Stop basing 15mm figures with 28mm products

I'm not the best modeler when it comes to basing my miniatures. When I make it to basing I've already expended a lot of effort getting them painted to a good standard and I just want to finish them off quickly and get on to painting the next figures. However, even I can see that most basing material out there is comically oversized for 15mm figures.

How should I base my Steel Fist ECW cavalry??

I envisioned a Lowlands look for the basing: grassy with low bushes and greenery. Most of the tufts, gravel and whatnot available at my local nerd store were too big. I didn't want them to look like they were wading through a marsh or marching across boulders. I took a look at some of the products that our friends in the model train hobby use for their smaller scales and that gave me my gameplan.

Basing 15mm miniatures process

I usually level my figures to the base with wall spackle and add gravel on my bases, but I skipped those steps with these figures and went straight to WS Fine Turf. After it dried it looked like a putting green and I was worried. Undaunted, I quickly dabbed some PVA glue randomly on the base and sprinkled on WS Blended Turf. After shaking off the excess I saw that the Blended Turf added color and texture variety. Next I added clump foliage and that was a big step away from the golf course. I finished off the base by supergluing different colors of Gamers Grass 2mm and their Tiny Tufts around the base.

Materials used:

• Woodland Scenics Blended Turf Green Blend
• Woodland Scenics Fine Turf Burnt Grass
• Woodland Scenics Clump Foliage both Light and Medium Green
• Gamers Grass 2mm tufts all colors
• Gamers Grass Tiny Tufts all colors
• Loctite Gel Super Glue

Job done

I'm very pleased with the look of the bases. They have color, height, and texture variation. Everything looks like it scales properly together. They were quick to finish and it looks like I spent more time on them than I actually did. Perfect!