WIP: Stormtalon - Basing

While we wait for things to dry, its time to move forward on the basing.

I usually don't do much in the way of basing my models. Its probably a hold over from all the figure kits I've done in the past that stand alone. That being said, I didn't want to neglect the base on this one, so I decided to get all the fun things I've bought over the years out and give them a whirl.

The first thing I did was prime the base, and paint it with a generic craft paint brown. The plan was to apply Citadel's crackle paint, Agrellan Earth to it, but I wanted the cracks to display different earth under, and have something to grab on to. Then, I applied a liberal helping (practically the whole bottle) of Agrellan Earth. I took a few time lapse shots, here they are at "just applied," "15 minutes," "60 minutes,"and "Complete."

Do you see the dilemma I have now? If I glued down the clear stand BEFORE the Agrellan Earth, the "sloppiness" required to get a good crackle would've covered the clear piece. But you absolutely can't glue something load bearing onto crackle paint...it will pull the crackle up and destroy your kit. So its time to improvise.

I took a diamond file and cut in 5 places for magnets, and glued them on:

After waiting for them to dry overnight (the magnetic pull is stronger than glue!), I woke up, placed the stand gently where I wanted on the base, then got corresponding magnets and turned them loose on the underside of the base. The resulting pull put them exactly where they needed to go:

And to keep them in place permanently, a small serving of Aves Apoxie putty, with the added bonus of weighing it down at the bottom:

I then set the base down and press firmly to make sure it sits flat on the table, slide it around a bit to make sure it doesn't stick, and wait 8 or so hours for it to firm up.

Now, I can remove the stand at my leisure, and clip it back on, making shipping or transport FAR easier. It also allows me to finish basing without having to work around the clear stand. So that's what I did. The rest is easy. I just took some PVA glue, and brushed a small amount over the entire base to help seal the crackle paint, and while it was wet, added some talus rocks of different sizes and some brown moss. Once it had all dried and the crackle was sturdier, I was able to dry brush some matching color, and voila! Base complete.