Cracked Concrete Titanicus Bases Tutorial

There was a lot of interest in how I made the base on my Titanicus Warlord Titan. So here's a tutorial!

It all starts by pouring sheets of plaster in some old FW blister packs.

In this recipe I used Merlin's Magic Hobby Stone, but any sort of dental plaster would work. Just be very careful to mix the ratio of water and plaster, depending on what you buy.

Merlin's Magic takes ~20 minutes to dry. These sheets are thin so they don't take they long. Just to be sure though, after 20 minutes, I remove them from the blister pack and leave them on the window for a few hours.

I take that time to plan the layout of the base out.

On this example, I had a Reaver in a crouching position, braced to fire. Its legs are more apart front-to-back than side-to-side. So I decided to create an inset road going between its legs. I made it about 2 lanes wide, and as an afterthought, added a third lane merging into the second lane. The road is the thinnest plasticard I had on hand. I cleaned up the seam with milliput.

I broke one sheet of plaster in two, traced the curvy plasticard bit onto one of the halves, and started cutting, then sanding with a round file.

Once I was ok with the general shape, I wanted to add cracks where the Reaver was standing. Since Merlin's Magic Hobby Stone is so difficult to break, I used a little plastic bit to raise a piece of plaster, then hit it where I want the crack to originate.

After that, I wanted to have the concrete pieces shift under the Reaver's weight. Most of its weight is on the rear leg, so that's where I focused on this.

I'd simply take out a piece where a Reaver is standing, sand the bottom of that bit at an angle, and superglue it to the base.

Once everything was glued to the base, it was time to make the whole bit oval. I cut bits of plaster that are sticking out with a fine Japanese pull saw, then filed it smooth with various files. Note that I ruined the sides of the base while doing this. I came in later with a fine sanding stick and made it smooth again. It doesn't have to be perfect, it'll get a few thick coats of black paint anyway and it'll cover it up.

Then I pinned the model to the base to make sure I know exactly where it goes; although I didn't glue the pins to the model yet, to make painting easier.

The next step was to carve some finer cracks, drill holes, and generally create some more texture and interest. I used dental tools for this. Merlin's Magic cures so hard that I wouldn't suggest doing this with a hobby knife, you'll just dull the blade. It took quite some muscle.

Finally, I added some debris, sand etc.

And there it is! Ready to prime and paint.

And that's it. It's a pretty quick and fun process once you have all the tools you need. I like it because it's so random; you just crack here, drill there, add some bits and that's it.

Now to create a few more. Thanks for looking!