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Super Newb wrote:

 Breotan wrote:

Put something on the base besides your model. Paint the entire base and everything on it, including the sides of the base.

That's about the minimum.

100, no, make that 1000% incorrect. Under no circumstances do you need to paint your base. A mix of flock and gravel or whatever looks fine with no painting required.

I would prefer that someone leave the mini unbased than not paint their basing material. Unless you really know what you're doing, unpainted basing material detracts from the mini because it creates a scale disparity. I've used a lot of different basing techniques. Not once did I ever think it would be a good idea to not paint the base and leave it au naturale.

 the_Armyman wrote:

I would prefer that someone leave the mini unbased than not paint their basing material. Unless you really know what you're doing, unpainted basing material detracts from the mini because it creates a scale disparity. I've used a lot of different basing techniques. Not once did I ever think it would be a good idea to not paint the base and leave it au naturale.

What in the blazes are you yammering about here? There are hobby supplies that come in all sorts of sizes. Why, those model train enthusiasts have all sorts of sizes and colors for everything. You may have "used a lot of different basing techniques" but clearly there are some big gaps in your knowledge.

There's no need to get that het up about sprinkling dirt on your plastic discs now, fella.

the_Armyman is not talking about scale or gauge of model. Scale disparity in this case would be visual appearance.
Like how some of the larger monstrous kits need skulls or small debris to avoid looking like action figures.

If you use unpainted "gravel" or "rocks" (as you've put in this topic), it looks unsurprisingly like life-size gravel and rocks.

Neither of us were disputing use of flock or basing scatter, but the raw materials of sand, grit and gravel.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
the_Armyman is not talking about scale or gauge of model. Scale disparity in this case would be visual appearance.
Like how some of the larger monstrous kits need skulls or small debris to avoid looking like action figures.

If you use unpainted "gravel" or "rocks" (as you've put in this topic), it looks unsurprisingly like life-size gravel and rocks.

Depends on the rocks doesn't it. Model train ballast looks awesome. That's a basing material and no size disparity there.

Neither of us were disputing use of flock or basing scatter, but the raw materials of sand, grit and gravel.

Ahem.

"I would prefer that someone leave the mini unbased than not paint their basing material."

There are 100s of basing materials one can purchase that look just fine unpainted. In fact they meant to remain unpainted. I may have been imprecise when I said gravel or whatever the first time (and I did bring up ballast before Armyman replied as well, so the clarification was there), but come on now, the guy flat out claimed no basing material should go unpainted. That's the *opposite* of what you are claiming.

That would also mean painting over grass and flock, I think you're being a little awkward on purpose, there.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
That would also mean painting over grass and flock, I think you're being a little awkward on purpose, there.

Uh, train ballast is made to be used as is with no painting. Maybe the guy you keep speaking for for some reason doesn't know it exists?

Anyway, "Basing material" is an extremely broad term. And your buddy used it incorrectly in a sentence, very incorrectly, or he has the most absurd opinion on basing miniatures I have ever seen. It's funny you 'read between the lines' and somehow divined he meant the opposite of what he said, whereas I imprecisely said "gravel or whatever", followed up with train ballast *before* anyone complained and somehow I'm getting no slack for that.

Whatever. The point is there are 100s of products to base miniatures, including using rock-like particles of varying sizes made for miniatures, that do not require any painting, that end up looking fine.

I think linguistically it's just worth noting that a user quoted one of your posts, and only referenced that.
You coulda said in another post that it's it's fun to glue peacock feathers and cat fur on bases, and it wouldn't matter, if it wasn't quoted or commented on...

In my case I was being moderately flippant in that second reply, but either way there's not really an argument here outside of the one you're creating... and I'm bewildered as to how hard you're trying to do so.

Put ballast on your bases, put cake on your bases, they're your bases. Just enjoy doing it.

Can we make a compromise that some people paint their raw basing materials and others don't?

I really don't think this is something as divisive as say the unpainted vs. painted debates.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I think linguistically it's just worth noting that a user quoted one of your posts, and only referenced that.
You coulda said in another post that it's it's fun to glue peacock feathers and cat fur on bases, and it wouldn't matter, if it wasn't quoted or commented on...

It matters when the person didn't read the rest of the very short thread for clarification, no? And then made an absurd comment themselves...

In my case I was being moderately flippant in that second reply, but either way there's not really an argument here outside of the one you're creating... and I'm bewildered as to how hard you're trying to do so.

Put ballast on your bases, put cake on your bases, they're your bases. Just enjoy doing it.

Your passive aggressive sniping here isn't helpful. Oh sorry, "flippant." That combined with your fake concerned citizen routine is rather bewildering itself.


As for "cake"... ... I don't know where you people play and who you play with BUT, bases don't need to be painted and there are plenty of items (flock and ballast in hundreds of colors and sizes) that look fine on bases. And it seems you theoretically agree on this (even though you lamely bring up things like cat fur and cake). So that means there's no need to continue this discussion with you.

@Super Newb

You're reaction to a few sentences is so OTT, I can't tell if you're being semi-sarcastic or completely serious. If you're being serious, hoo boy...

I checked your gallery, unfortunately, you have no examples of how you base your minis. If you can post an example of a basing technique where a person simply glued some sand or ballast to a base and called it finished, I'd appreciate it. Please don't post a picture of a model train setup. Then if I was mistaken, I'll be happy to admit it.

 the_Armyman wrote:
I checked your gallery, unfortunately, you have no examples of how you base your minis. If you can post an example of a basing technique where a person simply glued some sand or ballast to a base and called it finished, I'd appreciate it. Please don't post a picture of a model train setup. Then if I was mistaken, I'll be happy to admit it.

Just as I thought, an elitist basing snob. Who ironically, is also too lazy to use online search engines. As if I care whether or not you admit your "error" - you have an odd opinion that bases must always be painted, even though there are basing supplies offered for sale that are not supposed to be painted. I mean, holy hell, some mix of flock on a base counts as a based model, but according to your statement (which you have not clarified so I will still take at face value) such basing is a party foul and is terrible (even though GW based their miniatures that way for years). Colored sand / ballast in various sizes is logically no different than using flock (and even better, why not mix the flock and ballast together for some variety? And maybe glue on a tiny bit of grass or whatever afterwards). So I am really, really confused by your fundamentalist stance that bases must be painted.

Here's wargaming specific example but a mix of ballast (which is what that is but under a different name) would work the same way
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eEhHerFOdU

Super Newb wrote:
It matters when the person didn't read the rest of the very short thread for clarification, no? And then made an absurd comment themselves...

No idea about that other than your posting times were quite close.

Your passive aggressive sniping here isn't helpful. Oh sorry, "flippant." That combined with your fake concerned citizen routine is rather bewildering itself.

I'll concede that I'm not always entirely helpful, but you've lost me there.

As for "cake"... ... I don't know where you people play and who you play with BUT, bases don't need to be painted and there are plenty of items (flock and ballast in hundreds of colors and sizes) that look fine on bases. And it seems you theoretically agree on this (even though you lamely bring up things like cat fur and cake). So that means there's no need to continue this discussion with you.

Now that was actually intended to be a positive outlook.
I mean it, they're your bases, just like mine are mine, so long as they make the right people happy it's a good 'un.

"Us people" usually just play with what's available when we can. I have friends who own 20k points of 40k but less than 1500 are painted, never mind based. But they are happy as well.

Please no more language like "snob" please - make your points in a polite manner, per Dakka's rules. Thanks

Super Newb, for myself I have gone with unpainted flock as a starting point before, but a great trick is to just add a simple wash - instantly adds depth to the model! You could then do a quick drybrush on top, without ever needing to have basecoated the flock.

But I really highly recommend the wash, it will do wonders!

Oh my, look how my little thread has spiraled out of control...

I'm going for clear acrylic bases..
Now that's the lazy buggers way.
Just saying..

Such hyperbole, much wow.

I watched your video. Unfortunately, it's low res and offers no closeups of the finished base, so there's that. Unpainted base treatments look unfinished. I won't apologize for my personal opinion. In the end, paint your base or don't paint your base. Put flock on it or don't. Paint the edges or leave them black. I merely gave an opinion that apparently resulted in you making a lot of assumptions about my personal character.

Super Newb wrote:
...and there are plenty of items (flock and ballast in hundreds of colors and sizes) that look fine on bases.

That's all very subjective, obviously. Personally, flock is hideous stuff and should never be used for anything other than creating foliage for trees or hedges. I won't have it anywhere near bases.

And unpainted railway ballast just looks like unpainted railway ballast. Yes, it's designed to be used unpainted - on model railway setups, where you're also using commercially-painted trains and buildings, and where very little actual modeling tends to happen. And even there it can look out of place if not used judiciously. Ultimately, it's not some specially-created modelling material designed specifically to look awesome at scale... it's just gravel.

The reason that better-painted miniatures have highlights and shading added artificially rather than just letting the actual light do that is a matter of scale - the natural shading on a scale model just doesn't look right, and so we exaggerate it. Doing that on the model, and not on whatever the model is standing on, creates a dissonance between the model and the base.

YMMV, obviously. If you're happy with bases with unpainted gravel on them (and a lot of people are...), that's entirely up to you.

 jreilly89 wrote:

 Breotan wrote:

 Lord Corellia wrote:
Hey guys, I was just wondering whether there was a consensus on how lazy one can be with basing before it looks like they didn't even try.

Put something on the base besides your model. Paint the entire base and everything on it, including the sides of the base.

That's about the minimum.

Ehh, painted rims always bugged me. I rather like the definitive black border on the sides of the model. I feel it gives it more definition. The painted sides (to match the base) just look sloppy to me.

Then run black paint over the edge. The point is, the base is usually covered in primer anyway. Paint it black or whatever and then seal the whole model. It will look much better.

I prefer all basing materials painted to give everything a more conform look. I appreciate that some basing material work "out of the box" but I think that mostly works for brighter color themes (flowery tufts, etc). I think with fast and lazy basing a lot of magic comes from a good basecoat/drybrush color combination.

I usually assemble the whole base, then prime it, then paint it. They are done super fast (thanks to airbrushing, even faster), the only hold up is that the terraint paste needs a day to dry. I can probably get 100 of those out in 2 days.

1. Assembly: Vallejo terrain paste, sticks to model the trees (big stick for the tree stump, smaller ones to mimic roots), stones, tufts (I use Army Painter and GW tufts).
2. Prime everything black, base coat everything in a dark brown.
3. Basecoat the stones in grey (VMA Sea Grey), trees in brown (VGA Beasty Brown), earth in earth tone (VMA Concrete).
4. Drybursh trees with lighter brown/beige (GW Zandri Dust).
5. Drybrush everything with light grey (GW Ulthuan Grey).
(6. Paint the rim? I am not sure about that, yet.)

Here are some examples of my recent icy tundra bases for WIP Tau army.

Those Tau bases look excellent, Klaus! Nice work sir, have an Exalt!

I'm currently in the process of completely restarting my Blood Angels, and have opted to go with some pre-fabricated bases that fit the basing theme I want my army to have (fighting in urban rubble/decay) that I can paint quickly and effectively, with only a handful of colors and washes required to do so.

here's an example of my basing scheme I'm using on a couple of models:



and




That's black spraypaint basecoat, one thinned coat of Chaos Black around the rim, Codex Grey over the top of the entire base, Nuln Oil wash on the blasted/gravel-like areas, Fortress Grey drybrush over the rough areas and edges, of the tiles, then I lay black ink into the recesses of the tiles and finish with a nuln oil layer over the top of the black ink to help smooth the transition out. The Base is nice and neutral, not detracting from the vibrant color of the marine attached to it, but visually interesting enough to help set the model off nicely at the same time.

As for the to-paint or not to-paint on basing. I've ALWAYS painted my bases and any basing material used on my bases to some degree or another. As was stated, it helps 'tie' the model and base together using color and also helps equalize the scale of the base and basing material to the model. I've just gotten lazy and opted to have the bases come pre-molded so I just have to paint them up. Someone wants to not paint their basing, that's gravy with me. It's their model/models, but a nicely painted base or basing scheme for an army does wonders for presentation in my experience.

Just my thoughts on that. Take it easy for now folks.

-Red__Thirst-

 Tjomball wrote:
I'm going for clear acrylic bases..
Now that's the lazy buggers way.
Just saying..

Lol.

A clear, not reflective base would actually look quite cool on a fancily painted gaming board with well painted terrain pieces.

I think the argument I agree with is that you have a painted model and then an unpainted base it is rather jarring: they do not compliment their look well.

It is like mixing real pictures with cartoons.

There is a certain degree of immersion we are looking for, no sense creating too much contrast.

I have been tempted with clear bases as well.
It is nice when the base matches the terrain: I hate it when I carry jungle with me to a moonscape.

Boy oh boy, its like being in a garage band again..."Cause its all about the bass the bass" I just used cat litter and some green stuff that looks like grass on my orks. Will give it a go with some wash when I get some wash, but for now I'm pretty happy with it. As a newbie I guess I don't have much of a say but one thing that I have learnt thus far from threads on dakka is that its your model and your base, do with it what you want. As for the original question of this thread, heck dude if you just paint it with nothing on, that's already not lazy. If you have a couple of hudred worth of points of a army and they are all complete except for the basis and you don't feel like doing anything to them so be it.
Think I will start a thread with the topic "cool ideas for basing?" Maybe all the positive things said in this thread will carry over to that - and hopefully none of the negative ones.
Just my opinion, but then again who am I to judge.

 Talizvar wrote:

I have been tempted with clear bases as well.

Clear bases can be cool, although they're generally acrylic, and suffer from the same flat bottom problem as most resin bases, which makes them unstable on uneven surfaces.

I have some prototype bases from Maelstrom's Edge that look like this guy on the left -


...which I'm really hoping they decide to release as a part of the standard range, because they look awesome.

Myself... Well...
I'm probably gonna get a lot of flak for this but I don't do anything with my bases at all. The most I'll do is go over them with the black paint to cover up paint splatter.
I don't begrudge anyone else doing it but it seems unnecessary, kinda silly and really out of my league as someone who finds painting the models to already be a terrifying and daunting task as it stands and struggles with it something fierce.
If I may quote what I said on another thread a while back:

 CrashGordon94 wrote:
Having them attached to the correct bases is important for game mechanics.
Honestly I don't much care for decorating bases too much, mostly for the Fridge Logic issues of stuff like two units standing on completely different terrain touching each other or in close proximity, bases that don't match the board, how this one guy is always standing on the same rock surrounded by the same grass and so on. At least a blank black base can be ignored as a game piece/mechanic thing like how they're always in the same pose, might not be scaled right, could be missing details and so on. Of course none of this applies to showcase stuff, but that's not really what I'm doing.
Moreover all things painting are highly daunting to me and I really do want to get my minis up to a reasonable standard (and I'm a bit scared because it seems like the peeps in this topic have set the bar for "tabletop standard" kinda high for me with advanced stuff like washes and highlighting that's out of my league), the last thing I'd want to do is spend more time and get more materials for something I won't even appreciate when it's done.

Most of the responses to my post were encouraging me to use washes, nothing about my disregard for basing.