A Galaxy In Flames Tutorial: Creating Zone Mortalis Themed Bases

G'day, Macca here and today I want to show you how to create bases to match your Zone Mortalis or any kind of ship decking. To start with you will need:

-suitable bases
-some low grit sand paper (P800 should be good)
-some plasticard
-assorted hobby tools, including a stanley knife or box cutter and scalpel;
-a pin drill

First thing you have to do is sand down the top of the base. This is because the base is textured and will require you to cover the whole thing in plasticard if you don't want texture.

Once you can see all the little dimples in the surface are removed, you're ready for the next step.

Cut a piece of plasticard, it doesn't have to be precise, just get it a bit bigger than half the base.

Then, cut some kind of interesting pattern into one side. It could be triangles, squares, any sort of geometric shape. Whatever shape you pick, try and make it central so it covers the injection mold hole in the centre of the base.

Flip the base over and quickly mark out the rough dimensions of the base, then, cut the plasticard roughly to size.

Next, glue the base to the plasticard, try to use a thin cement, as you don't want globs of plastic glue to seep out from under the plasticard and ruin the smooth surface.

Next, once the glue has dried, go back and smooth out the edges using a hobby knife or clippers. I chose a knife, followed by a light sand.

From here, cut a small piece of plasticard. This will add some more texture to the base.

Drill several holes, equally spaced along the strip, then, glue it to the base, and trim to size.

There you go, that's one base right there.

So repeat those steps in any way you like until you get the sort of bases that suit your zone style. You can make them more complicated with overlapping layers of plasticard, but I like the simple approach.

I will also go into how to crate your own decking vent. Cut yourself a piece of plasticard, and slightly round off the corners.

Roughly mark out the vents, then, proceed to drill them several times. about 5 holes along works well in this case.

Now, take your scalpel and slice along the edge of each slot, until the holes are all 'joined together' into a rough slot.

From here, simply repeat the process for however many slots you have, and then once you're done, clean them with a file or scalpel until nice and smooth.

So there you have it, some easy DIY Zone Mortalis Bases. As I said, these can represent any kind of decking or metal clad surface. They are simple, and they are cheap, and better yet, they can be any size you like.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial,

~Macca