Just a very short update.
I've spent the last several weeks working on trying to get the base plate stained how I wanted. Its taken 3 coats of stain, w/ sanding between each coat, to get it about where I want it. I could probably stand to sand it and stain it again, there are some imperfections in the stain, but at this point I'm ready to be done w/ the staining and start w/ the painting of the base.
I think it looks pretty good.
Here it is before staining.
And here it is now
Its not as dark as I was hoping it would be, but it would take several more coats probably to get it as dark as I was thinking it would be, and I dont feel like dealing w/ that.
I'm going to attempt something on the base that I'm not entirely sure will work. I've been trying to figure out for quite some time what to use to trim the foam so it doesnt have an exposed edge, and a few weeks ago while at Michael's, my wife found very thin wood veneer on an adhesive back, that I can trim to the correct width for the foam. My hope is to be able to actually stain the veneer w/ the same stain I used on the base, and should hopefully have a fairly close color match. I'll probably use a very thin coat of Gorilla Glue to hold the veneer to the foam, as I have doubts as to whether the adhesive on the veneer would hold it in place for very long.
So hopefully in the next week or so I can get the foam glued to the base and start moving on.