One can never have too many skulls...

Yes, I know, we have all seen skulls galore on everything Fantasy or 40k.  They are everywhere!  

However, it was time for me to make another 80 mm base insert to match a set I did years ago.  This one is very Inquisition inspired!  I have used it on my own Grey Knights and Sisters of Battle.

The process begins with a layer of cork.

Then we add a layer of baked sculpey, which is then carved and shaved to fit.

My next step is to draw out the design which will be etched into it.

More circle guides to get my pattern symmetrical.

Design drawn!  Time to etch!

Here is my primary tool.  This 'V' shaped carving tool is great.  You do have to be very careful when pressing this tool into your sculpey, since you do not want the cuts to be too deep.  It is better to make a few passes with the carving tool than to make one bad cut, from which there is no return!

For the finer elements, and for the small weathered cracks, I use a scribing tool that Cathy pioneered.  Thank goodness she discovered this technique, as it has been as much of an aggravation/time saver as the rocks were for the previous two base sets!  Yea Cathy!

This view lets you see all that work a bit better.  Ideally, you have deeper cracks and shallower cracks.  This creates more interesting details.

Sand and gravel added, along with a broken bit of marble.

More to come!

Let it snow! Finishing the next apoxy sculpt rock base

Once I had all of my rock textures pressed into the apoxy sculpt, I let that set up for a bit.  I wanted some rocks that would be big enough to stick up through the snow piles, so I found the biggest ones I could and set them into the oxide paste.

I used a little more oxide paste to put down a foundation layer for the flex paste, which has a tendencey to skid across smoother surfaces.

Time for the Flex Paste!

I watered down the flex paste a little to get a better flow on the brush.

It is important to apply it as smoothly as possible, since it is supposed to be snow, after all!  Watering down a bigger flat brush can help to smooth out the top of the snow piles.

While the flex paste was still wet, I put some snow flock on top.  Normally, this goes on top of my painted snow bases.  However, since these were being cast for production, nobody is going to know about that trick!  So, this will get that flaky snow texture for the casts.

I also applied the flock to the snow along the bottom of the base.

Finished!

Rock on! Using more rocks to make rocks....

Hey folks, it's way early in the morning, or afternoon depending on where you live, so that means it must be time to have more fun with rocks!  This next base has a slate texture to the rocks.  As you might have guessed, we are going to start with actual pieces of slate...

These will be pressed into the apoxy sculpt.  Just like the previous base insert, I used some tin foil to fill in this big chunk of rock, cutting down on the amount of apoxy sculpt.

Wrap the apoxy sculpt around the tin foil, put some water on it so the rocks don't stick...

And press some rocks to create the texture!!!

That first rock was a 'platform' for this next rock, so we are back to wrapping tin foil with the apoxy sculpt again.

Almost completely wrapped...

Yea!  Ready to press some texture.

The rock has been 'texturized', and we will carry on to the next step.

That next step is to create some snow piles, so that this base matches the original set.

Stay tuned!!