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I can't seem to find any thread on how to do this. If I want a burn mark on the base, is it as simple as drybrushing some black (and maybe some other colors) on the brownish sandy gravel stuff I have? Or is there a better way? Anyone do this before?

Its that simple. Drybrushing is a good technique for it because it catches edges in a similar way to a ball of flame would as it passes over an object.

Cool, since I can only paint simple, lol. So should I stick with just black, or also something else for some kind of charring or ash effect?

This is a really handy link that I think will be 'sooted' (Excuse the pun! ) to the effect I think you're trying to achieve. The first four steps are really just explaining how to paint metal but it's the last two you should take note of:

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.co.uk/2009/05/painting-soot-stained-gun-barrels-quick.html

If you are trying to attempt it on a base as against a gun barrel, then I'd say that the best way to go about it would be to drybrush your black at the centre of the burn mark, and then proceeded to drybrush the brown backwards in ever lighter strokes back towards the direction the burn mark came from. Think of the effect a comet has - the tail will be your brown drybrush (The lighter heat distortion/carbon build-up) with the body of the comet being the heavy carbon buildup - the black). Hope this helps

Warpig that's a very helpful explanation and link. Thanks!

I'm wondering what the 'pattern' should be now. Circular with an irregular border, circular with some spokes on a wheel type 'comets' radiating out

No problem!

It would probably help if you tell us what kind of effect you want to achieve. Speaking for myself, I can't imagine what kind of scorch mark you want as I don't know what caused it if you catch my drift. If it was a lascannon burn (for arguments sake) then I would imagine the said 'comet' type of burn as it scorches into the base. For a plasma or melta hit, I could imagine a more circular (roughly) type of burn with the brown radiating out from the centre. I will say though, I think you may find it harder to replicate the burn on such a rough surface as sand. Perhaps if you had a smooth part on the base (even just a little tile or piece of scrap metal) it would show the burn fully and have more of an effect. That said I've never tried this effect on a base so I'm intrigued to see if it'll look good.

Well I'd imagine that depending on the type of weapon the sand would be melted from the heat (laser, plasma, melter) So maybe you could remove a part of the sand and just add a mix of glue and fine sand on the molten area.

 Warpig1815 wrote:
No problem!

It would probably help if you tell us what kind of effect you want to achieve. Speaking for myself, I can't imagine what kind of scorch mark you want as I don't know what caused it if you catch my drift. If it was a lascannon burn (for arguments sake) then I would imagine the said 'comet' type of burn as it scorches into the base. For a plasma or melta hit, I could imagine a more circular (roughly) type of burn with the brown radiating out from the centre. I will say though, I think you may find it harder to replicate the burn on such a rough surface as sand. Perhaps if you had a smooth part on the base (even just a little tile or piece of scrap metal) it would show the burn fully and have more of an effect. That said I've never tried this effect on a base so I'm intrigued to see if it'll look good.

With my painting skills I don't know if anything will look good to you guys.

I wanted to try to simulate a scorch mark left by a flamethrower type weapon.

Oh, how about if I use a small area of black sand, where the rest of the base has my normal brownish sand? Then I use that as the center point and then drybrush on the brown sand around it the black?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 btldoomhammer wrote:
Well I'd imagine that depending on the type of weapon the sand would be melted from the heat (laser, plasma, melter) So maybe you could remove a part of the sand and just add a mix of glue and fine sand on the molten area.

That's also a good idea. More of a glassy effect

Super Newb wrote:With my painting skills I don't know if anything will look good to you guys.

Nonsense! How on earth do you think we (and by that I mean the rest of Dakka - I'm really just amateur compared to any of them) got to where we are? I'm sure your attempt will be fine and if it's not what you are looking for then practice makes perfect - determination to succeed is the only way forward.

Super Newb wrote:Oh, how about if I use a small area of black sand, where the rest of the base has my normal brownish sand?

Personally, I would avoid this method like the plague. I'll explain why. The effect you are looking for is really just part of weathering. Weathering occurs when layers of grim/soot/scratching etc. occur to an already existing object. It's really just an extra layer. Hence, to look realistic, you want your weathering to look as if it has formed over the top of your pre-existing object. In your case, you want the soot to be forming on top of the sand. So if you were to paint a black blob and then drybrush the edge around it, it would look exactly like that - just a black hole with some brown drybrush round it. It won't be realistic in the 28mm scale. Rather you want the effect of your sooty build-up on top of the sand as would occur in real life - with bits of the original cover showing through. Instead paint you base to it's 'clean' version and then go about weathering it down to the dirty scorched version. I'm new to weathering as a whole so this link explains the concept far better than me. It's from the same guy as the above tutorial I posted (His stuff is epic so check out the rest of his tutorials - they are really informative and easily done):

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/start-with-clean-model-before.html

Hmm, Warpig you make a lot of sense.

Thanks for the link again. I like that guy's site so far