Help me choose a base color

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**Murphy1979**

Hello. When I first started 40k, I played Necrons because they were an easy starter army with few options to choose from, and an easy 3 step paint job (spray aluminum, wash black, kinor detail work, done).

However, as time has progressed, my painting is a bunch better than before (not claiming high skill here, just better), my Necrons look like crap, and the aluminum paint scheme is just boring to me know.

So I knocked up a concept model for a paint scheme I'm happy with, however, I cannot find a color for the vertical edges of the base that I like. I dont want to use a brown, because my Tyranids have Legion Drab as the base color, I want something different for each of my armies.

I have tried white and metal (pic has leadbelcher even though it doesnt look like it). And other armies use brown and red.).

I dont know much of anything about color theory
Any syggestions before I go just black?

**Murphy1979**

Sorry, forgot to attach image. Here ya go.

**oadie**

My suggestion would be black, anyway. From an older thread on the topic:

oadie wrote:
I've always preferred clean black base rims.

Contrasting colors tend to draw attention to the rim and, thereby, away from the model, where you want it. Accent colors belong on the mini (and sometimes basing), IMO. If you're afraid of things being too monochrome, I'd revisit the models, not try and shoehorn some color in elsewhere.

Matching terrain colors never looks right to me, either, because it's just a smooth, monochrome block of color. Your basing/terrain will have texture and color variation, even if you play on a printed mat, so the rim ends up being visually jarring.

Black is just a neat frame that is easily overlooked. Think of it like the outlines in a (color) cartoon or comic. You don't think about how much black is in Superman's costume - you're seeing blue, red, and some yellow accents; the black is just there to separate one thing from another and we naturally ignore it. I find the same generally happens with black base rims.

Now, if you're choosing to use a different color for the rims of all of your different armies and want to avoid black, the gauss green is your only real accent color to call out. Might be a bit bright and jarring, but the scheme you've chosen doesn't really have a wealth of different colors to play with. Might be worth doing a test rim, as it's dead simple to cover with black if you find it too garish.

**Murphy1979**

You know, I think I'll just go black. The info you provided makes a great deal of sense. (For my Tyranids, I followed a Games Workshop paint guide for Hivefleet Kraken, and it used brown base edges and looks great. My Legion army is a dark purple with red eyes, and a dark red base edge looks great and makes the eyes pop)

I think on the Necrons any kind of green, even dark green, would look gaudy and demand attention.

So black it is (shouldn't be hard, they are already all black, haha). All my Necron vehicle hulls are black, too, so theres some synergy there going black on the base edges.

Thanks for the feedback!