40K (PiP); Bases and Faces

Bases and Faces

"Bases and faces" I am told is the mantra of the GW painting studio. I am guessing that the logical is that the base represents the Marco level painting while the face represent the micro level painting. Or to put it another way the painting of the base is the first impression of the model. It is the bit that sticks out as you walk by the table or look at the army from a distance and it attracts the viewer to examine the army in more detail. The faces bit is the next step as the viewer takes a closer look at the model the smaller details begin to shows.

Personally I'm not up for the painting faces aspect yet, painting eyes, nostril hair seems like more pain than gain. But the bases aspect I'm willing to try. Hence this blog post

Originally I was looking for inspiration for a Grey Knight army I have sitting in the "to do" pile. A new army means trying out new modelling/painting/gaming methods. For a theme I wanted the Grey knights to be fighting on a daemon world of some type. The way to reinforce the daemon world image was to tart up the bases of the Grey Knights. A browse on the internet highlighted several manufactures of custom made Daemon world bases the one I liked the most was Dark Art Miniatures lava world. Which was similar to a display table I had built for Gamers World a while ago. The potential of lava bases models fighting on a lava table seemed to fit.

Since this was just a test run rather than the start of the army properly, the test models were Chaos Daemons rather than Grey Knights I really just wanted to see how the bases worked out.

The method -bases

The bases were undercoated GW chaos black then repainted chaos black to cover any gaps.

Once dried the bases were dry brush V German grey.

The lava parts of the bases were painted GW blazing orange.

Once dried the lava parts were wet washed V flat yellow.

Once everything was dry the whole base was lightly dry brushed V german grey.

The method - Blood Letters

The models were made as normal and undercoated AP. blood red.

The models were then painted GW blood red.

The blades were painted GW chaos black, the hilts were painted GW bronze, the handles were painted GW bleached bone and the tips were highlighted GW blazing orange.

The tongues were painted GW blood gore.

The whole model was given a coat of AP medium tone but no varnish was applied.

GW –Games workshop

V=Vallejo

AP =army painter