Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

G'day all,

I have an unbased Tyranid army and thought I'd finally get around to basing them.

What do you think of this?







For a while I was wanting to do a slime base, but couldn't decide on a slime colour that would work well with the blue/red/bone scheme. Actually I couldn't think of ANY colour that would go with red/bone/blue to do any sort of nice looking base, so I figured a snow base might work well. What do you think?

Any comments before I forge ahead to do the rest of them?

Looks good! I like it, what did you use for snow? Doesn't look the the GW Stuff.

Cheers! I used Woodland Scenics soft flake snow mixed with PVA and a bit of water, but mostly PVA and the soft flake snow. It's super cheap, a container doesn't cost much and should last you forever.

I would reduce the snow volume a little bit, it looks a bit overwhelming on gaunts. You really only see snow clumps that big on ground that has had snow unnaturally dumped on it, like the side of a driveway after shoveling and most of the snow has melted the next day. I'd make it thinner and more uniform, with smaller rock holes peaking out to look more natural.

I think maybe use a little more pva to get a shiny wet look to the snow, but other than that, its nice! I'm also doing snow bases on my tyranids, using GW snow and vallejo still water effects

Dessorag wrote:
I would reduce the snow volume a little bit, it looks a bit overwhelming on gaunts. You really only see snow clumps that big on ground that has had snow unnaturally dumped on it, like the side of a driveway after shoveling and most of the snow has melted the next day. I'd make it thinner and more uniform, with smaller rock holes peaking out to look more natural.

This is good advice. When you have snow piles that tall, you are not going to have grass peeking though.

But besides that minor point, it looks very nice. And people who don’t have to deal with multiple feet of snow in the winter aren’t going to pick up that inconsistency. Particularly when they are trying to mow down the hordes before they get to close combat.

Thanks for the tips. I'll try and thin the layer down a bit. I admittedly did realise that is was a bit odd, because I've applied thick snow but with exposed ground, so it's like the snow has been shifted rather than simply melting.

It was largely an aesthetic choice, lol. I thought it might look like that after an army has trampled through and shifted the snow about, making it clump in certain areas and expose the ground in others.

Overll nice. I agree with the post above about reducing the volume of snow. Also, once you have a clump of snow down, dip your brush in some water and tamp the snow down around the grass. The water will think it and let some of grass poke through, like it's early spring.

 Glaiceana wrote:
I think maybe use a little more pva to get a shiny wet look to the snow, but other than that, its nice! I'm also doing snow bases on my tyranids, using GW snow and vallejo still water effects

Yeah, I'm going to grab some Secret Weapon "Realistic Water".

http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=6

I did look at GW snow before I bought the Woodland Scenics stuff. I decided to go with Woodland Scenics because the GW stuff just looked like white static grass, the Woodland Scenics stuff actually looks more like flakes of snow. The Woodland Scenics stuff is kind of like a very fine sand that's white and semi-transparent. So if you apply it thin, you see some of the base colour showing through, but the more thickly you apply it, the more white it looks.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ifurita wrote:
Overll nice. I agree with the post above about reducing the volume of snow. Also, once you have a clump of snow down, dip your brush in some water and tamp the snow down around the grass. The water will think it and let some of grass poke through, like it's early spring.

Cool tip! Thanks!

I will admit I've never lived in a place with heavy snow. The most snow where I've lived was a couple of inches here and there which would melt in a few days and maybe a 6" fall once or twice each winter, lol.

Very nice! I wouldn't worry about reducing the snow clumps, or if you do I would keep the reduction minimal. I would favour aesthetics over hyper-realism (Considering your basing a squad of bio engineered aliens.....)

What I'm thinking is I might try 1 model with thinned out snow and maybe another where I use similar thickness to what I have, but make it thinner (tapering I guess) at the edges instead of just a big clump like I have (that, I think, would look more like melting snow).

Then I'll just pick one looks the best and go with it. I want to get the army based up ASAP so I can move on to my next project.

Skink, here's an example of how my snow bases turn out.

That looks pretty cool! What method do you use for that snow?

But yeah, that looks better, I'll try a thinner layer and try to work it around the grass better using some water and see how it comes out.

Same as I posted above. First, I base and flock my base as usual. Then, I mix some of the Woodland Scenics snow with a little bit of water and white glue to make a paste. I use a flat brush to pick up and deposit it over the grass, then use a wet brush to thin it and work it into the grass.

Cool, thanks, I just didn't know if you were also using Woodland Scenics or if you were doing something different.

Cheers!