Forest Base Tutorial

Hi everyone !

Welcome for a new step-by-step tutorial! This time I'll describe my technique to make realistic forest bases using only washes.

 1. Ok for the first step I glued pieces of cork and pine bark directly on the base to make the rocks. I then covered the rest of the base with PVA and applied smaller rocks, gravel and sand to form the forest soil. I sealed everything with isopropanol (to wet the base) and diluted PVA. When the glue was fully dry I finally applied a basecoat of grey Surface Primer (Vallejo).

 2. I started painting the rocks using Nuln Oil (Citadel). I slightly diluted the ink with water so that the overall color is not too dark.

 3. I then applied Agrax Earthshade (Citadel) on the soil, also using the wash technique. I applied two layers to obtain a nice and dark earth shade.

 4. After that I used a thin layer of Athonian Camoshade (Citadel) to simulate moss on the rocks. I focused on the recesses and all places where water would normally stand after the rain. This particular step gives a very interesting look and perfectly matches the "humid forest" atmosphere I was looking for.

 5. The rocks were a little bit too bright for my taste so I applied an additional layer of Agrax Earthshade (Citadel).

6. The painting job being basically done I started applying moss and bushes. I first used a small brush to apply PVA glue in the recesses of the rocks and part of the floor. The idea was to mostly cover the places where the Athonian Camoshade was applied. I then sprinkled very fine flocking to represent the moss. I found that using olive green flock gives the best effect.

 7. I then applied larger bushes on the ground using the same color scheme, between olive green and forest green.

 8. For the soil I used a custom mix of dry leaves, small branches and dirt I found outside. I mixed everything with a coffee grinder to get the proper size. I first applied diluted PVA glue on the base, including the top of the rocks, and then sprinkled my mixture.

 9. To make it even more realistic I place here and there dry fern and natural leaves using super glue.

 10. And now the final touch. I really like to add details on my bases, especially large one, I think it adds a personal touch and encourage the viewers to give a closed look to the miniature. In this case I shaped tiny mushroom from greenstuff or milliput and painted it in various shades of brown and red.

And voilà ! Very simple bases that look super realistic.