When did basing with sand and static grass start? Who made it popular?

[Mick_in_Switzerland]

I was just wondering about the history of basing.

I built models and wargamed from the 1970s to about 1982 and then stopped for nearly 20 years.
In the 1980s, my armies had hardboard bases, cut at home.
They were painted snooker table green with a sprinkle of sawdust type flock.

When I restarted, it was with the GW Lord of the Rings range, so about 2001 or 2002.
I can remember that the sand and static grass technique was regarded as quite new and revolutionary as most things were still based with flock.

Do you remember who started this type of basing and when?
Was it a GW innovation or had it existed before?

Was it Foundry?
(A lot of their products are shown based with sand and I think they are from the 1990s.)

Best Regards


Mick

[YPU]

I have no idea but I'm curious to hear what people have to say about this tidbit of hobby history.

[Lysandros]

The  classic style from the  80s was by the late great Peter Gilder.  Painted tetrion
filler green with yellow ish clumps.  Done well it looks good but rather dated by today's techniques.
I think the new style came about largely from the Fantasy element and has been adopted by all since this century.

[Westfalia Chris]

Back when I started in the mid-1990s, we used static grass and grassmats extensively for scenery pieces (due to being from a modelling/model railroad background).

For actual figure bases, we went with the flow and did sand-covered slottas in Goblin Green, or Dark Green with black rims when we made the switch to Warzone 2ed.

I recall some Wargames Illustrated pics from those days that featured static grass on small-scale (15mm and 20mm) multibases. The first "company approach" I recall would indeed be the Wargames Foundry catalogue pages from around 1998 (Darkest Africa and the like). There is some mention of using flock on miniature bases in the 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy rulebook, IIRC, but nothing on a holistic scale.

The first project I can remember where I used static grass on figure bases would have been a Space Marine army back around 1999-2000. Browns for the textured base and various pale greens for the static grass. Pretty much never went back, except for the odd project where it would not have been suitable, stylistically.

[Cubs]

I remember in the late 80's or early 90's, my uncle bought me a bag of flock - the traditional green sawdust railway modelling flock (he being a railways modeller) as a gift. I think I still have it, virtually unused!

It took me a while to grasp the basics of just putting static grass on in small clumps, because I was covering the base in it, like with the old style flock. This meant the rest of the base needed texture though, hence the sand.

Then when tufts became popular this century, I held out for a while, regarding them as some passing trendy phase, but now I almost exclusively use them instead. I do like to drybrush a bit of green onto the sand as well, to look like moss or very low grass shoots.

[Malamute]

Been using static grass/sand since the early 1990s.  Prior to that it was painted filler and flock.

[swiftnick]

I have been using the sand/pva mix then static grass since the early 80s. But strangely only on my 54mm figs. I didn't base my 20s and 25s at all. Was quite annoyed when workshop started using slottabases.

[Vanvlak]

I can claim to using pepper since the 1980s - I moved on to sand in the '90s, at least I distinctly remember the base of a giant scorpion in a Warhammer game. 
Trying to remember a transition in White Dwarf, which was then my main source of modelling information. Can't really remember sand in Military Modelling from the '80s, although I could be wrong.

[Daeothar]

For the longest time, battles in the grim darkness of the far future were fought on perfectly even, green and flat grassy plains. With bunkers and strange prickly alien plants seemingly shooting up out of nowhere from the grass.

Bases for all figures were simple affairs; goblin green flock, with goblin green edges. there was no questioning the how or why; it was just accepted as default.

The above probably came about from the fact that 40K originally was a scifi iteration of GW's fantasy setting. And everyone knows that fantasy battles always occur on perfectly maintained grass lawns. I mean; that was just a universal fact, right?

Then, somewhere in the early nineties, basing conventions at GW changed, and instead of Goblin Green, base edges were now Camo Green, and instead of the ubiquous flock, sand and static grass were being used.

A few years later, the green was again changed, but this time into Graveyard Earth, and basing materials became more elaborate and intricate, with slate, cork, tufts etc being introduced.

Following that, actual basing kits were being issued and loads of companies began selling very specific resin bases, with cast on terrain features, bringing us to the present day.


But whatever caused wargamers to start using flock? I think it's the initial influence of the model train scene, where most of the terrain originally came from.

As far as I know, the whole flock thing began somewhere in the early eighties, but I was not yet active in the hobby then, so I can't be sure if this is true or not...

[stone-cold-lead]

Sand alone 80's, static grass must have come along in the 90's. I tapped out of GW in 93 and there was no sign of it there then. Couple of years later I saw it being used by Foundry.

[swiftnick]

No you could definately buy it in the 80s from Wonderland. Coming from railways and model making it seemed normal to use it but not on the smaller scales. But saying that I don't remember it being called static grass until much later in the 80s. It was just pushed into pva with your thumb.

[Michi]

Been using static grass/sand since the early 1990s.  Prior to that it was painted filler and flock.

For me it was much the same - green painted filler with static grass on top from the beginning in the late 1980s to sand and static grass/tufts from 2000 to present days.

[Phil Robinson]

Around the 1990's, not sure of the original source but pretty sure I picked it up via Foundry on my Darkest Africa figures.

Strange to say I am currently rebasing them and have gone back to filler, a la Aly Morrison's technique. 

[Dr. Zombie]

My gut feeling says it must have happened around the time where 3rd edition 40k came out. It represented a massive change in the look of 40k that was when the grim dark future really began to go grimdark. And suddenly 40k models did not have goblin green bases anymore.

[Captain Blood]

Back in the late 70's early 80's my wargames armies were all based on cardboard with green flock. But even back then, Bill Brewer at the Rye Stamp & Hobby Shop in Peckham, was basing his jewel-like painted miniatures on textured, painted bases with static grass and other adornment...