Making a dance-floor base?

[Lussuria]

Hello friendly people!

I was hoping for some advice. I just got Collette and Angelica just recently and really wanted to do them on those nice glossy dance-floor looking bases I have seen.

Now, what I am using to make the base are miniature craft sticks (similar to the big standard wooden popsicle stick things, only little).

So my process:

1. I cut and glued them
   
2. Punched in some little 'nail' holes
   
3. Washed using GW Devlan Mud
   
4. Small amounts of GW Sepia wash
   
5. Tried to sand the edges with sand paper to make it 'round'
   
6. Glossed several times with Gloss Varnish
   

Now, the problems I'm having is:

• cutting the sticks to shape with metal clippers, scissors, and a hobby knife and ALL were tedious and extremely hard to get through the wood - what can I use to cut these?
  
• the wood came out WAY too dark and ended up looking old and rotten instead - how should I colour the wood?
  

Thankyou all for any advice!!!

Here is the product that resulted:

[Kaled]

I'd recommend using a sheet of thin balsa wood - you should find that much easier to cut than what you're using.

Then after a undercoat of black spray paint, I painted it brown and washed and highlighted it rather than using washes to try to stain it the right colour.

[Demonn Agram]

first of all, I agree with Kaled - use balsa! it comes in sheets various thickness. I usually use 5mm and 1,5mm thick balsa. 5mm I use for walls and such and the thinner one for detailing but also for planks (such as yours).

second, the "biggest" mistake you made was the size of the planks... in real life those would be at least 40cm thick (if not half a meter... - if 30mm is 180cm - the base is 30mm in diameter and you put four planks - 180/4= 45 mm) which is waaaay to thick..

third, you can do it with just using washes - which would I guess be called staining. However be careful when gluing. because if you drip a drop of glue (be it PVA or especially superglue) this part stains differently. if you check out your pic the second row (from the top) to the right of the base where one left plank connects with the right one and to the bottom of the left plank there is a lighter spot... that's where you had some glue...

fourth, if staining, use a bit more darker washes on the recesses between the planks.. it'll appear more 3D.

[Lussuria]

Thankyou both!! I really appreciate that!

Going to go find me some balsa wood *grin*

[LordDarcy]

The best tool for cutting craft sticks or balsa/bass wood is a hobby saw. Some larger x-acto sets come with one and they are also available at craft stores separately for use with x-acto or other hobby knifes. In the image the smaller blade is the one that fits into the regular sized hobby knife handle.

When doing a project like this my preference is for thin strips of basswood instead of balsa wood. Commonly they are stocked together in the craft store or model railroad hobby store. Balsa is really difficult to stain uniformly and it is a softer than the basswood.

Both products come in standard thickness' and in both sheets and strips. I'm not sure what your woodworking experience is, so you may want to get a thin strip of each and just try them for yourself.

I have made "wood" floors from cocktail sticks (larger than toothpicks and smaller than craft sticks) which have the advantage of being flat on two sides and rounded on the others. I have also used styrene strips from the model railway store as demonstrated by Dr Faust Painting Clinic at

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. I actually prefer to use styrene over wood with this method.

My last suggestion is a dollhouse parquet floor, which is how I'm going to rebase my Collette crew some time soon. The problem with this is finding some that is both real wood and that is the correct scale. Most dollhouse stuff is 1/12 or 1/24. Malifaux is about 1/50 which is hard to guage as many Malifaux figures are not in scale to each other. I spent several months searching for the materials for this basing project (Mid March to Mid August).

Edited August 18, 2013 by LordDarcy

[Lussuria]

Thanks so much, Lord Darcy! Very helpful! Definitely need me one of those hobby saws!

[Webmonkey]

Alternatively, you could just mash some greenstuff down into the base, and shape it to the round pattern. Then smooth down the top.

Then, while its still plyable, use the backside of your xacto blade the press down into the clay and make long parallel rows going all in one direction.

Next, stagger a few cross-cuts in the planks, since the end joints rarely line up.

Now that the boards are shaped, use the tip of your xacto blade and lightly score down the length of each plank with lots of intermittant strokes. This will make a wood grain pattern.

Let dry/harden, then paint brown and wash/highlight.

Its actually really fast and easy to do.

I have a few examples in my gallery. Some are the prefab bases bought from wyrd, others I did by hand. I'll let you decide which is which,..

http://wyrd-games.net/photopost/showgallery.php?ppuser=8871&cat=500&page=1

Edited August 18, 2013 by Webmonkey

[LordDarcy]

I should have mentioned epoxy putty as well. I have tried the Green Stuff method a few times and could never get it to look right, although a friend has gotten great results doing the exact same thing. My hands are generally not steady enough to successfully do this, which is why I generally do not paint faces on my miniatures. Honestly I do paint the faces and then after hours of work, painting and re-painting I paint over the whole thing. Most miniatures I paint about twice with the amount of corrections and touch ups that I have to make.

[nagash13]

the popsicle sticks are thicker, far more rigid and harder to cut than the cheap wooden coffee stirring sticks i used. also, when using an exacto, dont try to cut across the grain, instead shave the wood with the grain in little slivers. it sounds like it would take forever, but the exacto will cut much smoother and faster that way and you can work your way through the excess.

I have found if i want to paint wood to look like wood, i should really just use a real wood varnish product. I personally use minwax polyshades. home depot and lowes carry it. you can pick from a variety of colors so you can go as light or dark as you like. plus they have satin, or gloss finishes. since you want a glossy dance floor I would get gloss. minwax is sold in small cans which is nice as its less waste. just be sure you are using a cheap throw away brushes as after a single use of minwax, its garbage.

looking forward to seeing some stuff you are working on. I hope to be adding some more pics soon. even if its not all wyrd models.

[harbinger]

just be sure you are using a cheap throw away brushes as after a single use of minwax, its garbage.

Shouldnt be using brush anyway.. tear up old tshirt. Much better saturation then brush will give

[nagash13]

for flat bases with no model on them, yes an old shirt/rag works. however some people use the minwax on the models themselves (great way to get a fast table quality gooey wet brown shading on tyranids or nurgle models. this technique was popular for horde armies before GW made good washes), or on bases with other detail you dont want the oil/minwax on. most pharmacies and toy stores have cheap kids brushes that are like $2.00 for like 8 brushes. so i use those and toss them. allows me more control on where the minwax goes, and how much. plus it keeps my hands away from the minwax, although i still wear latex gloves like when i airbrush.

[harbinger]

Meant do this few days ago but sometimes life likes to slap me around.

For those that dont want take time/effort to do like the nice vid linked heres a cheap/easy/fast way to get decent wood floor bases.

*********************************************************

start with scrap piece balsa wood, I use a base that have cut out the middle to size inserts, Ive also use spare wyrd metal bases to get perfect size.

ok the planks have been drawn in with a pencil (go over few times to get depth,) nail holes pressed in with pencil, and wood grain scratched in with wire brush (I prefer brush to using a saw so dont have uniform spaced grain,) then cut it out with box cutter

after forgetting to clean up edges with a emery board I tossed on some miniwax stain. Make sure to saturate the wood so dont have come back latter an wash it (though if do so you get even better finish)

Bit of dry brushing for color, youll get nicer finish if give stain time to dry, but was in hurry...

just a shot to show when your being lazy and dont clean up edges.. yes it does show

Edited August 20, 2013 by harbinger