Boardwalk Basing Tutorial

 

Recently I showcased my completed Thorin's Company force and received several compliments on the wooden walkway bases that I had added to them, so I thought I would show my readers exactly how I went about creating them.

1.  Materials required

Standard Games Workshop bases for the required models.
Coffee stirrers (you could use lollypop sticks bit I found that coffee stirrers fit the scale of the models better)
Wood glue
Super Glue

Tools required
Snips
Craft knife

Paints required
Primer (I used grey but any colour will be fine)
Mournfang Brown
Agrax Earthshade
Gorthor Brown
Usabti Bone

2. Cut stirrers to length.

First you want to cut the stirrers to match the size of the bases using the snips. I found 4 pieces fits a 25mm base. This wants to look uneven so don't worry too much about being neat about this.

3. Score a more defined grain into one side of the coffee stirrers

Although they already have a wood grain in them I found that once they are primed and painted this doesn't show through so using the back of a craft knife I scored lines down the length of the stirrers to create more definition.

4. Rough up the edges.

Here the goal is to make the planks look worn and damaged by cutting chunks out of the straight ends or edges with the craft knife. Again this is meant to look uneven so try to avoid making the cuts too similar on different planks.

5. Glue to the base.

Simply cover the top of the base with wood glue and place your planks down. Leave the glue to dry before continuing further.

6. Painting

Once the glue has set then prime the bases as normal. For painting I used a base coat of Mournfang Brown followed by a heavy wash with Agrax Earthshade. Then dry brushed them with Gorthor Brown and Usabti Bone to give them a worn look.

7. Attach the model

Now all that remains is to attach the model to the base using Super Glue. I was initially worried that this wouldn't be a strong enough bond and that I'd need to pin the feet but I accidentally dropped a model from 6 feet and it survived so it should be strong enough.