Bases: Changing the way I do things

Basing is dull. I've always thought so. Especially *my* bases.

When I first started work on my first army (Dwarfs - not yet represented on this blog but long overdue to be revisited) I got to the end of the job painting of painting minis up and then the bases just got a coat of Goblin Green and that was it.

Things got a little better when I did my Imperial Guard - I took the time there to add some sand before painting with GG and drybrushing a bit, then adding a bit of sandstone colour to the bigger rocks on the bases. I was pleased with it at the time but now I look back at them I find those bases horribly garish.

When I got started on my Warriors of Chaos, I decided to deliberately mute the palette and went for a darker, more broody feel. The GG was replaced with black with a grey drybrush. A few bones on a random selection of bases finished them off.

Next up came the Beasts of Chaos. There were shared components with the WoC army (Giant, Ogres, Warhounds) so I needed the same basing scheme, but at least this time I thought to glue the sand in place before spraying the black base colour on. Trouble was, I'd run out of bones so the bases took a step back towards being more dull again.

I recently decided to re-approach basing, so I got some modelling snow and added it to the bases of my Beasts as described in this post. Pleased as I was with the snow, the stark black/white of the base/snow was too extreme so I decided to go the whole hog and revamp my basing completely.

Having no experience with basing properly at all, I decided to have a go on a test base and pop a quick post up for opinions and advice. Which is what you're reading now.

As the idea was to build on bases that are already attached to painted models, I started my test base off the same way my current bases are built.

Glue sand to the base with PVA, Paint black and drybrush grey (and this is where I'd normally stop):

Add some snow (which is where I am with the Beasts right now):

Next I added some more PVA, then dropped some grey granite chips on, followed by some brown "scatter":

Then added a small amount of static grass:

I was nervous about adding the grass - I'd never used it before and envisaged having clumps of grass lying horizontally on the base or sticking out in weird directions. Somehow, it didn't work that way. A generous blob of PVA and a dip in my tub of grass and it just worked.

Up until the static grass went on, I really wasn't sold on the base at all. With the grass in place though, I think it looks pretty good. I like the "spring peeping through the melting snow" look and am almost looking forward to the tedious drudgery of fitting out all of my models in this way.

Almost.