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So, I'm currently working on my Space Wolves -- an army of dubious quality as of Fourth Edition, but one with some character.

After painting my first two squads at a quality level that leaves me wondering just how long it's going to take me to finish off the whole army, I'm finding myself stuck at the base, and as such I'm looking for advice.

I'm using a fairly standard color scheme, although it's somewhat more muted than the normal SW color scheme; primarily, I'm avoiding yellow on the shoulder pads.  This, to my eye, makes the whole model clash less and brings out the detail.  I'm using the metal SW shoulder pads, using Ragnar's Great Company as my company pad (left pad for all models), pained with a black background and a Chainmail* wolf head (in theory, this is Egil Iron Wolf's Iron Wolves company, but I picked said company as a result of liking a metallic-on-black company shoulder pad).  The armor itself is three layers of Shadow Grey* with a Shadow Gray*/Space Wolves Grey* highlight followed by a Space Wolves Grey* highlight over a light coat of GW white spray primer.

So, I'm stuck when it comes to choosing colors for basing.  I'm probably going to go for a medium brown (Bestial/Vomit/Bleached or somewhere along those lines) series for the bases (which currently have sand-and-gravel glued on) with the gravel painted with a gray series, but I'm still unsure of what color to use for the base rim.  I see brown as all the rage these days, but I'm not yet sold on it.  I've considered Shadow Grey*, but I'm afraid it would dull the overall look of the models.  I'm also considering some manner of medium grey.

I'm still considering whether or not to add some sparse static grass to the selection, as I'm undecided on whether or not static grass is tacky.

Would anyone, per chance, have some opinion on base color selection?  Such a silly conundrum I find myself in here; these are the first models I've been really proud of the way they've turned out, but I'm not quite sure yet how to finish them.


* - I'm using Reaper Master Series for most stuff, watered down 1:1 for the main coat on armor, somewhat less for everything else, using the colors matched to the GW colors for everything.  I like RMS better than the GW paints, and while the Vallejo line is probably better overall, the agitation required to get the paints mixed properly before use becomes excruciatingly painful to my carpal tunnel, so I must suffice with RMS.  Also, the Reaper metallics are lovely and their metallic blue makes me want to paint up a Night Lords army just because.

If I could see the pics, I would give you some suggestions. But the host site is barred here at work.

What kind of enviroment is your army themed on? City fight? forest? desert? those tend to help narrow the choices down. For SW I always like a dirt brown ring with some shaded green flock and a little static grass, or snow. But that may not fit the theme you want.

I don't have any real attachment to any sort of environmental theme.

Why do you like the brown ring with flock and static grass?

I dunno, the brown just seems a neutral color, and because it's darker it would help pop the marine out from it. the flock/grass would be because I like a good field type base. I think it works with SW.

Brown Bases could be complementery

Brown + Blue = Payne's Grey, an excellent range of hues for a muted palette
Link

Browns shaded with bleached bone should do it.

(I don't mean to be antagonistic, I'm interested in the why as much as anything else, especially as basing is one of the things I've put the least thought in to. I very much appreciate any responses.)

What do you do to the flock? I've never cared for it much compared to either static grass or a sand/gravel mixture (and as I said, I'm still trying to decide if I even like static grass).

I'll try to get some decent pictures in the near future; I don't have much in the way of decent lighting around here, and my attempts at photography thus far have generated very few pictures that actually resemble the models in real life.

I am leaning towards some type of gray (I've largely decided that high saturation won't look good; I was fine with the typical Goblin Green base on some of my earlier models that were a more traditional blue-gray/yellow SW scheme, but my current one doesn't seem to work as well with a strong green base) or brown. My main issue with the brown is it just starts to look to me as if the model is standing on a chunk of sod removed from the battlefield. Maybe I'm being a bit silly, but picking an arbitrary color to complement the model as a playing piece is one thing, but browns tend to make me think of everyone fighting while standing on discs of sod...

The reason I said brown is because it's a dark natural color, which will help push the model. Doing a color similar to the model tends to make the base look like it is part of the model, like it is attached at the feet.
So picking a base that will push the figure as a person gives a better feel to the army.

If you are doing a grass/wilderness base, I prefer just a little hint of static gras, as if gives an illusion of wilder terrain, combined with some flock and maybe a little sand.

Again, that's my pref. I will check later when I can see the pics. I maybe talking something that wont work.