What's your opinion on black base rims?

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**Pedro Kantor**

I paint my base rims in a single colour for a single army.So,say green rims for one and grey for another and i plan on purple for a future force yet to be built.

**ajmerrifield**

YourSwordisMine wrote:
Goblin Green tops with Bestial Brown rims

As God (GW) intended...

"And as written in the Holy Text by the great prophet Citadel, thou shalt paint thine tops Goblin Green and thence shalt thou paint thy rims brown. Green shall be the top, brown shall be the rims. Thus shall it forever be, for the Lord GW hath set it forth this day." - From the Book of Blanche, Chapter 10, verse 42

**Tower75**

oadie wrote:
I don't see much point in trying to blend a base into the tabletop, considering how infrequently a model will be standing on the proper terrain (socketed display boards notwithstanding). Likewise, a base's rim (whether beveled or round-lipped) is generally an unnatural feature - painting it in the base's colors doesn't make it any less so.

Since I can't make it disappear, I prefer to treat it artistically. For me, that means thinking of it like I was framing artwork - the base rim is the beveled edge or narrow reveal in matting, providing stark (but small and/or unimportant enough not to be jarring) visual separation between the art (i.e.model and basing) and the frame (i.e. tabletop). Without clean separation, basing gets muddied as it clumsily "blends" into a similar tabletop or ends up with an even more jarring transition, as with grass bases in a desert or crumbling asphalt in a snow field.

I do make exceptions when the game calls for it, though. If the models might be used in a system where facing matters, split colors may end up looking cleaner than bisecting lines on a black base. I'm still actually on the fence on that one, but there's no need to revisit it until I paint more of my Infinity models.

Well said. That's kinda how i'm thinking now.

With my "first" Guardmen, I was looking at them the other day, on the table top, and I was very aware that they were standing on green and brown bases with orange leaves glued on. Standing next to my Guardsmen where my new Sentinels and my Valkyrie, and they were black rimmed. They just looked better. I thought to myself. They're models, they sit on a base. It looks better, imo, that the bases are treated as bases, and not "blended" into the table.

**edbradders**

I think it depends on the colours used on the rest of the base. My daemon army is on desert style bases so I painted the rims a sandy-brown colour. My IG army are on a Tarmac/concrete base so I left the rims black. My old VC army had muddy bases with grass so I painted the rims dark brown.

With your examples, I personally prefer the one with the painted rim over the black rim.

**Feasible**

I've dabbled around in brown, green, white, and other side colors, but black is what I've settled one. It really makes the model pop, looks professional, and it works with any model. -Feasible

**Barksdale**

Once you go black you never go back.

**fishy bob**

Black rims looks great with urban bases. Otherwise I don't care for black rims.

**Rorschach9**

Yonan wrote:
I'm a fan of black base rims. Painted ones look tacky compared to nice clean black but to each their own.

I agree with this (most of the time). There are very limited circumstances where I think bases painted anything but black look good.

**PaperworkNinja**

I try to use neutral colors on my bases, mostly to work in multiple terrain situations. Tamiya Khaki (XF-49) seems to work the best, as I can flock it with just about anything and make it work for outdoor terrains. A light gray also works for urban, shipboard and snowy terrains, too.

**Lord Byte**

I use my bases to quickly identify what type of "boy" it is and what equipment he has.
My shoota boyz are red, choppas would give them blue stripes, a boy with a big shoota would have orange stripes on the side
Nobz are golden. A nob with shoota would be golden with red stripes, etc,..

Much easier to quickly get the right types together in their correct squads, looks nice and you really don't notice it all that much, while still being a reference from a distance if you need it. (reference: https://plus.google.com/photos/114065730599734192142/albums/5794411383385317393?banner=pwa )

**Matney X**

I feel like non-black rims can be done very well, and if it's done well it can make an excellent model look even better.

That said, it's not easy to do, and I'm lazy. IMO, black ALWAYS looks good, and I'd rather go that way than have my attempt at a non-black rim look bad.

**Winter**

I only use Black rims, I previously used the earthy brown to go with the bases that I had on my Chaos.

But like many others have said, the black rim just frames a model really well.

**Azazelx**

I use neatly painted matt black rims and have done so since Rogue Trader. Despite the fact that I initially did it because I was copying the books and WD, over time I haven't changed it since it just frames the model nicely to me. I don't mind other options, such as other matt earth tones, and they can look good/appropriate depending on the models. Similarly, I can see various greys working well for arctic/snow bases.

I have an unfinished Ork army with desert bases which I had rimmed with black. Right now they're somewhat paused while I decide whether to rebase them with my dark brown dirt+flock that I use for pretty much everything else, or stick with desert sand and Snakebite Leather rims.

Amusingly, the coloured bases that I've never liked are those rimmed with Goblin Green - aka the WD-mandated scheme for most of the 1990's...

**djphranq**

I have mostly used the traditional black rim for my models. There was one case where I painted the rim of some models a different color other than black... that was when I did some Malifaux models. Once completed, on a whim I decided to paint the base P3 Sanguine Base. I thought they looked unique.

The next miniatures whose games involve 'facing' for their models will probably get bases painted either totally in 'other than black' or at least one facing (front or back) painted while the other side will remain black.

**Urukguy27**

oadie wrote:
I don't see much point in trying to blend a base into the tabletop, considering how infrequently a model will be standing on the proper terrain (socketed display boards notwithstanding). Likewise, a base's rim (whether beveled or round-lipped) is generally an unnatural feature - painting it in the base's colors doesn't make it any less so.

Since I can't make it disappear, I prefer to treat it artistically...

This is exactly how I feel. There's no getting around the fact that in the end, unless you're basing your models for a display setting, your bases will rarely match your battlefield. Therefore, the most important thing is matching your army.

I have many different rims, ranging from grey to dark brown to light tan, but I can say that black is the only color I have not willingly applied to any of my armies or display units.

Black, to me, means unfinished. If you make it a sharp, crisp black, maybe with a varnish, perhaps it would look like its a complete rim. Just my two cents, but in the end its all your opinion mate. If I was you, I would simply use a darker brown instead of straight black. Your guard look good!

Cheers

Urukguy

**Azazelx**

djphranq wrote:
I have mostly used the traditional black rim for my models. There was one case where I painted the rim of some models a different color other than black... that was when I did some Malifaux models. Once completed, on a whim I decided to paint the base P3 Sanguine Base. I thought they looked unique.

The next miniatures whose games involve 'facing' for their models will probably get bases painted either totally in 'other than black' or at least one facing (front or back) painted while the other side will remain black.

For facings, I haven't actually had to set up any figures with specific angles for years. I have added small squad markings on the backs of the bases when appropriate (Iron Warriors, Orks). Of course, figures like Space Marines, Imperial Guard, etc often have "built in" spots for squad markings, so they just remain plain black (or brown).

**djphranq**

Azazelx wrote:
djphranq wrote:
I have mostly used the traditional black rim for my models. There was one case where I painted the rim of some models a different color other than black... that was when I did some Malifaux models. Once completed, on a whim I decided to paint the base P3 Sanguine Base. I thought they looked unique.

The next miniatures whose games involve 'facing' for their models will probably get bases painted either totally in 'other than black' or at least one facing (front or back) painted while the other side will remain black.

For facings, I haven't actually had to set up any figures with specific angles for years. I have added small squad markings on the backs of the bases when appropriate (Iron Warriors, Orks). Of course, figures like Space Marines, Imperial Guard, etc often have "built in" spots for squad markings, so they just remain plain black (or brown).

For games like WM/H, marking the 'face' of the base can be remarkably helpful. I've never thought to do it until I went to one event where the TO asked folks to do so. Going forward I've marked my bases where facing might be an issue. its only recently that I've thought to be a little bit more creative with it and not just slashes/lines on the sides of the base.

**Badger_Bhoy**

I used to paint all of mine black until I painted one a very dark brown (rhinox hide?) on a commission. I tried it out on a few special characters and it's going on all. It matches the basing of green static grass, grey rocks, and maybe snow. I think it manages to frame/finish the base while still lookin like a continuation, minimizing the base. I've also done it on a sand and rock base and it works.

I've thought of putting a matching color fade to denote LoS subtly, but haven't found it necessary in this game as in WarmaHordes.

**krushgroove**

I prefer bases painted to match the color theme of the army - for my Chaos army I use Vallejo Beasty Brown which is a match to the current brown GW use in their promo pictures. It also looks really nice with the Armageddon Dust texture paint I use for that army. My DE have black base rims because they are mostly black.

I do very much like this idea though:

Madcat87 wrote:
I paint my rims based on squad colours, makes it a lot easier for everyone when you can tell identical units apart when they start getting mixed up.

Although I might use a color code or something on the back edge of the base, so the leader/HW guy doesn't have a spotlight on him from whoever I'm playing!