To some players, a miniature's base merely serves as a mechanism to keep the model upright during play.

However, to the avid hobbyist, the base represents a blank canvas for his creativity. These plastic surfaces provide an opportunity to do something truly cool that separates a finished model from the crowd. Larger bases present an even bigger canvas for your ingenuity. It's almost a crime not to work with all that flat space! This article is all about large bases and what you can do with them. Here, we showcase a wide variety of environmental looks that you can achieve with ease. We even show you a few ways to link your scenic bases together. In addition to this barrage of hobby-based material (Ha-ha get it? "Based." Oh, forget it...), you can check out a gallery of cool models with interesting bases attached to 'em. Get started by clicking one of the links below. Chad Mierzwa's impressive Chaos Giant has an equally impressive base!

Note: We used Woodland Scenics materials to flock the examples below.

RUINED WOOD FLOOR

FLAGSTONE

To create the old floorboards, cut balsa wood or basswood into thin strips. Break these strips to create a ragged edge and then nick them up with a hobby knife (watch your hands). Line up the strips in a floor-like pattern and glue this floor section to two support beams (running perpendicular to the planks) with super glue. Trim down this floor section to fit your base and glue it down. Add coarse sand and flock as normal.

The easiest way to create quick-and-dirty flagstone floors (such as the moldy type you might find in some forsaken dungeon) is to find some linoleum or wallpaper with a suitable pattern imprinted upon it. In the example above, we glued wallpaper to a base with super glue. We trimmed it to fit and added a little course sand with white (PVA) glue.

MUDDY BANKS

ROTTING CARCASS

Add several piles of green stuff to the base and smooth them into a close approximation of the final shape you want. Once the putty has begun to set, take a sculpting tool and hobby knife and add the tiers and other muddy details. In the example above, we used the new Gnoblars to add the footprints (we made sure the plastic was wet before we used it this way). Once the putty dries, add coarse sand in the channels to suggest a stream bed. Make sure to use a gloss varnish after you finish

Take some appropriate skeletal remains (we used a Tomb Kings steed) and bisect them with a hobby knife so they will lie flat. Add green stuff to the remains to imitate chunks of rotting flesh. When painting the remains, make sure to use deep reds along with gloss varnish to get the right look. For the example above, we also used Catachan Green and Rotting Flesh on the carcass's flesh to convey decay. Eww!

LAVA FLOW/ASH WASTE Making this base is easier than you might think. Plastruct makes plasticard sheets shaped like a crater field. Take a square of this sheet, turn it upside-down, and press it into a bed of green stuff (no glue needed). Once it dries, clean up the sides with a hobby knife. If you can't get Plastruct, try pressing a rough, wet stone into the putty. As for painting the example above, we used Chaos Black with a Codex Grey drybrush. For the lava, we built up from Blood Red to Blazing Orange, with a few Chaos Black lines added afterwards to suggest cooling fractures. SANDSTONE COURTYARD

Cut out a very thin slice of insulation foam (really watch your fingers) and glue it to a base with white glue. Trim the edges to fit the base. Draw out a pattern with a felttipped pen. Trace over these lines with a hobby knife and then a dull pencil to widen the incisions. Press a rough rock into the foam to transfer the texture. Add small piles of debris made out of gravel and sand. Seal the entire base with watered-down white glue before priming the model to avoid melting the foam with a spray paint.

WOODCHIP ROCK Black Gobbo fans will know this tip already wood chips make excellent "rocks" for scenery. Find an appropriately sized chip and glue it to the base with super glue. Add some sand and gravel to the chip to give it an earthy look. The beauty of wood ships is that they are perfect for drybrushing. Just work your way up from dark to light. SCORCHED EARTH

The goal of this base is to look like it has been ravaged by fire or has suffered an explosion. Add sand to your base like normal, but also add a few scrap-metal style bitz over the sand. Paint the base as you would normally. Then, go back over the burnt areas with a heavy drybrush of Chaos Black. If you want to take it a step farther, give it a coat of MMP Soot Black Weathering Powder to enhance the scorched look.

SMALL STREAM

You can add a small stream of water to any base with a little green stuff. Just add a pair or parallel, raised ridges to create a channel. To get a more natural feel, consider pressing a few large pebbles into the banks, along with other detritus in the stream bed. As for the water, you can imitate a thin trickle with gloss varnish. Just add a good amount of the varnish to the channel and allow it to dry. For the example above, we painted the stream bed with Fiery Orange to get a wet-clay feel. PARCHED DESERT

Press a flattened sheet of green stuff onto your base. Smooth out any fingerprints now. Take a sculpting tool or hobby knife and make a series of lines in the putty like that shown above you're going for the cracked-mud look. Adding a bleached animal skull will help hammer home the parched-earth look. For the example above, we drybrushed the base with Dark Flesh, Bubonic Brown, Kommando Khaki, Bleached Bone, and then Skull White.

DECAYING TREES

Similar to the "Snow-Covered Field" base shown on the previous page, this base takes advantage of twigs to simulate fallen trees. Break them down to fit on your base and glue them down with white glue. Flock and paint the base as normal, though you don't have to paint the logs as they look pretty good already. If you don't like the "au natural" look, you can stain the ends of the wood with Brown Ink to bring out the details. Then, drybrush the entire log with Catachan Green to suggest lichen and other forest rot. TREE STUMP

Cut down a stick or twig to look like a stump. Place a lump of putty on the base and push in this stump shape the putty to blend with stump and look like roots. Add small snakes of putty so they radiate from the stump and shape them into a root system. Make sure they look like they're plunging into the ground like a normal tree. Cut them with a wet hobby knife to look like bark. Once the putty dries, flock and paint the base as normal.

MARTIAN LANDSCAPE

This base style is ideal for the home of the Adeptus Mechanicus, but it could work for a lot of other red-hued worlds as well. Painting is the key here glue on sand and gravel as you see fit. For colors, we stared with a drybrush of Scorched Brown over a Chaos Black basecoat. Next, we drybrushed Dark Flesh and finished with Scab Red. To vary the appearance, we stippled mixed coats of Tanned Flesh, Fiery Orange, and Blood Red. ASH WASTELANDS

Ashen wastes tend to be cluttered with loose rocks and other debris. You want to mix up a very diverse blend of sand, gravel, and pebbles and glue it to your base. Parking lots can be a good source for this blend, but watch out for broken glass. As for paint, you will want to do a progressive series of drybrushes with greys. When finished drybrushing, go back and pick out a few stones with dark shades of grey or maybe Kommando Khaki.

CHAOTIC REALMS

Like everything it touches, Chaos warps terrain and scenery. You can illustrate this corrupting influence with weird trees, breathing rocks, buried faces, or completely mutated patches of living earth. In the end, you want your gaming friends to say something like, "Uh, why does the rock on your base have a face?" Be equally chaotic when it comes time to paint your bases! JUNGLE SCRUB

Forested bases can really enhance the theme of your army especially for Catachans and Wood Elves. Design and paint your base as you see fit. Next, find your local pet or craft store and grab a few small aquarium plants. Clip out the plants and glue 'em to your base (don't forget to leave enough room for the model). Half the time, you won't even have to a paint the plants! Presto a jungle-themed base. Note that some craft stores have other types of leaves, so you can duplicate pretty much any forest type.

SIMPLE LINKED BASES: Linked bases do not have to be ornate, complex affairs. All you really have to do is carry across a theme throughout the group. In this example, we created a graveyard setting with a few bitz and mounds of putty. Having each base reflect your theme adds so much to a unit of models. This fact is especially true for big models with large bases. They give you a lot of real estate to display your theme in a creative fashion. When building linked bases for Warhammer, keep in mind what base will be next to what. It helps to number them and draw an arrow to show which way is forward for the unit.

COMPLEX THEMES: You can really take the theme concept a step further. This example demonstrates how you can link your bases together to make a diorama scene. In this case, we made an Empire roadway from putty, balsa wood, and a few miscellaneous bitz. One of the key things to keep in mind with a project like this one is how each base interacts with its neighbor. Sketch out your diorama ahead of time in order to determine exactly what will be on each base. You'll save yourself a lot of trouble, and you'll be very happy when you bring it all together, and it matches.