How to make a 'dungeon' display base step-by-step

Hello there lovely people,

Sorry for my absence but I am still recovering from my broken radius so I haven't been building and painting much. Status on that is that the bone is healed but I still have to go to the physiotherapist every week because I still can't fully bend or extend my arm.

Okay enough of that. On to the subject you clicked on this link for.

For a project I'm working on I wanted a temple/dungeon kind of look. The model I'm working on is a Warhammer fantasy Khorne Skullreaper swinging a great sword of sorts. The original model is slightly tilting back while swinging his weapon, but when tilted forward it looks like he is leaping off something in full attack.

I quickly imagined the temple to be littered with skulls. Other then that it should look like cold, wet stone, the kind you would imagine in dungeons. I drew inspiration from a book I recently purchased for painting fantasy miniatures. It showed how to sculpt/build your own bases using milliput.

Lets begin!

The model comes on a 40x40mm base. It so happens that I had a 40x40x40mm plinth laying around from Sockelmacher. This pretty much is the perfect size!

I began by mixing some milliput together. Once this was mixed well (no more streaks of different color in the ball of milliput) I rolled it out in greaseproof paper soaked in water to prevent it from sticking.

I then ended up putting something heavy on it, like a stack of books, and let it dry overnight. Once dried I drew out the shapes I wanted the steps to have. I used an old knife to score the surface of the milliput a couple of times and broke off the pieces.

(in case you where wondering, the columns are PK-pro ceramic scenery bits)

I then tried out some possible base compositions to try out what would look best. I wanted a look similar to what you see in some catacombs where there are skulls everywhere. I tried to use the skulls for staircases but that just didn't look right in this scale.

Concept #1 

Concept #2

So back to the simple granite steps! I tested what it would look like when instead of the skulls being used as part of the structure, they literately littered the place with skulls. This was much more pleasing to my eye but it still missed something.

I looked at some reference pictures online of dungeons, temples and catacombs. I finally found out what I was missing. Candles! Applying candles really helps changing it to a dark place, because if it isn't dark, why would you need candles, right? I looked up an tutorial on how to best make candles. I ended up with a tutorial by Massive Voodoo. Here Roman used BeesPutty to sculpt candles. I never really sculpted anything in my life since kindergarten.

My mother was sooooo happy with this portrait of her
(not)

Luckily I had a sample of BeesPutty laying around. (thank you Painting Buddha!) 

BeesPutty is a polymer sculpting clay. You don't need to mix it and to cure it you have to bake it, so it stays soft for you to put your project away overnight. It feels like wax or something and its really comfortable to work with.

Back lets go on with the candles!

Following the tutorial I rolled out a thin sausage (or different sizes of thin sausages) and cut them in different sizes. Cutting them the right way usually clusters them together but you can also put them together in whatever order you want.

I added a little bit of putty on a wooden block because that makes it less of a hassle to make the candles stick to the surface without glue. After baking you can simply cut it from its base and glue it in position.

Finger for scale

After placing them on a base used a cocktail pricker to make small holes to simulate the hole the flame would have made in the wax. 

When I had several bundles of candles I baked them in my kitchen oven for 20 minutes at 120°C (or 250°F) and let them cool when they are done. Once cooled I cut them from their base and glued them to my display base. I tried to place them on logical places. 

Filled the emptiness to make the steps,
and thus the base, more whole

When this was done it was time for primer. I primed the base using a zenithal highlighting technique. For primer I used the Vallejo polyurethane surface primer. I first sprayed the whole base black, then sprayed a grey color from directly above to create some nice shading. I then sprayed some details with white primer to make them stick out more. 

So once the primer was dry it was time for some paints! I used a same technique as use in THIS tutorial and wetted the base with water. I then continued by applying some drops of paint directly to the base. The colors I chose are cold grey, sandy brown, sand yellow and olive green. I then took a wet brush and blended the colors all over the base.

Once dry I applied some light dust colored dry pigments from AMMO to make the base look aged and dusty. I painted up the details like the skulls and candles (you should paint these however you want) and applied some washes to certain crevices to accentuate recesses and shadows.

The finished result! 

And there you have it! A (in my opinion) perfect temple/dungeon/catacomb display base! Keep in mind that for larger bases you should also think about adding chains, hinges, wooden struts, ropes and whatever as extra details. Because the model I'm gonna place on this base is pretty large compared to the base I didn't.

I hope you all liked my little step-by-step / tutorial and if you did make sure to let me know in the comments!

Thank you all for reading and see you next time!  

Building and painting a display base step-by-step

Hi again everybody and welcome at yet another step-by-step article. This means that this won't be a tutorial per say but you can follow the steps or just observe my experience making this display base / plinth.

I began by ordering some Sockelmacher plinths from sceneryworkshop.nl. I heard about the great quality of their product and honestly it would be easy to make these yourself but I'm lazy like that.

A 4x4cm plinth by Sockelmacher

I wanted to create a display base with a little bit of height difference instead of just a flat base. I began by chopping and cutting away one side of the cube. Depending on the hardness of the wood  On the opposite side, I glued on some plasticard where I wanted to make the base higher.

Some base building / destruction

So after I got the basic shapes done I pulled out the Milliput and started to fill up the base. I filled the gab in the plasicard and covered the majority of the base to give it a more natural shape. I choose Milliput instead of Greenstuff because I find it easier to apply, manipulate and sand. 

Applied some Milliput

After the Milliput was applied to the base I used wet fingers and tools to smooth it out a little bit before pressing small stones and pebbles into the Milliput. Don't forget that you can make a wash of Milliput to fill small gaps. The way to do this is to roll a little ball of Milliput and make an indent with your finger of the back of a brush. Then proceed to add a few drops of water into the bowl and use a brush to mix up a little wash. You can use this wash to fill the little gabs you might have created by pressing in the stones. 

Added rocks part 1

Added rocks part 2

Okay time to test-fit the miniature on the base. This will give you a perspective if everything is to your liking or something looks unbalanced.

Test fitting the miniature

After showing the "teaser" picture for this article a couple of people asked about how I made the base look so muddy and real. I feel I have to apologize beforehand because the picture is horribly fuzzy but I will do my best to explain it. The secret for the real looking dirt is because it is dirt. I used garden soil you can buy at one of those garden mega stores or at a florist. You could scoop some out of your garden but I prefer bought soil because it is "clean"... Well as clean as it can get I guess. I applied superglue between the rocks. I then proceeded to put a thick layer of soil onto the superglue. Be sure to crack open a window or perform this outside because the smell is horrible and might even cause headaches and/or nausea. I guess that is my disclaimer LOL. Let it sit for like ten minutes and then take an old toothbrush and scrub off all the soil that isn't set in the glue. 

Dirt on the base

Okay I kinda forgot to photograph one of the steps but it's really simple. I primed the whole base black and sprayed medium grey top down on the base followed by white to pick out the details I want to put focus on or increase contrast to make it look more interesting. Once the primer dried I continued by selecting a few colors I wanted to use for the base and applied drops of paint directly onto the base.  

Throw on some paint

I selected a range of different greens and browns and applied drops of paint randomly on the base. I then dropped some water on the base, about the same amount as the paint drops, and took a large brush to spread and blend all the paint all over the base.

Add some water

As you can see this gives you a real natural look. I ended up also blending in some sand colored paint instead of just browns and greens to add a bit more color variation. You might notice that the greens give the base a nice mossy look. Next step is picking out the rocks. For rocks I love to use Vallejo game color Cold Grey. I mixed in a little sand color to highlight the edges and make the rocks appear a little dusty.

Final result 1

Final result 2

To finish the base off you could apply some matching pigments. This can be done by drybrushing or making a wash of your pigments. I used a little bit of AMMO dark earth pigments. I applied them straight out of the pot using a damp brush and then blended them into the base using water.

That's it! I hope this step-by-step gave you a good impression how I made this base and maybe gave you some inspiration to make your own!

I hope you enjoyed this article and that I will see you next time.