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Hey guys,

What is are the common colors that GW and most painters use on the bottom of their bases other than just leaving it black? I don't mean the bottom where you glue ballast to, I mean below that... the rim that meets the table. I have been using Snakebite Leather for my Eldar, but it looks way too saturated with the brown. I thought Graveyard Earth might be more appropriate, but I've never worked with the color, so I'm not sure. I do have a color called "Desert Yellow" from GW but... I don't know. Any suggestions?

You mean the edge? I use Bestial Brown.

Black, other colors look stupid.

Lots of people local to me, paint the rim of the bases various colours to distinguish between units. There is a necron player, that has his groups of troops all with different coloures rims, silver, black, green, red, etc.

I had considered the color-by-units scheme... but it's not going to win me any local painting contests, which oddly I tend to do... mostly because everyone else hardly tries. In such a case I usually differentiate with decals, such as different squad insignia with space marines or slightly different pigmentation on a brow chitin on tyranids.

I use the standard Graveyard Earth. Black is fine for certain basing schemes as well.

Black.

I do most of mine in Khemri Brown. It coats well on the first pass, quick and easy.

I got old school on my Grey Knights. Goblin Green!!

Definitely depends on the basing, but I have used Astronomican Grey with my Snow bases and am currently using Dheneb Stone for the rims of my "granite" stlye bases.

Started with black, had a brown phase, and now I'm back to black.

I was using graveyard earth, and love the color, but it is so thin that it took several coats for even full coverage. For horde armies this just didn't work. Now I'm using Calthan brown, which covers in one coat, maybe a couple of swipes to patch up, and haven't looked back!

Lessons learned.... Whatever color you chose for the edge, match to your basing, and use one of the foundation paints.

Just plain black looks really sharp as well. Did that with one army and liked it, but I prefer the brown because it blends nicely between my basing and the table.

Edit: for clarification

My first two armies used black, but then those bases weren't very sophisticated, just flock and go.

The next army, my Dark Elves, uses Graveyard Earth - mainly because I started painting them just before the Foundation line of paints came out and Calthan Brown didn't exist yet. It went well with the 'mud, patchy snow, and dead grass' basing I used for them.

Dwarves are up next, and they are going to get a gravel and rock sort of basing. Dheneb Stone is going to get the role this time, I think.

Black...I just feel with the black base it puts the model more up on a pedestal. Lets face it the model is the key component not the base.

Black on one half, silver on the other half of the base, to show the front arc off the model.



(Which is fine for WarmaHordes, but doesn't matter for GW, which the actual topic was... My bad, sorry.)

Grey for me, our groups board is an ash waste type area.

And from a general modeling standpoint, grey is a rather neutral color and does not draw attention like black might.

Calthan Brown. Covers the entire rim in a single stroke too.

I use scorched brown, it matches my gaming board. I tried using paler browns, but found it can take 2-3 coats to get a flat colour, with scorched brown you only need one.

In the case of the thinner browns, I am more likely to start airbishing all of the bases so that I can get neat, smooth coats. Ususally with multiple-coat thinnness, you have problems with brush applications being thin in some spots and thick in others.

Gymnogyps wrote:I was using graveyard earth, and love the color, but it is so thin that it took several coats for even full coverage. For horde armies this just didn't work. Now I'm using Calthan brown, which covers in one coat, maybe a couple of swipes to patch up, and haven't looked back!

Lessons learned.... Whatever color you chose for the edge, match to your basing, and use one of the foundation paints.

Just plain black looks really sharp as well. Did that with one army and liked it, but I prefer the brown because it blends nicely between my basing and the table.

Edit: for clarification

Basecoat the rim with Khemri Brown then follow it up with Graveyard Earth.

Black rim. I have urban snow bases, so painting the rim black really brings out the modelling and snow on the bases.

Edit: does anyone here base their bikes or the flying jetbike bases?

I only ever use black now.
After I've finished I give the rim a sanding with some wet&dry paper then a couple of coats of black before some 'ard coat gloss varnish.
Also I replace the see-through bases for the appropriate-sized standard black base so everything (except large land-based vehicles) looks the same.


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I take the view that the 'base' colour should closely match the main colour of the base. I use a mars red type of gravel for basing(It just feels wrong to paint bases green, what are the chances of grass being found on other planets?), so I paint my bases completely with a red/brown coat. I've always felt that leaving the edges black seems more for display purposes. Now all I need to do is find a wargames table that is martian red and not grass green and I'll be happy!

black. otherwise the model looks like it is standing on a hill instead of a display base. plus it looks classier.

Blacks very much a 1 colour fits all

I'm very surprised so many people like black edges on their bases, it always seems unfinished to me...

Black and brown are the two dominant colors. You could go with a dark gray rather than black for a cooler feel for urban or winter basing and you'll usually want less saturated browns unless the rest of your army also has intense colors.
Goblin green rarely looks good, but it's almost always forgiven just for the sake of of nostalgia.

I base mine in urban themes so I paint the rims in the same grey that I use as the primary base color I paint the turf.

theQuanz wrote:Black, other colors look stupid.

This. Black. Always black.

Black.
Other colors look like um, well paint. Kinda ruins the feel of a nicely painted model, to have a ring of color around their feet.