Advanced Basing Techniques

Basing can make or break a model. Even if your painting skills rank only a "meh", complete and uniform basing can make your army really pop. But if you're looking to make your army look super-sharp, complex or creative basing can be one of the most important steps.

I recommend devising a theme for your army. For example, I thought it'd be fun for my Dark Eldar to be assaulting a Mechanicum Forge World. If you've read Graham McNeil's "Mechanicum" or Dan Abnett's "Titanicus" then you know what a Forge World looks like in my mind's eye: dusty, gritty, utterly polluted, littered with scrap machinery and junk parts left to rust for eternity. My Dark Eldar would be raiding this Forge World to steal items and technology to sell to other races or to use for themselves, as well as grab a few Tech-Adepts and menials for the torture tables! Therefore, they'd be blowing holes in buildings and assaulting through to nab all the cool stuff. I itemized what I wanted to do, and wrote down how to do it.

1: Dusty/Gritty: The obvious starting point would be gravel/sand glued to the base, what really mattered was the color choice. The sand would be painted GW Vomit Brown and then dry-brushed GW Plague Brown, with a few spots of dry-brushed GW Bleached Bone. I also added stones and boulders buried in the sand, using my old standby of cork glued to the base before the sand. Here's the type of cork I use: Linky-link!

2: Junk: I glue anything to the base that looks even remotely mechanical. My favorite are lock washers because they look like cogs or gears. Plastruct and Evergreen make a variety of useful types of plasticard rod such as I-beams or ladders, and all sizes of round tubing. GW bitz are also super-useful. I've been using the inside gubbinz of Space Marine Drop Pods, (because I don't use them on the inside of the Drop Pods, I just glue the SoB's shut!) because they can be easily cut to look like ubiquitous machine parts. Searchlights, jerry cans, ammo bins, IG stowage, grating cut from SM Razorback hatches, exhaust ports, anything! A $20 box of Cities of Death terrain can supply an entire army's worth of basing material! Just start digging through your bitz bins until you can find something that could be mistaken for machinery. Even just brass rod bent at rounded 90 degree angles can simulate laid wiring.

3: Buildings: Of course I can't construct buildings on bases, but I can hint at them. Remember, the miniature is a little display of another reality plucked and placed onto a base. It's perfectly fine to have just a portion of something showing on a model's base. Once again, I return to Evergreen and Plastruct for plasticard sheets with diamond plate patterns, tile patterns, corrugated sheet patterns and siding patterns. I like Evergreen's 1/4" Tile pattern plasticard because it has a very defined cut, snaps easily into workable pieces, and looks just like a tiled or paneled floor! I add pieces of standard plasticard sheeting to simulate a broken wall, just leave on edge flat to glue to the base where the tile stops, and rag up the other edge with snips or a knife.

4: Pollution: This mostly came down to choice of paint. Having "oil" leaking from pipes or into drainage ditches by layering on green, brown and black washes to flavor. Most of the metal things were painted with splotches of rust, using a progression of GW Bestial Brown, VGC Hot Orange, then VGC Fiery Orange in a stippling pattern.

I suggest gathering your materials before you start your project, and make sure you have enough for the whole army. Take an hour and go to your local hardware store and check out their supply of washers and nuts, something is sure to catch your fancy. If they do window screen repair, ask for some scraps of aluminum screen, it makes great decking and grilles. I bought a piece today from Grieve's that was 12"x 24", it cost me $1.10, and it's more than I'll ever use. Stop by Hobby Lobby or Michael's and just look for doodads. Most of the stuff can be picked up cheap, and it's dead-useful.

So, I'll leave you with some shots of my DE bases, and I'll be back next time with some more basing techniques ,or whatever I damn well feel like!

Reaver Jetbikes

Here's a small tutorial on how to paint Dark Eldar. The theory behind it is that the DE use different shades black that only really reflect color on the edges. As such, we'll only be putting color on the edges.

First step after assembly and priming is to mix VGC Chaos Black with water in a 1:1 ratio, then apply this over all the areas that will be predominantly black, such as the armored carapace. This is done because primer black tends to less vibrant than the paint-on acrylic black and Chaos Black will help the model's overall tone and aid in blending.

Next you'll block out all of the metal areas in GW Boltgun Metal, after the areas are thoroughly dry you'll wash with GW Badab Black. Clean up any areas where you strayed onto the black areas with VGC Chaos Black.

Our next step is to thin out some GW Necron Abyss, just enough to help it flow. We'll then take the color and rim the edges of all the carapace. Remember, two thin coats are ALWAYS better than one thick coat, especially for this style of painting. One of the reasons why this style is easier than most for blending is because you keep your paint thin, using the paint's translucency and allowing the previous layer to show through, enhancing the color progression and blending. The width of the line you put on the edge of the carapace depends on how vibrant you want the overall effect to be. If you want your carapace to look like a dark depthless black with the faintest of color, use thin lines. If you want the color to be more apparent, use thicker lines.



Next up is VGC Imperial Blue. Use the same method and go over the same areas. Because we already have the Necron Abyss base coat down, this step should go quicker and you should have less areas where you'll need to go back over twice.


The last two steps require more discretion. We'll be edging again with VGC Magic Blue, but you'll want to keep it VERY thin, remembering to allow the previous layer to show through. Here you'll have to decide which areas to highlight. On mine, I chose to highlight the "upper" areas, as if the light source for the highlights were directly above the model. take a close look at the pictures and you'll see what I mean. You have to imagine how light would reflect off the surface of the model.


The final step is done with VGC Ice Blue. This will be done very sparingly and only on the corners.


So, that's the hard part done! As long as you've got a good color progression, you can use this technique for almost any color. Here are a few recipes for those of you who don't want to do just blue:

RED
VMC Burnt Cadmium Red
VMC Burnt Cadmium Red + VMC Carmine Red (1:1)
VMC Carmine Red
VGC Bloody Red
VGC Bloody Red + VGC Fiery Orange (2:1)

GREEN
GW Orkhide Shade
VGC Scurvy Green
VGC Jade Green
VGC Foul Green

PURPLE
VGC Chaos Black + VGC Liche Purple (1:2)
VGC Liche Purple
VGC Warlock Purple
VGC Warlock + VGC Tentacle Pink (1:1)

DARK LEATHER
VGC Scorched Brown
VGC Scorched Brown + VGC Dark Flesh (1:1)
VGC Dark Flesh
VGC Dark Flesh + VGC Bleached Bone (2:1)

MATTE BLACK
VMC German Grey
GW Adeptus Battlegrey
VGC Cold Grey
VGC Stonewall Grey

Pink Horror Speed Painting Tutorial

Apologies in advance for the photo quality, was trying out the camera in my Droid. It seems that the camera is alright, (5mPx) but the light at the apartment is kinda terrible. Clicking on the thumbnail and zooming in presents a pretty okay picture.

Pink

1: After cleaning and pinning the models, prime with White. I recommend either Do-it Best Flat White Spray or P3 White Primer, I’ve had good experiences with both.

2: Take Vallejo Game Color “Squid Pink” and base-coat the models with a large flat brush. Thin your paint slightly with water and do two thin coats instead of one heavy coat. Let the pink dry COMPLETELY between coats! If you disturb paint while it’s drying you’ll leave ugly rough, patchy textures on the model.

3: After the final coat of pink has dried, wash the entire model liberally with Citadel Baal Red wash. Once again, I cannot stress enough that you must wait for the pink to dry completely. If you wash the model while the pink is still wet in the crevasses it will bleed into the wash and ruin the effect.

4: After the wash has dried completely, (and once again, completely!) thin down some Squid Pink and highlight the raised surfaces of the model, (tentacles, flexed muscles, jowls, et cetera.) I prefer a wet-brush method with a No. 0 Round, though if you’re a little shaky at it a solid dry-brushing will get you a similar effect.

Flames

1: Start by blocking in the flames with VGC Falcon Turquoise, if you’re feeling creative you can have the color running onto the skin of the Horror to simulate an engulfing magical fire.

2: Wash the Turquoise areas carefully with Citadel Asurmen Blue wash. Since Asurmen Blue is a dark wash, you don’t need to be very heavy with it.

3: Just like we did with the pink, re-line the high points of the flame with Falcon Turquoise.

4: Start mixing in White to your Falcon Turquoise, beginning with a 1:3 White/Turquoise ratio, and highlight the flames again, but this time over a smaller area, so that the previous color shows a bit. Do this a few more times, gradually increasing the amount of White each time, (1:2, 1:1, 2:1) and allowing the step below to show through a bit. By keeping your paint thin, you increase the transparency of the paint, which allows the layer below to show through the layer on top and helps with the blend.

Tongues

1: Base coat with Citadel Tallarn Flesh

2: Wash with Citadel Ogryn Flesh wash.

3: Highlight with Citadel Dwarf Flesh

4: Highlight with Citadel Elf Flesh

Horns/Teeth

1: Base coat with Citadel Dheneb Stone

2: Wash with Citadel Gryphonne Sepia wash

3: Highlight with VGC Bone White

4: Highlight with VMC Ivory

All that’s left is to pick out the eyes in Black and you’re done! Spray with a protective Gloss and then two or three coats of Dull to matte the model back down. I highly recommend Testor’s Glosscote and Dullcote, I’ve used it in high-humidity, winter cold and other undesirable coating conditions and NEVER had it fuzz or frost.

Here's all ten of the buggers together. Some of the Pink Horrors have Blue Horrors evolving/spawning/bursting from them, I used the same technique on the blue parts as I did the pink parts. Just base with Citadel's Mordian Blue, wash Asurman Blue, highlight again with Mordian Blue, then progressively bring the tone up by mixing in gradual amounts of Citadel's Space Wolves' Grey into the Mordian Blue.

Hope this was educational!

-Ian

How To: Snow Basing

Keeping with the hopes of making this site an instructional tool, I've decided to take the camera on a little trip with me as I finished a commission for a customer. These Ogres were painted for one of our better customers, who I will refer to simply as "The Bartender".




For this project, you'll need Elmer's Glue, Snow Flock (I've used Woodland Scenics' snow flock, pictured above), Static Grass, a throwaway brush and a small tray to mix in.




To begin, you'll need some finished models to work with. Have everything painted, based and sealed before you begin the process.




Once you have some models to play with, you'll want to lay out a rough patching of flock on them. Any color flock can work, as long as it fits your models color scheme. Here, I've used Gale Force 9's "Parched Straw" static grass (shown above).




Next, you'll want to mix up your snow. Dump some snow flock and glue into your mixing tray and use the back of your brush to mix the two togeather, adding water as needed. There is no golden ratio to this step, the best way to describe the desired mix is: "Mix to a mashed potato consistency". Your mix should look like this:




Once you have your mix ready, take your brush and start dabbing it on the base of the model. Don't worry about getting the snow mixed in with the static grass; on the contrary, you want it to look like the snow has been caked and matted into the grassy patches. If you're gotten your mix right, you'll notice the snow start to level out on its own once you dab it down (shown below).




After you have your mix dabbed onto the model, you'll want to grab a pinch of your un-mixed snow flock. Sprinkle this over the still wet mix you've just laid down on the model. This will give the snow more texture since, as mentioned above, the mix tends to flatten itself out and become too smooth looking (sprinkled base shown below).




Repeat this process for the rest of your models; dabbing on the mix and then sprinkling them with the snow flock.

Your results should look a little something like this:




I hope this tutorial has given a little confidence to those who need it. Trying a new basing technique on models you've spent hours painting is always daunting.

As with all skills though, practice makes perfect. Get out there and try this on a few test models until you feel confident enough in your ability to turn out consistent results.

It should be noted that you can seal the snow after you've finished the process, but I've gotten varying results on how this affects the grass and the overall look of the snow.

As always, comments and questions are welcome and, indeed, helpfull.

Special thanks to "The Bartender" for the use of his models.