So after I posted a sneak peak of my revamped Brotherhood bases I got a lot of questions about what I used for the rubble and ruins. Many people go to companies like Scibor, Secret Weapon Miniatures, Gale Force 9, etc to find rubble and ruins to make everything look pretty. But what if I told you the cheapest, most efficient, most customizable, and most fulfilling source of basing scenics is in fact Goodwill, Grandma’s attic, and your local thrift shop?

That’s right it’s time to go Thrift Shop Shopping, and today you are looking not at the sum of an items parts, but rather its parts smashed at the face of your magical Home Depot-special hammer. Typically, upon entering a thrift shop there is a whole section of shelves somewhere in a corner littered with unwanted and unloved little statues of angels, Santas, nativity scenes, lions, tigers, and bears (oh my). All of these are perfect as little shards of stone in the world of Mantica.

Finding the Right Pieces

It's really up to you what your selection process is all about. You should already have in your mind what your theme for your army is, and thus want to match it with your bases. We will use my revamping project for my Brotherhood as an example, I wanted to go for something simple that would make my bases pop but not be too out of the ordinary from typical ruins. Therefor faces, parts of statues, and broken-down walls were appropriate.

Rummaging through about 7 different thrift stores as my wife looked at furniture we didn’t need, I was able to find a score of items that would look perfect on my bases. I first picked up 3 pottery Santa statues that would look great provided I hammered off the hat, a man with a beard is just like any other statue of a king with a beard. Next a nativity scene was about $2 and came with 5 separate statues that as separate pieces are perfect as indiscriminate monuments to old kings or nobles.

Finally, my favorite of all the finds were 2 sets of bookends what were quite large and provided almost all my bases with decoration with just using one of each. The first bookend was a half monolith that was made of a very heavy stone and took a few good swipes of a hammer to break, and the second was a cherub perched on a wall that gave me both a face, a beautiful wing, and an ornately decorated wall.

Making Bits

After I managed to pry my wife away from the many pieces of furniture throughout these 7 stores I was able to find my way back to my hobby desk to begin the revamp of my Brotherhood’s bases. The first step of which could be considered the most fun, but is also the most hazardous. Now I am not a super plan-ahead sort of hobbyist, often I feel like Bob Ross had one too many happy accidents as I careen through whatever project I am undertaking. So as I grabbed my Home Depot-special hammer, and set one of the Three Wise Men down on the ground to bludgeon for his useful bits, I didn’t plan for the eruption of small shards flying around the room.

If I had taken some time and planned for safer and less messy provisions in my hammering of defenseless nativity scenes, I would have thought to employ what I suggest that you start with, a plastic bag, ziplock, or burlap sack. The key here is to stick whatever little statue you intend to break apart inside said back and hit the statue through the bag. This also gives you a chance at the tinnier bits that are just as perfect for basing as the larger pieces.

Applying to Your Bases

Once you have victimized… errr.. broken apart the poor statue, it's time to break out your bases and begin planning. What I like to do is situate my pieces on the base and move them around depending on how I plan to lay out the multi-based units. Having a good plan before you lay down the glue is pretty key as you never know if a certain piece is going to look better somewhere else or if it is just not right in the first place you try. But after a while of this lay-out you will get an idea of how you intend to make them a more permanent arrangement.

After glue is applied and your bits have been secured, the hard part of this Thrifting adventure is over. Whether you know where to go from here is up to you. But barring another article down the road about how I came to my final product through application of beautiful static grass, I typically paint this rubble up in a standard stone color. Now your own basing scheme may call for a different color pallet, I myself basecoat the rubble in black and then apply a dry brush of dark grey over the majority of the pieces leaving some black in the deeper recesses. After that has dried you follow up with a dry brush of light grey on the raised portions of the statue making sure the black and dark grey show in the recesses. Finally, a very very light drybrush of white to accent the details of the statue. After all of this is done you can add static grass and tufts.

I pretty much follow the procedure for painting my statues that Luke APS outlines in this video for painting rocks. As he states in his video if you want a different color statue its best to add in dry brushes or base costs of different colors like red or green.

So in conclusion that is my secret to finding cheap basing rubble and ruins! It's not rocket science and I’m sure many of you may already employ this, but I had enough questions about what I was using for basing that I wanted to write something up very quickly and give you all some ideas for your own schemes and basing projects! I can’t wait to see what you all do and find! Please share with me on Twitter or Facebook.

Sometime in the future I hope to either write out an article or get the master Jamie W. to write an article about how he has shown me to apply static grass as pictured with the bases above.

Until next time, it’s Fred On Fantasy!