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Hey guys. I have been painting some bases that I got from Miniature market. They are their city street line. I have painted about half a dozen for my Highborn merc army thus far and though they were coming out pretty nice so I decided to do a write up of my process;

Materials used: White Primer, P3 Armor Wash, Battlefield Brown, Khador Red Base, Bastion Grey, Morrow White.

Step1: Prime the bases white. Paint has a hard time sticking to the cast resin and the primer gives it a nice texture fitting of a stone street.

Step2: Brush Armor Wash into the seems between all the stones and around the outter edge of the stones. You have to make sure to get it in all the seems as the wash will not "flow" on the primer and this will be needed later on. Also feel free to touch the top edges of the stones with some armor wash and it provides a nice shadow effect later on.

Step3: Paint a 50/50 mix of Bastion Grey and water onto every other stone. Try and leave an unpainted stone between each. May take a couple coats depending on how thick you lay it on. I usually spread it on pretty thin and put down 2 coats.

Step4: Mix 1 part Battlefield Brown, 1 part Khador Red Base, 1 part Morrow White, 3 parts Water. This gave me a nice slightly reddish not quite brick color that fit nicely with the grey. Paint this on all the stones you did not paint earlier. Make sure to paint around the outter edge of each stone with the colors.

Step5: Dab armor wash into the intersections of the seems. Make sure to pick up a good amount of paint on your small brush. As soon as you touch the intersections, the paint will flow out into the surrounding seems. This technique will prevent getting the wash onto your freshly painted stones. Also make sure to dab into the outside edge of the stones.

Thats it! Now I need to figure out what color to paint the slope. I was thinking. Brass Balls for my Rhulic centric Merc list.

Wow that looks really good. Shows how just simple techniques and planning can really enhance a model. I'll definitely need to try this.

Hey thanks. I just started really painting my figures and I just discovered how awesome armor wash is. Much easier than trying to water down Thamar Black to the point that it doesnt cover everything it touches.

Here is a shot of the above base with a brass balls border. Not 100% sure on it yet, might need another coat because that stuff has terrible coverage. The brass makes sense since it is for a merc army, and I actually got the idea from my parents who are both artists and frame all of their work with black and gold frames. I think it needs another coat though.

Arbal at colured dust did a flagstone painting tutorial which is better [imo]

 sing your life wrote:
Arbal at colured dust did a flagstone painting tutorial which is better [imo]

No link, no comment on why, no reasoning at all.

You're downright helpful, aren't you?


Looks good Kodo. I typically add a layer of drybrushing to mine to give it some depth, but this definitely has a more uniform at street like feel. Well done!

Thanks Gunslinger!

Sing > I have no idea what or who or where that is, nor could I find it. A link would be very much appreciated. This was not really a tutorial, just posting the steps I did to paint the base as I am very much an amateur painter just trying to get the basics down and am always looking for pointers such as the one that Gunslinger posted.

Is the street part one solid piece or is it a bunch of cobblestones you have to fit in? I ask because I could see how using this could work well for other miniatures I have.

I also think the brass ring will really make it pop good. From the pic the coverage looked good, but in person is always a little different. But nice work.

Silenoz wrote:
Is the street part one solid piece or is it a bunch of cobblestones you have to fit in? I ask because I could see how using this could work well for other miniatures I have.

I also think the brass ring will really make it pop good. From the pic the coverage looked good, but in person is always a little different. But nice work.

Thanks! The stones are a solid piece but the details are really nice. Miniature Market has them in packs of 10 for less than 1$ ea, and they are all quite different from each other so you get a nice veriety. I did end up putting another coat of barely thinned paint on. The brass just does not cover well at all.

http://www.miniaturemarket.com/accessories/gaming-supplies/miniature-bases/secret-weapon-miniatures.html?p=13

Yeah, a lot of metallics have a poor coverage when put really thin. I find it's best to do multiple thin coats (water added though that seems counter intuitive).

http://www.coloureddust.com.pl/2013/12/how-to-paint-town-square-base.html

Also metallics should be only thinned with acrylic thinner, as water turns them into water with shiny dust in it.

 sing your life wrote:
http://www.coloureddust.com.pl/2013/12/how-to-paint-town-square-base.html

Also metallics should be only thinned with acrylic thinner, as water turns them into water with shiny dust in it.

Maybe in your opinion, but that doesn't jive with personal experience and the science of it.

If you are using acrylic paints, water is just fine in the proper ratio (anywhere from 3:1 to 8:1 to personal preference). For alcohol based, like some Vallejo paints, it will require a thinning agent.

Unless you think the science behind brushthralls' article on the matter is faulty?

http://forums.brushthralls.com/index.php?showtopic=4653

In any case, thanks for the coloured dust link.

I've had very good experiences thinning down Vallejo metallics with water. They put so much darn pigment and flakes that it does exactly what I want: a thing, shiny layer that totally obscures all color beneath it..

 sing your life wrote:
http://www.coloureddust.com.pl/2013/12/how-to-paint-town-square-base.html

Also metallics should be only thinned with acrylic thinner, as water turns them into water with shiny dust in it.

King Kodo. please pay no attention to that and welcome to our hobby. You have now had your first run-in with the best painter that ever lived. There are a thousand of them, but normally they are found at coolminiornot. On this site we tend to try to be more helpful.

Multiple watered down coats of acrylic paint are one of the most sacred practices in our hobby. I realize that some hobbyist have the tendency to say " well that's not good enough for me. I use the same thinner as da Vinci used for the Mona Lisa and it cost $400 an ounce and if you don't use it you're model is trash" Which is ridiculous. That being said, If you are going to use water I would suggest you get a bottle of distilled water. There are chemicals and "floaties" in tap water. When you are painting with just normal acrylic paint this does not present as much of a problem, but as you progress you might start getting into other products or using an airbrush. Other products (for example AK weathering products) can sometimes contain chemicals as well and the aforementioned "floaties" will play hell on your airbrush. Ive only run into a "chemical type" clash like this once. But once is more than enough if the problem can be negated by using a .99 cent bottle of water

p.s. The base looks awesome!!!!!! have you considered forgoing the brass paint completely and using a gold leaf type product? It may match the realistic look of the rocks a little better.

Distilled water... should have been obvious to me to use that! Never even thought about the quality of the water. The big issueiI have had with thinning metallics with water is that they seem to separate quickly so I had to keep stirring them every minute or so. I don't have a huge amount of resources currently but I will look around for more of these supplies you guys mentioned. I also do not have an airbrush yet, might be a while until I get one of those.

Yea, metallics can be really tricky. One trick I was told that I find helps is to put the paint on and then DO NOT TOUCH IT until it dries. Get it where you want it quickly, then don't touch brush to it until it is dry. The explanation was that the metal bits are often flake shaped, and will lay flat and look best when they are in a fluid, but as that fluid turns solid they can't move. Disturbing them in the middle of that gets them up on edge and so they look less even and consistent. Imagine snake scales laying flat on the snake compared to standing up on end all jumbled up.

Like I said, I can't vouch for the science there, but I have tried to implement that myself and it seems to legitimately improve things.

Another trick I like is to get a smooth layer of metals down a shade or two lighter than what I want the final color to be, and then put a wash over it. It adds a good bit of depth and takes down the sometimes overbearing shininess. I think Greydeath put a nice article or thread up about using the various GW washes over top of straight silver metallic and the results. I like Gryphone Sepia over Mithril for brasses and the like myself.