Welcome To Lazarus

Instead of a "BANG", humanity is passing away with the shuffling of dead feet, and hungry moans. Desperate men and women fight against the rising tide for the newly risen dead.Sometimes, though, the undead are not he most dangerous things out there. Civilization has failed the test; the only thing left is survival.

Lazarus is just one of many places where humanity holds on by a thread, and life and death come as easily as a roll of the dice.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Diamond Tread base Tutorial

Here's a repost of a tutorial I did about 4 years ago on how to make make Diamond Tread bases, for use with modern and SciFi minis.

The Materials
You will need:
  • A Base (slotta or not) - I am using a slotta base in this example
  • A square of nylon window screen
  • Super/Krazy Glue
  • Tape - if using a slotta base
  • Hobby Knife
  • Nail Clippers
  • Sand Paper - not pictured

Step 1 - If using a Slotta Base...
you need to cover the slot. Take a piece of tape (I just used some packing tape that was handy) and cover the hole. Next, take your knife and cut off the excess, leaving the hole covered, like so:




Step 2 - Take the Nylon Window screen...
and lay it across the base. Take the Super/Krazy Glue and apply it liberally to the base. We want to cover the entire base. 
You can use a bit of scrap paper to smear the glue around. This will get glue down into every square of the Nylon Screen. You can see that I use two fingers to hold opposing corners down, while I do this. This will keep the screen from sliding around, or wrinkling during this step. Be sure to let the base completely dry after this step.

 Step 3 - Trim the excess screen away, by....
Flipping the base over and using your knife to cut away the excess. Try to get as close as possible; although you can leave some excess behind.
 After trimming with the knife, take the nail clippers and finish trimming away the excess. You should make the screen flush with edge of the base. After trimming the excess away, take the sand paper and sand down the edges. Use a downward motion only. Going up and down will cause the screen to fray.

Step 4 - Painting the base...
Is the last step. If you used a slotta base, flip the base upside down and prime it black. This will blank out the clear tape used in step one. Next prime the top with black, and dry-brush. I used a three color scheme that uses 1) Neutral Gray 2) Dove Gray 3) Sand. You can use whatever colors you like. (Note, I've since added Burnt Sienna for a rust effect)


Finished Examples:
Here are several repainted/rebased Clicky mini on home-made Diamond Tread base:

Based on a 1" Fender Washer
 
Based on 25mm Round Slotta Bases
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5 comments:

  1. LuckyjoeMay 28, 2012 at 9:17 AM

    Great tutorial! Thanks very much. Beautiful results. I will have to try that. I would never have thought of using the nail clippers.

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  2. TonyMay 28, 2012 at 12:40 PM

    As stated above - A Great Tutorial. Thank you.

    Tony

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  3. lrqanMay 28, 2012 at 4:26 PM

    Clever, clever, clever.

    ReplyDelete
  4. PMMDJMay 29, 2012 at 9:48 AM

    Very keen, definitely will be using that in the near future.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Allison M.June 2, 2012 at 5:41 AM

    Good rust effect. I also use screen exactly this way for tech/industrial bases. Actual tread plate pattern embossed plasticard is available from Evergreen, but it's not cheap (or not this cheap at any rate). And unless one is a very good sculptor it's pretty difficult to create it yourself, trust me, I've tried.

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