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Just curious about "colour theory" when it comes to bases and your army paint scheme. Do you generally want to paint your bases a different colour than the models? For example, if I had an army that had gray as its main colour, would I want to avoid basing it with gray rocks or a ruined city look?

I always go with something darker or more simple than the model to help the model pop out a bit more. The most important thing in basing is not the colour in my opinion, but is the texture as it can really break up the monotony in a model with a bit of soft grass, flowing water or sharp edged rock.

Really depends on the effect you want, and the technique you use. For example, let's do an ork nob. If you want him to look like the normal ork nob, usually you use a darker green than your usual green (say, Dark Angels Green), then layer some mid-green (Snot Green) then highlight with a light green (Goblin Green). With human flesh, it's usually a variation of Bestial Brown/Dark Flesh, then Dwarf Flesh, then Elf Flesh, then maybe Bleached Bone.

If you're doing washes, you may want to start on a mid to light tone. Let's go back to our ork: Me, I'd slap Snot Green on it, wash it with something (say, Dark Green Ink plus Brown Ink), then touch up with Snot Green again (leaving the recesses with ink), then highlight with Goblin Green. However, if I wanted a more muted green than you usually see, I'll use its contrasting color as base coat. Blood Red as base coat layered with green makes the recesses, well, red. It also contributes to the angry look, makes them contrasting but not "HEY LOOK AT ME I'M GREEN" and it has a nice effect. May not be everyone's cup of tea, though.

There are so many ways of choosing an appropriate base color, and it depends on a lot of factors. Experience will tell you what to use and not to use.

Well, I found it all depends on the theme of the army. I had an urban tau army painted grey. I made the base the same color as the uniforms but with highlights and detail so the model blended but but also stuck out.

But for my orks the are on junk bases weathered with rust weathering powders. The effect allows the minis to stand out. So both methods are fine but as long as you stick with just one for the entire army.

Oh wait, I associated it with the base color, meaning the first layer after the primer. Not the color of the base.


NOUN CONFUSION.

starsdawn wrote:Really depends on the effect you want, and the technique you use. For example, let's do an ork nob. If you want him to look like the normal ork nob, usually you use a darker green than your usual green

I hope I don't threadjack too much, but I tend to make my nobs brighter green, and my bosses brighter still, under the theory that, like a bosspole, these guys should really stand out in a crowd/mob/waaagh.

Ouze wrote:

starsdawn wrote:Really depends on the effect you want, and the technique you use. For example, let's do an ork nob. If you want him to look like the normal ork nob, usually you use a darker green than your usual green

I hope I don't threadjack too much, but I tend to make my nobs brighter green, and my bosses brighter still, under the theory that, like a bosspole, these guys should really stand out in a crowd/mob/waaagh.

I interpret "more green" as "more of the color green", meaning it is more saturated with the green color. Being a lighter color doesn't make it more saturated, although it does make it stand out more. Think of it as Catachan Green versus Snot Green, and imagine they're of the same value in the highlight scale. Snot Green has more color saturation, in this case.

Anyway, enough threadjack!

With bases, I would depend it on the effect I want. If they're supposed to be camouflaged, they should at least have one color that's roughly the same with the base. if I want them to stand out, then I use something that's in the opposite side of the color wheel, but take note that you have to make sure it's still within the context of the homeworld.

Necrons serve as a useful example here. The world of 40k, as deduced from the most popular basing choices, is very gray. And the Necrons are also gray (well, silver but still).

So what can you do?

- Jazz up the Necrons?



It's a very direct approach and can be effective . . . if you want Jazzy Necrons. (Coming up with an alternative color scheme that you really want to stick with can be disastrously difficult, however.)

- Jazz up the bases?



Well, now the base is stealing the show. My eyes unfortunately skim right past this well-painted model and focus on the stage rather than the actor.

- Jazz up the Necrons and their bases?



A neat idea but it all kind of runs together, obscuring what ought to be the familiar shape of the Necron Warrior while doing no favors to the unfamiliar shape of the basing.

- Follow Legoburners advice and emphasize a contrast in texture?



By Jove, I think he's got it! There's lots of grey/silver and brown/copper going on here but it doesn't look washed out because the broad, smooth surfaces of the Necron Warriors contrast so sharply with the rough rock texture of the bases.

Hahaha having a matching board on the last one is a bit of an advantage there

I am in the slow process of painting the rims of my bases to distinguish one squad from the other. I'll never win a Golden Demon for doing it, but it does help at the end of a game to make sure I have my minis together without having to count.

SoloFalcon1138 wrote:I am in the slow process of painting the rims of my bases to distinguish one squad from the other. I'll never win a Golden Demon for doing it, but it does help at the end of a game to make sure I have my minis together without having to count.

I do the same thing with my AOBR nobs - some of them are sort of hard to tell from dynamically posed boyz if they don't have a PK.

Manchu wrote:

- Jazz up the Necrons and their bases?



A neat idea but it all kind of runs together, obscuring what ought to be the familiar shape of the Necron Warrior while doing no favors to the unfamiliar shape of the basing.

Well, I can't contribute much on this discussion, as I've been very lazy with priming and painting.....

But i just wanted to say, if that necron didn't have so much electic blue (I don't know the GW paint colors) on it, that model and its base would just be so friggin epic!!!
I wanna model & base thats that awesome.....