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The main ingredients for my bases are:
- Sand
- Small pebbles and stones
- Slate
- Small branches, preferably dried roses
- Clumps of foliage
- Electrostaic grass
- Tufts
- Plastic ruins from the E40K era
I get my sand from a local household store, its normally used for bird cages. I sieve said sand, because there is always lime and chalk mixed together with the sand, which should be removed as it absorbs and clumps the sand otherwise. Not a real problem with 28mm but a real hassle on 6mm. Afterwards I mix the sand with some stones and pebbles.
This mix is the basic mix for all my bases. Next I use a theme complimenting the army colour scheme. There are two major factors you should look out for, contrast and theme. Jungle fighters look bad on white snowy field even if the have a strong contrast. Vice versa, completely white snow troopers look bad in a complete white snowy ground. I also try to match te tables we have at our club.
For Pre Heresy Dark Angels I would now analyse the theme:
- Black, White Robes, Red Trim -> Dark Theme
- Space Marines, so no camo -> No theme needed to fit the base (different with animalistic armies like Tyranids or camo-heavy ones like Guard)
- High contrast to miniatures -> No greyisch cityfight (not enough contrast), no completely white snow (contrast too heavy)
- Possible themes:
Desert (Snakebite Leather Base, highlighted with Bleached Bone or equivalents; heavy use of pigments, beige tufts, occasional green tufts, cactii, palm trees, ruined ork huts, ruins in general - painted in a contrasting colour to the Marines, e.g. red, beige, very light grey)
Jungle (Dark Brown Base, Highlighted with Dark Flesh and a Mix of Dark Flesh and White; static grass, branches that look like fallen timber, trunks etc., Busch Farnbueschel or equivalent, foliage, tufts, palm trees, yellow or red ruins)
"Normal Theme" (Dark Brown, Highlighted with US Field drab, Gravezard Earth or something similar. More leaning towards yellow than to red with the Jungle theme; static grass, foliage, tufts in various colours, ruins in light grey or red, rarely go for fallen timber)
You could even go for the "Winter Route" but use only speckles of white snow, think more of Tundra than Arctic. What MIGHT work is even something like a muddy battlefield, with trenches, barbed wire, sandbags and so one. This heavily depends on the colour of the sand as you should avoid vegetation for most bases. If the base is too dark, try something else. The key in most bases is in fact the static grass as it is pretty bright (most of mine is anyway).
Thats my tiny advises. hope it helps
_________________ My blog - A man without a mountain of unpainted lead is no real man!
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