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Howdy folks. So I am at the point of painting my Blood Angels Death Company's bases. My army has a scorched grass theme for the bases thusfar, and I want them to match. But, as warriors driven insane by Chaos, I want them to also have sort of a grim look about their bases. I took a spare base and painted a rough look (a lot of lines aren't cleaned up because it's a proof of concept):


How can I improve my base? The kind of thing I was going for is "scorched earth under their feet" look, but they still come from a relatively grassy moon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srkeqFc2P14#t=1m29s Here's an example, check around 1:29 (in case the time link doesn't work).

Hmm..well the base is kind of sparse, you need rocks as well as ash.

Holy_doctrine wrote:Hmm..well the base is kind of sparse, you need rocks as well as ash.

Is it possible to add rocks etc after priming & painting the model? Or do you mean like sizable rocks that are the size of a soldier's foot?

I was also thinking of some grass farther in the back.

Is that a snail painted on the base?

As for making the base look more "grim", you could go the standard GW route and put a skull on the base.

My suggestion would be some small patches of sand here and there about the base.

I would also recommend changing the bases rim colour to something a bit more earthy. Charadon Granite is a great choice for this.

If you have the bitz, I would also suggest putting some random battlefield detritus on there. stuff like barbed wire, shell casings, shrapnel and scrap metal and so on.

GW actually have an excellent base tutorial here:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=§ion=&pIndex=0&aId=9800023a&start=1&multiPageMode=true

Probably one of the few good tutorials on their site and is well worth a look.

Not a bad start. I'd say that if you wanted it to look like the grass was burning beneath their feet, make it look more like ash. I'd go with a sand base going from black and dry-brushing up to a light gray. Dark and light greys around the rim of the base.
If you're going to have any static grass on there, then it should have an earthy brown under it. Try making the grass look scorched only at the edge where it meets the ashen area. A bit of red/orange, but don't go overboard. Keep it light.
I feel a bit bad for shouting orders, to be honest, but I think this will give you the effect you're looking for.

FrozenSoul80 wrote:GW actually have an excellent base tutorial here:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=&categoryId=§ion=&pIndex=0&aId=9800023a&start=1&multiPageMode=true

Probably one of the few good tutorials on their site and is well worth a look.

Oh nice, I'm gonna have to check this out. Thanks for the link!

JustPlainJim wrote:I feel a bit bad for shouting orders, to be honest, but I think this will give you the effect you're looking for.

That's actually just the kind of reply I was after, thanks.

Glue some basing grit on it before painting, preferably after assembling the mini in the first place. Then you can follow that GW guide that got posted and just drybrush it up.