Basing - From hate to love

 Since I started playing MESBG, I always liked painting miniatures - it was even the reason I even got into the game. But for the longest time, I avoided basing them.

This has changed drastically and I wanna take you on the journey how that happened and wanna strike a blow for basing =)

From hate...

The very idea that after hours of painting a miniature, it was not considered finished, puzzled me from the very beginning. But not only was a not based miniature seen as not finished, a lot of tournaments expect your army to be battle ready. And that also means - basing.

Part of me did not wanna do it because I had no materials yet and spending money on sand and stones instead of new miniatures, well... did not ring with me.

The other reason I even refused to do basing was that I actually thought that raw, black bases are any way the best thing to have.
The black base is neutral and blends in with every battlefield you play on. Whereas a snow covered base, will look weird in a jungle or desert for example.

I also developed a kind of resistance against the subject because it felt like pressure from the outside.

To love

But all that changed when I enrolled for a local tournament. In the months before, I received new miniatures for my Numenor army, which would enhance their playability a lot. I put a lot of time into their painting and was very satisfied. But something was missing. 

I read and watched a lot about basing, since we had several discussions on our Discord server. And most of it, actually did not seem too hard to do and seemed not expansive. I became motivated to present my proud Numenoreans in the best possible way.

So for the very first time, I wanted to do proper bases for my miniatures. I bought some decoration sand and stones in various forms. I bought some glue, moss and grass. And by a happy accident, I was able to get my hands on some free slate pieces. The only additional things I have used were an old brush for dispensing the glue and toothpicks for removing and better placing details.

And it really was not expansive - maybe 15 € for everything together. So money really does not have to concern you.

Probably all the basing material I will need, for several years ^^

Putting everything together was really not a big thing.
  • Testing where you wanna place slates and gluing them to the base
  • Test, place and glue the smaller stones
  • Cover the rest of the base in glue
  • Draw the base through a bowl of sand
  • Remove sand where it should not be
  • Wait and/or add additional glue on top of it
  • Pain the pieces you want (brown for earth e.g.) and or drybrush
  • Dispense glue on the places you wanna have grass or moss and place them
By the way, I decided to glue the (finished) miniature itself onto the slate or the base and do the rest only afterwards.

Some of my based miniatures for the tournament

Conclusion

I came to love basing. You can easily achieve good results and it really adds a lot of character to a miniature. So if you avoided doing basing so far, like I did, don't be scared from the effort and time. 

I might even try to produce my own snow for the bases of the Dol Guldur Nazgul and the Necromancer.

The Castellan keeps his watch and happy hobbying until the next time =)

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