Swamp basing

[Santawraith]

So I read the tutorial on here about swamp basing and it isnt what im after. I am working on some lizardmen which I want a swamp type base. So I turn to you all my freinds for help idea's or any which thing. Plus if all works out Ill have a hell fenn when imdone with a manfred sinking beneath the water's.

 

[RoguePanda]

I've never tried basing this kind of thing before, but I wonder if this might help. There is a big difference between a swamp (wetland with lots of tree's) with other types of wetland - your modelling could reflect this?

Eg: a Marsh is (if I remember correctly) a wetland that's very prone to constant flooding. So, model this up as more water, slightly murky and muddy - have the models literally drag themselves from the mud - to model this up would mean lots of greenstuff on the base with lots of brown washes?;
whereas a Fen is an area more willowy type tree's, often leading from a lake to dry land, meaning more normal flock with areas of standing water and grey to white tree branchesor;
there is a Bog with more acidic content - lots of yellows on the base will work to make it look right with lots of brown water - also lots of dead plant material (fallen tree's/branches etc). Interestingly, there's lots of berries apparently in fen areas, and some spooky sounding carniverous plants such as sundew and butterwort. remind me never to get lost in a bog!

I suspect Hell Fen, from it's description, is more of an acidic bog.

Some other ideas you might want to use - build some glowing marsh lights, a bit like balls of will-o-the-whisp's? the other thing is... well, the undead used to have units of mummies from Araby. There are however, preserved bodies in peat bogs that are as well preserved as any mummy - have a blackened and wizened wight king on foot modelled up to represent one of these bog mummies? A wikipedia search for "Tollund Man" might give you an idea of what I mean.

Best of luck!

Edit: just forgot - you might want to also think about incorporating luminescent fungus asa light source on yoru bases - wrap some greenstuff round a model branh, dimple it to make bubbles of fungus, and paint in bright luminous greens that cast an eerie light on the model - this is called "Foxfire" in some places I think?

 

[Typical Cricket]

Here's one of my Kroxigor that I painted up recently. I did a swampy sort of thing for the base that might be what you're after:

Here's how I did it:
First, I glued a piece of cork to the base to serve as a chunk of rock for the Kroxigor to stand on. I glued some patches of sand to the cork as well. Then, before I pinned the model in place, I primed it black. I painted the rock with different grays before I did the swamp effect.
The actual swampy water effect was done over many different layers. First, I painted the whole base Scorched Brown. Then I painted blotches of Orkhide Shade. Then I applied a layer of 50% PVA glue and 50% Gloss Varnish. Once that was dry, I applied another layer of gloss varnish and then painted more blotches, this time with Dark Angels Green. Again, this was followed by a PVA/'Ardcoat layer and a pure 'Ardcoat layer. I repeated the process with Catachan Green and Camo Green, applying a wash of both Thraka Green and Devlan Mud, and finally painting on a double layer of Gloss Varnish at the end to keep it looking shiny and wet.