Good source for basing materials?

[Oldskool454]

I am looking for ideas for places to get sand and such for basing. I think $10 for a little "tub" of sand from GW is kind of silly but most of my googling turns up places selling resin bases and such but not much in the way of sand and fake "dirt".

Ideas or links?

 

[Noddwyr]

You can check woodland scenics as they have an assortment of such things but I recommend going outside and picking dirt and rocks up from outside. its much cheaper and works just as well. Bar that woodland scenics is probably the way to go, though there are other which I cant recall at the moment.

 

[kathrynloch]

The bad thing from picking stuff up outside is that you can get tiny critters that come along with it and sometimes no matter how well you wash it, you can't get rid of all of 'em.

 

[phreak0]

put the non flammables in the oven, rocks sand etc does not take damage from getting grilles in like 250 degrees celsius...

 

[Einion]

Get some builder's sand and sift it using a succession of sieves and you'll end up with a variety of grits, essentially for free.

If you collect only a small container it could last you practically indefinitely - I haven't had to do it a second time and I think I got my supply back in '89 (I kid thee not) although I have added various grits, small stones, cat litter etc. to my supplies as I've come across them over the years.

Einion

 

[DarkStar]

For my sand I bought a children's playset of sand at a craft store (Michael's) which came in 4 or 5 tubes of sand which I've been using for about 10 years and still have about 75% left. Paid a few bucks for it. The Ocean if you live nearby, same stuff there, free, if you're lucky enough to live near one. (didn't need me to tell you that I'm sure)

Later on I found a dollar store around here that sells decorative sand in tubes for...some fancy purpose or the other, but it's nice because it has bits of shells broken into it and that adds a really cool effect if you paint it up like moss or undergrowth because the little shells look like leaves kind of. Anyway it's only $1 and same as above I'll probably never run out of that one tube.

For rocks I pick them up from nearby and at the folks house or at the train tracks behind my house, infinite supply of various rocks. Lots down by the river as well. I go out in the early morning and just get what I need, wash em at home in the sink under hot water and scour them.

For static grass you can get those peel off tufts from the CMON store, always a crowd pleaser, or buy a big bottle of the stuff from your local model railroad store, again if you're lucky like me and live near one. Those places are a goldmine for basing material of every kind.

What else, cork, you can get that from office supply stores in rolls or drink wine and save the cork. Corkboards at office supply stores are a good call, just break off the cork part, lifetime supply right there. Again I'm lucky and live near a cork tree lol. I walk by it in the morning and if an animal or bird has chipped off some of the bark I pick it up and take it home. Sometimes a big animal (raccoon? dog?) will break off a massive chunk then I'm really set for cork.

Weathering can be done with a box of cheap old pastels sanded down (wear a mask, imperative, wear it!) and saved as weathering pigment. Buy like, 24 sticks of various colors for 5 bucks and make scads of bottles of weathering pigment that way. Hrm well that's about all I have time for, just some thoughts.

Oh yeah, last thing, Birch Trees (at least the birch tree near me) drop seed pods that fall along with little seedlings that are a great source of miniature leaves. A handful and you're set for leaves forever pretty much. Pain to sort the dirt and sticks from the little leaves but way worth it. Paint them in various tones to match the scene.

 

[ktooloo]

Woodland Scenics is always a good way to go. there are a few other companies too (as was stated above), but WS is the biggest. If you want to see what else is out there, check out model train stores. Model train stores always have several kinds of goodness.

 

[QuietiManes]

put the non flammables in the oven, rocks sand etc does not take damage from getting grilles in like 250 degrees celsius...

Just be careful, rocks can crack or pop apart. Not much danger (I don't think) from smaller granules of sand or little pebbles or that sort of thing but when you start baking big stuff, fist sized, certain varieties can be dangerous.

 

[Wyrmypops]

I never enjoyed basing, so getting as much stuff as possible to mitigate the work I had to worked for me.

GW have a couple of basing sets. Tubs with slate and ikkle details appropriate for whether you go fantasy or sci-fi. I didn't find them terribly inspiring though.

http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/ probably helped me the most. They've got more stuff than I knew existed. Just conisder grass, they've the expected flocks and several I didn't expect to see, but also lengths of grasses and Siflor grass tufts, easily making grass less dull.

http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/ has a rather splendid range of basing materials, and growing all the time.

 

[funnymouth]

the best "dirt & debris" i have ever found, i found in my spice cabinet. spices come with all sorts of varying textures sizes and shapes. all of which work fabulously for creating a varied and realistic looking base. i find that spices work universally better than any product marketed for basing, and are literally 100s of times cheaper. the much smaller grain size of many ground spices (eg cumin) produce a far more realistic earth texture than much larger grains of sand, and they can be mixed with other spices to crate much more realistically varied texture. most conventional marketed basing materials are ineffective at mimicking organic debris as well, such as crush leaf litter and rotting vegetation that is often neglected in miniature basing. spices excel at generating these organic textures.

so.....SPICES!

 

[finn17]

Spices are a really good source My only concern is possibly mould but you can protect against this...

Builders' merchants are great...I've bought a few large sacks of stuff, shale etc (Often for not much more than a GW tub) and I just spread it across a couple of areas of garden after I've taken a selection. The great thing about this is that you have potentially a lifetimes supply as a subsequent trip to the garden can yield pure gold

Okay...maybe not gold, but some nice rocks, a bit of shale and some decent grit....

 

[Einion]

i find that spices work universally better than any product marketed for basing, and are literally 100s of times cheaper. the much smaller grain size of many ground spices (eg cumin) produce a far more realistic ground texture than much larger grains of sand, and they can be mixed with other spices to crate much more realistically varied texture.

That's why you sift the builders sand :glasses-cool:

And it's even cheaper than spices for most people... at the exorbitant rate of 0.00 per kg LOL

Einion

 

[ktooloo]

These guys have some really nice kits too.

 

[Carlin]

Spices!

Wouldn't they make you miniatures smell like curry? :tremble!:

 

[funnymouth]

surprisingly, no. nutmeg, sometimes...
lol, seriously though, i seal with pva glue and paint/stain. after that, youd never even know.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Spices!
Wouldn't they make you miniatures smell like curry? :tremble!:

As long as its not Edwina Currie, it won't be a problem. (Former UK politician)

Generally speaking when I've used spices as ground scatter I've ended up spraying with Dullcoate so that 99.9% of the time that kills all smells.
Something else I've used to add 'flavour' (*) to a base are Cloves. They do look like exotic scale plants if used sparingly, painted properly and I like the smell out of the jar. (*Oh yeah the pun was intended).

Getting hold of a Mortar and Pestle was very handy for me. I think it cost me a fiver when a local store was closing down. I've used it to grind down, sand, spices and Glass Decoration Sand to increadibly fine sand (Face mask, patience and muscle tone needed though).

 

[Einion]

Getting hold of a Mortar and Pestle was very handy for me. I think it cost me a fiver when a local store was closing down. I've used it to grind down, sand, spices and Glass Decoration Sand...

To add to that list, you can also make use of your eggshells if you're especially cheap.

...Glass Decoration Sand... (Face mask, patience and muscle tone needed though).

In case you need to do it again, grinding wet eliminates the risk from glass dust.

BTW you can actually grind glass from scratch to a fine powder, I did it recently as an experiment to see whether you could produce something that would work for snow effects and sadly the end result is not worth the effort - it makes an opaque white powder you couldn't distinguish from marble dust.

Einion

 

[leopardpixie]

always thought this was nice. for their kits. and you get a bunch of different kinds to work with http://www.skullcrafts.com/basing_kits.htm

 

[finn17]

always thought this was nice. for their kits. and you get a bunch of different kinds to work with http://www.skullcrafts.com/basing_kits.htm

Hey! I've never seen these before...they look great!

Thanks for the heads-up

 

[Shawn R. L.]

Sand from the gutter of the street can be some good stuff. One thing I've been using lately that works real well is stucco and diluted white glue.