Basing Das Biest

One of the most unique experiences of working with the Bolt Action armies has been the basing of weapon teams and artillery pieces.  You have seen a few of the smaller and mid size guns, but now I am working my way towards some of the heaviest pieces, like this German howitzer.

The materials were pretty basic... wood glue, super glue, oxide paste, and pieces of tree branch.  This time around I was also using some cork and other elements to enhance the "diorama" look of the base.

I do have a blog post article on basing the French 75mm gun, which gives you a good sense of what's involved.  Eventually I will try to do one of these artillery basing sessions live on Facebook.  Here's a link:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2016/08/tank-busters.html

This view shows some of the added elements, like some vehicle stowage, machine guns, ammo crate and more.

The heavy cork was used to create the mound of earth in the front section of the gun emplacement, along with the wood glue and oxide paste.

The inset shows the use of leftover round sprues to create spent shell casings and even a few ready rounds in the ammo crate!  I tried to match the shell that was in the loader's hands as close as possible.  I used a small emery board style sander to shape the nose of the shell.

You can see how I tried to make a very active site, surrounding the crew with various items.

Here's what it looked like before I started priming it...

As usual, I brought out the Stynlrez primers from Badger to do my initial layers of painting.  While I do this for infantry and vehicles, it is even more handy for pieces such as this, where there are a lot of hard to reach sections, rough textures, and potentially some fragile bits too.

This illustrates the difference that this "pre-shading" makes.  It is much easier to work from this point, where the gun can be removed and painted, leaving easier access to the crew and the rest of the base.

There are more light and medium pieces on the way, including our Early War American weapon teams.  A whole range of French, Italian and Russian teams are in the works too, including urban winter and desert themes!  Stay tuned...

I will probably paint these live on facebook, taking you through the process!