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.

I'm looking for a way to base my miniatures (orks), but I haven't found one yet I'd greatley appreciate if you could post your style of bases and what sort of materials you use. Thanks

Heres what I've been doing for my Dark Angels, Theyre not too spectacular, but not too flat and boring.



Theyre made with Windsor and Newton Galeria Mineral Texture Gel, Some bits of slate/pebble just pushed into the texture medium while its wet, and some bits of junk and sprue from the bits box as debris here or there. Texture gel is layered up sometimes to create a bit of depth.
To paint them I use windsor and newton galeria Burnt Umber mixed with some ultramatte medium (liquitex brand opaque matte) as a base, dry brush with steel legion drab, and again with zandri dust. then wash with my own wash; liquitex matte medium, W&N galeria burnt umber, liquitex professional ink carbon black, and a fair amount of water/flow aid mixture. I suppose washes of nuln oil and agrax earth shade might be similar, and rhinox hide is similar to burnt umber.
The coloured rim is just to match the purple power armour of my Dark Angels successors. Most people do this part black.

edit; texture mediums, you may think sand and glue is as good... aesthetically it can be, but the acrylic binder is much higher quality than pva glue, mixes with colours nicely to save base coating, takes paint well (as its paint itself) and the texture within it should be something that is kinder to brushes than sand is. Theres a few different textures available, Black Lava Beads is popular., the one I've used here is somewhat similar to using some course sand and pva glue in visual effect I guess.

HairySticks wrote:
Heres what I've been doing for my Dark Angels, Theyre not too spectacular, but not too flat and boring.



Theyre made with Windsor and Newton Galeria Mineral Texture Gel, Some bits of slate/pebble just pushed into the texture medium while its wet, and some bits of junk and sprue from the bits box as debris here or there. Texture gel is layered up sometimes to create a bit of depth.
To paint them I use windsor and newton galeria Burnt Umber mixed with some ultramatte medium (liquitex brand opaque matte) as a base, dry brush with steel legion drab, and again with zandri dust. then wash with my own wash; liquitex matte medium, W&N galeria burnt umber, liquitex professional ink carbon black, and a fair amount of water/flow aid mixture. I suppose washes of nuln oil and agrax earth shade might be similar, and rhinox hide is similar to burnt umber.
The coloured rim is just to match the purple power armour of my Dark Angels successors. Most people do this part black.

edit; texture mediums, you may think sand and glue is as good... aesthetically it can be, but the acrylic binder is much higher quality than pva glue, mixes with colours nicely to save base coating, takes paint well (as its paint itself) and the texture within it should be something that is kinder to brushes than sand is. Theres a few different textures available, Black Lava Beads is popular., the one I've used here is somewhat similar to using some course sand and pva glue in visual effect I guess.

That might be a bit too advanced for me I was thinking more of like the citadel textures or something along those lines

I did this with the citadel texture paints. You can build it up then wash black and dry brush grey.


I also made these out of cork board purchased from target. Break it up glue it down then paint.

the citadel texutre paint is a bit of a rip off to be fair, I cant advise you to get them In good faith.
Instead you could get an acrylic texture medium from a reputable brand; vallejo do some, Windsor and Newton, liquitex
Heres one example;
http://www.artsupplies.co.uk/item-liquitex-black-lava-gel-medium.htm
Thats 237ml for £8.81
vs citadels 12ml for £2.30
I know they have colour; the texture medium is mixable with any acrylic colours, so simple add your favorite citadel colours, or any other brand, I said I used Windsor and Newton, simple because I have them already from my arts and crafty hobbies (im not just into painting models )
good alternatives would be cheap craft store acrylics of any brand really. Considering its for basing, potentially you will need lots, 12ml wont cut it! With a bottle of medium you can make up any colour any amount (upto 237ml that is! hehe) any time
There should be an artist supply shop or website that can deliver to you for a reasonable price anywhere in the world tbh. It turns out that citadel arent the leaders in acrylic paint technology the fine artists had this stuff down pat years ago

I do mine with elmer's glue and then some sort of sand or flock and maybe green stuff, bits, little rocks, or slate to add more rubble and stuff to the base. Then I prime the minis and just paint the bases.

Right now I'm doing lava bases, like so:

For the Dark Eldar I'm working on, my fluff has them as space pirates so I wanted bases that looked like various ships they would be raiding:



I found a good deal on the bases, buying 25 of them off Ebay for a few dollars. If you added some random welds, plates or junk they might look good for Orks. They could be in a workshop, or raiding a junkyard.

If your looking for something simple with citadel textures here's mine. I'm going for some sort of slum or wrecked industrial zone. It's the best angle I have at the moment for the base.



-Paint orange/brown colour.
-Add two layers of brown texture (one layer is a little thin on big bases).
-Wash with a brown colour.
You can also dry brush if you want to adjust colour further.

I'm thinking of gluing sand and basing it a certain colour and the drybrushing layer until I get the desired colour. I would like a sort of brownish darkish clour any suggestions on what paints I should use?

It changes for every batch of miniatures, but in general I try to find basing methods that are fast and cheap.

Sometimes I just glue dry sheetrock paint texture (ground pummice) onto a base and paint and drybrush it.


If you want to sculpt the base a bit you can mix it into paint until it's thick like a paste and smear that onto the base. A drybrush and a touch of flock and it's done.

These guys here were even easier. Just a bit of wall plaster smeared on and then sculpted (more like fast poking with a stick) to look like ground.


More recently often it's just supergluing a few pebbles down and then covering the base with sand, followed by one color of paint and a drybrush. That's what these guys got:


However, for a recent batch of figures (not photographed yet) I've applied Fireplace cement (cheap, comes-premixed and as a nice texture) and put pieces of pine bark in it. When painted it looks like broken pieces of shale-ish rock. Here's what it looks like on a larger figure, except that here it's sand instead of fireplace cement.

I'll see about some pics tonight....

Medium pumice gel, primed almond, drybrushed with tan, then a yellow ochre, then white, washed with sepia, arid static grass added for a desert warfare look.

very lazy/simple:
1.) spent coffe grinds. Throw them in the oven, bake a little bit to dry it out, and you have ideally sized granules, that are already a decent color for soil.
2.) grab some sand or crushed glass/rock from the dollar store or art store that's a reasonable color (black, dark browns, tans, whites and light blues)

Yep I like lazy ..I use spent coffee grounds + sand and shredded dried leaves for my grunts (Mix on a paper plate pva glue on the base slide it thru let dry then knock excess onto the plate ..spray a coat of matte varnish over top and call it good color stripe around bottom of base for unit id ) I get fancier with Sgts, Captains, Bosses, Etc...the higher the rank and bigger the base the fancier I get..

on that note, certain teas will also work. Rooibos is always a good bet, earl grey and green tea are up in the air, depends on how finely chopped those are, but mixing those into your coffee grinds will add texture.

I've just remembered why white crushed rock is a good idea:
-prime the base a medium/dark brown
-PVA+DARK brown paint
-apply PVA, then sprinkle crushed white rock on top. The rock/powder will absorb the glue and paint, but the stuff at the bottom will turn brown, the stuff at the top will stay mostly white. it looks like freshly-snowed on mud. A truly well-done effect will however also rely on some water effects, boot prints, etc, but it's a decently lazy way of getting the bases done up and looking decent.

Nice might have to try the coffee/sand/leaves thing for my wood elves!!

I use 3 types of bases just so i dont get bored of doing the same thing.


I use a light flock mixed with cracks made from GS and also spare bits to add effect. I do this on my Space Marines.


For my Grey Knights i use a similar crack effect but leaving bigger gaps to make a warp rift effect, darker flock to give a corrupted planet feel (well i think so haha) and small bits of slate.


Finally my DE, i use a sand/small gravel mix which i paint and dry brush, i then add patches of the darker flock to give a bit difference on some of the bases (would be where the brown patches are) Sorry that this is a WIP pic but easiest to see the effect on it.

I got to try my hand on some of these.

Sometimes the cheapest things work best.
elmers white glue
sand
a Bunch of small gravel i picked up (maybe even a small stone or 2 for bigger models)
Sepia colored wash
grass flock is desired
small layer of glue on base. Let sit for 2 minutes to lol out
pour sand onto it..push extra in
let dry...sepia wash it..after dry add grass if you want.
Simple...looks good...there ya go

My bases are pretty simple, but I think they are fairly effective.

40K:
white glue>sand>white glue.
Superglue on a couple of pieces of aquarium gravel.
Paint Black>Dry brush mid-grey>Drybrush light-grey
Flock



WFB is Identical but with a different palette - Paint dark brown>Wash Darker Brown>Drybrush Mid Brown