I don't know about tufts being expensive, sure the pack costs a good few £/€/$ but it lasts quite a while. I have a Silflor pack bought from Antenociti that I based one FoW army and 5000 points of Ogres with and there's still plenty left. GW tufts are less expensive per pack but have less tufts in them, though they also have better packaging. Still, I think they are more suited to steppe/plains type armies so I would prefer clump foliage or leaves. Agree on the sand though. That's a good start for any base. I always prefer to put it on before the undercoat to get a nice black to start from. Obviously sand takes drybrushing very well.
Thanks for the advice! I'll try some different things and will let you know how it turns out. One question though: what kind of glue should I use? I guess plastic glue doesn't work on sand?
PVA (white glue) is good for sand and indeed almost all scatter materials you might put on bases. I generally do PVA+sand before painting and PVA+static grass or tufts after painting.
No update on bases yet (though I do have a lot of ideas for them), but look what I bought yesterday: Couldn't resist trying my planned colour scheme on him This is the reason for the colours of the TG's shields. I don't know when I'll have the time to really paint him, life's (still) pretty busy at the moment.
Sneak peek of what I've been up to: Click for larger version Better pictures when something's finished! I like this colour scheme much better than the one I had on my skinks and sauri. Of course different types of units can/should have different colours but I think I want to go back and fix the colours on those first models. Probably a bit more contrast, different scale colour... Not sure what to do yet. Ah well, better finish these guys first.
Yea your slan does look a lot like those guys from the Dark Crystal... I would be awesome if you added some swirly tatoos tho. It would be fairly easy with a fine felt tip blue pen.