Bases - how do you base your dark kin?

With a bunch or resin and plastic slowly being delivered to my door in suitably spiky boxes i have started to mull over how I will base my Kabal...

I am presently thinking that I will use the raider cross hatch design on the infantry bases to show them mounted... I am presently scuplting it ready for casting...

What about the reavers and hellions though (not to mention the vehicles!)

So - how do you base your models?

Mine have "Ice World" bases as featured on the GW website, but with a snow mixture piled on in places as well. It's easy to do and makes a great contrast with the dark colour schemes popular with Dark Eldar.

Raucir

Baron Tordeck wrote:

IMO flying stands should not actually be based.

And if you insist on doing so at the very least the peg needs to stay clear.

That's what I do. I spotted a few based... er... bases... for Raiders and thought they looked good, so I've based mine and left the pegs clear. It ties the army together nicely.

Raucir

I use a mixture of grains of sand and slate on the bases, using the GW basing kits to add some character. I also glue in brush bristles to create reeds and have some army painter tufts to use when finished.

I like my flying bases based and the stem clear. Horses for courses though.

I am a fan of bases. That's because the base tells the story.

While a single (even the most beautifull made) model might have a story, they look lost without bases. The base sets the model into the surrounding, which is part of the story.

I am doing circles here, am i?

While i keep my small bases simple (for effort vs time reasons) i am trying to give the larger bases the context i wan't my army to be in.

As with my nids, i want them to have an urban setting, since nothing is more spookier than Dark Eldar creeping through your front yard.

So the best adise would be, find a story to set your DE into. The way of making bases variies from using real earth to sanding paper... have a look at galleries like CMON or the ones displayed here. Some crazy basing ideas can be found on http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.com/ too.

I like the more elaborate bases, such as though by Scribor. However, the lesson I have learned the hard way is the bases don't always work with the models.

So now I mostly make my bases custom to each model so it doesn't look weird.

My DE will be/are desert themed so the bases will be more of a wasteland look.

Personally I dont like over the top fancy bases. Takes away the focus from the actual mini, makes it more difficult for gaming and looks too busy.

I like plain simple bases. Gravel, some rocks, and static grass or similar. Maybe the odd bit of debris (skull, gun, casings etc)

Like this (not mine - just did a search to find an example)
http://bloodofkittens.com/prodigalsonhobbyblog/2011/03/25/dark-eldar-warriors/

I agree, on anything but centerpieces or realy large bases I stick to the theme of my home gameboard. Which is kinda a ruined agriworld kinda theme. Sand, gravel , clumps of field grass and mabye a skull or shell.

To much on a small base makes our already busy models just look to busy....

With troops, I glue sand onto the base after basecoating it, apply heavily watered down Bestial Brown, then drybrush with Snakebite. It gives the base an aggricultural or desertlike look (depends on the amount of snakebite)

Character get some Skulls etc. - same as Troops, but Skulls/Bones get additional drybrushed with Bleached Bone

I personally think that cohesive bases for an army helps it look awesome. I'm using Cities of Death kits, cork, gravel and found stuff to make mine. I've actually finished the bases for my Hellions. I did decide to leave the peg, but I'm thinking of making a few without. The Hellions will be posed dynamically, so that it looks like they are flying through the remains of a city narrowly missing pieces of destruction.

mine are following a similar idea to Dez above.

Project log here

the idea is for them to be raiding over a recently bombarded urban zone. the bigger bases and the flying stands are being fancy-fied in order to try and detract from the plastic stick.

the infantry will be simpler with the same basic scorched look with the odd bit of rubble, or lots of rubble with bits of scorchedness.

i've not had time to do anything at all really since the last post in the plog, but there has been a little progress on 1 hellion and 1 wych as well as the raider base being nearly finished.

Great minds think alike! It looks like the wife and kids kept you plenty busy, as there was no update. I understand 100%, though I have one less child

How do you feel about the painting of your bases? I think it looks really nice. i'm leaving mine as is, because while i like how they add to the dynamics I don't necessarily want the focus to be taken off the mini. Hence my monochrome (with splashes of browns) approach to the painting.

Dez wrote:

I personally think that cohesive bases for an army helps it look awesome. I'm using Cities of Death kits, cork, gravel and found stuff to make mine. I've actually finished the bases for my Hellions. I did decide to leave the peg, but I'm thinking of making a few without. The Hellions will be posed dynamically, so that it looks like they are flying through the remains of a city narrowly missing pieces of destruction.

I use the same thing more or less. I bought a Manufactorium box years ago and having been using cut up sprues/extra tank plates/railroad scenics ballast/whatever for the last 4-5 armies that I've painted. Really gives it that urban destruction/wasteland look on the cheap.

https://thedarkcity.forummotion.com/t1538-an-evil-project-log
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-FiPzFM1F8-M/TnFwbn0IacI/AAAAAAAAABI/oLkuMcbXHjY/s1024/2011-09-03_14-51-58_677.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-kUtpoxNaDo0/TqOcMkc9xxI/AAAAAAAAADE/IR6qlWCUFBY/s1024/2011-10-22_21-45-12_284.jpg

i'm a painter more than a gamer at the moment

my black templars were on pretty sparse bases with a scorched brown sand, bleach bone dry bruch, patch of static grass finish. nothing else.

the DE are going to be a labour of love rather than a gaming army though.
so i've spend a fair amount of time on the bases, between making them up and painting them. i've also used them as a test bed for trying out heavy washes and a few other things i hadn't tried before.

I had no idea on how to base the bases, but at least now I've got some ideas.
I think light coloured bases are better for my dark coloured models (desert look, moonisch colours etc.)

thnx

Just to throw some insiration into the pit- this is how I do the bases for my Dark Eldar:




It's basically plasticard, sand and static grass, on some bases I added some cork as well.

I also chose not to let the bases become too dark and instead did the oppposite- they're actually rather light coloured.
I also base flying units in about the same manner- to make them look like one army, I think bases are an important aspect of that.

I haven't done too many bases, but for the most parts, I try to ask around for various bits from other players, say, spare Sentinel armor plates, Chimera tracks etc, and just file and cut them so that they look like they are sticking out of the ground, wrecked and such. I try to have my bases reflect as much of my own battles against other players as possible.

I use fine modeling grit and sand, a bit of small rocks and some dead grass flock here and there.
I basecoat the hole thing with watered down Snakebite Leather, drybrush with dehneb stone, and give it a wash of watered down Red Gore mixed with Baal Red. The rocks are basecoated with a 50/50 mix of Hawk Turquoise and Chaos Black, drybrushed with Codex Grey, then washed with Badab Black.
It gives a pretty good alien type terrain and contrasts well with the dark armour of the army.

I'll be adding pics as soon as I can.

My bases differ, but in general, they're sandy and bloody or city/ruins.

Candice Heart-Reaper wrote:

I use fine modeling grit and sand, a bit of small rocks and some dead grass flock here and there.
I basecoat the hole thing with watered down Snakebite Leather, drybrush with dehneb stone, and give it a wash of watered down Red Gore mixed with Baal Red. The rocks are basecoated with a 50/50 mix of Hawk Turquoise and Chaos Black, drybrushed with Codex Grey, then washed with Badab Black.
It gives a pretty good alien type terrain and contrasts well with the dark armour of the army.

I'll be adding pics as soon as I can.

This sounds interesting. Post a pic when you can.

Well, I finally managed to get across a decent camera (borrowed from the girlfriend of a friend, of a friend.. hum hum..) Anyway I got a shot of the bases (without grass flock);

GW.com's wasteland scheme. Base of Charadon Granite, Highlight 1 of Codex Grey, Highlight 2 of Bleached Bone and finally the odd tuft of Dead Grass.

Wraithbone Microart bases , just painted grey like on Warrior Box.Very Commoragh looking.