...Let there be Swamp!

Here's my second attempt at a water base, this time with more of a swamp style to it. I used the article from the Brush Thralls on making swamp bases as a guide, following the 3rd option for maximum quality (and effort). This picture wasn't done in the lightbox and I don't think really does justice to the base, but it gives you the basic idea. Overall it probably took a total of an hour of work to make this one, which isn't bad. The Envirotex behaved quite well for me. Here's some notes of what I did that seemed to work well:

• Just used a teeny tiny drop of green and blue ink, rather than a big drop. Gave just the right tint to the water.
• Used several clumps of tall grass to make the base seem more populated. For the grass I also followed the Brush Thralls article and used Woodland Scenics tall grass, bunched up. I put in the grass before pouring the Envirotex, so as a result, the Envirotex sort of soaked into the grass a bit, further clumping it up. Mildly unfortunate, but not very noticably unless you actually poke at the grass with your finger.
• To create the texture on the ground I used DecoArt's stonelike textured acrylic. This stuff worked great. It created a very fine but uneven texture to the whole thing which, once painted and drybrushed, looks very nice I think.