🪨 Basing Material Coverage Calculator
Enter how many bases you're texturing and their size to estimate the total volume of basing material (sand, flock, or texture paste) needed.
A per-base allowance, multiplied out
total ml = number of bases × ml per baseThe four allowances built into the drop-down are 0.5 ml for a 25 mm round, 0.7 ml for a 32 mm, 1.2 ml for a 40 mm and 2.5 ml for a 60 mm. The defaults - 20 bases at 32 mm - come to 14.0 ml.
Each figure is roughly a 1 mm layer. A 32 mm round has an area of π × 16² = 804 mm², and 0.7 ml is 700 mm³, so the coat is 0.87 mm deep. The 25 mm allowance comes out at 1.02 mm, the 40 mm at 0.95 mm and the 60 mm at 0.88 mm.
Turning millilitres into what you buy
- 1 ml is 1 cm³. A kitchen measuring spoon works: a teaspoon is 5 ml, so 14 ml is just under three level teaspoons.
- Sand by weight. Dry basing sand runs about 1.5 g per ml, so those 20 bases need roughly 21 g. A 500 g bag does around 470 bases at 32 mm.
- Scale to the project. 100 infantry on 32 mm needs 70 ml; on 40 mm it is 120 ml.
- Add 20% for waste. Paste left in the lid and dried on the spatula is real loss.
Frequently asked questions
How much texture paste do I need for 20 bases?
About 14 ml for 32 mm rounds, or 10 ml if they are 25 mm. That is a coat roughly 1 mm deep across the base.
How much basing sand does a whole army take?
Around 70 ml, or 105 g of sand, for 100 models on 32 mm bases. Large centrepiece models on 60 mm bases cost 2.5 ml each, so five of them add another 12.5 ml.
Does a 40 mm base use twice as much as a 25 mm?
Slightly more than twice by area - 1257 mm2 against 491 mm2 is 2.56 times - though the allowances here are rounded to 1.2 ml and 0.5 ml, a ratio of 2.4. Base area grows with the square of the diameter, not with the diameter.