Goblin Green, and lots of it! Orlygg's Old School Basing Tutorial

It is half term for me this week. That means an entire week off with the wife and kids, and considering that over half of the Oldhammerers at the Foundry Event too were teachers, I suspect a lot of other folk are off to. This give me plenty of time to blog, paint and game. The trouble is, I have just bought a new top of the range computer and have found Steam. Skyrim is digging deep into my time once again. Even so, I have found time to finish my Adventurer's Cart and work is beginning to wind down on the Nightmare Legion too. 

It will be soon time to paint something different!

I have been asked by a number of people to do a tutorial about how I do my retro bases. So I have used the fact that I have no lessons to prepare for to whip up something that should explain clearly how to produce quick, effective (I think so anyway) old school style bases. My method is based on the Old School 'Eavy Metal one; Goblin Green with a Bilious Green drybrush over the top. Bang and you are done! But I was never satisfied with the result, yet wanted something quick and easy that allows for variation but didn't take hours of fiddly work to complete. 

Right, let's have a look at my method.

Step One: For this you will need a good green (Wooodland, Goblin or any similar colour - you can see I am using AP green at the moment for mine), a brighter green (here I use Bilious), Bleached Bone and White. A brown ink and a yellow ink are also essential. Oh, and sand! I use my own mixture of sands from beaches, fishtanks and Reception Class sand trays.

Step Two: Stick your sand down on your base using whatever method you use. I use superglue or PVA depending how soon I want the base to dry. Depending on how well the sand has stuck down, I sometimes give the base a watery wash of PVA as an additional assurance that the sand isn't going to fall off later.

Step Three: Paint your base colour all over your base. Depending on the size of the grains of sand you are using, I occasionally use a little PVA in this mix. It can initially change the tone of the paint, but by the time the stuff has dried you cannot even tell its been used. 

Step Four: The classic drybrush of Bilious Green is here! In fact, this was where a lot of old school mini's basing stopped actually. I can see why, imagining doing this for blocks of 20, or 30 troops in one go! You would be there all day!

Step Five: Time to use the ink. Mix the yellow 4:1 with water, though different proportions achieve differing effects, and splodge the stuff on in a fairly naturalistic, blobbing way. Don't worry if the tone seems shocking and un-natural, as it dries the ink will lose its vibrancy and blend with the green.

Step Six: Before the yellow ink begins to dry, apply the brown ink around the outside of the base and irregularly splodge around. Again, try and be naturalist here. The two inks will blend in places and a controlled amount of this is good. Try not to merge the two inks too much though, or you will end up with a muddy, unsightly colour.

Step Seven: When the ink is totally dry, your next job is to drybrush Bleached Bone over the top of the whole base. I tend to use a big, old brush from this job as it can be quite knackering on your kit. Allow this to dry thoroughly before moving on to the next stage.

Step Eight: Apply a final drybrush of white over the whole base, but not quite as thoroughly as before. I usually focus my efforts on the rim of the base and work inwards here. Then wait for the white paint to dry well.

Step Nine: Return to the yellow ink once more, again with the 4:1 mix with water. Splodge on the ink with more random aplomb but don't worry about following any particular pattern. Again, the tone will seem quite bright so leave the ink to dry thoroughly before painting the rim of the base in whatever way your prefer.

Completed Base: And you are done!

Well, what do you think?

Orlygg

Bases: Your Thoughts?

The old addage of miniature painting is: 'concentrate on bases and faces' and you can pull of almost anything. Its certainly something that I thought about over the last 10 years or so of painting, before I saw the light and joined the Oldhammer Community.

I'd spend ages tinkering with the bases of my models. Adding sand, stones, brass details, static grass and more. I was seldom happy with the result. Its a little known fact, I once painted a Sisters of Battle army back in the mid 2000s. There I said it. I still have it (somewhere) buried in the garage. I used chopped up left overs of plastic kits to build up their bases, along with green stuff, bits of wire and God knows what else. At the time I was really pleased with the results, especially when I used drybrushing to weather them up a little. I got them out a few years ago, and despite my heady sense of achievement at the time, they were a disappointment. They were cluttered and fiddly, and in hindsight they took an age to complete. It was this experience that influenced my view to strip down and simplify the bases of my Old School Citadel miniatures, which I started painting in earnest in Summer 2011. I was always inspired by '80s models, and the simplistic approach the Old Masters took. 

Trouble was, I wasn't satisfied with the 'Woodland Green drybrushed with Bilious Green) approach. It just looked too simplistic in comparison with my models. Nor did I want to go for the staple of earlier '80s models, which was the coat the base in PVA and sprinkle over a layer of railway flock - I think, but I am not sure, that static grass was not widely available during the 1980s. Anyone know for sure?

Six plaguebearers, including two painted by Andy Craig in the centre and one unreleased test (front rank, far left), which display the classic Goblin Green and Bilious Green combo. 

Eventually, I developed my own style of Old School base. One thing I wasn't prepared to do was go all Fraser Grey/Kevin Adams and produce detailed green stuffed foliage, but I want to acknowledge the style of a simpler age. In the end I developed a quick method which I feel matches the bases perfectly.

Here it is:

1) Undercoat base in Goblin or Woodland Green.

2) Wash over with slightly watered down yellow ink, in a blobbing fashion to create a sense of natural colour difference in grass.

3)  While the ink is still wet, use a brown ink around the edges of the base, so that the ink runs into the detail created by the sand. I sometimes paint irregular patches at this stage, again to create a natural look. 

4) Once dry, I drybrush over the top with white or bone coloured paint and tidy up the edges in black.

Job done. Simple. Fast. Effective (well I think anyway!)

Examples of my basing technique explained above. Here we see a Champion of Slannesh and a Chaos Sorcerer. 

 How do you view bases?  Something simple or something worthy of more attention? Do you have different views depending on the nature of the model (character/rank and file)? Do you have your own colour mixes or secret tips that you are willing to share with us?

Hoping to hear from you,

Orlygg.