40k Tutorial: Painting Black Armor

As I was getting ready to paint up the character model I had built for my first game of deathwatch RPG, I realized that my Blood Angel Assault Marine would be wearing mostly black, not red. As a quick note of fluff, the Deathwatch are pulled from various marine chapters from across the imperium, and while every marine is allow to maintain the badge of his home chapter, the rest of his armor is black, save for his left arm and shoulder guard, which is silver.

I've never really had a tremendous success with painting black armor. Either it ended up looking too flat or too dirty or too clean, etc. So this time, rather than just push blindly ahead with no real plan, I found a friend with a couple old models he was willing to part with in exchange for a quick and tidy paint job. The models were space wolves, but it didn't make much difference. The point was I had a method to test out various ideas on how to paint black and keep it interesting.

Method 1: Magic Washes

Maybe one of my favorite GW products of all time, the magic wash can do almost anything. So when it came time to paint black, I decided to put Badab Black to the test by giving several heavy washes to an already dark grey model.

The results didn't quite turn out as I had hoped. The finish was nice and smooth as I had expected, but the highlights I thought would be left just weren't. I am curious to see what the results would be like starting with a lighter grey or even a white, but for this guy, the details just kinda vanished, leaving him looking a little flat, though I was able to compensate by making the rest of the model pop a bit more.

Method 2: 'Ard Coat

This guy represented two firsts for me, as I had never worked with 'ard coat before this project. I was pleasantly surprised to see how easily it applied and dried, leaving him nice and glossy. The entire process was quick too as it only required a single coat of black, and a single coat of gloss. Visually I found this way to be my second favorite. If I had to paint an army of black armored soldiers in a hurry, I would definitely favor this method.

Method 3: Drybrush

I had to cheat a little on this guy just to see what would happen when introducing the element of cloth as well as traditional 'hard' armor. I quickly discovered that while the soft effect of the grey on black looked great on soft organic material, it just didn't quite hold up on the rigid surfaces of standard armor. Definitely recommended for robes, but leave this method at home for the real stuff.

Method 4: Hardline highlights

It should be pretty apparent by now which method I liked best. After having relatively good success with the first three models, I knew in order to push the quality up of the fourth, I had to pull out all the stops. As always, the most time consuming method ended up being the best for my needs.

The first step was to coat the model head to toe with Necron Abyss where the black armor would be. After that, I visualized where a single source of light would hit the model, and made a mental note of those locations. I went back with black and painted the shadows where they would fall, leaving the darkest parts pure black. I then went and built up highlights on the edges of the armor up through the blue tones, getting smaller and tighter with the lines on each further pass. Was I was left with was the impression of an almost mirror sheen under harsh lighting conditions, rigidly and neatly defined. I loved it.

Of course, as I said earlier, one of the chief considerations for any project is time. If you've got a couple weeks and you only need to paint a single model, go for it. I plan on using this guy for months to come, so I knew having a quality model would pay me back many times over. But if you've got an entire army that needs covering, and you want to be done in a few months, leave the fancy paintjobs for the HQ. Remember, you can always go back and improve, but not having your boyz done in time for the tournament never goes away.

Chaos Space Marines: Part 2 of 2

In this article:

• Noise Marines
• Rubric Marines
• Obliterators
• Chaos Dreadnought

For a person who doesn't actively own a chaos space marine army of his own, I sure do paint a lot of chaos space marines. This is mainly due to the fact that I have a friend who owns a lot of unpainted miniatures... like a lot a lot. There are also occasions where he has money and I have time to paint; I would definitely blame these factors for the current situation.

Before we dive into the nitty and the gritty of individual squads, I have to give much respect to people who have painted whole armies of these dudes. It isn't until you paint a chaos space marine that realize just how many little spikes and trimmings they have, and how much of your time said spikes and trimmings take up. I swear 1 chaos marine = 1.5 loyalist vanilla marines in terms of painting time. This may or may not hold true for some of the other loyalist chapters, I'm thinking robed dark angels are by far the fastest to paint while the new space wolves and blood angel kits definitely might come closer to a 1:1 ratio. Anyways, my point is, chaos space marine generals give yourselves a pat on the back for a job well done. Just finishing an army of these guys is a monumental task.

Noise Marines

I. HATE. PINK.

There, I said it. I'm a modern man who is comfortable with his masculinity, but by the cruel star gods I hate this color. It's not so much the hue itself, that I can take or leave provided it is used sparingly and in the right context. But painting pink has to be one of the most painful experiences I've ever had in this hobby. It just doesn't cover, and yes I was stupid and tried to cover black with pink. Actually I take that back, I didn't even try to cover black with pink, because I built it up over several layers of foundation paints before I finally tried to apply the pink, and it still didn't cover correctly. Oh well.

I think the main problem is that as a person who only really has access to GW paints, I'm forced to use a very old tentacle pink that I'm sure isn't mixed up very well anymore. I'm actually looking forward to the day that thing dries up so I never have to use it again. I can just picture myself sitting in front of the paint pot with it open and a hairdryer on full blast.

My advice to those who want to paint pink: prime white. The only way you're going to get a smooth, vibrant finish is over a smooth vibrant white.

This was when I first started hitting the aforementioned trim and detailed bits of the armor. Even though I was fortunate enough to have the model primed black, hardline highlights took a lot of extra time. The hawk turquoise provided a nice contrast though, and the addition of a little green here and there really pushed things forward. In the end I had the super-high contrast I was looking for, grumbling about pink aside. I set the noisy boys aside and turned my attention to...

Thousand Sons Rubric Marines

A much welcome breath of fresh air from the Noise Marines, the Rubric Marines were clad in a lovely blue. This not only made the process of painting faster, but also much more enjoyable. Painting golden trim on the armor really showed me just how detailed even the basic chaos space marine can be. Even though I was painting in a very measured and consistant pace, it seemed like every time I turned a model over I would find another patch of trim that I had missed the first time through. Since my gold trim takes a whopping 5 steps to paint, I seeing double by the time I had everyone fully trimmed out.

Speaking of trim, I wanted to take a moment to point out the trim on the crest of their helmets. The horizontal stripes would have been nearly impossible if it wasn't for micropens. I know some people like to be hobby snobs and insist that it's a pale imitation of a 100% acrylic paint job, but I must say I don't know how paint could have compared in this situation. The problem that you run into with these older sculpts is that things aren't as crisp as they used to be, and what should be a very nice neat row of colored stripes ended up looking a bit messy, even after a careful repainting. A single pass with the micropen straightened it all out, leaving things looking very well organized and showing the good paint job that was always there. It's like Ray Charles said when talking about music (paraphrasing), it doesn't matter how you made it, it only matter how it sounds.

Obliterators

Talk about coming out of left field with this one. I took these guys on thinking they would be a cakewalk to paint. Sound the buzzer, because that's a big fat wrong answer for me. I didn't understand just how difficult these guys are to get right until I had to do it myself. Blending skin directly into armor and making it look like anything besides a big blob of crap is not a simple task. If anything, I'd like to try it one more time to see if I couldn't do a little bit better after everything I've learned. Still, it was and still is an amazingly entertaining proposition to paint a guy like this. The insane nature of obliterators really shines here, bristling with weaponry they conjure out of nothing simply because they can. It was a fun paint scheme, though the biotech is still new to me. Maybe some day I will give it another try, but for now, we'll just stick with what we know: Armor.

Chaos Dreadnought

Now THAT is what I'm talking about. Big old robot with big old guns stomping around on a big old base. None of this frilly dark eldar nonsense, just several tons of rawr and go git 'em.

The model itself is the world eaters dreadnought from forgeworld, as are the arms. I have to say of all the models I've seen from forgeworld, the dreadnoughts are my favorite. Whoever designs those things has a talent for bringing the walking robo-coffins to life (har har) in a way I have yet to see from GW's plastics, impressive though they may be in their own right. The base is actually from a sample tile I got in a white dwarf mag advertising the warhammer fantasy campaign system. Those mini landscape markers make great additions for basing.

The only thing that drove me crazy about this piece was the hour of scrubbing I had to do to clean the model.

If you've never painted forgeworld models, you need to read this:
Forgeworld models are resin, and when they are done being case they are coated in a special releasing agent that lets them come out of the mold without being damaged. This is well and good, but forgeworld does not clean the release agent from their models, and if you don't do it, it's almost guaranteed to ruin your paint job. All you need to do is give a good scrub with an old toothbrush and some warm soapy water. I recommend dish soap, as that has the strongest cleaners in it to cut through the tough, greasy shell. Once you've given it a once or twice over, you're good to go, but make sure you hit every angle.

If you don't, there's a chance that the paint will not adhere completely to the release agent, causing it to roll off when your trying to work. Even worse, there's also a chance that it will initially accept the paint, but it will randomly flake off later when you think you're done. This is almost the worst feeling in the world, just watching your hours literally fall off the model. I'm shaking my head just thinking about it. My point: don't let this happen to you.

So another group of chaos hit the proverbial dust, too bad they would be used against me in the future, but such is the price you pay for working for others. At least I got to lose to some pretty models.

Ork Boss Snikrot

The Setup

My initial concept was simple; to take a model and paint it in a light scheme that didn't invoke a cloudless day at noon in the middle of an empty field.

So many times we as painters can be drawn in by the 'norm' or standards of a game system. I'm a GW guy by default, so my painting career has been based on the 'Eavy Metal method. Like any fledgling artist, my first inclination was simply to replicate what had already been done, mainly through the photos in my codexes.

There's nothing wrong with this. All the great masters of art started off as copy cats. It's just part of the process, and it should be regarded as one of the necessary steps to proficiency. But as time wears on and the hand that guides the brush becomes more experienced, the mind begins to wander and to wonder. What else is out there? Is this really the best way to paint this mini? What if I have a different idea?

When those thoughts begin to crop up, it is critical that you act on them. It's only by breaking away from copying that you begin creating. Sticking with the same dictated color schemes and painting methods will, at best, result in a perfect copy.

Remember: everything in moderation.

Stay by the side of your favorite artist(s), but don't dwell too long, you are too important to spend your whole life treading in the footsteps of others.

Boss Snikrot

This sculpt, while well executed, hasn't won any popularity contests among the ork player base. I wasn't crazy about it, but I liked it enough to give it a shot. Given his nature, Snikrot wouldn't be caught dead (or rather he would) out in the open on a bright day. He'd be much more likely to be sneaking around in the shadows, or even better yet, at night…

Let's get this out of the way now, Splinter Cell was an enormous reference for this guy.

Painting

I started as I would any model; defining the basic areas with foundation colors. I preferred grey over true metallics, which gave me tighter control over the highlights and shadows. To push the night time color scheme, I painted his skin with Necron Abyss.

I am accustomed to starting at a medium hue and working a little bit in both directions for shades and highlights, but in this case I found myself on opposite ends of the spectrum. The skin was almost black after having been washed andI only needed to highlight, where the rest of his gear required several shades of progressively darker paint. It was a very new and very interesting experience for me.

One of the coolest parts of this project had to be studying the actual way things look in bright moonlight.

One night I realized the moon was so bright that I could clearly see my shadow on the ground. I went into the back yard with my wife, away from artificial lights, and walked around her, watching the way the moonlight hit her, and where the shadows fell. It was fascinating to be walking around at night and yet seeing clearly, something I wanted to bring to the model.

Pushing the Paint Further

I worked in very thin layers of paint, which allowed me to apply many times over without losing detail or control. This was time consuming, but rewarding. It allowed me to push the shadows and highlights to the extremes, giving the model a great sense of depth.

The big breakthrough was the base. I realized the neutral browns of the initial base color where completely throwing off my perception with such a dark model on top of it. I painted the base the same Necron Abyss color as Snikrot's skin.

No pun intended, it was the difference between night and day.

My advice from this project: experiment like crazy. You only stand to lose if you don't learn from your experience.

40k Tutorial: Speed Painting Imperial Guard

It was a dark and stormy... afternoon when I found myself settling in for a good old fashioned round of speed painting. I grabbed my foundations, washes, metallics, and prepared to wage war on a heap of unpainted mini's. In just 6 hours there would be nothing left but a table ready squad of soldiers, with no bare plastic to show. The clock started ticking, and the paintbrush descended with unbridled fury... or something like that.

Hour 0: Preparation is Crucial

If you're going to undertake a speed painting challenge, the last thing you have to spare is time. Make sure everything is 100% ready to go when you sit down and start painting. That means all the mold lines are clean, everything is primed, things are as assembled as you are comfortable, and you have all your materials on hand. You can't waste 10% of your time looking for the brush you thought you had with you or wondering what color to do next, which transitions nicely to my next point:

Always have a plan. Know what you want them to look like when they're done and what colors you're going to need to get them there. Dilly dallying will not help here (it rarely does).

Hour 1: Skin is In

As these bad boys are Catachans, most of them left the full armor and shirts at home, that means the first thing to get painted up is this skin. Why?

Because you always want to paint the deepest element of a model first.

It's much easier to get down a layer of green on the coat my guardsman is wearing than to try and sneak a brush full of Tallarn Flesh into the recesses of the perfectly shaded and highlighted vest I just finished. Start with the greatest depth and build your way out. This will also come in great use when painting mechanized models.

Hour 2: Cover up

Turns out the boys from Catachan did remember a little bit of the old wardrobe, and when the skin was done being highlighted, that was the first thing to get a coat, as per my previous instructions. I had originally wanted to do some camo effects on the pants, but I quickly realized that this would not be viable given my time constraints, which transitions nicely to my next point:

To hell with the plan. If you don't have time, you don't have time. Executive decisions must be made on the fly, and it's important to be conscious of your resources as you're racing ahead. Remember, it's always easier to cut extra weight loose early, but once you've committed to something, you have to carry it out. Most details can be reintroduced at a later point in time, which you should feel free to do if you have too much time left over before the end of the challenge, but most of us never have that problem.

Hour 3: Heavy Metal

Now's when things get interesting. Picking out the metal on models like these really brings them to life. That and it provides a major morale boost to see so much of the model covered already. Your mood will have a huge influence on you later on in the challenge, when the continuous effort of painting begins to wear on you both physically and mentally. Give yourself the opportunity to celebrate each step as it's completed before diving into the next one. After all, this is supposed to be fun, don't let it become a slog.

Hour 4: The Dark Side

GW magic washes are, well, magic. I can't understate just what a difference it is to see the model go from flat to detailed in a single stroke of the brush. It makes a tremendous difference, and it also helps to point out any mistakes you have made up to this point. Just because this is a speed painting challenge doesn't mean it has to be sloppy. Keep things neat and simple, and you'll be very very impressed by the results, especially after a coat of Badab Black.

Hour 5: The Devil and His Details

This is what separates Da Bosses from Da Boyz. It's the small touches here and there that will really bring out the best in your work. A tattoo here, some extra detail around the eyes there, and suddenly things just pop. Always keep a fine detail brush on hand for all those tough spots where you need just a little paint in a small spot. The smaller brush will not only provide a great source of detail, but also prevent you losing all the work you just did when a larger brush bumps an already finished surface. You already painted the model, don't make yourself have to do it twice.

Hour 6: Flockkin' Ink

The final touches bring out the best in the model, and nothing unites what were once disparate elements like a common basing scheme. If you know your terrain ahead of time, go ahead and mix up a combination of the flocks you're going to need to finish. Gluing and flocking twice instead of five times makes all the difference in the world. And before you know it, the timer rings that last time and like it or not, you're done.

Final Shot

Speed painting is great fun, and a great way to produce a playable unit in a single evening. Especially in armies where you have infantry counts in the hundreds, having a fully painted unit is essential to a cohesive impression. That one command squad might look great, but people will still remember you as the guy with one painted squad in his army. My thanks to my friend John for volunteering his boyz to go triumphantly on with a solid, speedy paint job.

Chaos Space Marines: Part 1 of 2

In this article:

• Lucius the Eternal
• Chaos Sorcerer
• Slaanesh Lord
• Super Bitch of Doom

The great thing about the game of 40k definitely has to be the social aspect of the hobby. While it is important to be in it at least a little bit for yourself, being able to share all the hard work that you've done over a good game is probably the best moment the game has to offer.

Among other perks, when you start interacting with other players and making friends, you find yourself with opportunities to paint for armies other than one(s) you own, which in turn allows you to grow as a painter without having to break the bank on a new army. Some of my friends have a model or two in their active army that I've painted for them... some have a lot more. Chronicled here are some of the big boys I've painted for a friend's Chaos Space Marine army over the past couple years.

Lucius the Eternal

I don't know why people hate on this model so much. I think the sculpt is a very fitting representation of the endless warrior. Sure he's ugly, but in a good way. He's supposed to be all banged up and ritually scarred and so forth. His armor is sculpted with the faces of those who have opposed him and triumphed, only to undergo a hideous transformation into the man they just stood against.

I love the whip too. It was a pain to paint up and have it look right, but once I figured out the formula, it went pretty fast. The key was to paint the entire whip in one color, in this case red, and then work down length of the cord with the alternate color, in this case blue. Once I had picked out the opposed hues, it was simple to wash and highlight, leaving a nice, neat paintjob. So no more hating, let Luscious... err Lucius alone.

Chaos Sorcerer

My friend runs an army theme very similar to the World Eaters (Khorne heavy), and when I was going through his models trying desperately to find something he didn't have already, it stuck me that he had no sorcerers. So it was a simple matte r to find a nice sorcerer model and paint him up in the theme of my friend's army. His color scheme is darker and grittier, which I tried to push in spite of the fact that the sorcerer can look a little...frilly. Okay, not really, he's a 8 foot tall evil psychic super soldier with a sword the size of my upper torso, but it doesn't change the fact that he's wearing a skirt. I worked around this issue by dirtying up the cloth, and basing it in the intense red that forms the core color of the army scheme.

Slaanesh Lord

I expanded on the ideas of Lucius with this guy, seeing where I could take the idea of an dark elegant warrior among a pack of nearly uncontrollable berzerkers. Just because he worships Slaanesh doesn't mean he can't venerate Khorne as well, as I imagine the idea of "Skulls for the Skull Throne!" would provide at least some primal appeal to a potential champion of the gods. After all, in an age of aliens and super heavy armor, how much higher a level of sophisticated death dealing can one achieve than a mid-battle decapitation? It's the perfect balance of smooth and brutal, which I tried to bring out with the colors of this unique model.

I've been experimenting with black armor colors lately, and I thought it would be cool to see a model that had armor so dark that you could only see the color when it was fully illuminated, fading to black with the shadows. The highly reflective silver trim helps to keep large chunks of dark armor broken up and easy to take in. The turquoise of the blade and cape finally tie it back to the standard noise marines that the army has. I was thinking to use some of the signature red, but combined with the deep purple would have made this guy a little less "epitome of murder" and a little more "red hat society". Funny but not exactly what I was shooting for. But if you want to talk funny models..

Super Bitch of Doom

There just isn't any excuse for this guy. He's complete nonsense and we all know it, and at the same time we all love it. The Super Bitch of Doom (SBOD) is dreaded above all else on the battlefield, because you know there just isn't any recovering from such a toxic level of humiliation as that of losing to the SBOD. I went for the throat on this bad boy/girl with duckies, bunnies, and hamsters on the armor. The colors speak, that is to say they scream, for themselves. Of all the Christmas presents I worked on last year, this one made me smile the most. I don't think I've ever giggled while painting, and it is an experience I hope to repeat in the very near future.

Space Wolves: Part 1 of 2

In this article:

• Ragnar Blackmane
• Land Raider
• Lone Wolf
• Grey Hunters
• 13th Company

I've you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, it should be fairly obvious that I have a minor obsession with space marines. In addition to having painted 3 whole armies of space marines, I'm also in the planning stages for a 4th, and have painted models for all the other chapters I haven't even played. One of the nice things about having friends who play chapters I don't is that when the bug bites me to paint up a model or 3 of their chapter, they're more than willing to provide me with a fitting subject. That way I don't have to go spend money on a model I can't use in a game, and they more often than not get a free paint job. It's a nice arrangement to say the least.

Having 2 friends with Space Wolves means I've painted quite a few of the boys in blue/grey. Here are some examples of what's been done:

Ragnar Blackmane

The first Space Wolf I ever painted, Ragnar serves as a nice benchmark for how I am progressing and how the overall wolf aesthetic has progressed. I based the color scheme off the model shown in the old Space Wolf codex, when the boys were armored in the powdery blue instead of the harsher grey's of the modern space wolf codex. This is a reflection of GW's overarching revision of it's models and colors, a unified new vision of the 40k universe. Nowadays you will be hard pressed to find the bright, bold colors that defined warhammer for the 80's and most of the 90's. The new world of 40k is a darker, grittier, one, filled with metal, dirt, blood, and stone.

But as time has gone on, this guy maintains a sort of nostalgic tint for me. It's an archaic model with an old paintjob in an all but forgotten paint scheme. It's nice to see something so bright in today's game environment, and it always helps to look back at your old stuff to appreciate just how far you've come.

Land Raider

Speaking of progress, this bad boy is the latest and greatest wolf piece I've completed to date. The detail of the hull was the hardest to achieve, especially the celtic knot. I'll think twice before I make one of those things again. I painted this piece for a friend who plays one of the fire-happy space wolf great companies. So it made sense that his land raider would be a redeemer style build. I tried to work in some extra fire details and color suggestions here and there to really push the theme. The giant flame throwers on either side definitely helped with this as well.

For those of you who haven't or are considering building a land raider for your force, a word of advise: glue it shut. I know they give you detailed inside pieces and all the mechanisms to make a working front hatch. Just throw those extra inside pieces out and glue it all shut. You'll be glad you did if you ever see someone's land raider where he built a working hatch. The problem with plastic working parts is that eventually they wear down and become smooth with repeated use, and eventually offer no resistance at all. I can't count the number of land raiders I've seen where the doors won't stay closed. This not only impedes movement, it just looks bad, and if you're going to sink the time and money and points into such a gargantuan vehicle, you don't want it coming back to bite you. I know it seems counter intuitive, but ask any veteran player; glue is your friend when it comes to doors and hatches.

Lone Wolf

One of the new units the space wolves get is the lone wolf, a born troublemaker out to get himself killed in battle. After reading about them, I couldn't help but envision this as an ideal Ork unit, but then realized it would be extraordinarily redundant to refer to an Ork as suicidally violent.

The photograph doesn't quite show it, but this guy is a very very dark shade of blue. This is more along the lines of the new vision of 40k I was referring to earlier; dark and brutal. I wanted to give this guy more of a somber tone, given the nature of his unit and his personal mission. I like that GW chose not to issue specific models for these guys, leaving the vision up to the player. In my case, I definitely wanted to see a warrior out in the field, pausing only to take another shot to try and get the enemy's attention. The new sternguard models served as a great addition to several units, and this guy was no exception. I love this sculpt, and I would paint it again several times over.

Grey Hunters

Bits, bits, bits, bits, and more bits!

My god this box has a lot of bits. I thought I was inundated with bits when the Black Templar upgrade box came out; I had no idea what was coming. It's so extensive that it slowed me down for a while while I tried to figure out what to use and where. My only complaint about the box, for all the special options and weapons and bits and bobs, there weren't any melta guns included. Come on GW, you stuffed dozens of heads and helmets in there, leave room for at least one melta gun huh? I'm willing to bet the player base would be willing to sacrifice one or two of those zany haircuts for a bit they really need, especially in the armor-heavy 5th edition world.

Another note, although I was very happy with the way these guys turned out, if I was making an entire Space Wolf army I would be a little more vigilant in spreading the wealth so to speak. I feel like a single box of these bits would be enough to wolf-ify at least half an army. I think one of the problems in a hobby situation with too many options is you end up taking too many of them just to make up for the huge variety you have to pick from initially. Plus nothing will look special if you keep repeating your favorite helmet selection a dozen times over the course of the army. Plain old space marines can be okay. In fact, I feel they're entirely necessary to define what really shines out in the rest of the army. You need a visual base to work from, something I detailed in my previous post.

13th Company

These guys were a blast. I painted them back in the days before the 5th edition codex came out, when the 13th company was still a viable selection. They can still be run in a wolf army, they just need to be spread out a little. And as I was saying, having a few members of the 13th company popping up in your army here and there will add interest without distracting. The other nice thing about these guys is you can make them really distinct without having to resort to overused loyalist bits. A simple chaos shoulder pad and a different color scheme is all that is required and you're in business. GW did the smart thing by making the ranges physically compatible, opening up a variety of conversion options for those open minded enough to seek them out. Nothing is quite as easy as kitbashing when it comes to making a custom model, and nothing comes as close to an accurate interpretation of a characterful unit like the 13th company.

Warhammer Tutorial: 5 Step Snow and Stone Bases

Yes, it's tutorial time again!

This time we have a play by play of how to paint stone tiles onto an otherwise "blank" base, and as a bonus, get it loaded up with snow.

So why take all the extra time to paint a boatload of blank bases? Several reasons.

First and foremost, the obvious fact is that the models we're painting were meant to sit on a flat surface. Custom 3D bases are all well and good and worth the time for the special Skaven Warlord who heads up your army, but you don't want to have to custom pose all your slaves and clan rats over and over and over again. Custom painted flat bases are done when they're done, no more effort required.

Second, you have complete control over how the base looks. While the bases you order online are gorgeous, seeing them repeated 20 times inside a single army diminishes the overall effect. Even when I was batch processing bases for blocks of 20 guys, each base looked slightly different; different enough to keep the look of coherency without redundancy.

Third, and perhaps most importantly, it's cheap. If you don't want to spend an extra $100 custom basing an entire army, this is a relatively fast and painless option. It may take time to paint the textures, but remember, you'd have to paint the 3d pieces anyways. And in almost all cases, 3D take more time than 2D.

Step 1: Blank Out

To establish a good foundation for your stone, clean and prime the bases you want to work on. Take the extra time to make sure the bases are squeaky clean when it comes to flashing and sprue nubs. If you're going to expend so much energy to make it look good, you might as well start with a clean slate.

Also, since this is stone, don't worry about getting the coat to be 100% perfect. A little primer showing under the paint will help add extra detail by giving the illusion of texture. For this demonstration, I'm using Adeptus Battlegrey for the dark grey and Astronomicon Grey for the lite grey. If you're feeling like taking extra steps, feel free to mix in extra coats with other similar hues like Dheneb Stone and Charadon Granite.

A quick note: Attention Warhammer Fantasy players; Adeptus Battlegrey is your friend! At full strength, it's the exact same hue as sprue grey, which means you don't have to do anything to your movement trays but assemble them!

Step 2: Broad Strokes

Next you want to get a feel for what's to come. With a relatively large brush of watered down Astronomicon, I paint out the general shape of what I want the stone to do. This soft grey will serve as the blueprint for what's to come. This is the stage you want to make mistakes with. If you don't like something, the paint should be wet enough to just wipe off and start again, and any residue left behind will simply create another layer for your finished stone.

If you want to get all fancy and add in geometric designs, be sure to keep around items of the size and shape you want to see. For example, the circles on the large square base are just other circle bases laid down and painted around. The rest is freehand, but you can see how having various bits and bobs around could lead to a nearly infinite number of designs just by mixing and matching concentric shapes.

Step 3: Refinement

With a much smaller and less watered down brush of Astronomicon, trace out the exact shape of what you want your tile to look like. Be sure to paint inside the existing lines, but try to stick to one side or the other. This is where you'll begin to define the light source.

For example, I've got a stack of three vertical lines from the previous step, and I trace over line one on it's left side. From the point on, I'm going to stick to the left side of any vertical lines I've created, and I would do the same for horizontal lines. The consistency is going to make the process easier and add a visual lever of believability to your project.

Step 4: The Devil and his Details

Now for the tricky part. This part is optional, but really adds a lot to the project if you have a steady enough painting hand. I say painting hand because I do not have steady hands at all, but can maintain a good level of control over them when I'm laying down paint. You're going to need a very fine brush, the finest they have at your local craft store. With as much care as you can muster, re-trace the strong grey line from step 3 with dark grey or black. If your hand drifts or you go off the line, you can cover it up by adding some extra squiggles to make it look like a crack in the stone. Finally, to add one final level of depth, grab your wash of choice (Devlan Mud in this case) and hit the other side of the black line to crate a shadow. Those of you not basing your army from the frozen north can stop here. For the rest of us, let us proceed to...

Step 5: Chilly Bits

This is a two step process.

Step A
This is where we form the "bulk" of the snow drift. What you want to do is find a snow flock that uses rough ballast, which is to say, bigger and bulkier individual pieces. Woodland Scenics makes a great snow flock that I have been using for several years. You pony up $10 and you'll never need to do so again. There's so much of this stuff that I've split it evenly four ways and I still have more than I'll ever need, and I've based several armies with my existing supply.

As for the actual process, what you want to do is to mix the rough snow with simple PVC 'white' glue, until you have a paste. Put some of the 'snow paste' on your base and cover that bad boy in a light coat of white glue again. This is also a good point to put any glue down for small drifts as well. I like to trace some thin lines in between the stone tiles where the snow would have settled.

Step B
Once everything is down on the base and sufficiently coated in glue, just dip the whole lot in a lighter, fluffier snow. I've been using Games Workshop Snow. This works very well for that sparkling, freshly fallen look. If you want sludge, try giving the snow paste a wash of Devlan Mud or Gryphonne Sepia around the point where it meets the base (only after the glue is completely dry.)

Conclusion

So there you have it. Stone. Snow. The Works. This process may seem intimidating, but I highly recommend it. After your first dozen, you'll be able to batch process these bad boys in stacks of 20, and the skies' the limit from there. Don't be afraid to experiment either. You can always cover up and ugly paint job on a flat surface with ease. Just remember patience and you'll do just fine.