Basing in Kingdom Death - Principles and Materials (Patreon)

I often get asked how I come up with the bases I do, and I've promised a few times to write about it. So here it is, at least part of it; and the aim is to not just show you what I do, but explain why I do it, the limitations of what I do and where you can probably improve on it - because I'm lazy when it comes to basing.

Kingdom Death has an iconic look to it's world, the plain of stone faces, homaged/ripped direct from Berzerk's eclipse gives a very specific aesthetic to the world and the board in which the showdowns take place.  As we are (for the most part) dealing with miniatures which will sit on this board and be used in a practical fashion, the bases are something that requires some consideration and care in order to ensure that they do not look to much like an eyesore when they are on the board and in use.  

For example, this is a hunt party at rest:

There is very little vegetation here and a wide variety of different sized stone faces.  The colours also show that the world is dim, but not as dark as many want to make out. 

Here's another one (this is one of the Trapdoor men btw).

Again, we're seeing sparse terrain (pillars), some roiling smoke and the ever present stone faces. So my first recommendation is to look through the art in the rulebooks and online to get a feel for what the world looks like and your personal interpretation on that.  

However, the artwork is not what your survivors and monsters are going to be standing on, they are going to be located on top of the board and the terrain.  Stuff like this:

The board however is a different colour scheme:

It's closer to browns, greys and purples rather than the old marble/sandstone style of the terrain. But the inconsistency between these two art styles on the board aside, what we are looking for is a clean, mostly stone/stone face look to a base without too much vegetation.  

I'm not going to call out any particular miniatures at this stage, but you know you've seen them. KD:M minis with masses of green grass, bushes, trees or similar piled up over everything. It doesn't look good on the model, it doesn't look right for the aesthetic and it looks really bad on the board.  

The same applies to those painters who decide to go with a very heavy OSL look, it's something that looks great in pictures, great on display, but it is honestly really bad looking on the board.  It leaves you in the uncanny valley experience where your brain is telling you that the light sources are not right. For me, and I have an extra level of sensitivity with art that has poor colour choices or disorientating OSL, it can be almost vomit inducing to experience.  (That's only mild hyperbole on my part, some of the OSL I've seen has caused me to feel nauseous).  

So, with all of that in mind let's look at the second part.  Materials!

One of the single most useful things you're going to find is a thing called Siligum (Here's an example of it) this is a two part silicone mold that will air dry in about 5 mins after mixing.  What you can use this for is quick casting of Kingdom Death bases, especially all the unusual and rare bases that come with the various special characters and monsters (like the Lion Knight, Gold Smoke Knight, Kara Black, Pinup Order Knight and so on).  Casting each of these bases as you get your hands on it will give you a bank of Kingdom Death style sculpts to use on bases.  You can also cast Doll Faces (from second hand shops),

Other molds worth getting your hands on include icing/baking molds, one of the most common ones you'll see used is this little gem which has two different faces on it and while it is a bit rarer to see, this one gives you a lot of hands. (There is also this one for Baby faces).  These molds are designed for use in cooking, but they are also perfect for casting.

On the casting side you can use any decent resin mix (I'd recommend going for the higher quality stuff as it's less likely to chip). Resin gives your model some weight and heft, so they will feel more substantial on the board.  Or you can cast with green stuff by simply pressing the green stuff into the mold.  The second part of this article is going to go into that in some detail with some pictures. So until then I hope that this gives you some ideas and understanding on how I approach building bases.