I am often asked:"How should I base my model?", both for gaming and display pieces. Before I begin to dole out advice, I always start by asking some questions of my own: "What is your theme?", "What is the story you are trying to tell?", "Where does it take place?", and "What type of materials do you have on hand?". The answers to these questions are what really help take a project to the next level.

I thought that instead of jumping straight into a tutorial, that I should address these key concepts first. Anyone can sand and flock a base or glue a fig onto a resign mount, but if you want to tell a story beyond "he's standing on grass/ice/rocks,ect...", some forethought and planning must go in to your project. And even if you're doing something that simple, a little research never hurts. So for this article I will discuss the process I use to come up with the answer to those questions.

What makes a piece stand out?

The answer to this one is simple: a story. This is the "why" behind your piece. You can have a perfectly painted figure and yet it will be lacking if there's no connotation. If the project you are working on can be cut and pasted on to any background, any where, then you are missing this aspect.

For me this process begins before I even start painting the figure. In fact there are times when I'll make and paint a base before I even start painting the figure itself. Think of it in terms of basic story telling and author must answer the following before they even get started: "Who, What, When, Where, and How".

The figure gives us the "Who" but it is the presentation that provides the rest. Presentation is broken down into color choice, mood and story and these elements can all be determined by how you base your figure. This is where your story -your "Why"- comes in.

Lots of figures/armies come with their own backgrounds but let's go beyond that. Even they need a reason to be where you put them. Where is this place? How did they get there? What are they doing? Part of this is determined by the figures you choose. Their style and poses help you determine the why and what. The rest is determined through the story you come up with.

You need to think about the "Why"; "Why are they there?", "Why do they fight?", "Why is it standing that way?", "Why are they doing this?". On a figure level this is done through presentation and on an army level the often used method is a "theme" yet for both of these the "setting" or bases play a huge part in pulling that off.

Using a setting to tell your story

The setting goes a long to selling your story. All actions take place at a location. The more specific the action, the more specific the location. An assassin doesn't sneak around in a wide open field on a sunny day any more than our brave and conquering hero poses dramatically in a dark and crowded alley.

This is the "where" of our equation. The proper background sets up and amplifies the actions of your "why" and helps tie everything else together. Determining this will help everything else fall in line, including color schemes and mood.

Once I've determined my setting, It's time to do some quick research. A google search should turn up a plethora of images that you can use for reference. These are especially helpful for coming up with ideas on what colors and materials you should use. The colors you choose help to create the mood of the scene and the materials you use help sell the realism.

Now that you have the basic concept, the next step is to narrow it down and refine your story. Decide upon the time of day, the season and the specifics of your location. Try to tie it all into your story. Come up with an exact moment in time and take a mental snap shot. Now that your story is complete, it's time to figure out how you want to present it to your audience.

Presentation

So now we have the Who, What, When, and Where, it's time to tie it all together and incorporate the "how". This step uses color, composition and action to present your viewers with your story.

Composition is how you entice your viewers eyes to travel around your piece allowing them to take in your story and all the details that make it up. This is determined in part by the pose of your figure, the make up of your setting, the colors you use, and the details you wish to incorporate. All these come together to create a "flow" of visual interest.

This is important, because we do not want the viewer to become "stuck" on any one part of the piece. Spot colors, action and interesting details are your biggest tools we working on this step.

The "how" of our equation is the action taking place in our scene. It can be a simple as the who's striking a pose, all the way up to a complex battle scene. Our action falls under presentation because it determines how we will frame our piece and from what angles we will present it to our viewer.

As stated earlier, every action takes place at a location, the more specific the action, the more specific the location. It is important to note that less is more and it is better to leave a little to imagination instead of trying to cram everything into the piece.

As you can see there are a lot of concepts that can play a part in coming up with your basing scheme. These go beyond the basic ideas of just sanding and flocking and help to elevate your project to the next level of realism. These ideas seem to be the realm of larger pieces and dioramas but are just at home with gaming pieces and armies.

The question that invariably follows is "How can I use this on my army? How is it possible to fit this all one one base?". Although you can't fit everything onto one base, you can accomplish this across an entire army. When taken in as a whole, it becomes easy to convey your story. In fact, it's this that separates random dudes fighting over some random place from the outstanding armies that convey a theme and story.

I hope that you found the information in this article helpful, in my next article I will discuss the different materials that I use when building bases.