"Putty for shaping bases?" Topic

What do you use when sculpting your bases – that is, building them up to match the thickness of the figures 'base'? For example, the mini dioramas that FoW players make for their figures. I know there's various types of putties and apoxies out there that people use for it, but I am personally not at all familiar with any of them. Thanks!

Mix white glue, sand, and maybe some paint. Very fine craft sand comes in brown and green.

Or some Durham's Water Putty.

Or spackling compound.

Probably lots of other stuff, too.

Milliput.

Cheap decorators filler.

Wood filler, spackling compound, or similar goo from the hardware store.

Sand and superglue

plumbers spackle. the water soluble stuff. if it goes on to thick, hit it with a few drops of water and watch it "shrink" back to the thickness i want

Here's how I do mine:

link

I abandoned Durham's after discovering spackling compound. Durham's does have an advantage in that you can readily mix in color to save a step if you so desire. Durham's is called Tetrion in the U.K. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what Tetrion was in the Ian Weekly terrain book until a gaming friend told me about Durham's. Durham's is great for thinning an applying to building models by the way….

If my basing scheme lets me get away with it, white glue and white sand and/or white railroad ballast. A couple layers fills most gaps, and then I stain / paint for contrast.

If the basing scheme is too far off for that, I use acrylic modeling paste or acrylic texture gel. Either can be mixed with acrylic paint so it is the same color already on the base. I use Liquitex.

I run a ring of white PVA around the lip and then top that with superglue.The two together have a chemical reaction(it sort of "curdles") that causes the white glue to harden with alot of texture to it(although it can be a little bubbly)to get ride of that little ledge.I then apply sand and paint.Try putting a drop of PVA down and then a drop of superglue,you'll see what I mean.

Thanks for the suggestions guys! Lot of great ideas.

I've been using plumber's epoxy putty lately when I want a bit of sculpted base… doesn't have a very long work time though… the stuff I use claims 20 minutes but it seems more like 5.

Ronseal wood filler from B+Q etc, comes in different sized tubes/tubs and also comes in a variety of brown and earth colours. Sets hard and no need for painting, just a quick dry brush.

Liquitex modeling paste for the filler. Once dry, I cover the paste and the metal bases with Liquitex sand gel. The paste doesn't shrink like the various gels I've tried.

Tile adhesive.