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Hey there I'd like advice on basing my salamanders force I think I'd go for lava basing for HQ guys and feature models, but would like help in deciding the troops basing ideas

Well, as nobody has commented yet, I'll go first (Lucky, because I'm a fellow Salamanders painter ). Anyway, I do the same as you, basing only my HQ, Sergeants and notable characters on lava-bases. Whilst I have seen some very good Salamanders armies based entirely on lava-bases, I feel it often wedges your model into one 'scene' dare I say - you instantly feel Salamanders fight exclusively on lava worlds, which isn't true obviously. Hence, I do the characters/HQ/Sergeants on lava to tie in with the common Salamanders theme, but for the majority of the army, they go on a plain ash/rocky style base (Think Isstvan V).

So for my lava bases I do the following:





Now, this guy's base was created very, very easily. All I did was follow Lemmingspawns tutorial on Cmon (so really credit goes to him):

http://www.coolminiornot.com/articles/1750

However, I used all Citadel paint so, as Lemmingspawn doesn't provide a paint list I will (I've used all of Citadels new names to avoid confusion). Note, I do all my mixing by eye so ratios are rough estimates:

Step 1: Prime (Black/White/Grey - It doesn't matter, although black is probably best.
Step 2: 75:25 Abbadon Black/Dawnstone.
Step 3: Drybrush - 50:50 mix of Mournfang Brown and Khorne Red over just the bottom of the 'rocks'. (Use the pic for reference. Paint the main base with this as well.

From here onward is just painting the base:

Step 4: 50:50 Evil Sunz Scarlet/Khorne Red
Step 5: Evil Sunz Scarlet
Step 6: Troll Slayer Orange
Step 7: Yriel Yellow
Step 8: Flash Gitz Yellow
Step 9: Wash Fuegan Orange (Or another appropriate colour depending on what shade you want to get).

For my standard bases I do the following:




These are really simple (although admittedly they could use some static grass). Basically I follow these steps:

Step 1: Astrogranite textured paint all over base.
Step 2: Nuln Oil wash.
Step 3: Drybrush - Tyrant Skull

This, IMHO, produces a sort of ash like base, but the Tyrant Skull gives them a sort of yellow sulpher look - like volcanic ash.

Anyway, sorry for the length of the post, but I hope this helps you.

Right i have brought some brown vallejo texture paint to dirty my tanks up along with pigments, could i over paint the brown and end up with a similar effect to you . Got to admit I love your salamanders just another question aswell howd you get those bubbles.

Never mind found your astrogranite paint dirt cheap on element games so i'll give it a try

I dare say you could paint over the Vallejo, but it's proabably easier to just get yourself a pot of Citadels stuff. I know people will say to get Valleho, and they are probably right, but so far I haven't had a problem with the citadel stuff. So, if you want to do it in one fell swoop, without having to paint over you Vallejo stuff (Which, tbh, you probably want to keep for weathering as it'll be better quality I guess), grab a pot of Astrogranite.

Bubbles - If you follow the link for Lemmingspawns tutorial, he uses the heads of map pins, cut in half. However, I came upon my method purely by chance. I was using a hot glue gun to attach the model's feet to the finished base (Which you should take note of, as poly cement won't stick to the base - use superglue or hot glue), when I realised I had left it on and it was dripping onto the desk. However, I found that the little globs of glue were the perfect shape for making the sort of magma/lava bubbles you'd expect. So, dripping some hot glue onto a flat surface works really well (USE CAUTION - Hot glue hurts like a b*****d!). Just cut them in half so you get the best looking bubble and glue them onto the base before you paint it.

cookiesk8r wrote:Got to admit I love your salamanders

Thank you. It's always nice to get some feedback from another Salamander enthusiast.

EDIT: Check the shipping on Element Games - If your just gonna get the one pot of Astrogranite then you'll have to pay out a further £2.95 postage, which means that you'll be paying waaaay more than even GW charge (Never thought I'd say that!).

Yeah was having trouble deciding between salamanders and dark angels but glad I'm choosing the salamanders Yeah I'm going to grab that astrogranite stuff and tack it onto my current order of 2 tac squads and vallejo priimer and experiment with it

Brand new 40K guy just starting out so I'm going to document what I have done

Ah, you made the better choice with taking on Salamanders. Dark Angels have some good fluff, but it's all a bit morbid - the Salamanders, IMHO, are much better becuase they fight for the people and not just themselves.

As for documenting your 40K experience - go for, make a blog here and update it regularly, simply because it's always interesting having others commenting and giving you suggestions. I've learnt a f**K-ton of stuff just having been on Dakka, and I've only been painting for 2 years on and off. (In fact, that Sergeant on the lava base is only the 11th 40K model I've ever painted ). Hence, good luck with 40K. Don't get put off by people whining about GW being expensive tyrants though. GW is expensive, but only if you do the following:

A)Feel compelled to buy massive armies just to get into gaming quickly and by extension of that, feel you have to collect loads of different armies just because others have loads of armies.

C) Buy every new release just because GW throws out a model a month (Fotm).

However, and I speak purely as a modeler (I don't do the gaming side of 40K), if you just slowly build up your collection, enjoying the process of building and painting your army, and don't splurge loads of money out every month just to get the latest model, you'll really enjoy 40K. Don't forget there's more to it than just the gaming (Many nerd ragers will find me an utter Heretic for saying that!) - there's the lore, and the pure enjoyment of creating models. If there is one thing I can say to defend GW it's that they aren't forcing you to buy their models - only you can make that decision.

So, good luck with the Salamanders, and if you have any more questions feel free to ask

Cheers, I like modeling airfix and revell my girlfriends dad helped my get into 40K I'm going to take it slow I've currently bought a rhino will buy these tac squads and I need a HQ, then I'm gunna play skirmishes with him then build up from there seeing as I'm a uni student . I brought cheapo models on ebay to decide the schemes etc

Yup, ebay is your friend. I tend to use it mainly for sourcing bits to use in conversions. Often it's not worth bidding for complete sealed sets though as the postage will set you back most of the savings you've made from not having bought from GW. GW give free postage for over £20, so it's better just to get it from GW IMHO.

or wayland games or element games as they offer discount

Aye, but even as I looked at element games before, I noticed that if I just wanted to get a set of Assault marines, I would have to pay the approx £17 for the model thinking 'Great - Discount!'. However, element games only offer free P+P over £80. So if I wanted to get just my one box, I'd still have to pay approx £3 postage - bringing the total to approx £20 - exactly what GW charges (with orders over £20 getting free p+p). So really, you get no discount unless you really do spend over £80. Call me cynical...

I tried a few things with my salamanders over the time; the latest is the one I like the most.

It's less of a lava flow look and more off cracking but cool magma look;

(crackle paste, thinned out red ink/wash into recesses followed by very directional spray of black primer, almost horizontal so little paint gets into the cracks)


This is an older attempt (cork board, and some gorilla glue + sand for the texture)


Moonlike surface, it came out good but not as great as i wanted

Suppose it depends on order size tbh and thos moon bases look cool how'd you do them

I rather like the cooled lava look - mind If I pinch that technique for my next dreadnought jb?

The "moon base" was a failed attempt at using crackle medium (put white glue on a base and a thin layer of crackle medium) which caused it to not crack as much as a normal application would.

Go for reproducing it, I'd love to see how it turns out. i basically just kept adding red ink/paint wash into the cracks until I liked it, I used a combination of red/yellow/orange but tbh it all becomes orange red so that might be a better use of time.

They look best on slightly larger bases, I used it mostly on terminators and dreads for now.

They're nice looking bases going to try and do a lava base today

Be sure to put up some pics of your results.

Will do anyway warpig do you have any images of a salamanders vehicle you've painter for me to look at

Err, only this one:



To be honest, it's not the best pic - the Dread's base was unfinished then, and the setup I was using to take the pics was inferior. Unfortunately, I won't be able to get any better pics for at least a week as I borrow a professional camera to take my pictures and I don't have it right now. However, if you want I can at least ask and see if I can get some better ones up.

Oh, and I sent you a friend request as well - I thought I may as well if you wanted further Salamander related advice/help/suggestions in the future.

Started building up my army, purchased a rhino which is sat here primed and a tac squad which one model is assembled


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did the lava base as well and will upload pics tomorrow hopefully

Cool thread got some nice tips off here as im literally just starting out myself originally i was just gonna paint but now im gonna learn to play, My first purchase was the Stormravern (probably bad place to start) cos its just what i really fancied painting, then it was a case of what colour and being a big Green Lantern fan i thought what the hell do it them colours and after looking into it ive come across the salamanders which are as good enough a colour scheme as any for me.
I`ve got some good ideas for my base now after seeing all the comments and pics so thank you

Hey thats ok Im painting my rhino up as we speak

Just out of interest, are you doing the Rhino by hand or by brush? If it's the latter, could you give me an indication of how easy it is to do by brush? I ask just because I'm kind of shying away from large vehicles (After an ongoing nightmare with a Land Speeder - I still haven't finished it!) due to the difficulty of getting a smooth, opaque coat down without brush marks. Seeing as I don't have an airbrush it's twice as hard! :(

Painted the rhino will upload a picture later however I don't know as im overly happy with the green as I over highlighted it with white


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Btw I painted the rhino green coat with an airbrush and not overly happy with the fact I overcompensated on the highlighting and it looks faded :S really don't want to strip it back as it looks ok may just battle damage it up and add flames


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Also just a question how'd you go about laying the paint down and what is it - I paint with Vallejo and thin it. The brush painted black was overly thinned and took two good coats to get it smooth on the panels - I removed the hatches and merrily sprayed away

All my paints are Citadel and I just put down roughly one spot of paint and then thin that (Usually two to three drops) with a 9:1 mixture of water to flow aid. After that, I just brush it on it 2-3 layers, or just until I get an opaque finish. I should mention that 'one drop' is from a Vallejo dropper bottle, you should have plenty of those lying about though...

I'm finding the new Abbadon Black is easily over-thinned. I haven't tried painting straight from the pot, but I reckon maybe just one drop of thinner/water is good enough.

hmmmm what brush are you using. While I am here im adding pics

Last pic

Looking good so far

Brush wise, I just use the Citadel ones as I was bought the full set. They aren't too bad - least ways I've never complained.

Fair enough I just wondered if that was the problem. Yeah and the back of the rhinos a bit messed up regards a black splotch i rapidly washed off but it stained :(

Could anyone help regards a flame tutorial and targeting lenses as my google fu has only come across two rather poor tutorials for each

cookiesk8r wrote:
Could anyone help regards a flame tutorial and targeting lenses as my google fu has only come across two rather poor tutorials for each

Here's the basing and "flame" technique I started with when I first began my Salamander army:

http://www.miniwargaming.com/content/quick-n-dirty-bases-easy-lava

It's fairly easy once you get the hang of it and looks pretty good IMO.

Using the technique shown in that vid I have been able to use it for flame techniques on other models: