Basing miniatures with coffee grounds

Coffee? On bases? Surely not! Surely yes.

Time needed: 1 hour

Dried coffee grounds make an excellent basing material for your miniatures. Here’s how I’ve used it as a gritty texture to my bases. While this is one way of doing it, you could also mix the grounds with PVA and apply as a thick spread like Armageddon Dust.

  1. Dry your grounds

    I keep the week’s used grounds in a plastic tupperware on top of a radiator. I give it a shake once in a while until every last morsel is dry. You’ll notice the granules vary in size. If you have the inclination, you could sieve them into small and large pieces for different purposes.Dried ground coffee for decorative terrain

  2. Dunk your bases into the coffee grounds with PVA

    Dip your base or movement tray in a generous amount of PVA glue and dunk it in! Leave for a minute or two so the glue soaks up as much coffee as possible. If you like a tidy edge, now’s the time to scrape the sides with a knife. Or, you can leave them overflowing like I do for a wild and overgrown look.20mm square bases glued with coffee grounds

  3. Seal with watered down PVA

    To make sure it’s really stuck on, add an extra layer of watered down PVA. This helps seal any smaller grounds into the base. At this stage I also like to add my miniatures to the base so they dry as one homogeneous lump.Miniatures based in dried coffee grounds

  4. Add flock/static grass and other details

    Add any embellishments such as flock, static grass etc. You might want to drybrush a little, but I’ve found the coffee has enough variety that it doesn’t need it.Night goblin spearmen

And there you have it! Recycled coffee grounds that make a cheap, realistic basing texture for your miniatures. Of course, if it requires a different colour just apply before you prime and you’re good to go!

2 judgments on “Basing miniatures with coffee grounds”

  1. Cheers for the article mate, looking forwards to getting a finish that’s finer than the sand I’ve dug up and cleaned from the farm driveway!

    Reply

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