When the Forge World Nurgle Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer model was released a few years ago I immediately thought about putting it on a base larger than 25mm to help protect the fragile spear and banner.
It also occurred to me that it was an opportunity to do something cool with a larger base to help show it off. As the Nurgle triad pattern established by Games Workshop already appears on the model it inspired a simple idea using three of their regular 25mm plastic bases.
Creating the base was simple and fairly inexpensive. The materials involved were three GW 25mm bases, Kneadatite (Green Stuff), and some plastic card.
First, I cut a piece of plain 0.030″plastic card in a shape that would cover three GW 25mm plastic bases placed adjacent to each other in a triangular pattern. I glued the plastic card to the tops of the bases using plastic cement. The plastic card is made from polystyrene just like the bases making this quite quick and easy. I traced the shape of the bases in position onto the plastic card before cutting using a pencil.
Next I mixed up some Green Stuff and sculpted different designs onto each of the three circular areas on the base. I used a plastic GW skeleton shield skull at the center of one of the designs. I also used Green Stuff to sculpt a small fly shape onto the banner, the fly being an iconic symbol of the Chaos god Nurgle as established by Games Workshop.
In the photo below you can see the finished work before painting has begun. The Nurgle Sorcerer stands upon the finished sculpting on the base.
You can see the finished painted model in the photo below. Though I built this about three or four years ago I only recently finished painting this project as my backlog of hobby projects is copious.
I’ve eschewed the usual green colors for my Nurgle projects the past few years, instead using brownish yellow colors. I originally used GW Desert Yellow washed with Devlan Mud for my Nurgle color scheme. This model was the first to be painted using the new Citadel paint equivalents of those colors, Zamesi Desert and Agrax Earthshade. I think it still produces the result I want.
Here’s an overhead view of the base. I used subdued and contrasting tones on the base to avoid conflicting with the colors on the sorcerer. I tried to have a Nurgle specific design on each third of the base, a small fly pattern, a skull with three arrows, and three circles with three darts. Note how the three circles have three eruptions of their own on each of them. The arrows on the skull section are painted metallic and there are also three rivets on the perimeter of that section.
I’ve had some really fun and appreciative comments on this project since I first built it a few years ago. At the time I featured the unpainted model in an article I did for Bell Of Lost Souls and it’s been shown around at the old GW HQ Battle Bunker, the current GW Bowie Battle Bunker, and on Dakkadakka and a few Facebook GW fan groups.
Though I am loathe to bring this up at all I feel the need to do so because in one place I posted a photo of this model there was an overwrought possibly “nerd rage” filled discussion over the gaming implications of the base. Gaming never entered into the decision making process behind this project, I simply wanted to do something fun and special with the Nurgle theme for the model while having a larger more stable base for it.
I often put wide stance 40K characters that come with 25mm bases on 40mm bases anyway to protect the paint jobs or to keep them from tipping over so using the three 25mm bases to create the Nurgle triad was a similarly motivated but somewhat more entertainingly themed idea. I never stopped to think about whether or not the size of the base was “good” or “bad” for me or opponents in gaming, I rarely play and then only with friends and we work out issues like this if they do present a problem without a fuss. Thankfully, most people who have commented on this project seem to appreciate the motivation and imagination I tried to put into it. Hopefully the paint job is at least adequate for showing it off.
When I first started painting miniatures I didn’t want to do anything at all to the bases because it took up valuable painting time that could be used to paint more models. Very quickly I discovered that an unfinished base leaves a model looking unfinished so I started to texture and paint them quite simply at first as was common years ago. Since then I’ve gotten motivated to do something more elaborate with basing for models I find particularly exciting. What crazy basing ideas have you come up with or seen out there for showcasing cool fantasy miniatures?
