Welcome back! She looks very nice!
(You neglected to mention that you have two very good -- and growing -- reasons for not painting in the past 3 years!)
If I were painting a figure and I knew I wanted a smooth-topped custom base made out of green stuff, I would do this:
1) leave the figure separate from the base and cut the figure's tab down to a little "spike" under each foot;
2) put some green stuff onto the base, smooth it out with a piece of stiff plastic (piece of milk carton, expired credit card, etc.)
3) while the putty is still workable, add some texture (cracks, wood planking, etc.)
4) when the putty has cured, drill holes for the figure's "spikes"
5) attach the figure
6) paint the base
But here, since the figure is already glued in, I suggest a simpler approach: spread glue on the dished top of the base (being careful to avoid getting glue on the feet), sprinkle sand (and maybe small rocks or pieces of cork) over the glue, and then paint the sand dark brown with some lighter brown drybrushing to pick out the texture. Dark brown will harmonize with the other colors, and will not draw too much attention to itself.
You could even do this all with paint (no glue or sand/rocks). Just apply the paint thickly with an old brush to let the texture of the paint itself simulate a rough surface. Start with darker brown, and add lighter browns with a stippling motion of your brush. That's what I do for my snow bases (starting with blue paint and working up to white).
Derek
