Welcome to Episode 1 of "A Dog's Life". In this episode we will be discussing the first step I use in painting miniatures: Being painting the base of the model. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly is that the techniques used on the base are generally the messiest and are best done before any of the fine work on the model itself. This avoids any touch ups being need on areas that may have been over painted, and saves you time. I hate nothing more than ruining some nice freehand or awesome blending, because of the slip of a brush! Secondly, by doing all the bases first, it breaks up the sea of undercoated models you are faced with when starting a unit or an army. Having the bases completed helps to motivate me to finish the unit / army.
Basing also ties all the units together, even if the army is made up of vastly different looking models, like in the WarGods of Aegyptus range. While it's not necessary to base all the models in exactly the same way, i.e. all with just sand and static grass, I find it is necessary to at least use the same palate of colours on all the bases. An important fact, that seems pretty obvious, is that the bases should help to convey the theme of your army. Nearly, every army I build has a little background story to it, which my unit selection, paint scheme and basing helps to tell. In this case my Tomb Kings are protecting their sacred temple and by basing the the army in this manner it helps to tell that story. If the army was just based with modelling sand and static grass they would just be another Tomb King army, somewhere in the Warhammer world.
The bases for my Tomb Kings army, which this Typhon warrior will be part of, is modelled using a ruined temple theme. While the bases are mostly covered with modelling sand, areas of the base are broken up with pavers or temple ruins. While it's possible to buy pre-modelled bases, I prefer to make my own. The pavers were made from 0.6mm plastic card, which was scribed out in a pavement pattern and weathered appropriately with a modelling knife. For the ruins I used various parts from the Egyptian range of Hirst Arts plaster casts. To give these a more ruined feel, I got stuck into them with various objects (steel ruler, hobby knife, side cutters... anything really) to break them up. This is an extremely messy, yet fun stage.
Painting the base of the Typhon warrior is a four stage process. As the models are darker I used a black undercoat, yet, the rest of the army was undercoated white. Because the different coloured undercoats influence the final look of the colours, I went and re-undercoated the bases white. The base was then painted using Derivan MiNiS Gunstock Brown, ensuring an even coverage and most importantly, that all the white is covered. The white undercoat will stand out a mile away even after the model is finished, so it's important to spend a bit of extra time making sure all the white is covered. I then picked all the features (whether they are pavers, ruined stonework or other features) on the base in Derivan MiNis' Battledress Brown, leaving the darker colours in the gaps. The final stages are done using the dry brushing technique. A heavy dry brush of Derivan MiNiS Dessert Yellow was applied over the sand only. If a bit of this colour gets on the stone it's no big deal. In real life, sand blows all over the place and ruins are dirty, so a bit of colour overlapping helps to give the base a more weathered effect. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. The final highlight is done with a light dry brush of Derivan MiNis' Dessert Stone. Depending on how neat I've been on the base, some parts of the figure are more than likely going to need touching up with the undercoat colour. Therefore, as a time saving exercise more than anything, it's good practice to try to be as neat as possible. When painting an army any time saving you can make is worthwhile, so things like limiting the amount of touch up work on previously painted areas that you need to do will make a massive difference to time it takes to finish your army.
To finish off, I paint the edges of the base. If you are using something to mount your miniature, I use and old paint pot, the edging can be done now. For normal rank and file, I generally don't mount them whilst painting, so I do the edging as the last step before varnishing.
So that's it in a nutshell. While there are no ground breaking revelations in this episode, I hope it's helped you to give basing a bit more thought and maybe some ideas for your next modelling project. Until next time.
Cheers,
Adam
This article was published on Friday 02 January, 2009.
