Making Waves

Since the release of Sons of Behemat last year I've been itching to collect an army of gargants.  I was particularly inspired by the artwork of a Kraken-Eater's head staring down a ship (although, now I think about it, the ship is quite generic.  You'd think it would be dialled up to 11 like the rest of AoS, right? Anyway....)  Obviously I had to model my big lads as a cove dwelling menace!

 

There are a bevy of tutorials on how to create water effects for bases, but these were more themed for still/small bodies of water.  But the excellent Dave Soper did an article on how he created the base for his award winning Gutrot Spume.  I have modified a few things on how I created mine:

Deviation One

Instead of sculpting waves I used this trick from naval diorama makers.  Scrunch up tin-foil, then pull it flat without tearing it. Place the miniatures base underneath and gently form the foil onto the base.  Next place the mini where you want him on the base and form the foil around it. For extra depth I cut holes in the base so the feet are tabletop level.  Add a boat at a jaunty angle for added effect!

With that the waves are ready to cast!  I used this product but any resin will do.  My first attempts were with super glue and baking powder, and it worked fine (do not attempt this yourself)! This resin I linked to has terrible reviews as it does not cure fully hard.  This is ideal for this project!  Once cured peel the foil away and cut to shape (this is where that flexibility will come in handy, otherwise it may shatter).  Use some filler/putty to fill in the gaps around the feet and base.

Paint the whole mini as normal.  

Deviation Two

The original article uses blister pack plastic heated over a candle to create breaking waves, a later one uses Q-tip strands in a resin. These are great ways to create wave but look a bit puny next to the gargants.  Instead I used the excess resin trimmed off the base!

Deviation 3

This is more of an update about materials I used.  I'm not going to touch powdered glass because of the health risk.  I did use water gel, but you can also use UV resin glue instead.  I bought mine (and a UV torch) from Green Stuff World, but a quick search of eBay will get you the same product cheaper.  The advantage of this is not having to wait 24 hours for the gel to cure!  For the sea foam I mixed Valhallan Blizzard in with water effect (instead of baking soda/powdered glass) 

Well, I hope you found this article useful, and I look forward to seeing your results and innovations!