Post by Galahad on Dec 2, 2014 4:31:51 GMT
I'm reposting a tutorial I did years ago for Heresy Online you can find the original HERE
The original tutorial was done with GW bases, but the Robotech ones will work just as well
Today I'm going to show you how you can make a simple, effective and unique urban base with just a broken exacto. That's it. Round base and broken knife.
Of course, if you want it done a bit easier and smoother, some real tools will help, but I'll cover that later...
For safety's sake, I highly recommend using only good, sharp, well-maintained tools. Just because you can pull this off with a broken knife doesn't mean you should if you have the tools handy.
Tools:
Hobby Knife With Broken Tip.
Optional:
Unbroken Hobby Knife
Plastic Cutter/Scoring Tool
Steel Straight Edge
Pin Vise
Materials:
Standard Bases
Optional:
Green Stuff
Flocking/Grass
Sand/Rocks
Interesting Bits/Rubble, etc
Required:
Optional:
Step 1: Prep
For mine I like to lightly sand or, more often, simply scrape the base to smooth it out a little. Some roughness is good, but standard GW bases are a bit too cragy to represent concrete slabs.
Step 2: Score
Using your broken knife, simply slide the blade flat along the base, lightly at first, then harder as you get a little score to act as a guide. The broken off tip will gouge out a relatively deep score line, while the nature of the blade will keep it going straight as the blade itself lines up inside the groove.
This tends to make for fairly thin grooves, but they can be widened with your knife (which can even lead to a broken, uneven look if done right...or wrong...really hard to screw up here)
Make at least one or two at right angles to give the impression of sidewalk slabs
For demonstration purposes I'm using a terminator base, but there's no reason this can't work on standard bases, just use a smaller scale.
If you're using real tools, this is where the straight edge and scoring tool/plastic cutter come in handy. A nice thickpbladed scoring tool like my Olfa P-Cutter creates nice, smooth, deep, V-shaped grooves with a single swipe, but it doesn't self-align like a broken knife does, so straight edge is its friend.
Step 3: Embellishment
Though you can do this with the broken-tipped knife, most of this work is MUCH easier with a hobby knife with a sharp point.
Now that you have your basic grid laid out, it's time to ugly it up. Use your knife to scratch-in some nice meandering cracks, drill our gouge a series of bullet holes, carve corners off of slabs, etc.
Cut some lovely star-shaped blast scars for good measure. Start by making a divet for the tip of your good knife, then pivot the blade at a shallow angle to cutr into the surface, then make another cut from the other side to create a triangular gouge. Cut several radiating from the central divet and you've got a star-blast. Longer gouges in the direction the shot came from.
This is a good time to rough up the edges of your slabs, carve out potholes and mud puddles and add decoration (grass growing up between the cracks, rubble, etc)
I used the tip of my knife to drill the regular bullet holes, just because I couldn't be bothered to get the pin vice. They;re shallow divets so the knife might be best anyhow. No need to punch all the way through with the drill
So there you have it, free custom-detailed urban bases with absolutely no expenditure of resources or complicated tools needed. Bases are cheap and plentiful so there's no worries if you fuck one up (and honestly, most of the time you can't mess it up, just make it look more damaged) and it's a good way to practice your battle damage skills. I whip these up when I'm bored, just to keep my fingers nimble. It's a good use for damaged or not so sharp knives since it doesn't take a razor edge for any of this stuff, even the blast stars can be done as long as it's not butterknife dull.
The original tutorial was done with GW bases, but the Robotech ones will work just as well
Today I'm going to show you how you can make a simple, effective and unique urban base with just a broken exacto. That's it. Round base and broken knife.
Of course, if you want it done a bit easier and smoother, some real tools will help, but I'll cover that later...
For safety's sake, I highly recommend using only good, sharp, well-maintained tools. Just because you can pull this off with a broken knife doesn't mean you should if you have the tools handy.
Tools:
Hobby Knife With Broken Tip.
Optional:
Unbroken Hobby Knife
Plastic Cutter/Scoring Tool
Steel Straight Edge
Pin Vise
Materials:
Standard Bases
Optional:
Green Stuff
Flocking/Grass
Sand/Rocks
Interesting Bits/Rubble, etc
Required:
Optional:
Step 1: Prep
For mine I like to lightly sand or, more often, simply scrape the base to smooth it out a little. Some roughness is good, but standard GW bases are a bit too cragy to represent concrete slabs.
Step 2: Score
Using your broken knife, simply slide the blade flat along the base, lightly at first, then harder as you get a little score to act as a guide. The broken off tip will gouge out a relatively deep score line, while the nature of the blade will keep it going straight as the blade itself lines up inside the groove.
This tends to make for fairly thin grooves, but they can be widened with your knife (which can even lead to a broken, uneven look if done right...or wrong...really hard to screw up here)
Make at least one or two at right angles to give the impression of sidewalk slabs
For demonstration purposes I'm using a terminator base, but there's no reason this can't work on standard bases, just use a smaller scale.
If you're using real tools, this is where the straight edge and scoring tool/plastic cutter come in handy. A nice thickpbladed scoring tool like my Olfa P-Cutter creates nice, smooth, deep, V-shaped grooves with a single swipe, but it doesn't self-align like a broken knife does, so straight edge is its friend.
Step 3: Embellishment
Though you can do this with the broken-tipped knife, most of this work is MUCH easier with a hobby knife with a sharp point.
Now that you have your basic grid laid out, it's time to ugly it up. Use your knife to scratch-in some nice meandering cracks, drill our gouge a series of bullet holes, carve corners off of slabs, etc.
Cut some lovely star-shaped blast scars for good measure. Start by making a divet for the tip of your good knife, then pivot the blade at a shallow angle to cutr into the surface, then make another cut from the other side to create a triangular gouge. Cut several radiating from the central divet and you've got a star-blast. Longer gouges in the direction the shot came from.
This is a good time to rough up the edges of your slabs, carve out potholes and mud puddles and add decoration (grass growing up between the cracks, rubble, etc)
I used the tip of my knife to drill the regular bullet holes, just because I couldn't be bothered to get the pin vice. They;re shallow divets so the knife might be best anyhow. No need to punch all the way through with the drill
So there you have it, free custom-detailed urban bases with absolutely no expenditure of resources or complicated tools needed. Bases are cheap and plentiful so there's no worries if you fuck one up (and honestly, most of the time you can't mess it up, just make it look more damaged) and it's a good way to practice your battle damage skills. I whip these up when I'm bored, just to keep my fingers nimble. It's a good use for damaged or not so sharp knives since it doesn't take a razor edge for any of this stuff, even the blast stars can be done as long as it's not butterknife dull.