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So, I bought a bunch of Astra Militarum figures online since I don't really enjoy painting anything other than Tyranids, but since the person I bought them from doesn't do commissions, I'm going to need to paint any future additions to that force myself. Problem is since I bought them painted, I don't know what colors or base materials were used. I was hoping perhaps someone could identify them for me.



There's a pic to give you an idea - it doesn't need to be exact, it just needs to be pretty close. I can get better pics this afternoon when I get home.

Flock and stones? Easy. If you cant find that colour stones just paint others

Thanks. My guess is that they're army painter pebbles, or they're from Hobby Lobby. I don't want to be painting bases because I'm absolutely horrible at it, which is why I'm also going to be looking for a new basing material for my 'nids that looks decent without having to be painted.

Say what? Stones are easy to paint! Base wash drybrush. And they look good too. My advice is to work on your bases, because a good base makes or breaks the miniature. Basing materials are easy enough to buy/find/scavenge/steal.

Every time I try to drybrush I always mess it up, at least with sand. I just can't make it so that the stroke marks are blended rather than being obvious, or getting the precise amount of paint on the brush. For some reason I never really have that issue with drybrushing on the models themselves, though. I don't know if depth perception has anything to do with it, but if it does that might be why I'm so crummy at it because I have lazy eye and thus poor depth perception (can't always tell whether I'm touching the mini or how far my brush tip is from the surface).

If you are drybrushing there should be almost no paint on the brush. To do this, wipe the brush on a piece of paper towel until there is almost nothing left on the brush.

I know how to drybrush - I always test a little bit on my finger and if it only gets the raised areas of my fingerprint I know it's all right. Problem is that every time I do a base, my brush strokes are very clear. I never have this problem when I'm drybrushing the models themselves, so I guess there's just something about drybrushing bases that I can't seem to get. I've tried doing both straight lines and a more swirled motion, but neither has seemed to work for me. I just don't want to mess up any more bases - if I don't have to do the painting, I don't have to worry about messing them up.

The simple solution is that with bases, you need less paint on the brush than you are used to. The extreme level of raised spots makes them pick up paint a bit easier than most models.

My bases are done as follows:

Assemble model. Glue sand to base. Prime model black. Let dry. Paint model.

For the base I drybrush Charred Brown, then Beasty Brown, then a final drybrush of Bonewhite. It takes about 30 seconds total per base.

Remember, go super easy on the paint on your brush and you will be fine.

Wipe it off until there´s nothing coming off anymore, so you really need to brush firmly to get the paint off. That´s how I drybrush at last.

army painter brown battleground
and
The Army Painter Steppe Grass static grass