[Las Fodder]

Hey gents, thanks for the read. I was curious if any of the fine modellers here at Heresy Online could offer a newbie a suggestion or two? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I'm looking for recommendations for material(s) to create a nice durable stone slab or rock outcropping look for bases. (I have GS and Milliput, but I'd prefer to use those as a last resort.) The basing will be for a few tabletop minis, so while the bases will be handled with utmost care they would still have to be able to survive a minimal amount of potential abuse.

(If need be, here's a quick example pic of the style rock I shooting for.)
http://www.coolminiornot.com/index/whatc/SF/whatm/GW/id/136777

...I thought Hydrocal would do the trick, but I'm disappointed with the results of my first few trail runs. It may be because I'm using Lightweight Hydrocal, but the dried product isn't nearly durable enough for gaming. (LOL, on all batches I can practically smooth the dried edges of the broken pieces of Hydrocal with my finger.) :shock:

What would you guys suggest for a durable yet workable rock base material? I read somewhere about two types of plaster called Excalibur and Merlin's Magic with significantly more strength than Hydrocal, I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with either of those?

Sorry for the long post, and thanks again for the read!

 

[jigplums]

I generally use one of the following,

Cork tiling: probably not as durable as you would like, although probably the cheapest and easiest medium to use
Real stone: Can be very good but larger models will need pinning
Greenstuff/milliput: If you use real stone a press it into the surface you can get very good results.

Also a mix of these mediums can be good, so build up a few layers with cork tiling and then add reall stones and greenstuff as required. Usually i'd greenstuff unusual details like the steps in your example.

Hopefully that helps a little

 

[Darkmessiah]

right, jig has covered some nice materials u can use, real stones and cork board are often used by lots of top artists, but somethin u guys may not have thought about is using in the following way is milliput, its somethin i use for rocks all the time

get some milliput superfine

mix a nice large blob
flatten it between 2 flat smooth surfaces (like plasticard)
leave it to cure for 10hrs+
take it out, then using ur clippers start snipping rough flat rock shapes
take ur shape and snip the edges at an angle, and turn over and repeat, ur basically making the edges pointy
u can rough it up with a file to add more texture and u can put some sand on if u want to fill up the empty areas

then i usually put a blob of greenstuff on the base put the flat rock on that and then stick all the left over sharp bits into the greenstuff so their left hanging out, and the great thing is u can do it to any size and any thickness by adjusting how flat u make ur milliput
some ref pics
http://www.coolminiornot.com/142260
http://www.coolminiornot.com/132380
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=4z36lgg

 

[pathwinder14]

Pine bark mulch. It's the stuff that looks like little flat chunks of layered bark. It is striated to look like stone when painted up.

 

[Las Fodder]

Awesome, thank you for sharing your techniques. These methods will definitely give me plenty of things to try and also save me a lot of time and effort.

I really appreciate the advice guys, you're all top notch!

 

[Anphicar]

Ohhh, Pathwinder, i am SO trying that. Never though of it!.

I'll prolly do my first diorama with that. (Ideas churning in mah head)

 

[Darkmessiah]

just make sure ur give it a good varnish spray, incase it rots

 

[Bloodhound]

What I do is get some bark and coat it in PVA so it don't rot and place it on the base. If not, I use styrene if i can get it to look good.

 

[hephesto]

Well modelling putty and slate are probably your best shot, also check out this tutorial, might be helpful