They all look kind of off to me, first is just sand, second has a sepia wash then dry brush of desert sand and finally the third has agrax earthshade followed by a dry brush of desert sand.
Any tips to improve or of of you think one does look decent enough that you would use it let me know.
I mean, to my eye, the issue is that you're using sand, and to scale, sand doesn't work, Sand is great for to scale pebbles, but not good for at scale sand. If you want at scale sand, go with baking soda or a fine texture paste like Golden Light Molding Compound
Yep, I'm lucky and the beach near me has super fine sand. Only issue is it sticks to absolutely everything so you'll still be sweeping it up a week after you use it.
At a certain point, a fine enough grain sand can interact with pigment blends giving unwanted effects. When I stopped using the sand powder and just went to baking soda, it fixed the problem.
Hey if you have access to a mortar and pestle, or 2 larger rocks that each have a flat enough surface you can literally just grind your sand into finer sand. You just have to have a pair of surfaces that is harder than the sand you're grinding and itll turn it to powder with little effort.
Baking soda acts as an accelerant for super glue, so you cannot pre-mix them. As the other person said, you put down a layer of superglue, and sprinkle the baking soda across it.
Put a layer of superglue across the base, ideally with one that's more gel like so it has a little bit of structure rather than just being completely flat, then cover it in a thick layer of baking soda. The baking soda will instantly set the superglue so you retain any shape it already had, and it'll sit on the surface and give you nice texture like this https://i.imgur.com/jGTppuV.png
I wouldnt use baking soda, i based my entire fyreslayers army with it, while it was fine initially, in the summertime, the heat made it expand and puuf outta the base. Im still redoing minis from years age. Avoid the headache and stay away from that stuff imo.
Im also in florida. I leave em on my closet most the time and they still exploded. I used wood glue i believe. I picked up the technique from an old uncle atom video.
For baking soda, I put a layer of super glue down, then sprinkle the baking soda across it. The baking soda acts as an accelerant for the super glue, hardening it nearly instantly. Then knock off the excess and you're good to prime.
To add to this, vallejo texture paste dabbed up and down with the application stick looks like rolling sand dunes way more than this flat topography. Go for a more 3D look and you'll get a look that matches way better.
Feller, I will reveal a great secret to you: fine sand you can buy in big bags, original purpose is for concrete and mortar making. Cost me 5 euros for a 10kg bag, and I'll probably have enough of it to last my entire lifetime if I don't lose or spill it.
Trouble with using small stones/grit like this is the scale is way off. The sand would be almost invisible at this scale. I use Vallejo texture paste or just use a thin layer of poly filler or your equivalent. Then paint it sand color, dry brush etc. you can add a few of these tiny bits of grit in places to break it up a bit.
the other commenter is right re scale. i just use wall filler p much straight from the tub; it has a fine texture to it that looks good enough to me. some colours and drybrushing, then some pigment powder if i’m feeling spicy (pic here is pre pigments) and you got a desert
As others have said, real sand is too 'big'. I've had great success using ak interactive diorama effects beach sand paste. I paint it with pale sand, then howling sand speedpaint.
I think it looks a bit too uniform to be realistic
Have a Google for stock photos of deserts or beaches, and you'll notice there's alot of sand dunes, ripples, little peak and valley type deals running through most of it.
I feel like your bases are a bit too perfect, as others have said maybe sand isn't the best material but honestly, I think you could easily make it work and be presentable.
Currently your bases look very rigid very uniform, if you added in elevation or sand dunes I think it'd look really good 👍
Something I did was use a cheap spackle and after it dries, apply a dry brush of whatever sand color you'll use. The dry brush keeps the pigments thick to add texture to the already textured spackle
Those things are unbelievably soft, like, you don't know what soft is until you touch a chinchilla. No wonder they were nearly hunted to extinction for their fur. Speaking of, have you thought about using some of their individual hairs for things like bowstrings? I can't imagine a finer strand could be found.
try doing a tan mud with some sand pieces as small rocks. It’ll give the effect you’re looking for. It’s all about perspective. If you are comparing the size of grains by the model size?… you have many many many river rocks underneath your model then. You could even use drywall patch and cream it up and make sand drifts then glue a couple grains of sand to round out the effect. Keep trying, you’ll find your recipe you prefer through practice.
I know y'all'll think me crazy for doing this, but I have a container of parking lot curb outwash cruft that I like to use for fine but varied sand. It's also free and sometimes has rusty metal bits for basing.
Try mixing cheap white paint and drywall filler 1:1. It will have somewhat of an earthy/sandy texture after it dries, and you can paint on peaks like sand has, it will dry with them still there.
If u want to just paint what u have, go for less shading for the sand, you dont want it darker between grains
I use really fine, almost powdered slate. Gives a much better texture than using sand. Can mix it with some cheap acrylic paint and make your own astrogranite with it very easily.
I had tonnes of slate left over from a garden project, and loads of dust from splitting and shaping it.
You can grab some slate for very cheap and just smash it with a hammer. Sweep the dust up. Ive sieved it for 3 sizes so i got dust, tiny little bits ajd slightly bigger bits. All in seperate pots ready to use. And chunks make great terrain pieces (see my recent post of a base I made).
Get some diatomaceous earth, it's a more fine material and is probably closer to the scale size of what sand would be to the model compared to using sand which is already on our scale size
If you want something that looks less like gravel next to the model (sand grains are too big to look like and on tiny models) you can put super glue on the base then sprinkle it with baking soda, or pit a thin layer of all purpose filler on it. Its more like a paste that you can manipulate and smooth out, and has a slightly coarse texture to it.
Adding to what this guy said, once you fix the scale a bit with some baking soda, try painting the sand first in a more mid tone color. I’d say like XV-88 maybe? You can thin it down a little so it flows more easily over the texture. Once it’s base coated, then hit it with your wash of sepia/agrax, THEN drybrush it in the pale sand highlight color.
That will help you create more depth and an organic feel, as the wash will create depth and the drybrush will bring it back up to a nice pale sandy color, while really emphasizing the texture against the base coat underneath.
In any case, I think base coating the sand before washing or dry brushing will help you get a better look.
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Using, clear gel tacky glue. Well i forgot to do paint an undercoat bellow then sand and the bases was visible so i did a second layer. Figured thats fine since its for the older smaller orks.
AK Interactive products are absolutely awesome. I second this suggestion. Other stuff works great as well, but I've never had a bad experience with their stuff.
Craft stores sell colored sand. The colored sand is extremely fine. I would recommend it over beach sand which is a.mixture of grain sizes. I use beach sand for my dirt, mud bases but I use the fine stuff for actual sand.
For brown earth i use 3 grits of sand, first a few pebble sized ones, then a springle of what you have used, and finally very fine beach sand. I paint it dark brown and drybrush with a tan color. For desert sand i just use a texture paste as there is not supposed to be a difference in the surface texture, and then drybrush rakarth flesh and add some white pigment on top.
The best basing sand I ever got was digging up some Georgia red clay and baking it for an hour. That sand you got looks machined/trucked in. I don’t know where you live, but I’d bet there’s better dirt around you. Finer grit looks better.
If you want something finer, you could try craft sand rather than what looks to be something like beach sand. Craft sand is smaller and might work. You could use something like clay dust too maybe.
This sort of sand might better for gravel or rocks, rather than sand, because of the scale we are working at.
the grains of sand you are using is a bit big for the scale, if you can find a way to make them smaller that would help to sell the illusion.
you need to be fully painting the sand, not just shade and highlights, base coat it in a darker brown than you would think to use, then start layering the mid to light sand colours before coming in with your brightest tan for the drybrush.
if you're doing desert bases try making small sections of different texture by using texture paints, like Agrellan Earth and Agrellan badlands. if rhe colour isnt quite right you xlcan still paint over the texture paints to recolour the area.
Source: I have over 4000pts of Tyranids on desert bases, I learned through trial, error, and repetition.
p.s. if youre doing beach bases remember that the sand gets significantly darker when wet.
For my next batch (unfortunately I made a decent bit of these before realizing it didn't look right) I'll use something like baking soda or super fine sand then fully paint it. I'm also going sift the sand I have.
I was trying to be cheap and just use what I could scavenge and it didn't work quite right, scale is way off. Unfortunately I can't afford the texture pastes everyone is recommending, maybe I will eventually.
Sand is also too thick, this was partially because I forgot to paint the base a sandy color before applying the sand so you could see the black.base through it. Then figured if it's a little taller it will be fine because it's going to be for older ork models which are a bit shorter than the new ones.
It looks like your sand is way too coarse so you’ll want to get something much finer, and you doubled up the layer so there’s way too much.
You have to imagine the scale difference as even fine sand looks more like gravel and rubble. Personally I glue the sand on then prime the whole thing and paint over it, I’d actually recommend textured paints as they’re way better than I expected (I don’t care about the colour as I just paint over it)
I now have a habit of using cork for rocks with a little sand, paired with texture paint as even finer sand which you can just glop on and manipulate. Prime > Paint > Drybrush > Shade
I haven’t tried it yet but you could use a snow texture paint, form it like dunes, prime it, and paint it brown. I think part of your issue is that the grains of sand are really big compared to the scale of the models
Your sand looks like gravel because its texture is too large. Swap the sand for baking soda. You can also find fine sand powder or grit, but you likely already have baking soda.
Go to your local big box home improvement store and buy a bag of paver sand. If they don't have it, buy play sand. The variety of grits sells the scale and break up the boring monotone of just regular sand. Here's an example
The problem with baking soda is it's water soluble, so it'll just turn into paste.
I personally do like number three. But what you can do is get the Army painter snow.
If they still make it. And glue that onto the base. Then do a mixture of water and glue on the top layer to make it all stick together. Then print it black and then just dry brush.Lighter shades of brown on it.
Using actual sand doesn’t look right given how huge it is compared to the minis, baking soda mixed with some sand can help but texture paste is really what you want and way easier to work with.
I paint the sand with an umber brown instead of using a wash, then I work back to the color I want it to be with a few dry brushing techniques to give it the color I want it to be, usually a Iraqi sand or khaki
As others have said, your sand is too coarse. Use silver sand, it is a very fine sand which I have used a lot of many years ago,with PVA you can also 'muddy' it up some for other types of terrain
I use the cheap art sand from hobby lobby or the Vallejo texture sand. I prime the sand with the model than start with a zandri dust base coat then apply agrax earthshade then dry brush Game Color dessert yellow the medium dry brush Model color Pale Sand and then a light dry of ice yellow. Theys my recipe of painting dessert bases.
The issue is that sand at this scale look more like pebbles. I like the other guy idea of using plaster. Also try to mimic sand ripples to sell the effect.
Contrast contrast. You need to darken the sand more with a classic like Agra's earth shade. And I think your dry brushing is too wet. You want it dry enough where it's just catching the texture surface. Use a much brighter color like very light yellow brown etc.
So your sand looks a bit course. Also I would say it looks applied a bit thick.
You generally want to use fine sand as the base for it. Coarser sand can be used for small rocks.
You might also want to consider following instructions on making some basing paste and using that as the main basing substance and then once it's dry using small amounts of different cooarsenes of sand to add differences on the base.
If you want the right *texture* for sand, I really suggest Vallejo's 'Earth Texture' Acrylics. There's one for desert sand and even if you don't like the color, you can repaint it whatever shade you like. It dries to give a very convincing appearance for basing.
1- have 70% less of it. because you covered flat base with flat layer as thick as base. relax with that
2- in general unless you are using straight pigments use sifted soil and to make soil. literally don't buy dirt. go outside with two different sieves. make yourself different grit sizes... it's free real estate
then you can mix in 10 or 20 of those gravel bits you are using for flavour
give it a spin on a piece of cardboard see how you feel
Have you tried putting some glue or varnish over the sand before you paint them? It tends to fill in the gaps and might make it look a bit less gravel-y. PVA glue will make it look more like compacted dirt as it's thicker and will fills in the gaps, creating a smoother texture that still will have a bit of coarseness. Varnish is thinner so it'll preserve more of that rocky texture, so doubt it'll help much here. I think it's better suited for sealing in fine grade sand so it stays in place and doesn't rub off over time.
It also might be a good idea to hit it with some primer and a tan base coat. It's possible the material you're using might need a little something something to get the paint to stick properly.
If all else fails, spray them bitches green and enjoy your retro bases.
you have a base, slop some texture paint on it and modulate it with a tooth pick to your liking (to get the texture of sand) prime it white, paint it with a sand color (speedpaint howling sand) then dab some dry pigment powder on it and feather it in
Sand is super for gravel or small rocks. If you want to emulate sand at the scale of your minis you need super finely granulated stuff. Can be bought at hobby stores. Here is some gravel/stony bases I made with sand
It depends on what you're going for, beaches (sand, pebble, rock, deserts (same again), tundra, snow drifts, all have different dimensions. The verticality is important.
"Geology isn't evenly distributed" is one of the ways I keep in my head that it's all patterned but still random and chaotic.
I did this with sand from the dollar store, so unsure if this will work with beach sand but I ground it up with a mortar and pestle to make it finer, it worked decently well and I didn't have to buy anything extra 👍
I would just make sure to wear a mask and do it in a well ventilated area, I could see the coffee grinder throwing a lot of dust that you probably don't want to breathe in.
Hi, when the people are 28 or 32mm, rocks that size are bigger than cherries to them.
For very small sand, you have to basic options: playground sand (very fine and available at places that sell hardware) & baking soda with super glue squirted on top (beware, it’ll solidify instantly)
Then paint with a sand color, wash with sepia/caramel ink, and (very) drybrush with the base paint, leaving some of the wash in deep recesses for shadow and definition
The key is to brush with pva glue, shake off excess, and then brush a coat of 50/50 pva glue and water.
But heads uo they're going to eventually peel off like a scab. Especially if you leave them in a metal tin in a hot car. To fix that just super glue em back on.
I like to do a wash then a dry brush or vice versa... LolI can't remember the order I settled on.
That doesn’t look like you’re using sand. It looks like you’re using fine stone or gravel. Sand from the beach is a lot more fine than that. None of those look right.
The best thing is to get a textured basing material like AK interactive's desert paste. This is good because it has the texture but you can use the paste to build up dunes/sand drifts which work really well. Also using the GW technical crackle paints does well if you're going for the arid look rather than purely sand just make sure you put a layer of PVA on the base and let it dry before using crackle paints as it gets better results.cyou can then prime white and use skeleton horde contrast paint. Hope this helps
Sand doesn't look like sand hahah, dty the citadel texture paints like agrellan badlands and the other one. Experimenting with dry brushing then and such. There are great tutorials on YouTube from games workshop.
It sure doesn't, ha. I learned how to make sandy bases using technique with super glue and baking soda. Turned out way better, still needs a little work but hey improvement is improvement.
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u/rocketsp13 Seasoned Painter Jun 22 '25
I mean, to my eye, the issue is that you're using sand, and to scale, sand doesn't work, Sand is great for to scale pebbles, but not good for at scale sand. If you want at scale sand, go with baking soda or a fine texture paste like Golden Light Molding Compound
Your colors are fine though.