I wanna tell you a story..Tales with toy soldiers WATER FEATURES

WATER FEATURES

Badly sited guns? Boggy ground behind a battery 1709

Water is interesting on figure bases. Over the years I have messed about with it quite a lot. I have also been asked fairly often 'how do you do that?'

So here are some examples of water on bases. In order to achieve similar effects ensure you have sealed the portion of  base designated to be 'wet'. Do this by applying a layer of gloss varnish over it before doing anything else to it.

In the hot above, Swedish Dragoons splash through a particularly waterlogged portion of ground. The shot below shows the piece from a different angle.
Leave the area free of basing materials and smooth. Paint and finish the groundwork of the base first. Having completed this, paint the water/wet area as you wish. I normally coat it in black or a very dark blue- green. I then work out from the dark centre area keeping my paints wet and blending successively lighter areas of blue and green towards the edges. You can add a little yellow at the very rim.Having let this dry coat it in gloss varnish. I suggest yacht varnish. A couple of layers will be best. The results are, as can be seen, quite pleasing.


Same piece again but from a nice angle showing how the positioning of the figures can draw your eye to the basing enhancing the overall effect.

Just a little piece of  water can still provide an interesting touch. If it is a multi base unit make sure all of the bits of 'wet' join up to form something coherent and are not simply random patches of wet. That WOULD look odd!

Occasionally I'll have a few objects floating or half submerged in the water. Drums are good for this. You could try barrels, bodies, pieces of clothing or similar. It all adds to the interest of the piece.