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Hey everyone, knee deep into my first serious run at custom basing. I've got six unique Necron Wraith bases on my desk mounted on top of Green Stuff and covered in Sand. I did a base coat on the sand of Tausept Ochre and am really at a loss for additional levels to get some depth and texture on them. I've got a few furrows and can apply shadows and what not.

My guys are Chaos themed...

I'd say use a wash of devlan mud/gryphonne sepia. When it is dry, highlight/drybrush the sand with your original color or a 50/50 mix o your original and white or bleached bone. It'll give it a more powdery dry look as opposed to a wet look from the washes.

Well for a start I would suggest painting the rims of the bases a colour that would fit in with the sand theme, that alone would make an improvement.

We play primarily on top of a Games Workshop Battle Board that is covered in Green grass. I plan to do all the standss in the green as shown on 3/4 of the ones in the picture. Should I do the stands in a different color than the green...matching with the sand color?

Thanks for the suggestion Varden, I'm gonna give that a go and see how it looks later tonight.

Well, if you want to match a green gaming board then it's probably best to either do a green/grassy base. If you stick with the sand then it will not match the board regardless of the green left on so imo I would match the rim to the sand, it would make mini look much better, light brown/yellowish brown would probably be the best option.

All good, sensible suggestions.

A darker wash plus a lighter dry brush will bring up sand nicely.

Actually I do my bases with raw sand and don't paint them, but I paint the rims a sandy colour. I use rough beach sand which has a variety of colours in it.

I didn't like how much the grass was shedding in my army carrier ... it kept getting on everything! I spoke to one of the GW guys and he said to base sand in Green Stuff so it won't really come off. I did that, but there is some Green Stuff green visible among the sand, so I wanna even the colors out. Brown rims it is.

csan17 wrote:I didn't like how much the grass was shedding in my army carrier ... it kept getting on everything! I spoke to one of the GW guys and he said to base sand in Green Stuff so it won't really come off. I did that, but there is some Green Stuff green visible among the sand, so I wanna even the colors out. Brown rims it is.

Green stuff is expensive and not needed for that at all. what you do is use watered down pva (75% pva 25% water) to apply the sand, use plenty of it and dont hang about dipping it in the sand, then when its dry paint watered down pva over the top to seal it. You can even mix your base colour in to that top pva to do two jobs in one go.

For sand id paint it in a light brown like snakebite leather, then a good drybrush with bubonic brown followed by a very light drybrush of bleached bone.

I got it all painted last night, any advice on how to get rid of the clumpy look where my brush was a little too wet? Like the base of the one on the far right?

I added some Bleached Bone highlights on top of the Blazing Orange and Blood Red highlights and am really happy with how it came out. I painted the bases the brown color, then washed them, and finally recovered them with the paint as suggested. I'm a little on the fence about which way would look better as far as the dark wash on the plastic part of the bases or the lighter brown...

I'll second Varden's suggestion above.

Cover the base in a dark brown first (I use snakebite leather) and then drybrush up to your lightest colour.