How to Make Urban Rubble Bases for Warhammer 40,000 Miniatures

October 12, 2026

Ruined city bases suit the grim, war-torn setting perfectly and use materials most hobbyists already have: cork, plastic offcuts and the spare bits box. The challenge is making rubble look like collapsed buildings rather than random lumps, while keeping the model stable. This guide walks through materials, construction, colours and finishing.

The short answer: plan where the feet go first, then build low layers of broken cork, plasticard tiles and a few spare bits, fill gaps with sand and fine debris, prime, and paint with a dark grey basecoat, lighter grey and bone drybrushes, plus small accents of brick, rust or hazard stripes.

What do you need for an urban rubble base?

Cork tile or cork board for masonry chunks, thin plasticard for floor tiles and slabs, spare bits such as pipes, girders and panels, fine sand or ballast, PVA and superglue. A craft knife, side cutters and a pin vice for pinning complete the kit. None of it needs to be expensive.

Which rubble materials work best?

Material	Represents	How to use it
Cork	Broken concrete and stone blocks	Tear rather than cut for natural fracture lines; stack at angles
Plasticard sheet	Floor tiles, paving, slabs	Score a grid, snap tiles, chip a corner off a few
Textured plasticard	Tread plate, brick, cobbles	Cut irregular shapes and lay partly buried in rubble
Spare bits	Pipes, girders, wreckage	One recognisable piece per base as a focal point
Sand and ballast	Dust and small debris	Fill the joins so the pieces look settled

How do you make rubble look like real collapsed masonry?

Real rubble has a mix of sizes: a couple of large chunks, several medium pieces and lots of fine debris filling the gaps. Lay pieces at different angles as if they have fallen, and let some edges overlap the rim slightly for a natural silhouette. Fine sand pushed into joins makes everything look settled rather than placed.

How do you make floor tiles and pavements?

Score thin plasticard into a grid, snap off a section and glue it down, then remove or crack a few tiles to show the ground beneath. For a street, glue a strip of thicker plasticard across the base as a kerb with tiles on one side and road surface on the other. Lightly scratching the surface with a knife adds wear.

What colours work for urban bases?

A reliable concrete recipe is a dark grey basecoat, a black or dark brown wash, a mid-grey drybrush and a light bone or off-white final drybrush on edges. Pick out a few bricks in terracotta, metal bits in dark steel with rust, and the odd hazard stripe for colour. Keep the base neutral so it never competes with the miniature.

How do you keep a model stable on rubble?

Decide where the feet will sit before building, and keep rubble low and flat at those points so the model has firm contact. Pin the model through a foot into the base for extra strength. Avoid tall piles that lift one model far above the rest of its unit, which looks odd and makes it top-heavy.

How do you add detail without clutter?

Give each base one focal point, such as a fallen panel, a broken pipe or a dropped helmet, and keep everything else simple. A single small weed tuft growing from a crack suggests the city has been abandoned for a while. Repeating the same detail on every base quickly looks artificial.

How do you add puddles, soot and grime?

Paint a low point dark grey-brown and fill it with gloss varnish or water effect for a puddle. Black and dark brown pigments around wreckage suggest fire damage, and a thin rust wash streaked down metal adds age. Use these sparingly so the base still reads as concrete.

How do you batch build rubble bases?

Prepare a tray of pre-torn cork and pre-cut tiles, then build ten bases at once so they share a consistent density. Prime the bases separately from the models if that makes painting easier, and glue the miniatures on at the end. Naming a city-fighting regiment? Try the free regiment name generator.

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