I did a little something different on the base than the kit intends. It's clear that the base is meant to be the sand of Jakku, but it occurred to me in the film you never see an X-wing flying over Jakku, but you do see them over Starkiller Base. Therefore, I elected to change the base from sand to snow.
Firstly, I painted the base white, then painted the edges black for a nice contrast. I bought a pack of Scene-A-Rama snow, but I wanted the snow to have that shimmer and glisten that you often see in fresh snow. Therefore I mixed in some extra fine iridescent glitter.
I poured all of the Scene-A-Rama snow into a shaker. I then simply added 3-4 pinches of the iridescent glitter and mixed it up until it had the right amount of shimmer. You don't want to add too much glitter. A little goes a long way.
Next I masked the black sides with tape to keep glitter off them.
On the next part, I could have used PVA glue, but I had already had mixed up a custom thinner I use for Vallejo hand painting, that could also be used to adhere the snow to the base. The way you make it is mixing matte medium and distilled water 3:1. Then you take that mixture and put a TINY amount of flow aid into it so it spreads evenly. The matte medium/water is mixed with the flow aid 20:1.
I then took this matte medium/water/flow aid mixture and painted the base with a wide soft brush. I then immediately took the shaker of my snow/glitter mixture and heavily shook it over the base. I let this sit for about 30 minutes, and then held the base upside down shook off the excess snow. I was left with a nice shimmering snow base. The effect is hard to photograph, but in person looks awesome.
Also completed the first weathering pass on the fuselage.