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I'd like to start a discussion of how you pick what color(s) to predominate the base elements of your minis. I'm not talking about what color, overall, do you choose to compliment, but not overwhelm, the color scheme on the minis. So far, I've painted the bases of my red Blood Angels grey and the bases of my grey and bone Everblight black with some white snow). I'm trying to decide what colors to put on the bases of my white, grey, and green Aleph models (that's Skull White cloth, Codex Grey other cloth, Dark Angels Green metal, and Scorpion Green glowing highlights). My usual approaches will fail here: black would contrast too much with the overall paleness of the minis and grey would cause the bases to look too much like the minis, and the minis wouldn't stand out.

Advice would be appreciated, but I'm also interested in fostering a general discussion about how you decide which colors go on your bases.

Try not to distract from the mini by having your base be too bright or interesting. A single bright fallen sign or something may be cool, but anything beyond becomes distracting.

Additionally, convoluted bases with lots of junk are exciting, but only if their colors are similar to one another. Don't try to paint the junk in a variety of colors or you risk it being more interesting than the mini itself.

Finally, I run into this issue often: if your mini is dark-ish black, having a similarly colored base just camouflages your mini and makes it tremendously dull. Unless camouflage is your objective, put your dark-colored minis on light-colored bases such as snow or autumn leaves.

As for myself, I theme my bases.
My brightly-colored 40k Tyranids have a dull sandy base.
My dark-colored 40k Eldar have snowy bases.
My crisp, clean Infinity Aleph models have a rusty junkyard base.
My earthtone Infinity Haqqislam are meant to camouflage into their sandy baes.
My bright-colored Malifaux Collette's Showgirls clash against the muted streets they're in.
My cool-tone Malifaux Rasputina's Decemberites blend barely with the snowy ground.
My Malifaux Outcasts vary all over the place, so their bases are just a dull earthtone dirt.
My soot-covered dark Malifaux Ramos's Constructs, I have trouble with, but they're on likewise soot-colored streets. I tried to differentiate them by adding Verdigris and Copper/Brass whenever I could without being cartoony.

I'm not sure I can give you good advice for your color selection, except to say that often times a strong contrast can be effective. In general I usually try to make the base texture match my gameboard at home which is desert themed. Hence most of my bases are a brown with tan drybrush sand texture.

I sometimes make exceptions when the theme of the force or warband wouldn't fit the desert, such as my wood elf or forest creature warbands.

I'm also planning on basing my Blood angels (I've got 2000+ points painted, but only green painted bases) with the old-school-GW sand painted green and highlighted look. Thats for the strong contrast between green and red and the nostalgia since the army was started in the mid 90's.

What are your thoughts on using a chapter symbol, like an Omega for the Ultras or an Inqusitorial " I " for the Grey knights etc ?

Magpie wrote:What are your thoughts on using a chapter symbol, like an Omega for the Ultras or an Inqusitorial " I " for the Grey knights etc ?

I wouldn't want to put up with the freehanding, but I've seen some bases with that sort of thing that look really cool. A symbolic base definitely avoids the "desert based guy on a foresty board" situation!

ElectricPaladin wrote:

Magpie wrote:What are your thoughts on using a chapter symbol, like an Omega for the Ultras or an Inqusitorial " I " for the Grey knights etc ?

I wouldn't want to put up with the freehanding, but I've seen some bases with that sort of thing that look really cool. A symbolic base definitely avoids the "desert based guy on a foresty board" situation!

I agree, I think that freehanding would lead to a fair bit of variation and the idea would only work if they were all uniform.

I am toying with the idea of carving a plaster cast, or maybe even a 3D print to make a mould for resin.