Frequently Asked Questions

CONTENTS (Cont'd)

4.E. What colours should I use for detail work?

Here's a standard chart on what looks good together (remember, nothing is absolute. Try new blends and develop your own preferences):

Base Color Highlight Shade
White None Grey or Blue-Grey
Light Grey White Dark Grey
Dark Grey Light Grey Black
Red Red-Orange Red-Brown
Red-Brown Orange-Brown Dark Brown
Dark Brown Light Brown Black
Pink Pink + White Red
Human Flesh Flesh + White or Tan Red-Brown
Tan Orange + Yellow + White Brown + Orange
Black Black + Green or Blue None
Light Blue Light Blue + White Medium Blue
Medium Blue Medium Blue + White Dark Blue + Black
Purple Purple + White Purple + Dark Blue or Black
Bright Green Green + Yellow + White Medium Green or Dark Green
Medium Green Green + Yellow + White Dark Green
Dark Green Medium Green Dark Green + Black
Yellow Yellow + White Yellow + Brown
Orange Orange + Yellow Orange + Red-Brown or Red
Gold Gold + Silver + Yellow Orange-Brown
Silver None Black + Blue
Brass or Copper Base Color + Gold Base Color + Black

NOTE: colour+colour means two or more colours mixed, colour-colour means either a commercial shade of that name or colours mixed.

5. What should I use for bases?

This depends entirely on what you're using the miniature for. If it's a display model, then you can get fancy. If it's for military gaming, you'll want a durable, realistic look. If it's for fantasy play you'll want durability and likely not too much fuss. Standard materials for bases are: the plastic slotted bases many companies both supply with their products and sell separately, pennies or flat washers, cardboard (not recommended - bends too easily), tiles, wood, sheet metal, matte board, masonite, plastic sheeting and magnetic strips (often bonded to one of the above materials). Filler and water putty have both been used with success, and someone also has claimed to make his own bases out of hot glue. The general rule, of course, is the more use the miniature gets, the stronger the base material should be. You can find all the bases in the mentioned materials on this site if you don't want the hassle of trying to make them yourself.

5.A. What's the best material to cover and texture bases with?

Again, a matter of how natural-looking and/or durable you want the base to be. For foliage, the hands-down favourite material is the model railroader's ground covering. Games Workshop has a good selection and it's inexpensive (particularly when you figure that the small bags of the stuff can do 100 miniature bases or more). Bill Gilliland uses something called GRASS (esp, all caps), which is ultra-fine sawdust which has been coloured.

Verlinden is another recommended brand, available in Europe. A product called Basetex, comes in various colours. Other materials that can be used are sand, sifted clay cat litter (not the scoopable stuff), aquarium bottom material, or sawdust.

But the best to my mind is the new Flocking Gels by Rennaisance Ink which can be mixed with acrylic paints then applied to the base. They come in a variety of textures and can be shaped while still wet bringing out the relief and is by far the quickest method and it gives a great effect.

But if you prefer the old method here's what to do. First, paint the base a neutral-type or natural colour. When it dries, take an old brush (or a cheap watercolour brush) and paint a 50/50 mix of white glue and water over the surface you want to cover. Painting the glue on gives more precise coverage than simply squirting it on. The base covering material may be applied either by having it in a tray about 1/4" deep and dipping the glue-covered bases into it or by shaking a spoonful over the wet glue. Give it an hour or so to dry and shake the miniature over the container holding the rest of the base covering. If needed, just dab the bare spots with a little more glue and reapply the covering. Mix different colours or drybrush for an irregular look, if wanted. Apply details, like rocks and the like (also available from model railroad suppliers) by dipping into the glue and setting in place with tweezers.

Here are some specific methods used by gamers: "It is handy to keep a dry brush ready while you're doing this, and if you get flock on wrong areas, flick it off with the second brush. Old red-sable brushes will work for painting the glue on, but they're kind of soft and they can be hard to get the glue right where you want it. I use nylon brushes, they're stiffer. And painting the base before flocking is important. I use Citadel Goblin Green, but I've used black before and that works fine as well."

"As for the sand method, I've used it on a couple of titans I painted, as the bigger area you cover with this particular variety of flock, the sillier it starts to look. I use aquarium sand from a pet store and do the above process, only dipping the miniature in sand. After waiting a couple of hours or more for the glue to dry (if you don't, when you do the next process the sand starts coming off), I use a heavily watered down woodland green and paint all of the sand. After again waiting a long time for this to dry completely, I dry brush sunburst yellow on top. "Dry brushing" isn't entirely accurate, though, as I do not wipe the paint off the brush completely. Rather, I take one swipe on a piece of paper to rid the brush of a little paint, and then use a dry brushing sort of motion. This makes the top of the sand yellow but leaves the bottom bits clearly green. I use this method on all my 28mm models and titan-bases. The stuff was white sand (I forget if it was coral or dune sand) and $3.00 got me about 4 kilograms. I've also used sand from playgrounds, but this is more irregular than aquarium sand. Again, flick off sand then let dry. "Painting 28 mm bases can be done any number of ways. For fantasy I paint Goblin Green all over the sand and sides, then `damp brush' (as Josh described, pretty much) `bilious green' on the top of the sand. This provides a neutral texture to accentuate the model yet not detract from it. "For 40K-types I do the same, but when I'm done I go over the side with black paint. This is because I started painting for space hulk, and this looks better in the corridors, but on the table both black and green edges look fine. "Also, the best looking 28mm bases I've ever done were painted all black to begin with, then drybrushed dark green-mid green-yellow green-yellow, and the edges were kept black, but this took FOREVER to do. "You can also just paint the base black and have unpainted sand on the top (sandbox sand looks better than white sand -- it's speckled) I did this on all my Blood Bowl miniatures and it looks fine. "But whatever specific method you choose, try to do the same thing to all the models in an army, and at least the same thing to all the models in a unit. A simple unit with neatly done bases often looks better than a well-painted unit with sloppy or completely unpainted bases."



CATALOGUE BACK HOME NEXT