Hobby Basics: Spooky Fog Effect

Being some of the first “real” multibased units I hobbied on, the basing for my Undead for years has been passable, but just rocks and mud looked a bit sparse, and I could never quite figure out what to add to it to make the units look more complete. 

I talked a little bit about this at the time, but inspiration struck in late 2023 while watching some battle reports from Lazy Pirate Painting, where one of the regular armies used what looked like cotton balls to create a fog or mist for their Undead. I liked that general idea, and started working on my own version of the concept. While the bulk of this was published about a year ago, I wanted to expand a bit on it, and have a Hobby Basics post for it.

Don't try to color it.

The cotton balls were just a little too recognizable for me. They also seemed too fluffy and too bright and too white relative to the darker colors of my army. Instead I opted for Poly-Fil, a synthetic fiber fill for pillows and stuffed animals and and other stuffed stuff. Poly-Fil can come in different colors, but my bag is slightly darker white. For fun I tried getting more of a gradient going with some diluted paint, but just made a mess. The fil isn’t very absorbent! Don't do this! Fortunately, after doing up a test unit, my Fil color looks just fine on the table.

Poly-fil comes in a large bag. I picked one up years ago for a few dollars, intending to upcycle some old clothes into pillows. That never happened. I also didn’t really put a dent in my bag with this project either. Over the pandemic I picked up some 3d printed minis on etsy, and the seller used Poly-fil in a sandwich bag as padding for shipment. I’m not quite done with the army, but I didn’t even make a dent in the sandwich bag… since I am stretching it out for the visual effect instead of smushing it down for extra bounce and padding, a little goes a long way.

The Fog is the last step. To get going, you'll want your otherwise finished miniature or unit on hand, a clump of Poly-Fil to pull from, and an adhesive.

For my adhesive, I actually went with Winsor and Newton's Acrylic Glazing Medium, the same medium used to get the shiny effect on the mud for the Undead and the water/ice for the Herd. I knew the medium dried clear, and figured that could be a good way to hide things. Super glue works as well, though creates some stiffness around the join. PVA glue (white glue, Elmer's glue) did not work well as the dry time is long and the grip isn't strong. 

So, Step 1 is to do everything else you want to on your miniature or unit, including the rest of the basing.

Otherwise finished, so we're ready for the fog!

Step 2 is to apply small globs of your adhesive to the base. You can use a stir stick, nozzle if it's got one, or something like an old brush, if you aren't using super glue. 

Step 3 is to tease out bits of Poly Fil from your larger cloud, and then apply it to the base, placing it on top of your adhesive globs. Being fibrous, tearing the Fil off leads to a lot of wispy ends. This is solved by rolling the fil around in your hands and shaping it into a more uniform blob. 

A few globs of medium for the adhesive, and some tufts of Poly-Fil.

For individually-based miniatures, that was about a thumb-nail’s worth of fil. For multibased units, I tore off a few clumps and just played with it until I liked the look. You can then use your fingers or a tweezer or other tool to tease out the fill again into the general wispy shape you actually want. 

All done.

Putting down lots of smaller clumps of Fil is better, as it gives a more flowy look, and gives you more points of contact to tease the Fil around to get the shape you want, whether that's curling around a leg or expanding the clumps to decrease its density. Close-up, you'll see the fibers, but on the table, this looks wispy and more diffused. 

...and that's that. With the clumps secured, you can tease it and work with it until you are happy.

And that's the simple fog effect I stumbled upon, about 10 months late! It adds much more visual interest to my otherwise very bland basing, and while I am over-analyzing things, I think it also kinda sells the unexpected Shambling moves the Undead can pull off. The Undead have gotten a few games in since they got the basing upgrade, and are looking really nice on the table, if I do say so myself. 

We'll see them on the table again soon!