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Basing Your Army


deadwing34

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What are peoples thoughts on this, just curious more that anything. I have an army with a few different base styles and was thinking about making them all the same.

 

1) Is it important that your entire army has a similar basing style to each other.

 

2) Do people tend to have their entire army based one way except for a few key IC or really big center piece models.

 

3) Do people base their flyers bases or just leave them plain black?

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1) I try to at least have some commonality. I've got areas of grey sand on most of my Imperial factions, but their secondary features might be snow, grass powder, or static grass. They've each got their own feel, but the grey makes them still tie together somewhat when I'm running them as Allies. Sometimes I'll use second-hand models that have different basing for a while, but I usually try to get them rebased eventually.

 

2) I tend to get fancier on anything that has more room on its base. 40mm dudes often get some little bit of something scenic, larger bases always have some more varied gravel, usually some special bits, and more recently, something to break up the flat feel.

 

3) I do basing for my Flyers. I don't think I've actually seen people use them with plain black bases, except for a couple of times when someone just got something and wanted to try it out before it was finished. With a bit of careful masking, they're not that bad to do.

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I base everything in one faction roughly the same. So my space wolves are green flock, characters get some sand with the green flock and some plants, same with big bases. My SOB are black sand with scorched skeletons, etc. It allows for easy identification of faction when I have mixed lists.

 

Flyers should be based, imo, and I usually add more to the base so that it isn't just a plain expanse.

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1, I like to base the army in pretty much the same way. i.e. bits of snow, dirt, etc on each base, on characters and larger models i tend to throw on some larger rubble, rocks, ruins and bits of equipment to give them a bit of a individual touch. Larger flyer bases and the like can have big rocks on them or more ruins to make them look a bit less flat and boring. Its shows cohesion and that they are the same army. Otherwise looks a touch dis-jointed. 

2, Pretty much the same way as above giving the characters a bit of extra effort with a few extra touches looks great. 

3, Not in my experience. Unless the whole model is unpainted i would recommend modeling and painting the base as well. They are pretty big bases so you can do some pretty cool things with them. :)

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I base everything in a given army the same way: snow, desert, swamp, etc. If I plan on allying a force to one of my armies I base the ally force the same as well. I like consistency.

 

Characters and bigger bases (flyers, dreadnoughts, etc.) get some additional stuff to fill out the base (rocks or other bits). To keep the army consistent I also put some of these extra embellishments on every 10th 25mm infantry base or so.

 

I always texture and paint my skimmer bases - again, for consistency.

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I think consistent basing is one of the easiest ways to make an army look like a cohesive force, and not just a collection of random models. Basing is really important to me.

 

I do base fliers, but I don't paint or base the "skimmer" stands - the clear plastic ones. Mostly because I'm lazy.

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I think consistent basing is one of the easiest ways to make an army look like a cohesive force, and not just a collection of random models. Basing is really important to me.

 

I do base fliers, but I don't paint or base the "skimmer" stands - the clear plastic ones. Mostly because I'm lazy.

I don't paint my skimmer bases either, in fact I kinda think that flyers bases should be clear too.

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Totally agree. I don't paint the transparent stand bits of bases just the bottom base part. I also don't paint transparent cockpit windows either as i think painting them is lazy as folks don't have to paint the insides then. Thats just me though. I appreciate everyone take their own view on stuff like that. 

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Totally agree. I don't paint the transparent stand bits of bases just the bottom base part. I also don't paint transparent cockpit windows either as i think painting them is lazy as folks don't have to paint the insides then. Thats just me though. I appreciate everyone take their own view on stuff like that. 

I have seen people paint the cockpit windows as the same color as the rest of the model, boy does that look bad, not a fan.

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I don't paint the clear plastic stands that attach to the flyer or skimmer but I do texture and base the bottoms, whether they are clear or not. The clear plastic bottoms always looked cheap and out of place to me.

 

I do paint the clear plastic canopies on Valkyries and Wave Serpents, etc... As Splinx guessed, it's because I'm lazy and don't want to paint the cockpit and pilot(s) lol. I never paint them the same color as the hull, though - it's always a contrasting color that I use throughout the army.

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I paint the canopies on my vehicles because I know from bitter experience that I'm going to get paint all over them at some point anyhow, so I might as well just roll with it.

 

I do leave the clear plastic parts of flying stands/bases unbased/painted, tho.

All you have to do is just put them on after the model is completely done.

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I like seeing based clear plastic flying bases done, but it is relatively uncommon and without a beveled edge to match the rest of the army it can look a bit different.

Actually I found out that Litko sells clear ones. The problem is with shipping they are around 15 bucks. I think I will just stick with the one that my flyer comes with and paint it in a similar style to how my base was done on my Imperial Knight.

 

http://www.litko.net/products/Gothic-Battle%2C-Mk6-large-Flight-Base-%281%29.html#.VS57tZNUU0k

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All you have to do is just put them on after the model is completely done.

Most of them have struts that are supposed to be painted. I've screwed enough of them up by getting glue all over them, too. At least I do a contrasting colour and put lots of gloss varnish on them so they look different from the rest.

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Most of them have struts that are supposed to be painted. I've screwed enough of them up by getting glue all over them, too. At least I do a contrasting colour and put lots of gloss varnish on them so they look different from the rest.

Ha, I guess that is where I cheat and don't paint those. Just put in on as is.

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I like seeing based clear plastic flying bases done, but it is relatively uncommon and without a beveled edge to match the rest of the army it can look a bit different.

 

I've actually started replacing all 60mm flying stand bases with standard 60mm bases just because of this. I had to special order 15 60mm bases from GW just to re-base my Eldar skimmers - it was driving me crazy! The beveled edges were totally worth ~$2 a base, lol.

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I've actually started replacing all 60mm flying stand bases with standard 60mm bases just because of this. I had to special order 15 60mm bases from GW just to re-base my Eldar skimmers - it was driving me crazy! The beveled edges were totally worth ~$2 a base, lol.

HAHA, there is something to be said for consistency.

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Latest thing I've started doing is to drill a pin through the clear flying base stem. It then goes into the model via a small drilled hole. The model is not glued to the pin. Despite the pin not being clear, I've had to point it out to fellow hobbyists, so I guess it isn't too noticeable.

 

I am using very slim steel rod acquired at Tammie's hobbies.

 

On a side note, drilling holes through clear plastic is really fun. I love being able to see my progress while drilling.

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It really is cool. I've been putting magnets in the flying stands for some of my Gargoyles, and it's fun watching the progress.

Thank god for plastic gargoyles...could never have gotten this to work with the old models.

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