Bases: they're important! Any size, any shape, any day! I could make a chemistry joke here but I'm sure all the good ones Argon. From the humble Skaven slave to the mighty Imperial Knight, they all stand on something!
OK so what are bases for? Well, in most cases it helps the stabilize the model and hopefully prevent it from falling over. So yes, they're important for that, but that is not what I'm shooting for here. I want to talk today about the extra level it creates for your models, how it can be used to frame your model, show where in the universe a model is fighting, or even why they are fighting. So I'm going to talk about each of the current bases I have for my armies, and what it conveys (to me at least) about that model.
So first up my 40k Space Marines (who are totally not loyalist Death Guard, and we have nothing to do with those traitorous curs! Who are you the Inquisition?)
So these bases are fairly straightforward, they are made up from plasterboard tape, stuck down with some extra PVA, painted grey, and dry brushed with a silver. They to me look like a metal mesh that I imagine the floors of imperial ships are covered in. The larger bases are have some extra decoration on.
For the flying base I made a stencil up of the Imperial eagle and stippled though with a stiff brush., and added a strip of plastic card that was painted yellow and I used some masking tape the cover over stripes and then painted the black on. In total these bases have cost me very little - I think about £1 worth of plasticard and about £3 on the plasterboard tape, neither of which I have finished of after doing about 100ish marines, 3 dreadnoughts, a flying base, and a 2ft by 2ft board for last year's Armies on Parade.
Next up on the slab, my Khorne Daemons.
These guys are on lava bases, this effect was achieved with cork board that was ripped into rough shapes to make "rocks", covered in PVA (for those not in the know cork will drink all the paint on the planet if not prepared properly).So with two layers built from the cork, paint black and drybrush with two shades of grey until the rocks are a nice well rocky colour. Next up paint the lava areas in a deep red, then moving away from the rocks working into a lighter red, then an orange, a yellow, and finally a tiny bit of white. Finally hitting the lot in a yellow glaze. Again this is a cheap option. I feel this gives my Khorne Daemons the look of a force fighting on a planet, that even the planet is fighting against their very presence. I'm planning on doing a fuller tutorial on these bases some time during the year.
So, up next, looking at my collection I think the Orks.
The Ork bases to me look like a desert world (anyone remember Gorkamorka?). These bases are Armageddon dust washed with a red wash, and dry brushed with a copper. They are a very contrasting colour in comparison to the Orks themselves, framing them almost and making the models stand out from the back ground.
So I guess Nurgle Daemons next.
I wanted the Nurgle Daemons to be in a area that's gone to rot, somewhere that has felt the touch of Nurgle, almost homely to them. These bases started off with Stirling Mud, but as I built up the texture, I made depressions in to it, these were then painted in a dark green, and filled with Nurgles Rot. Finally a quick drybrush with a grey almost white colour.
This leaves two armies that I haven't quite finalised yet (in terms of bases) my Imperial Fists for 30k, and my Skaven for Age Of Sigmar.
For my Skaven I'm thinking something like a shale beach with small tufts of dead grass. This is still an idea that isn't fully formed and hasn't really got a plan as of yet.
My Imperial Fist are currently in flux. One part of my brain wants to go with a deep brown with blasted terrain, almost like the pictures of no man's land during WW1, another part wants me to do concrete and roads almost like they are fighting though a modern day city. Any opinions out there?
The final part of this article I want to talk about "bad" bases. Remember that I am no competition winning painter, but a badly thought out base can destroy a beautifully painted miniature. Take for example a recent model I saw (the Yvraine model) the person in question had obviously spent hours and hours pouring love and care into this paint job, the model itself was beautiful. And then they'd painted the base in blue. Just blue, no ripples, no texture, just plain flat blue. It made the rest of the paint job, at least in my mind, lose a certain lustre. The other type of base I dislike is the kind of base that ends up indistinguishable from the model. For example; I recently saw Deathwatch Marines (with primarily black armour) on a well made and textured base that was painted like basalt. So much black on black made it incredibly difficult to pick out parts of the marine from the base, losing detail from the miniature as you tried to work out where the base ended and where the model began.
So that's my thoughts for the week. Anything to add, what do you think about basing models? How do you do it? Any pet peeves you have?
See you next time from the table of a Plastic Addict!
OK so what are bases for? Well, in most cases it helps the stabilize the model and hopefully prevent it from falling over. So yes, they're important for that, but that is not what I'm shooting for here. I want to talk today about the extra level it creates for your models, how it can be used to frame your model, show where in the universe a model is fighting, or even why they are fighting. So I'm going to talk about each of the current bases I have for my armies, and what it conveys (to me at least) about that model.
So first up my 40k Space Marines (who are totally not loyalist Death Guard, and we have nothing to do with those traitorous curs! Who are you the Inquisition?)
So these bases are fairly straightforward, they are made up from plasterboard tape, stuck down with some extra PVA, painted grey, and dry brushed with a silver. They to me look like a metal mesh that I imagine the floors of imperial ships are covered in. The larger bases are have some extra decoration on.
For the flying base I made a stencil up of the Imperial eagle and stippled though with a stiff brush., and added a strip of plastic card that was painted yellow and I used some masking tape the cover over stripes and then painted the black on. In total these bases have cost me very little - I think about £1 worth of plasticard and about £3 on the plasterboard tape, neither of which I have finished of after doing about 100ish marines, 3 dreadnoughts, a flying base, and a 2ft by 2ft board for last year's Armies on Parade.
Next up on the slab, my Khorne Daemons.
These guys are on lava bases, this effect was achieved with cork board that was ripped into rough shapes to make "rocks", covered in PVA (for those not in the know cork will drink all the paint on the planet if not prepared properly).So with two layers built from the cork, paint black and drybrush with two shades of grey until the rocks are a nice well rocky colour. Next up paint the lava areas in a deep red, then moving away from the rocks working into a lighter red, then an orange, a yellow, and finally a tiny bit of white. Finally hitting the lot in a yellow glaze. Again this is a cheap option. I feel this gives my Khorne Daemons the look of a force fighting on a planet, that even the planet is fighting against their very presence. I'm planning on doing a fuller tutorial on these bases some time during the year.
So, up next, looking at my collection I think the Orks.
The Ork bases to me look like a desert world (anyone remember Gorkamorka?). These bases are Armageddon dust washed with a red wash, and dry brushed with a copper. They are a very contrasting colour in comparison to the Orks themselves, framing them almost and making the models stand out from the back ground.
So I guess Nurgle Daemons next.
I wanted the Nurgle Daemons to be in a area that's gone to rot, somewhere that has felt the touch of Nurgle, almost homely to them. These bases started off with Stirling Mud, but as I built up the texture, I made depressions in to it, these were then painted in a dark green, and filled with Nurgles Rot. Finally a quick drybrush with a grey almost white colour.
This leaves two armies that I haven't quite finalised yet (in terms of bases) my Imperial Fists for 30k, and my Skaven for Age Of Sigmar.
For my Skaven I'm thinking something like a shale beach with small tufts of dead grass. This is still an idea that isn't fully formed and hasn't really got a plan as of yet.
My Imperial Fist are currently in flux. One part of my brain wants to go with a deep brown with blasted terrain, almost like the pictures of no man's land during WW1, another part wants me to do concrete and roads almost like they are fighting though a modern day city. Any opinions out there?
The final part of this article I want to talk about "bad" bases. Remember that I am no competition winning painter, but a badly thought out base can destroy a beautifully painted miniature. Take for example a recent model I saw (the Yvraine model) the person in question had obviously spent hours and hours pouring love and care into this paint job, the model itself was beautiful. And then they'd painted the base in blue. Just blue, no ripples, no texture, just plain flat blue. It made the rest of the paint job, at least in my mind, lose a certain lustre. The other type of base I dislike is the kind of base that ends up indistinguishable from the model. For example; I recently saw Deathwatch Marines (with primarily black armour) on a well made and textured base that was painted like basalt. So much black on black made it incredibly difficult to pick out parts of the marine from the base, losing detail from the miniature as you tried to work out where the base ended and where the model began.
So that's my thoughts for the week. Anything to add, what do you think about basing models? How do you do it? Any pet peeves you have?
See you next time from the table of a Plastic Addict!
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