Blog

Hobbies

Unit Basing for Kings of War

By David

Why Unit Base Your Army?

A simple 25mm square bases simply doesn't have that much room, especially once you attach a figure, and once of the downsides of individual basing is that the little details can get lost within the mass of the unit. The best part of basing models as a unit, rather than individually, is that you can go above and beyond just adding texture and vegetation- you can making highly themed bases or creating dioramas within your army.

For systems which require you to remove individual models as casualties unit basing can very problematic during games, which is you will quite often see mini-dioramas aka Unit Fillers in many Warhammer Fantasy armies.

Kings of War is quite different as a massed battle system, in that the rules and game mechanics are specifically designed to favor basing entire units on a single large unit base. This is because you don't have to remove casualties and each unit has a specific footprint and height within the rules. This makes it the perfect system to really go to town with extra details and mini-dioramas for your unit bases.

Urban Themed Basing, aka the Ogres come to Town!

Ogres are my third Kings of War army (I also have Undead and Basileans) and for this army I wanted to go for a really strong, cohesive unit basing theme which would still be simple and quick to produce. So I decided upon a ruined town theme, using cobblestones, stone walls and debris.

Product Used:

  • JTT Scenics Field Stone Styrene Sheets (O Scale)
  • Hirst Arts Blocks
  • Woodland Scenics Fine, Medium & Coarse Talus
  • MDF

Step 1: Laying the Groundwork

I started with some thin MDF trays which had been cut to the correct size of each ogre unit in my army, for instance the regiments would be going on 120mm x 80mm as that is the unit footprint of 6 ogres on 40mm bases.

Then I simply placed the field stone styrene sheets on top, cut to size and glued them in place with superglue.

On some of the bases I glued them at an angle to the edge of the base so that all the rows of stones weren't uniform across the army.

Step 2: Applying the Blocks & Debris

Next it was time to add further details to the bases, in the form of some ruined stone walls, steps and debris.

I had a variety of plaster blocks and pieces which were made from Hirst Arts Molds which were perfect. I simply glued them in place with PVA to make walls, stairs and also added some broken pieces.

Then I made a mixture of fine, medium and coarse grade talus, along with some sand, and applied that in patches with PVA for the debris.

On some of the bases I also added small broken pieces of balsa wood, discarded weapons and other small items of interest.

Once the PVA had dried I then gave the debris piles a second coat of watered down PVA glue to help further hold them in place.

Step 3: Base-coating

The unit bases were primed with Army Painter black spray primer. Then it was time to paint all the stones. I used a number of different shades of grey (not quite 50) to paint the individual stones to ensure there was plenty of variety.

The stone blocks were base-coated with Vallejo Field Stone and I picked out the roof tile detail on some of them with Terracotta.

For the debris piles I base-coated them in patches with dark browns and greys.

Step 4: Shading & Dry-brushing

The stone blocks and larger debris was given a coat of Magic Wash, 50/50 Nuln Oil & Agrax Earthshade*. Once that had dried I then gave them a drybrush of bleached bone, followed by a final light drybrush of white.

The piles of rocks & debris were given several layers of dry brushing of light greys and browns.

The field stones on the base were also given a light bleached bone drybrush to help bring out the definition on the edges. Then I applied AK Interactive Fresh Mud to the gaps in between the stones. As this is an enamel weathering liquid it naturally flows through the gaps between the stones making it simple and neat to apply.

Step 5: Weathering

Finally it was then time to finish the bases off with some weathering. I randomly applied some areas of AK Interactive Earth Effects to the field stones and blocks, as well as applying some weathering powders on the debris piles.

In some areas I applied some Streaking Grime, Moss and Mold liquids to age the stone blocks and walls and also some charcoal black to represent scorching from fires. You could also apply blood and rust effects as well if you wanted.

The Finished Product

Add a comment

You need to log in or create an account before you can post a comment.