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I like a sandy look then cover areas with a patch of green grass and maybe some brown paint to make it look dirty

Both my Ork and Death Guard armies are based using an "urban ruins/wasteland" theme,lots of gray/ash,debris...some pools of slime here and there for the DG..

The characters,DP's and dreads in both armies have more "elaborate" bases,same overall colors...but with more debris,bodies,slime,etc...

For my Praetorians...I've gone for a very simple "grasslands " look,using static grass and a bit of gravel.

Sand

Sand and above that grass, depends on what army i'm painting.

Sand for definite. With patches of dead grass and the occasional skull or two.

The snowy urban theme for me

You left off desert, so I picked small stones (sand).

I generally don't do bases on my models. Only certain ones, not the ranks. And when I do, I do sand/rock mostly. However I've debated doing some elaborate bases. The only problem with that is, I don't play an army that has big bases to do so.

As some have described: I use sand/gravel, painted, washed, and drybrushed, and then I selectively apply flocking. This is specifically for my guard.

When doing other things, it depends on the mini's, but I always do a finished painted base of some sort.

Being a glutton for punishment, I glue textured plasticard to my bases.

I am doing my daemon bases with the remains of other armies' units.

For example, my Bloodthirster is stepping through the back of an ork, and my Daemon Prince of Tzeentch holds the torso of a Death Company (with the back ripped out) up in the air, and the head and the arms lie at the Prince's feet.
My Skulltaker's Juggernaut base has heads and skulls from all armies.
My fiends will have eldar and DE bodies once I get to them, and my Forgeworld Greater Unclean One will have the remains of a Swarmlord on his custom base.
Finally, when I can get the money, my Forgeworld Bloodthirster (which will serve as my Skarbrand) will have the remains of a Landraider about his base.

Just a simple mix of Elmer's glue and a big jug of mixed green flock from Woodland Scenics.

I picked "plain dirt" but it's actually 3 different drybrushes and a wash over sand. I usually throw in a helmet, lasgun, or some such on larger bases. I do this for all but my Necrons.

Necrons, I do sand, black, drybrush 2 lighter shades of grey up to space wolves grey, then badab black wash. Rarely any non-necron debris, but I do crystals of the translucent green that the rods come on (monolith sprue is great for this).


I shaped some of my own crystals into a silicone mold so I can recast my crystals in different colors. So far I just have translucent rave green, though, but might do more colors later.





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Avatar 720 wrote:I don't tend to paint, but when I do I just leave the bases plain. if i've gotten as far as basing my model, then i'm not going to risk ruining it (so as it stands, only about 3 models are based, all with modelling sand).

I actually do my bases and my models seperately just for this reason. I glue the models to a temporary base to hold while painting with a tiny speck of superglue on one foot only, then when finish, snap them off (or cut them if it has delicate ankles) and put them on my bases.

I actually leave them plain most of the time. That way, it just looks like a "shadow" and the model looks like it is simply standing on whatever board you are playing on.

However, if I feel like it, I will go outside and glue some dirt and tiny stones to the bases. Dirt is pretty much anywhere, so it doesn't look out of place on most boards, and it looks really great on desert boards, which I am a big fan of for some reason.

It depends on what I am basing for. Orks, I generally do rubble, Salamanders I'm thinking lava wastes etc, Eldar, maybe green grass or crystally stuff and Tau... I'm not so sure. Just a suggestion to people who are prepared to pay a good price for quality bases try "Back 2 Base-ix." NOt advertising or anything but they look pretty good

I paint lava on my WOC

No mud?

I leave mine plain black, because I think it looks really odd when the bases don't match the scenery. I treat bases like a frame around a picture, rather than a part of the mini. When I look at minis on the battlefield I find it easy to just ignore plain black bases, but i might experiment with painting patterns on my bases.

doubleT wrote:No mud?

Spaceship corridors for me, you never know what is around the corner!

Brown/dirt with clumps of static grass

Necrons- These i based by using hot glue to make what looked like moving lava, and then fine black sand with static dead grass.
Space Wolves - Same fine sand this time painted a muddy brown. Then snow flock, dead grass and a few ice elements.
New Custom space Marine Chapter - I just barely started work on these but they are a fleet based chapter so I am making it look as though they are on their ship waking across grills in the hallways and other parts of the ship.

I sand them and use a kinda ash-waste effect - chardon granite drybrushed with greys and bleached bone. Then I add a mix of water, pva, and gw snow, and paste dollops on the base. When they dry I overbrush these with a little skull white, and then add some sprigs of desert grass.

Same as HAZZER.

Grass with Snow. Trying for the Tundra look.

EDIT: I am might be tossing in some ruins as well for the Tundra. On my IG.

Well ever since I have so many armies. My wanderers have desert like ruins. Then my eldar same thing.
Storm Crusaders have a jungle feel.

I used brown and grey gravel basing stuff, but realised that looked a bit naf, so now I just leave them black, I'm sure they'd look better with basing, but until i've got the hang of it, I don't want to spoil my models.

My Imperial Guard have a Codex Grey base with GW sand on it, they don't look too bad lol.

Yeah i like grey/stone urban debris.

The nice green grass you see doesnt really speak "war" to me. I always figured the SM will primarily be fighting defending imperial space (forge worlds, hives, shrines) so i figure lots of rubble and stone makes more sense than nice green grass like they are fighting on the North Yorkshire moors or something.

I voted leave them plain because that's how most of my models are now. If I ever FINISH them, they'll be sandy desert

Fine grain sand and green grass on top of the sand.

For my deathwing I make tech bases (other) like a space hulk or manifactorum place. My space marines and necrons are dirt/grass, and finally my eldar are wraithbone floors (alien hive) and finally my guard are city ruins.