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I don't know if this is in the right forum, but I have seen in a few places, people saying that basing is a necessity of tabletop standard models.

I am curious as to why this is.

Basically "Table top standard" means different things to different people, but "fully painted for the purposes of competitions" to a large-ish group of people.

This means: all surfaces painted, minimum 3 colours, based in some way, usually with a spray varnish (i.e. it's finished, let's play).

For me (and another large group of readers I suspect) "tabletop standard" means a good enough standard that I'd call it 'done' for rank and file miniatures given that I am painting them to play with and don't want to play unpainted, in which case it means all areas painted with appropriate base colour, wash and highlight as a minimum, colours dictated by role and army, and based, because that's part of being a finished model.

It doesn't have to be a fancy base - it can be paint green + dip the top in flock, or glue+sand before priming, drybrush brown/green.

The words 'tabletop standard' dont actually have any bearing on the quality of paint work whatsoever.

Its more to do with the goal during painting ~ want it to be seen from 2-5feet away (likely from above - stood over the table) and look reasonable? thats table top.

Want it to be seen on a shelf / display case or just close up, or in macro photos maybe. That would be showcase painting.

In my mind.. the base is part of both and no model is complete without the base done too... for table top it might just be drybrush over texture paint and called done, for showcase you might painstakingly craft a small section of terrain on the base and give it as much attention as the thing standing on it.

I don't think the question was what is tabletop.

I meant, why is basing a requirement?

I understand that a model should be painted, this for me means basecoat, shade, and 2 highlights on the two main colours of the model, and for everywhere else at least basecoat and shade.

but I don't understand how basing pertains to the standard the mini is painted it.

Basically just because many don't see a model as being finished until it is based, and most folks consider Tabletop standard to be finished and ready to use, at a basic standard.

Table top standard is basically. does the model look good on the table. there is no TTS law that states a model needs 3 colors minimum and a gravel base and stuff. thats all made up.

well does a miniature look good on a table from 3 to 4 feet away with a big black void under neath it?

or worse a black base with sloppy color coming off the miniature?

IMO miniatures tell stories. and painting AND composition mater and basing goes in hand with the later.

If you really dont like basing then you can always do clear acrylic bases. which IMO look nicer on crazy tables with lots of details.

Many tournament and organised play scenes require models to be fully painted and based to compete. At a guess it stems from there.

Id say yes basing is required. But basing doesnt have to be sand. It could be a flat painted colour if you wanted it that way.

I'd quite like to do clear bases with a bright ring of colour around the edge. If youve played any strategy games on the pc or consoles over recent years youve probably seen how they highlight selected characters with a coloured ring around them. Id want to mimic that. .... point is its should be painted enough to reasonably say finished, base included.

Ever notice that a picture with even the simplest background looks more complete and finished than one with no background? Same thing, the base is your mini's background.

When I started painting I did bases really simple. I painted them dark green, dry-brushed a light green and then painted the rim black. Not fancy, but it was finished and I could go back and do more later if I got up the nerve.

I see, thanks for the info.

I ask this because I don't know how to base my guard.

thanks.

If you have access to citadel paints - their textured "stirland mud" is pretty easy for plebs like myself. I was able to finish 12 marine bases, 5 terminators, and 3 bike bases with one pot (and I really slathered it on thick, too.)

It is basically brown paint with chunks in it, when you apply to the model it is mushy, then it hardens, giving a nice texture for the base. I think there are several "flavors," too, like stone, ice, etc.

They are right in my gallery if you want to see them, all I did was the stirland mud, then used glue-all to add grassy flock. My buddy plays death korps, he uses the mud only, doesn't bother with the grass, still looks great.

Best of all, this is a very quick step. You can easily do a whole squad in under 30 minutes. If you get it on the boots, no biggie. Boots get muddy, this is war! In my humble opinion, painting the vertical edge of the base helps too. My buddy leaves the vertical edge bare - drives me crazy. "You were so close!"

Good luck!

I use the mourn mountain snow for my DE, its the snow, drakenhoff nightshade, then a white drybrush, looks great.

is that GW grass flock on the bases? I think it looks great.

thanks!

 gummyofallbears wrote:
I see, thanks for the info.

I ask this because I don't know how to base my guard.

thanks.

Then do something simple and quick to tide you over till you decide what you want. A simple solid color with the rim black will do.

I bet you eventually will play someone and think: "Man, those bases he has are great, I want to do my army like that."

My opinion would be because a model standing on a black void of nothingness looks incomplete.

Easiest way to base - paint the whole base a natural colour - glue sand to the top. Glue patchy flock to the sand. Call it a day.

I don't like black rims on the bases either so for me my whole bases get painted Ushabti bone which basically matches the sand I'm using, but that's just me.

 gummyofallbears wrote:

is that GW grass flock on the bases? I think it looks great.

Apologies - I misread your post. I thought you meant you did not know how to complete a base. You haven't decided eh? Google is my favorite for that. There are SO MANY awesome armies out there.

I did use GW flock - its the scorched grass. The container has a chaos warrior on it. You could do a whole army with their quantity.

The snow sounds awesome - maybe my next force will use that

Having them attached to the correct bases is important for game mechanics.
Honestly I don't much care for decorating bases too much, mostly for the Fridge Logic issues of stuff like two units standing on completely different terrain touching each other or in close proximity, bases that don't match the board, how this one guy is always standing on the same rock surrounded by the same grass and so on. At least a blank black base can be ignored as a game piece/mechanic thing like how they're always in the same pose, might not be scaled right, could be missing details and so on. Of course none of this applies to showcase stuff, but that's not really what I'm doing.
Moreover all things painting are highly daunting to me and I really do want to get my minis up to a reasonable standard (and I'm a bit scared because it seems like the peeps in this topic have set the bar for "tabletop standard" kinda high for me with advanced stuff like washes and highlighting that's out of my league), the last thing I'd want to do is spend more time and get more materials for something I won't even appreciate when it's done.

 CrashGordon94 wrote:
(and I'm a bit scared because it seems like the peeps in this topic have set the bar for "tabletop standard" kinda high for me with advanced stuff like washes and highlighting that's out of my league), .

Hey man, don't worry. Washes certainly are not out of your league. All you do is a grab a pot of Citadel wash that is close to the colour of what your painting and wash the area with it. Or, you use something like Nuln Oil to bring out the shadows. It's literally just covering the area with the wash then coming back in with the same colour as before and touching up the flat surfaces and leaving the wash in the deeper recesses.

A quick wash is one of the best, easiest and quickest ways to give your miniatures some definition.

Wait, so I wash them (not sure how, is it a dip? Is it like paint? Is it a spray?) and then I have to paint things AGAIN while being careful not to get into the nooks and crannies?
You really overestimate my skill, I still remember nearly having a panic attack trying to paint the Aquila on a Marine during my introductory paint session, quite frankly I'm concerned that properly coloring in all the bits (without even touching stuff like eyes!) is going to be a huge task, let alone all that stuff...

Well Crash, It's a thin paint you just cover the mini with. It goes into the crevices and highlights detail. If you hold your brush right it will naturally skip over the nooks and crannies.

It might sound complicated but trust me, you figure it out and you will feel like you are cheating.

But it all begins with good solid blocking in of the color, so don't fret and start there.

Happy painting.

Table top standard just means that it needs to look good from 2-4ft away, and it doesn't require that much effort as even some simple ways of painting will work.

Basing is part of it as no basing wont look good.

I disagree. The object is to make the model look nice / 'finished'.

Note that to achieve this 'basing' might be as simple as keeping the base clean (no lumps of glue etc) and then painting it a solid colour, to hide any working splatter from doing the paintjob in the first place.

In some situations, (very commonly board game minis like for Space Hulk / Zombicide / Imperial Assault) this may actually be more suitable than sand / grit / grass etc.

While 3-color is a good guideline, what you need to be at tabletop quality is to have all the major details picked out, and look good at arm’s length. Obviously there is a lot of wiggle room when defining "major details" and "looking good".
I don’t think basing needs to be done to achieve tabletop quality, but it at least needs to be cleaned up and a solid color.
It is a very subjective term, so opinions vary wildly.

 CrashGordon94 wrote:
Wait, so I wash them (not sure how, is it a dip? Is it like paint? Is it a spray?) and then I have to paint things AGAIN while being careful not to get into the nooks and crannies?
You really overestimate my skill, I still remember nearly having a panic attack trying to paint the Aquila on a Marine during my introductory paint session, quite frankly I'm concerned that properly coloring in all the bits (without even touching stuff like eyes!) is going to be a huge task, let alone all that stuff...

Washes and drybrushing are the new painter’s friend. They will add depth and highlights to your miniatures with some very basic steps. Once you are comfortable with painting in the lines (aka getting a clean basecoat down where everything is the right color) they should be the next techniques you work on. Something as simple as putting a brown wash over gold will bring it to life.

 CrashGordon94 wrote:
Wait, so I wash them (not sure how, is it a dip? Is it like paint? Is it a spray?) and then I have to paint things AGAIN while being careful not to get into the nooks and crannies?
You really overestimate my skill, I still remember nearly having a panic attack trying to paint the Aquila on a Marine during my introductory paint session, quite frankly I'm concerned that properly coloring in all the bits (without even touching stuff like eyes!) is going to be a huge task, let alone all that stuff...

Washing your models is much easier than basecoating them in my opinion - and it adds so much to the model. Give it a shot sometime. My friend felt the same as you, but after he tried it once, he did it to every model. It is very easy.

Washes (nuln oil is very common) are really thin - almost watery. You apply it to the model with a brush just like paint, and it is so thin it runs into the recesses without you doing much. This makes that aquila you talked about look really good, because it will be darker in the creases of the feathers.

Contrast (light vs dark) is what makes a model look nice, and washes are an easy way to accomplish this. There are a ton of youtube videos and guides on how to do it online. Just google it. Once you play with it, though, you'll understand. It is very easy.

Just look at the difference for these marines. The one on the left is basecoat only, the one on the right has been washed once and given very basic highlights. Same paint, same painter, the one on the right just has an extra two steps. The last 10% of time/effort you spend on these easy steps makes the model look SO MUCH better. You can notice the wash best on the bolter and on the aquila. Try it! You won't go back.

Personally, I think a mini doesn't look finished until it is based. And since I consider basing to be simple and fun, it always confuses me when people are intimidated by it. With the advent of textured paints, it's even easier. Noting annoys me more than seeing something in the showcase thread that is not only unbased, but has splodges of sloppy colour on the base from t painting the mini.

While I understand that some people get annoyed by having snow bases when it's a desert table, I would rather have a unified, clean basing style across the army.

CrashGordon94 wrote:advanced stuff like washes and highlighting that's out of my league

Don't worry about it. Washes are very easy to use, as has been pointed out, and they make a good looking mini look even better.

The best thing, however, about washes? They hide and blend in your little mistakes. Didn't quite follow the line of that hose? Don't worry, the wash will settle in the angled spot next to the hose, and hide your mistake. Got some paint in the eye slit of that helmet? Don't worry, the wash will settle in the slit and hide your mistake. Give them a try. It's well worth it.

As to highlighting, don't worry about it unless you really want to do it. Personally, I only do a TINY little bit of highlighting, and only in certain places. The reason for this is because I, personally, believe that highlighting makes the model look too fake. When there is light shining on a model, the light itself naturally highlights and adds some shadows to the model. Having highlights on top of that oftentimes just seems glaring and fake, and really seems out of place to me (consider, if you're wearing a T-shirt, it's a bit foldy, is the shirt color actually changing in the recesses and the points? it's still all one color, so why would you paint a mini's shirt different colors instead of letting natural light work its magic?). So I just let light do the highlighting for me. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing so.

People have different ideas on what makes a mini look good. So really, try different things out, and see what you like. The more you paint, the better you get. Looking at some Catachans I painted 13 years ago compared to some Catachans I painted a year ago, I can see the huge difference in my painting quality. You'll see the same.

Janwin wrote:

CrashGordon94 wrote:advanced stuff like washes and highlighting that's out of my league

Don't worry about it. Washes are very easy to use, as has been pointed out, and they make a good looking mini look even better.

The best thing, however, about washes? They hide and blend in your little mistakes. Didn't quite follow the line of that hose? Don't worry, the wash will settle in the angled spot next to the hose, and hide your mistake. Got some paint in the eye slit of that helmet? Don't worry, the wash will settle in the slit and hide your mistake. Give them a try. It's well worth it.

As to highlighting, don't worry about it unless you really want to do it. Personally, I only do a TINY little bit of highlighting, and only in certain places. The reason for this is because I, personally, believe that highlighting makes the model look too fake. When there is light shining on a model, the light itself naturally highlights and adds some shadows to the model. Having highlights on top of that oftentimes just seems glaring and fake, and really seems out of place to me (consider, if you're wearing a T-shirt, it's a bit foldy, is the shirt color actually changing in the recesses and the points? it's still all one color, so why would you paint a mini's shirt different colors instead of letting natural light work its magic?). So I just let light do the highlighting for me. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with doing so.

People have different ideas on what makes a mini look good. So really, try different things out, and see what you like. The more you paint, the better you get. Looking at some Catachans I painted 13 years ago compared to some Catachans I painted a year ago, I can see the huge difference in my painting quality. You'll see the same.

The pure technical reasons for highlighting and shading on miniatures is to artificially boost the definition and contrast you see or to 'cheat' with emulating a reflective property or texture on the surface. This is useful in two ways; first it increases the sense of scale; larger objects reflect more light and at a distance, in atmosphere, appear brighter than up close. Conversely shadowed areas can (as a result of contrast) appear darker. Secondly, we use it to artificially exaggerate edges or surface properties (again by increasing contrast). This helps us recognise shape better on the small models we're looking at, or is used to make things like metallics seem more reflective, make gems look like gems and so on.

Beyond that, everything is artistic interpretation - anime style banded highlighting, or smooth blends? Simple edge picking on metallics or a more 'arty' technique? Area highlighting or sharp edges on everything?