Hobby Cheating 253 - How to Make Autumn Bases

In this Hobby Cheating Tutorial, I take you through my method for creating Autumn bases. From basic mud and texture through to tufts and leaves, I walk you through creating a base that will fill the air with pumpkin spice. Hope you enjoy!
Twitter: @warhammerweekly
Instagram: VincentVenturella
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[@Socraz6]

I’m loving these themed basing videos! I’ve used the jungle basing video as a basis for my entire seraphon army.

[@VinceVenturella]

Awesome, happy to help as always. :)

[@Dwachak]

Thank you for the inspiration. Your enthusiasm is very contagious!

[@VinceVenturella]

You're welcome, happy to help. :)

[@laracameron-smith3111]

Thanks for the great tutorial! I made one of these on an oval base for a centaur mini over the weekend and am thrilled with how it turned out.

[@VinceVenturella]

Awesome! Happy to help. :)

[@DiecastMediaNetwork]

This was beautiful. Love it! I have some GSW punches, and used them on actual leaves, but this is a much better idea. Thanks for sharing the coffee filter tip!

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad it was helpful! :)

[@califax512]

Great video! Always glad to explore more basing ideas, that's often the overlooked area

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

[@wychkingsarmoury]

Great tutorial, as always, Vince. Going to use some of these techniques now!

[@VinceVenturella]

Awesome, happy to assist.

[@ArtJeremiah]

I've been wondering about those leaf punches for a minute now. Looks like I'm getting at least one of them now! Thanks for the great video.

[@VinceVenturella]

You are welcome. :)

[@dougsundseth6904]

It's always fun to watch how others do basing. And it's often possible to infer quite a bit about where somebody lives from their default basing style. For instance, if you look at my bases, you'll see lots of beige, desaturated pink, sienna, and ochre for the ground, and brown and yellowish green grasses and weeds with maybe a few flowers here and there. And lots of bare earth and stone showing through. For an autumn base, there would be virtually no green at all and mostly yellow leaves (unless I was trying for a very different look). Unsurprisingly, that reflects what I see when I go out walking (in Colorado). Some years ago, an acquaintance bought some terrain pieces for a Western game we were playing at the time, and when they arrived, they were green. Very, very green. The person who made them was from England, where that made perfect sense, but they really didn't fit very well with much of the rest of what people had.

[@VinceVenturella]

That's fascinating. FOr me, I rarely go outside, so this is all coming from my imagination. ;)

[@neilbrown2451]

Most excellent. I was just looking for basing ideas for my guildhall hunters guild and BOOM!! You deliver. Thanks.

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad I could help! :)

[@travislankford9254]

I'm all about these videos. I'm here for it. Maybe one day I can figure out what I want as my base scheme for my Blood Angels. Love the content as always, Vince. You're my hobby hero.

[@VinceVenturella]

Thank you, happy to help as always. :)

[@godinnicolas5692]

This is incredible timing! I just finished a set of dead woods/autumn 32mm bases! Didn't have your materials, but this video is packed with great ideas! Also found white tea leaves soaked and re-dried had this "fur" that takes inks or shades really well if you don't grind them too finely. Good "mulch" texture and colors.

[@VinceVenturella]

Awesome, happy to help. :)

[@briantrailer3109]

About to start on my first real attempts at basing and this video made me a lot more confident about doing it

[@VinceVenturella]

Awesome, happy to help. :)

[@M0U53B41T]

OT - I realized we were raising city boys when the first time we went hiking my youngest, who was then 4 years old, tripped on a couple tree roots in the path and in a temper tantrum, stomped his feet and stated, "Why don't they pave these things?!" >< lol re: randomizing elements on bases. Sometimes I literally throw stuff at a base and where it lands, I stick it. It helps keep me from making a pattern. Also, we just did this exact coffee filter/ink art activity in preschool :D it's one of my favorites, you can get so many cool random patterns!!

[@VinceVenturella]

That's awesome! Like I said, doing this makes you feel like a kid again. :)

[@johnc.4871]

Nice to see basing in action.

[@VinceVenturella]

These basing videos are some of my favorite to make. :)

[@Sean-ch4vn]

Thanks for another great video! It was good to see a demonstration on the leaf cutting tool, I'll be purchasing one soon.

[@Vanye111]

Don't forget to check the craft stores for them - you might find them cheaper than. GSW or other "hobby" stores -scrapbookers and their kin have been using things like this for decades.

[@Sean-ch4vn]

@@Vanye111 Thanks for the info, greatly appreciate it!

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad it was helpful!

[@MrKingdongchisholm]

Great tutorial, I really like you're style.

[@VinceVenturella]

Thanks so much! Always happy to help. :)

[@bencoomer2000]

The Greenstuff World punches are great.

[@VinceVenturella]

Yep, super useful for this sort of thing.

[@ChrisBennettGameDesign]

That leaf technique is really nice. 🍂

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad you enjoyed. :)

[@RedGeist]

Very similar to my Lumineth bases, thanks for the tip on how to make leaf clutter. I always wondered what people used to make those.

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad it was helpful!

[@geronimo8159]

Vince! Making these leafs is crazy fun 😂! I ended up using the left over coffee filter as a stencil/mask-thing to paint through, so I have another kind of pattern on the next "generation".

[@VinceVenturella]

That's awesome and yes, it's just like, little kid finger painting fun.

[@randomlygeneratedcolors7889]

As always - great video! You are a one-man army in this hobby. How do you actually find time for all this?

[@briangilgan]

Autumn is my favourite month.

[@VinceVenturella]

Great month. ;)

[@custodianguard749]

I was looking for something lime this for a while now.

[@sysiphuspeart9012]

Orange you glad Vince made this then?

[@custodianguard749]

@@sysiphuspeart9012 i am very grapefull.

[@VinceVenturella]

THe puns are wonderful! Glad to help.

[@custodianguard749]

@@VinceVenturella no thank you. I am berry thankful for the knowledge these video's provide. Makes painting so much fun and helps expand my imagination for what i can do. Between your video's qnd a few terrain builders i found and watch i have found a very creative outlet they keeps inspiring that creativity.

[@AoSCoach]

Always wanted to grab a leaf punch from GSW. Good to see it in action

[@VinceVenturella]

Happy to help buddy.

[@Whorabl3]

Absolutely fantastic. Love fall, used to live in NE with my ex and peeper or not it's basically a religious experience going through NH (in particular) when the leaves are changing. I was thinking of doing a Sylvaneth army (maybe when they get a better book) with a sort of "dead wood" theme. I wonder if I could use this same approach but lean in closer to that sweet spot between fall and winter (essentially the same idea but more fully decayed leaves as opposed to freshly fallen, with more desaturated tones having the last hint of orange/red as my pop colors)

[@VinceVenturella]

Absolutely, just push more into the brown/deep orange spectrum and you're good.

[@Pennydude99]

Well, time to redo my Sylvaneth bases.

[@VinceVenturella]

Always happy to help. ;)

[@lysanderaurelius7810]

Stealing this! And getting the leaf-puncher. Maybe I'll even make use of my 2-year-old's projects! Thank you!

[@VinceVenturella]

Go for it!

[@bentosan]

Wash on tufts work great, learnt that one on my own. Damn things are often way too monotone and don’t fit into the environment. A wash makes quick work of that.

[@VinceVenturella]

Exactly, it's such a simple trick I wish everyone would do, might do a whole video about it.

[@Helonion]

You just gave me the best excuse to toss my real dried up leaves and use the old coffee filters instead. Also means I can make blue leaves, because why not, I like the arcane.

[@VinceVenturella]

Exactly! Alien flora all day. :)

[@zeria354]

another great video thanks! vince. Would love to see a bayou bases for mini's hobby cheating. I have a big bayou style faction coming up and really want to set the tone with them

[@VinceVenturella]

It would honestly likely be a great deal like this, but with some resin pour as well for some gross, green water. That being said, I will add it to the list.

[@davedogge2280]

I bought some green stuff world leaf punchers like the one in the video (when I bought them there were varying leaf sized ones and for tree leaf types) and I'm thinking of going to the park in a month or so to punch fallen leaves althogh I dunno how badly they decay though and will a sprayed on varnish coat just 'preserve them in time'. Basing is my weak point so thanks for this. I've been deliberating over how to go about my nurgle swamp bases for months, I bought a few tubs of 'swamp' basing mixture, that stuff is meant to shrink a little so a few passes is necessary, videos like these make me feel less 'chicken' about tackling these milestones.

[@TheRunesmythe]

Paper coffee filters actually work really well (its what I use) and the nice thing about them is that with a little ink you can make the leaves any color you want. Edit: I had no idea Vince was actually going to do this; I made my comment before watching the whole video.

[@davedogge2280]

@@TheRunesmythe the coffee machine paper filters IS an interesting choice

[@VinceVenturella]

Yeah, the coffee filters will generally be more durable than real leaves, which will tend to dry out and break down.

[@gaijin_lfc]

Watching you slather the grey sand on reminds me of that episode of South Park where Randy is reduced to calling 900 numbers to get his fix on cooking shows.. if I ever lose KZbin painting vids I’ll be doing that. “Oh you put a thick layer down? Yeah... what did you mix it with glaze medium? Mmmm... slap that layer down baby.”

[@VinceVenturella]

Let's all hope we never get to that place. :)

[@alexandregillemadstudio1765]

Thank you for the video!!! Have you done some competition basing tutorials?

[@VinceVenturella]

I mean, more or less any of these would be fine for competitions if you are using a gaming base. If you mean for basing on a plinth, all of these same techquies would be applicable to that space as well.

[@mattcappelli5822]

Thanks for showing all of those techniques. Plenty to take a way from this. Exactly what’s I was looking for as I’m starting a new army. Have you ever done like a fro zen, wintry base? I was considering a winter forest look and I can use a lot of these tips, minus the flowers, but wondering how to winterfy this. Thanks again as always!

[@VinceVenturella]

Yep, I've done multiple on wintery bases Snow Bases - kzbin.info/www/bejne/mH6rhYOcdtucla8 Ice Bases - kzbin.info/www/bejne/q2HGmptsjLWXhac

[@mattcappelli5822]

Vince Venturella thanks for the links! Will check this out. Always appreciate the help!

[@-Gaudi]

Basing video! My favorites! Great as always Vince. I've been wanting to buy those punchers for a while now, but i always hesitated last minute because they look too off scale. And seeing your video and the end result of the base... yeah, they look good, and add colour variation to the fantastic composition, but to me they also look giant. Does that happen to you too? Doesn't it bother you a bit? And if so...any way to solve this other than cutting those a bit by hand into smaller pieces? (Making the puncher a bit pointless if you need then to recut them later)

[@VinceVenturella]

Doesn't really bother me too much, I just think of them like big old maple leaves.

[@michaelskinner6531]

Ah. Well. Guess I'm rebasing all my mini's. Cool. Any videos on chaos/urban environments for Thousand Sons, as well as Black Templar?

[@VinceVenturella]

I do have urban basing, you could certainly add some chaos elements as appropriate - kzbin.info/www/bejne/kHLdppaHl8mthNk The painting video for this immediately follows this one.

[@Krasshirsch]

I would love seeing a video, how you handle the side walls of raised topology on a mini. The arm bracelet of a daemonette is a good example. I am having a really hard time getting a sharp line between the skin and the bracelet's side wall the because difference in height is sometimes less than a mm. This is especially annoying when both colors have a high contrast since any miniscule deviation from a perfect line immediately catches the eye.

[@davidkilby1043]

Great question. I have the same problem

[@VinceVenturella]

So things like that are always annoying, I won't lie, they bother me too, you aren't alone. My general answer is that you don't want to rely on a line. It will feel more organic if you have a slow gradual transition into the shadow, that is generally the easy way to go. So you want to have a soft glaze of the shadow color (you can even glaze with something like traditional citadel washes) into that space.

[@Krasshirsch]

@@VinceVenturella Thanks for the advice.

[@SvenEnterlein]

Already have a couple of punchers in my shopping basket. However, I wonder what your thoughts are on the other GSW options like leaf litter and the micro leaves mixes. They might not even be mutually exclusive so I am eager to hear what you have to say about them, and maybe you've used them all...

[@VinceVenturella]

I haven't used them all, but I am trying to work my way through their product line and review eventually. :)

[@dragonfist]

Great video! where are those flowers from?

[@VinceVenturella]

They come from a variety of sources, but Gamer's Grass and Bad Squiddo Annie is a good source.

[@jonashenriksson2182]

Looks great! A good tool to pick up the leaves with is a damp brush. Do you have much flowers during Autumn in your area or is it a bit of artistic freedom?

[@VinceVenturella]

We do have some early fall flowers, but it's also artistic freedom for the colors. :)

[@MrGufalo]

Hi Vince, thanks and great quality as always. May I request an Gloomspite like base please? Something like fluorescent extraterrestrial blue green. Thanks for your videos, are really helpful Cheers!

[@VinceVenturella]

I'll add it to the list.

[@Shadenuat]

U know the dumbest question I have about basing I wish you answered? When basing nature base, what color of flowers you use depending on mini colors to "elevate" the mini. I remember you once said bright pinkish flowers are hot stuff but think there's more to this.

[@VinceVenturella]

Basically, it's one of two choices. Either some soft colors and appropriate to the natural setting (i.e. go minimal and natural) OR you pick some colors that are already on the miniature and use the base to add some more colors to it. :)

[@Mikey__R]

Hey Vince, thanks for another great video! Could I ask how you base your Skaven clanrats? Do you run a pin into a foot? Or do you leave some of the tab? Their feets are tiny!!

[@VinceVenturella]

Yep, I generally run a pin up into the foot, small paper clip.

[@Mikey__R]

And we've been invaded by bots again. No, we would not like to down a virus, thanks very much.

[@docbun]

Vince, one question: you've used the miniature purple punch from Green Stuff World I believe here, right? Is it your favorite? What about the other ones, especially the ones with mapple tree leaves shapes? Thanks!

[@VinceVenturella]

I've used a couple of them, they all seem to work about the same (just different leaves obviously), it's just about what shape you like. :)

[@docbun]

Thanks for the tips, Vince! One quick question: which minis or when would you go for an autumn base? A druid figure looks like a good candidate, or people "naturally linked to Nature", I guess? Any others that would "fall into fall"?

[@VinceVenturella]

I think natury stuff certainly works. but I think you can also use them for lots of different fantasy type scenes or even sci-fi, one of the things that you can do is up the amount of mud or something similar, mix in small urban elements, and that really changes the feel.

[@Derpy-qg9hn]

In terms of what mini you could set in what environment, more modern/futuristic minis will pretty much always "fit" with any base of equivalent or older era. I mean, historic villages and cities don't look much more modern just because the year is 2020.. and in terms of human-perceptible time scales, nature doesn't care at all about the year. Meanwhile your soldier likely has limited choice in were they serve, they're just sorta dropped out in some place that hyperpower xyz wants them to fight in, all they can do is shrug their shoulders and start marching with the platoon. Plus, you could go the opposite direction too, be it for modern-fantasy or exploring ruins of a modern-to-future-tech society from the perspective of medieval fantasy.

[@westonbarney3737]

Vince, i noticed today that the Daler Rowney FW ink range has silver and gold. Could we get a review of these? Thanks

[@VinceVenturella]

I'll take a look at them.

[@KerfluffinMcWooly]

If you matte varnish a base with tufts and flowers will it look okay? Seems like it might make the flowers and tufts goopy.

[@VinceVenturella]

Shouldn't have any dileterious effect, I do it all the time. :)

[@tomkelly2363]

Hey Vince, hope you are doing well! I am about to start work on a unit of Namarti Thralls that I want to go maximum effort on, any ideas of some paints to use to achieve that super pale blue/white flesh tone?

[@VinceVenturella]

I am generally bad at giving colors, because I just sort of grab things that I think will work. If it was me, I might try some glacier blue from vallejo, some olive flesh or something similar from Pro Acryl and a potential soft warm purple for the shadows.

[@michaelanderson670]

Hey Vince. If you need an idea for another video or could help me in text form. I would love to know what your technique is for cream/tan cloaks. I paint Dark Angles and I'm always looking for a better way to do that kind of fabric. Does glazing over a zenithil highlight work for those opaque colors?

[@VinceVenturella]

So the key with white colors is to built them up slowly. If you look at the how to paint white vehicles video, that is with an airbrush, but the techniques would be the same, you want a gentle build up from a soft white brown into a more bright ivory at the highest highlights.

[@rmorris4598]

I resisted the leaf punch so far because it looks to me like at 25mm or 28mm the leaves are way out of scale.

[@VinceVenturella]

THey are big, but I always just think about big maple leaves.

[@greglohman6750]

Question 2: tips for keeping your bases from looking like frosted cupcakes when using texture paste? Mine always look delicious when I am done.

[@Vanye111]

Feature, not bug! Just don't eat the paste.

[@bentosan]

Mix more than one kind of texture paste for a variation in texture helps it stop looking all the same.

[@VinceVenturella]

Bento is right on, integrate other textures - rocks, other grit, and so on.

[@ILikeYous]

I ordered similar supplies but have a question about static grass from my past. When I tried to lacquer it with dulcoat from Testors in the past it would undo the white glue. I use airbrush and matte/satin like you showed now using Ultra matte and satin. Should I do something different?

[@VinceVenturella]

You shouldn't have any challenge with the glue with airbrush varnish, it was the aerosol doing the damage there

[@ILikeYous]

@@VinceVenturella thanks again man. I really hope the world rights itself soon and your classes become available.

[@Xn7000]

So I've seen a number of people use super glue on near-finished paint, I'm super-paranoid about frosting from superglue. (Nearly everything I superglued in high school ended up with my fingerprints all over it in white residue.) Is going easy on the glue sufficient to prevent frosting or are there any other tricks to it?

[@VinceVenturella]

Ues the minimal amount you can and then if you get a little frosting, just wash or put some pigment over it, it's generally easy enough to fix.

[@greglohman6750]

Can you remind me what the thin glue is you add to firm up the cork?

[@VinceVenturella]

You can either use a thinned CA super glue or just make a PVA/Water glue mixture and spread it over everything.

[@adamrob9464]

Thanks Vince, I just ordered some cork to try this type of base. I have a model i'd like to try it on but it was already glued down by the previous owner. Any idea how to remove it from the base?

[@VinceVenturella]

Slide your clippers under the back foot flat side down and apply gentle pressure until he pops off.

[@adamrob9464]

@@VinceVenturella thanks very much

[@Tarrasque87]

Is using the PVA or superglue pretty much interchangeable? Is there ever a time you should use one over the other?

[@TheRunesmythe]

Different people will tell you different things. I've known people that use superglue to stick every element of the base down (usually because of the faster drying time) and if that works for you, this hobby is all about personal preference so go with it! Personally, I use superglue to stick large stuff down (cork, bark chunks, large gravel etc.) and use pva for the rest.

[@VinceVenturella]

I think Rune is exactly correct, in the end, there are a few things that will generally work better with PVA, like small rocks and scatter grass and some things that work better with CA like cork and large rocks.

[@davidkinniburgh2265]

My anxiety was peaking when we were 20 minutes into a 22 minute video and there still wasn't wash on the tufts hahaha.

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad I came through for you. :)

[@griffglowen5555]

What brand flowers do you use? They look better than most I see which tend to be an almost solid block of colour rather than a nice scatter of flowers

[@VinceVenturella]

So I order all of my tufts from either Bad Squiddo Annie or Gamer's Grass, really nice mix there.

[@griffglowen5555]

Vince Venturella thanks - I cant see anything on their websites like the mixed flowers you are using but maybe they are just out of stock

[@VinceVenturella]

@@griffglowen5555 You can also try Competition Minis and Michigan toy soldier, good selections there.

[@Scubasgamecorner]

Hello , I really love your channel and content ....I have a question, which paint brand do you use the most in your collection now? I really need to get a better quality paint set money is not an issue so I am just focusing on quality .... and there are a lot of brands to choose from so any help or insight would be awesome 😃👍🏼

[@VinceVenturella]

I can't give you a single answer, I really use a wide mix of paints in quite equal ratios. If you were asking me for my personal favorites that are most often available in the rotation, Scale 75, Pro Acryl, Vallejo and Warcolours.

[@Scubasgamecorner]

@@VinceVenturella Thank you for responding I appreciate your time....But if I could impose on you one more time, when you get a moment could you measure the bottom outside diameter of the Proacryl bottles you have and the same for the cap? I am making a custom deluxe paint shaker and want them to fit a variety of bottles. I know your a busy guy , But I was hoping you could help me with this.

[@tando6266]

anyone know some us shops for the leaf punches

[@VinceVenturella]

I get them from Competition Minis or Michigan Toy Soldier.

[@andre45mr]

which is the brand of those tufts?

[@VinceVenturella]

I use two main tufts. Gamer's Grass and the tufts from Bad Squiddo Games.

[@alexanderk.7782]

How you built a "flying" bullet out of a S Marine gun/bolter? :) next video incoming?

[@VinceVenturella]

That's a really tough little bit of modeling, I'll have to think on it.

[@emilkrawack2821]

When I add wash to my tuffs, it gets clumpy and stick together. How can I avoid this?

[@VinceVenturella]

You need to work it around and/or put a drop of water in there. But really, you have to work it around and attack it from the outside to spread it out.

[@emilkrawack2821]

@@VinceVenturella thanks a lot for the answer! I will try :)

[@renatoe3417]

Hi ! where can I find all of those materials D: ¡?

[@VinceVenturella]

Amazon has most of this stuff, but for basing materials, places like Gamer's Grass are an excellent source.

[@Kilian2]

Hey! What is the liquid used at 2:48 ?

[@VinceVenturella]

Super glue accelerant. You can find it at most hobby stores. :)

[@Kilian2]

@@VinceVenturella Thank you for the quick response. Keep up the great work :)

[@Swooper86]

The timing on this video is both great and awful. Great because I have six models sitting on my table waiting for me to finish their autumn forest bases. Awful because I really could have used this video before I started my Beastman army almost three years ago, as I'm not going to change my basing scheme now... I do mine a little differently, but still similar in many ways. I put down cork, branches and rocks (tree bark) before priming, then lay down some Stirland Mud, Athonian Camoshade and a drybrush while painting the model, and finally grass tufts, flowers, some GF9 autumn coloured sponge and birch seed pods as leaves after painting.

[@VinceVenturella]

Awesome and terrible, but I hope it all helps. :)

[@Magicwillnz]

I recently painted up the gods from Rising Sun. I was thinking about how I was going to base them, when I thought it might be fun to make it look like they were standing on clouds. I looked it up, I couldn't find any tutorials for making a cloudy base. Do I just dip cotton balls in water/PVA glue, then arrange it onto the base?

[@VinceVenturella]

I think that is about the best answer, then some airbrush greys and light blues to set some tones.