, lovingly placed between each layer of water effect. You have to lick the base before it will stick and you have to place about 5 layers between each one of the water effects.
 
Totally lovely! Like Jacques, I was also experimenting on this, so it's gonna be a great help. Please tell us about the water effect as soon as you try it! :thumbsup:
 
I'm commenting on this simply because I feel it deserves to be back on the first page. If you HAVEN'T read this yet, do so immediately. I insist. If you don't, I'll FIND YOU!!! v:konrad:

Brahm,
happily bullying people into doing what I want them to since 1998
 

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