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Hey folks!
I'm about to base my vampire counts army, but I don't have any experience in basing models with a darker theme.
I usually base my models with a mix of sand+very fine stones+fine stones, undercoat them, paint them scorched brown with a drybrush of bestial brown (sometimes a bit lighter). Static grass and I'm done.

Is there a different painting approach to give the army a darker feel? I don't want to go overboard and try a winter theme, for example.
I hope that I can keep the basic technique because it served me rather well until now.

Help is greatly appreciated!

Greets
Schepp himself

static grass over a grey stone base, then dry brush with a grey / yellow mix to make it look wind-burnt?
or maybe try for dank & damp with using filler to make a smoothish base finish then paint a dark brown & gloss paint for wet mud/swamp then either dark green or brown static & add reeds (available from most model railway advanced model shops - Noch, based in Germany, should have what you need).

you want some slightly less saturated colors. More grey in your brown, for example, or less brightness to the grass.

It is fun to use scorched grass too (put it on the base and paint it black). This works very well if your whole base is grey.

Try adding things like broken grave stones, skulls and other decaying things to the basses as well.

Some good ideas here, the wind burn grass style is similar to the bases in the army book isn't it?

Thanks for the help so far, keep it coming!

Greets
Schepp himself

try this forum its where I go for the majority of my vc stuff.


I would use some extra skele parts and some darker tonned gravel and dirt for your base you can also make them in a graveyard like this guy or gal on the previously mentioned forums.

fnc821 wrote:I would use some extra skele parts and some darker tonned gravel and dirt for your base you can also make them in a graveyard like this guy or gal on the previously mentioned forums.

those are pigging awesome - i wish i could get the motivation to do that sort of work. the ghosts at the end are my faves.

Did you ever see the opening WoW video with the undead warlock walking on the earth and everything turning dead as he walked? I think that would be an awesome base them for the Vampire Counts.

no joke, use cigarette ash. i wanted a gloomy feel for my renegades and thought of basing with ash. its great for many reasons. put the glue on the base, dump the ash on it and in about .0003 secs its hard as a rock. you dont have to paint it, as it holds its cool ashy colors and best of all the smoke smell disappears. i really like how it turns out. PLUS it sucks up the super glue and it dries rock hard. give it a try

[teasing humor]

Dude!

What's up with your fetish for cigarette ashes?

That's disgusting!

[/teasing humor]


Eric

(It really is rather disgusting, though)

yea it sounds friggin weird i konw but honestly ya gotta try it lol. its magical!! AND it dont help my wife is a pinup model........ only in my dreams

Should I use the ash as a substitute for ordinary sand, or just add it as a final layer?

Interesting idea, though, I just have to find someone to get the ash from (many non-smoking friends).

Greets
Schepp himself

if you dont smoke you can burn the fuzz off a pipe cleaner see this link on Basing - how to, and whatnot, Really, I've little idea.

Hey, I play with the "wool"-basing(don't know the proper term right now) so that it looks like gloomy, misty fog of death on the bases. Any idea how to do that?

Greets
Schepp himself