You are so creative!

Thanks! I wouldn't say I am, though. It's all about either:

• imagining what you'd like to see and figuring out what you have that looks relatively similar OR
• glancing at the old junk you have lying around and picturing what it looks like a tiny version of.

The big thing I found with basing is that you want to approximate concepts, rather than build an actual scale model. I know rebar looks way different, and electrical conduits don't really break that way, but the suggestion of such is sufficient to make something that grabs attention.

I've seen miracles worked with cork board from BuyPainted on YouTube, he's what made me think basing wasn't so hard.

I saw the same videos (and countless others) and they're right. once you see twelve dudes all doing the same methods, it takes some of the mystery out of it. Also, watching all those vids kind of let me move a little past them, kind of as though I'd already done those methods myself. (it gave me an experience boost, if you will)

So you just cut the foam into the size you needed and then painted it?

nope! I bought foam in the right color to start with. It's so dang cheap (a buck a sheet, and you can make probably 2,000 bricks from a single sheet) that I figured it would be easier to just start with a brick color (i bought white for the cinder block, too. I also bought dark gray for a different brick look somewhere else). I washed the bricks after I cut them and I think that was a big mistake, as they dried a little stuck together. I should have just left them and washed them on the base (i did that, too).

One thing I found was that they don't behave like bricks at ALL. you can't just paint down some glue and toss bricks on there and expect it to look like a pile; they're light and have a static charge, so they stick to walls and other nonsense. I had to use tweezers, dip in glue, and place them one by one. I used a watered down white glue to make it easier to paint it, and I was worried about it being too thin so I also painted it in on top to let it soak into the joins for more strength. That caused some odd lines on the bricks where the glue dried. I'll probably full-coat them next time.

Also, since the bricks (and glass and wire) rely on their original color, I had to put them on AFTER I primed the base. I actually wrote out a process document so I wouldn't do things in the wrong order (and I still did, a couple times)