Finding the BEST Basing for Your Miniatures

Do you find coming up with basing schemes for your miniatures difficult? Do you hate doing it? What if I told you that there are easy guidelines to follow for your miniatures?

[Swooper]

I create a separate basing scheme for each army. My Beasts of Chaos have autumny forest bases, my dark elves have weird purple-soil Ghyran jungle bases, my Slaves to Darkness have blue-black volcanic desert bases with patches of snow, and my Frostgrave (and Cursed City) models have reddish cobblestone bases with patches of snow.

[daethwing]

To have your army match every board, myself and some others I've seen, have ordered clear acrylic rounds and ovals to match the base sizes and just glue the minis straight to them, you can see the mat right through the base and it looks amazing, like the dudes are just standing on the board.

[Fox]

For Necromunda, metallic paint plus a stripe of contrast/speed paint is how i keep all the gangs with the same color scheme. Great little way to give each gang a bit of variety and those molded bases are easy to paint certain panels a distinct color.

[jaysimpson]

For my Primaris Black Templars, I am using the technical agrellan earth for a desert cracked earth style. On my Imp Knights, I use flock to make it look like a grassy field. I usually leave the bases plain. That way, if they do something “special” I can add bits showing the fights they have been in.

[joken-actual]

I have only one basing recipe for everything; appropriate GW style round or oval bases, Vallejo Earth paste, Steel Legion overpaint and rims, Agrax Earth wash, tufts and partial grass flock. If I need a Samurai in my Stargrave team, no problem. Like you Uncle Atom, I notice if the bases don’t match.

[rednecknoob]

I love snow, so I base everything in a snow base. I do use complimentary color undertones for the snow, because when it's an undertone it can match different settings more. My Dark Angels are green, so I use a very light blue undertone to the snow. If I was painting Blood Angels, I could do a very dark, mossy green. If I was painting WW2 American, I could do a very burgundy mud underneath the snow. I think it can easily work and still accentuates the model.

Plus I love adding snow dust to the models using a medium and flocking in the wet medium.

[tmorton]

I use a couple of others that I didn't hear you mention...You taught me the Baking Soda + super glue trick to texture bases. I use those primarily for desert/sandy or snowy basing. Also I use railroad modeling grass and tundra dust for models. This technique is Elmer's Glue brushed on the base, then sprinkle the grass and knock off excess. Then, to avoid little grains of that from getting all over the play mat every time I play, I put drops of super glue on top of that. Then sprinkle the kitty litter for rocks and use Army Painter's tufts of matching colors into that wet super glue.
I normally do bases by army. The other thing I do is paint the rims different colors for different units and yes, I do mix and match for skirmish games, but that doesn't seem to bother me too much. But for instance, Orks that I originally built for 40k...there are 90 boyz...30 I painted black "basic" rims, 30 with brown.."oak" rims, and 30 I painted "sand" rims so I can tell the difference between the units on the table and when putting together the list. so, in gaming I can move the Basic boyz, then Oak boyz, then the Sand boyz. Great video! thank you!

[centerededgedesignusa]

I've tried different basing methods, before mini, after mini, and find that painting the base first has the best results. Thanks for the video!

[ashrog]

My favorite thing in all of fiction is a feeling of place. That i can take a scene in a movie or book, and imagine going out the door and over the hill, and i can imagine that this is a real place that extends beyond the limits of the work of fiction. In recent years, I've really enjoyed creating elaborate bases for my minis for the same reason. To give myself the feeling that this is a real place i can explore.

[midichlorianice]

Absolute pleasure to meet and chat with you at NOVA :)

I've been using the same muddy battlefield look for all my sci fi models since I started, dabbling here and there with other settings but it's like you say, having ol' reliable takes a whole mental step out of the equation.

[SlashTheWeasel]

Listened to quite few of your videos today at work. I work like you do. Basing is part of the process with me with any mini. If I have tree logs, rocks, gravel, I put it down after I place the mini on the base then prime it all together. I feel majority of my bases are simple but adds so much.

[Shadoweyed]

Great advice! I've got in the habit of gluing sand and grit to bases before priming for most models. It makes basing so much easier after starting the model and I can (and usually do) cover some of that texture with flock and tufts. Additionally, this doesn't push you into any color or biome much. I've used this to put my Beastmen in the Steppe/ Plains basing, Ogres in a frosty mountain zone, Empire in green fields with melting snow, or Dark Eldar crawling through city ruins.

[brennonr]

my sci fi bases are always sand and tiny rocks, my fantasy bases are always Italian seasoning. Yup, glue, sprinkle with a poop ton of Italian seasoning, then prime and paint. washes are perfect for the seasoning.

[DeadGators]

I make my bases separately, with no thought towards congruity with maps and little towards aesthetically complimenting the mini. Basing is a thing I really enjoy planning and doing; I want them to be as much of a focus on their own as the mini. I think about the habitat I'm recreating and little ways I can make them more realistic in that sense 'cause that's my fun.
For wargaming, each unit has its own basing formula, but the bases of each unit are complementary. (E.g., My Nighthaunt are a late summer/early autumn mesic temperate forest. Some units are more towards one season or the other, and each unit looks like it could come from a different area within the same forest.) For ttrpgs, I go with a habitat that makes sense for that critter or person. Whatever tickles my fancy in the moment. (E.g., my roc is a high mountain meadow; and I painted a snail to look like an irl Volcanic Snail, but put it on a lava base instead of the deep sea smokers they live on because fantasy)

[kylegwyn]

I base my models and prime them up together. I also love basing and on some models it’s my favorite part and sets my models away from the others of a similar army such as dark angels to dark angels.

Only on really special models such as primarchs and big center piece models do I build and paint in sub assembly.

As for styles I have 3 main ones.
My dark angels army is all on a forest/meadow style made with lots of grass tuffs, the little flowers etc added over top ground up tea leaves and coffee grinds mixed with some mod podge. Gets basically 2 shades of brown with a wash and a highlight. It goes by quick and has a somewhat realistic look.

My tyranids are all on a somewhat yellow tinted tattuine/riddic 2 desert theme with cork sand dunes/rocks combined with bits sand, desert grass tuffs sparingly and it’s zandari dust primer, then down hobgrot base, white dry brush, then the usual ear shade wash.

Lastly my imperial guard which get a mix of my dark angels forest schemed bases and muddy bases made with popsicle stick bits and Vallejo mud with a bit of staining on the sticks to make somewhat of a trench aesthetic. My guard is all krieg with catachan converted Cadians plus gaunts ghosts.

It’s funny because to me the bases do truly finish the models and I spend a bit of time but after a squad of 5 or 10 I have the theme down and it’s quick, fun and sometimes really helps me push through something like the next big pile of shame as a bit of desert if you will vs painting a whole 20min squad. So I’ll paint them kinda mixed in my routine to break it up and keep me feeling fresh and engaged.

[Rathammergames]

I do basing at the end. For big models (dreads and wardogs) I do not stick the mini on the base and work on the base separately. For small minis, astrogranite debris all the way.

[richardkirke]

As a teenager with my dad’s help I settled on a basing scheme for my 25mm sci-fi figures and I have basically continued to use this ever since. 1 paint the base grass green. 2 add builder’s sharp sand (glues with PVA). 3 wash the sand with brown ink. 4. Stick flock (rough coarse pasture) over most of the base allowing some of the rocks to stick through. It looks pretty cool.

[birddispenser]

I am about halfway done with my first big project, I am painting my Tiri crew (Malifaux) and I chose a basing scheme based on the lore. I wanted a very specific look to it as well, so there is a bit of busy work to them, but I am happy with how they come out.

[samthompson]

I really like your discussion types of videos like this - a general talk about choices & motivations rather than a 'how to' tutorial :) Thanks

[Avocadomolotov]

hi! loving the channel. what i do is i make a story for each army, and a sub story for each squad inside the army. for example, my dark angels were stationed in space wisconsin (long story) and i make a lot of farm stuff, fences, billboards, road signs, stuff like that. my sisters basically are going into an old long forgotten imperial temple/furnace. so everyting has a wrought iron, fire feel to it.i can show you if you want