Creating bases from Kallistra tiles
Although I use Kallistra’s pre-flocked bases to construct most of my battlefields, I do like to have towns, hamlets, farms etc represented by dedicated bases, simply for visual appeal. This page gives a couple of examples to show how easy and effective this can be. I use the ‘tan brown’ tiles as the basic tile because any missed bits do not attract the eye.
Firstly, plan the base, know how you will want roads to connect and how buildings should be spaced etc, so that they can function when placed next to other terrain tiles. In this examples, two ruins (by Field works) are glued to the base. One covers two hexes and the other just one.
Make a mix of decorators filler and black paint and texture the tile, taking care to cover the join where the building meets the tile.
If the tile is to have a road on it then do not texture what will become the road surface. I made this base to fit in with the road pack that Kallistra supply by placing a road section next to the tile and marking exactly where the road with join the tile. Apply PVA glue thinly and evenly (important) to the road, including the dip where the hexes meet and then scatter fine dry sand over the surface.
Dry brush the textured surface with a light grey paint and using PVA glue apply various flocks and scatters, but leave some of the edges clear. In this example, I have used very fine grey stone chippings and a brownish flock that has the texture of tea leaves. A pavement area is suggested by not flocking right up to the road. The flocks can further help disguise the join between the building and the board. Once dry, I dabbed a little watered down brown ink to some of the stone chippings, to soften their presence.
Bushes can be glued against building walls etc as the modeller sees fit.
Finally the same green Noch flock that Kallistra use (which they also sell) was added to some of the tile edges. This will allow the tile to sit next to other pre-flocked Kallistra tiles without a hard hex edge being obvious, helping the tile to better blend with the rest of the table.
On the right is a farm tile built up using a resin farm building (The Baggage Train), rows of crops (The Baggage Train), stone walls (Coritani) and fur matting (Timecast).
A texture was applied to blend the building, walls and crop feature to the base and then various flocks were used to cover the base between the fields. Because this base will often be used against open grassland tiles, the edges were quite substantially flocked with Noch grass, to match other Kallistra terrain.
As a final touch, I apply a light spray of matt varnish to the bases as this protects everything and acts as something of a fixative to the flock materials.
