"Basing Naval Figures" Topic

I have a number of 28mm US and British Naval Figures (Boxer Rebellion era gun crew, ship hands, and infantry) that I am looking for suggestions on how to base. I normally base figures with a mixture of flock, gravel and other material but it seems out of place for ship based figures. The figures have integrated bases that I have glue to 25mm round MDF bases. Painting them a brown (wood) or grey (metal deck) color seems a bit plain, but I do not want to deal with the hassle of cutting the figures and pinning them to a detailed base (I am not that good a painter). Any suggestions from the TMP crowd would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Scott

I base my 25mm Ral Partha sailors on plain washers. I paint them with Tamiya Khaki or Desert Yellow.

Sand would work since it can blend in with landing parties. It was also spread on decks- at least in the Napoleonic era when action was imminent

Scott;
Like you even have to ask…

Haze grey.

Eric

I had some 15mm ACW naval guns I wanted to base (with crews), so I used scribed styrene to make the surface of the base look like a planked deck. Since naval guns would never be on a soft surface, it looks fine even when I put them in a fortress.

Painting the "deck" was easy – white primer, a coat or two of brown ink. The watery ink makes lots of uneven coloration that looks sufficienty like woodgrain from a distance.

If you can't find scribed styrene, you could accomplish the same thing with putty if you're *really* good at scribing straight lines. The advantage to putty is that you can also fill in the area around the metal miniature's cast base, making the figure look like he's standing on a flat surface instead of a lump of lead glued on top of a flat surface.

You might also be able to make a real planked surface out of toothpicks, small craft sticks, or thin plastic strips like the ones sold by Evergreen.

- Ix

I just make the bases as smooth as possible with several coats of filler. Sand down with ladies nail boards. Simply paint on planks or plain grey to match the decking.