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It seems whenever I look at any of the old codexes, all the model showcases featured models with green flock on them, with the edges of the base painted in bright green. 40k, Fantasy, even some Warmahordes. The 2nd and 3rd edition 40k codex showcases featured almost every model with a green base. Now that the games have progressed, I see less and less of that. More realistic bases with brown borders are far more prominent, and I agree, that is how I have always painted mine. Armies with green bases are treated as either trashy and noobish, or nostalgic relics of second ed 40k. But tell me, when did these bright green bases go out of style? And why?

3rd ed 40K was the start of the trend away from the bright, cartoony colours of 2nd edition towards a more 'realistic' pallete. The bases changed alongside the paint schemes to keep with that changing aesthetic.

Grimdark 40K can't deal with the vibrant colours of the olden days.

Ah. So basically they just wanted them to look Grimdark-er?

Not specifically grimdarker. The old goblin green painted sand bases were fine for their time, but ultimately don't look as realitistic, or as pretty, as the current standard gravel-and-static grass. The edging colour changed to suit whatever colour the texture was predominantly being painted.

I still paint my marines with green sand!

Mainly because I started painting them in 2001-ish... and I've got a crap load of them all running around on pretty green bases. I did at least shade it and drybrush some highlights in it. And now adays I'm adding rocks and muddy spots (bike treads tear up pretty green grass) and some more interesting stuff. Also, my guys are silver, with red, black and gold details, so the green works for them from a color theory point of view.

My high elves that I swear I'll start one of these days are going to have custom made tile/mosiac looking bases that I've been producing for them with extra resin from other pours.

But alas, CartoonDark (tm) is no longer in vogue.

I've been wargaming and painting for close to 40 years. I've always painted the edges of bases green, always will.

i always found those Goblin Green bases to be horribly ugly...
i never even liked that paint, itself...

i don't get your WarmaHordes reference...
i've never seen a single studio mini with green base rims...
we always painted them black, even 10 years ago when i joined the painting team...

black has always been my prefered method for the base rims...
it looks so nice and clean...
i remember being blown away when i saw my first Rackham mini, in 2001, because they just put the painted mini on a plain black base...
that really showcased the mini, so much more than those old GG bases from GW...

some people still like that old look, though...

cheers
jah

When fighting in ruined cities, trenches or Daemon worlds, bringing your own lawn looks ridiculous.

i think they phased out about the same time that the presence of white dog poo disappeared from the streets.

Whenever i see a white dog poo all i will think about is an unflocked green painted base

 Kroothawk wrote:
When fighting in ruined cities, trenches or Daemon worlds, bringing your own lawn looks ridiculous.

I feel the same way about heroes that bring their own rocks to stand on, wood elves that carry tree stumps around, and anyone who travels with a snow machine...

Despite the apparent uselessness of flock, it gets a bad rep. I love using flock, but always as a detail, and always with touch ups. Flock makes for awesome moss, decent grass stubble (I have a pot of "random super megapixel containing EVERYTHING") and for terrible astro-turf. Still awesome for blood bowl though.

Green is also a non-neutral color, which means it can get in the way of certain color combinations and ruin the whole thing. Black or brown are neutral and they will go well with anything.

They looked silly and unrealistic IMO. The modern basing style much more professional and good-looking.
.

The tables back then were mostly just green felt, weren't they? The bases fit in.

With the move towards more 'realistic' painting, the gradually fell out of favor.
Maybe you should try bringing it back! Go for the whole retro look, with bright colours and check patterns...

Goblin Green represent! I started playing in 2nd edition. I've never really considered the base to be part of the model, so I am happy not paying much attention to it. I always just painted my bases a flat goblin green, no sanding or anything. And since I have no intention of redoing 130+ bases, to this day I still do.

We'll see who laughs when felt green terrain makes a comeback!

I'm happy they changed. Maybe it's because I only started in 6th edition but when I look at pictures of older editions, I find those green bases atrocious, ugly as sin.

I was going to say that it was a carry over from WFB, where green bases are more common, but a quick look at the GW website shows that they even paint the fantasy green now.

Even Warlord minis paints their ECW stuff with brown bases now.

I remember it was about 2003-04 when I switched my Praetorian IG from green to brown bases. They did look a lot better.

Wait we are still talking about Goblin Green flocked bases?

I thought those died along with Pogz, yo-yos and the Spice Girls

I still have a huge bag of that awful old flock, if you bought the GW stuff (as I did back in the day) it's dyed sawdust, so if you want to create a really nice thick mud texture mix it with PVA glue and standard basing gravel to make a thick paste and apply it to bases.

 insaniak wrote:
3rd ed 40K was the start of the trend away from the bright, cartoony colours of 2nd edition towards a more 'realistic' pallete. The bases changed alongside the paint schemes to keep with that changing aesthetic.

This is my experience as well. It was also helped along as GW expanded their range of basing material. By the time they were offering their own flock and static grass (years before the basing kits) the green bases were gone.

As a note, often times those green bases didn't even have green flock on them! If you look closely at the pictures you can tell that many of them are just sand, painted green and then drybrushed.

Last year I made an elf warband for Song of Blades and Heroes. I used all 80's and 90's GW figures so I based them all in sand painted green for a bit of nostalgia.

 Eilif wrote:
As a note, often times those green bases didn't even have green flock on them! If you look closely at the pictures you can tell that many of them are just sand, painted green and then drybrushed.

I don't actually recall GW studio minis ever using flock. The painted sand method was the studio standard from the time they started producing models with slotta bases.

 insaniak wrote:
I don't actually recall GW studio minis ever using flock. The painted sand method was the studio standard from the time they started producing models with slotta bases.

I think you're right. I was going from memory, but if I went back to my old catalogs I think that they'd be all-or-mostly sand bases.

In defense of painted sand, while it isn't the most realistic, it is quick and easy and if you pick the right drybrush colors it looks good on tabletop even if painted green. Nowdays folks want their models to look great for the Macro-lensed camera pics. Nothing wrong with that, but in a game situation many of the old methods look just fine when the models are 3 feet from your face instead of right at your nose.

Of course you should take my words with a grain of salt since the truth is that I'm a lazy oaf who brush-dips all his figs.

Goblin Green represent! I started playing in 2nd edition. I've never really considered the base to be part of the model, so I am happy not paying much attention to it. I always just painted my bases a flat goblin green, no sanding or anything. And since I have no intention of redoing 130+ bases, to this day I still do.

We'll see who laughs when felt green terrain makes a comeback!

Hooray a fellow basic basist!
If you think redoing 130+ is bad, try 600+ or so

Yeah, I think the brown does look better, but the green is so nostalgic it looks cool again! lol

Im pretty sure the green was also to match that BRIGHT GREEN felt mat that they played on in the past.

then Realm of battle boards.

My bases were goblin green up until 5th ed when I put the armies aside.

The cartoonish hue of the bases goes quite well with the cartoonish sculpts.

The fact that the SM army was 90% models made in 3rd ed or earlier probably helped, though.

These days I see models sprayed the same shade of grey as the plastic (including the bases) so that they blend with the also unpainted RoB boards.

I think Chromedog has it right.

The older sculpts from the 90s look a lot cartoonier than the newer sculpts. For example, look at the old Glade Guard compared to the newer Eternal Guard. The bright green of the base fits more with the glade guard and not the eternal guard.

Transparent basing is where I am going next. Too many different boards around these days. For while I was trying to keep all my bases kind of grey and green to match the only tables I played on, but that is hopeless now. Speaking of which, anyone know a cheap place to get them?

kestral wrote:
Transparent basing is where I am going next. Too many different boards around these days. For while I was trying to keep all my bases kind of grey and green to match the only tables I played on, but that is hopeless now. Speaking of which, anyone know a cheap place to get them?

Litko will cut you transparent bases I believe. However, It's not as nice a solution as you think. It's very hard to glue figs to them without getting some glue or fume markings and they scratch up easily.