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I’m starting a tyranid army over Christmas and I need to work out how I’m gong to base them. I’m going for: a small group of survivors from an exterminated fleet land on a flora heavy planet, and adapt to camouflage to it. They are in the stage of raiding and hit and run (gradually collecting biomass to spawn bigger creatures) so the bases won’t be a typical “tyranid base” (slime, devastation, rotting), it’ll be more a thriving ecosystem, with tyranids.

So I’m looking for plants that could suit an alien world (the same colours as my tyranids), and some kind of basing methods to look like dirt or soil(but probably a blue-y purple colour).

The scheme scheme im doing is this:



So;
1. Has anyone tried GW Barbed bracken, and do you think it would good on tyranid bases?
2. What are some basic basing techniques? I never bothered with my other armies but I’d like to learn
3. How to make bases/terrain look realistic?
Or really anything to do with basing my nids... Some kind of walkthrough or step by step would be awesome.


Thanks for any help you can give me, I’d really like to get this done by new year
BabyRipper

This stuff would probably work great with your colour scheme:
https://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/woodland-scenics-f177-flowering-foliage-lavender/a-1170/


You could mix with these:
https://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/726-33-silflor-6mm-early-autumn-blossom-tufts/a-792/

 bubber wrote:
This stuff would probably work great with your colour scheme:
https://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/woodland-scenics-f177-flowering-foliage-lavender/a-1170/


You could mix with these:
https://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/726-33-silflor-6mm-early-autumn-blossom-tufts/a-792/

That woodland scenics stuff looks amazing! Do you know how much you get in a bag?
Not quite as keen about the flower clumps - I’d rather go for something big and leafy to paint my poptart pink (with the greeny turquoise for fronds and stalks). Also what’s the best way to do small height variations with bases?

Thanks again for the reply - that will help a bunch.

BabyRipper

Doing jungle bases right now.

I swear by golden orile coarse pumice gel.
Use cheap applebarrel acrylic paints to basecoat and drybush.

Then just put some flock on it.

 Dynas wrote:
Doing jungle bases right now.

I swear by golden orile coarse pumice gel.
Use cheap applebarrel acrylic paints to basecoat and drybush.

Then just put some flock on it.

Are you using the pumice gel to add variation and layers? Also, what colours are you using for the jungle, and do you put plants on your bases?

I’m looking for something like this colour probably (maybe a little bit darker/greyer?):

The lavender stuff might be a bit light... anyone know a good place to buy different coloured flock?

BabyRipper

The pumice is more grainy in texture, so its not going to look like that, it will look like you did PVA + sand, but its less of a mess and faster.

For colors I use Apple Barrel Aryclics. Like a $1 a piece a wal mart.

Nutmeg base brown
then drybrush territorial beige
very light drybrush of khaki

You can also use Melted chocalte brown as the base if you want it darker.

I go for earthy colors on my bases.

For that color in your pic, i would probably basecoat it Pavement color (dark grey) then drybrish with a medium or light grey. Almost looks like there may be some dark purple in their as well.

Plants, go aquarium plants (ebay or petstore) or goto hobby lobby and buy the fake plants in the flower section.

I've got a bag full of blue foam offcuts (from an old snow board) lying around - can use those to vary terrain shapes.

Paints are easy - cheap acrylic paints as mentioned above. I would use some tiny stones or flock for texture, then spray, and drybrush with different colours (purple).

The_Vole

The only issue i'm gonna have with this is the plants. I'm in the UK and can't find ANY aquarium plants I like the look of (I was halfway through ordering some good looking ones through ebay but *can't ship to your country because tax issues*). I've checked the hobby stores near me and no joy.

Unless I can find some good alternatives I may be stuck with Barbed Bracken... Not too happy about that.

BabyRipper

I used the GW Bracken on my Exodite Eldar bases, I think it looks great:

 Swan-of-War wrote:
I used the GW Bracken on my Exodite Eldar bases, I think it looks great:

Daym, they look awesome! I really don’t know much about eldar - how do those ones pictured compare to standard troops? Did you use a similar covering of the bracken over every single different unit type in your army?
It does look pretty cool there - and knowing it’ll be available and easy to come by, as well as being used for its intended purpose (as opposed to cannibalising aquarium plants for miniatures and having to do loads of work...) I think I may be sold.

Thanks for the input mate!

BabyRipper

These are the only ones I have finished so far, but yes, I'll be using them on all my bases. You can break it up with some rocks and battlefield debris if you want some variety.

Since it's an alien world, I think these are a great way to tie in the bracken color with your army, yet still add some pops of color here and there.

One thing to consider is to not have the fronds hang out too far from the base edge: ease of fitting into foam trays and so that you can be in base-to-base more easily (especially with Nids)

Try hobby craft
or amazon or ebay uk

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6-56ft-9-19ft-Artificial-Ivy-Vine-Leaf-Garland-Plants-Fake-Foliage-Flowers-Deco-/271387087017

I plan on doing jungle bases for my 'nids as well. The plan for the bases so far is to get the "Rolling Pin Madness of Cthulhu" from green stuff world, roll it over some das clay. Break of a few chunks for the broken ruin effect, add a few pools of watereffects maybe with some ink, and som colorful lychen, moss, aquarium plants and the like. Then you have some broken ruins, flooded ruins like jungle bases.

I really like GW bracken and vines. They are a really nice soft plastic that allows you to bend and shape them. A little heat will makes them bend even better.

My very basic basing technique is PVA and a mix of medium and fine railroad talus, then base coat with a cheap earth tone acrylic paint, wash, dry brush one or two highlight colors, grass flock, and finally add plants, etc.

GW bracken is just great!

Thanks for the input guys! My order at the moment will be:
1. Add chips of blue foam into the bases (offcuts from a cliff I carved, using them for varying height terrain and rocks).
2. Cover with glue and sand or pumice gel (looking into that)
3. Use GW barbed bracken on smaller bases, and mix with larger aquarium plants on big bases
4. Spray black
5. Various dry brushes and painting to make the ground earthy and the plants look good
Simple!

BabyRipper

I would paint the dirt bases first. then put the plants on. Just hit the plants with some anti shine matt varnish.

Hi guys, sorry for the mini necro, but I thought I’d do a final update and say that I’ve worked out bases for my scheme and I’m happy with them.
Here is my first finished and based gaunt, and some carnifex bases that just need the plants painting:








Small foam chippings from a blue foam board were used to make the mounds on the fex bases, then cover in astrogranite debris, add some barbed bracken, and then paint Naggaroth night and drybrush with lighter purple (then paint the bracken like in the gaunt pic). Thanks for helping me reach this conclusion guys!

BabyRipper

Nice!

I have a big used army I'm going to start basing soon, I kind of want to do a floral planet style too.

My plan is to take some vallejo pumice for the dirt and mud and add in tall grass. Its going to take some experimenting but I really want to do that for ripper swarms. They would look awesome popping up out of tall grass.

The only one I have a specific idea for is my trygon, I have a large guard army and most of my HWTs are in trenches. I'm going to have the trygon bursting up through a trench with guard bits scattered around.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The stuff they use for model train trees would work well too, you can paint it and it looks like bizzare moss or plants up close.

 easypeasylemonsquezy wrote:
Nice!

I have a big used army I'm going to start basing soon, I kind of want to do a floral planet style too.

My plan is to take some vallejo pumice for the dirt and mud and add in tall grass. Its going to take some experimenting but I really want to do that for ripper swarms. They would look awesome popping up out of tall grass.

The only one I have a specific idea for is my trygon, I have a large guard army and most of my HWTs are in trenches. I'm going to have the trygon bursting up through a trench with guard bits scattered around.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The stuff they use for model train trees would work well too, you can paint it and it looks like bizzare moss or plants up close.

Depending on how big you plan your army to grow, I would recommend astrogranite. You’d need quite a few pots for a huge army (and it’s probably not the EASIEST to work with), but it comes out great. GW barbed bracken I have no reservations about whatsoever. It’s amazing; easy to use, looks brilliant, you can paint it anyway you want (to look like normal plants or alien as above), and you get a load. Basing 3 carnifexes, a tfex and 10 hormies (so far) used less than half a pack. I think they’d look great with rippers amongst them - you can lump a lot onto each base and there’ll still be plenty to go around!

That Trygon idea sounds beast - wish I’d done trenches with my Tau...