Hi, I just got a set of Warriors of Minas Tirith and before I prime these bad boys how do you guys suggest I smoothen the rim of the base? The spars from the packaging have left some indents in them and I want it to look as good as they do in the games workshop models.

Also, when I add sand and paint do I just glue the sand to the base with elmers mixed with water as the glue? how long do I wait before painting on it?

Welcome to The One Ring, rammas!

Yep, you just coat the base with slightly diluted white glue and glue the sand down. You should be able to find lots of video tutorials on youtube and there may be some tips on this forum somewhere too. Bits of cork or larger rocks can be nice too to break up the visuals a bit.

Some people mix up a slurry of sand and glue and then slap that on; it's another way to do it.

You want to wait until it's completely dry before painting on it (or it won't look good, and you'll also ruin your nice paintbrush with sand and glue). If you're planning to drybrush the sandy base (and you should, it's the easiest way), you need the glue to be completely dry.

Some people use inks (or a dilute wash of brown paint) to paint their bases rather than straight paint; this can look nice too.

Regarding the scuffed-up bases, if you wan them Zen-perfect you could try sanding them with fine sandpaper (work your way up from around 200-400 grit sandpaper to 1000-1500 grit). But they're so super cheap, you could probably order some nice new ones on eBay much easier.

Good luck!