Why Build Your Own Base?

There is a particular satisfaction in finishing a miniature and giving it a proper stage. A display base does more than hold a figure upright; it frames the story, protects the paintwork and tells the viewer where the scene is set. Ready-made plinths are perfectly good, but they are rarely quite the right size, and the cost soon adds up if you are basing a whole warband or a small diorama. The alternative is to build your own from materials that would otherwise go in the bin. Foam board, cork and oddments of hardboard are the bread and butter of British modelling benches, and with a little care they can produce something sturdy enough to survive a show, a club night or the journey home in a rucksack.

What to Collect Before You Start

Half the skill of this hobby is learning not to throw things away. Keep a shoebox under the bench and fill it as you go. For a base roughly 20cm by 15cm, you will want the following to hand.

• A rigid bottom layer: 3mm hardboard or 6mm MDF, cut slightly larger than your intended footprint.
• Foam board offcuts, 3mm or 5mm thick, for raising ground and building up slopes.
• Cork: floor tiles, coaster blanks or the thick cork from a wine bottle, all excellent for rocky outcrops and earth layers.
• Texturing materials: kiln-dried sand, used tea leaves (dried on a radiator overnight), birch seed pods, fine gravel from the garden sieve.
• Adhesives: PVA, a decent cyanoacrylate, and ready-mixed interior filler for smoothing joins.
• Tools: a craft knife with a fresh blade, steel rule, cutting mat, sandpaper in 120 and 240 grit, and a set of cheap brushes kept apart from your good painting ones.

Fresh blades matter more than any other item on that list. A blunt blade tears foam board and drags cork, and no amount of filler will hide the damage.

Laying the Foundation

Start with the hardboard or MDF. Cut it to size with a sharp knife and several light passes rather than one heavy one, then sand the edges to a gentle chamfer so they do not snag. Repeat the sanding on the underside corners; this small step makes the base feel handled and finished rather than improvised.

Glue a sheet of foam board to the top, keeping it 2mm inside the rim so the wood reads as a border. PVA is fine here, but spread it thinly and evenly. Foam board and hardboard both warp when they take on moisture, so weight the assembly under a pile of books for at least four hours, ideally overnight. If you are building a large base, glue a matching sheet of card to the underside to balance the pull. Skipping this is the single most common reason a homemade base ends up looking like a crisp.

Shaping the Ground

Now the fun begins. Cork tears beautifully: break it along the grain with your fingers rather than slicing it, and the ragged edges will read as fractured rock. Layer two or three pieces at different angles to suggest strata, gluing each down and pressing firmly for a minute or so.

For rolling terrain, stack foam board in rough contours and carve the steps away with the knife, holding the blade at a shallow angle. Blend the joints with interior filler, applied with a damp finger. Once dry, sand lightly and seal the whole surface with a wash of PVA diluted one part glue to three parts water. This stiffens the foam, stops it drinking paint and gives the texture something to grip. While the seal is still tacky, scatter your sand and tea leaves across the areas that will be bare earth.

Paint, Texture and Detail

Undercoat everything with a matt mid-brown, brushing into the crevices rather than away from them. Build up colour in thin layers: a dark umber wash in the recesses, then dry-brushed highlights in ochre and pale grey. Cork takes dry-brushing exceptionally well, and the natural pits do most of the work for you.

Static grass, flock and a few clumps of preserved moss finish the job. Apply PVA in small patches, press the grass in with a pinch, and tap off the excess. Resist the urge to cover every square centimetre; bare ground between the greenery looks more convincing than a lawn. Small touches lift a scene enormously, so consider a scattering of broken twigs, a discarded shield boss or a few stones gathered from the garden path and given a quick wash.

Edges, Protection and Storage

Paint the exposed rim of the hardboard in a dark neutral such as charcoal or black. It frames the diorama and hides any filler that strayed over the edge. Two thin coats are better than one thick one. Finish with a coat of matt varnish over the whole surface, avoiding any glossy metallics you have deliberately left bare.

Glue four small felt or cork pads to the underside so the base does not scratch tabletops, and write the scene name and date on the bottom with a permanent marker. Store finished pieces in a lidded plastic box lined with bubble wrap, or build a simple cardboard sleeve that slides over the top. Kept dry and out of direct sunlight, a well-made base of this sort will last for decades. The materials cost almost nothing, but the finished piece looks like it came from a studio.