I like my bases really fancy because it’s so simple to make and really draws the focus away from my poorly painted minis.

Something I like to do is painting the rim of the base dark gray, no matter what color is on the top of it. The trick is to use a gray paint dark enough that our brains read it as black, so you can achieve an even darker sensation with actual black paint on the model. I find it increases the perceived volume as the recesses look deeper that way, and it also helps avoiding the washed out look black armor sometimes has.

After just a couple of months of getting into 40k, I’m just stumbling upon your channel. I do have to say it’s probably one of the most educational and constructive channels I’ve watched ever; and I don’t just mean miniature related. A lot of people when they talk about why they do what they do, explain why others are wrong and they are right. But when you explain why you do what you do, it’s not that you’re right, but why the concept/principle of why your doing it is beneficial. I can’t stress enough how helpful it’s been to foster my own creativity, while still having a base of knowledge to build off of. Very excited to keep learning from you.

Pro tip: make sure to always paint your bases gobbo green. Instant +10 to charisma.

There is something wonderful about Uncle Atom in a fez during these hard times. Keep on being you, bud.

*>watches astartes once* and now I'm here...

Big take away: Adam doesn't really like Radishes.

I love to keep the Theme of my army's base the same, but add (depending on the size) little flavour tidbits to the models to tell a story. E.g. my Tau Army is fighting on a Forest / Grassland world so i keep the bases foresty overgrown, yet my Breachers obviously have the task to storm a village in said forest so they get more urban themed bases that have a overgrown mossy effect to them to keep the "theme" together. Same goes for my Tyrannids or my Raven Guard - The Nids fight on a barren/desert world and the RG have to duke it out on a tundra frozen battlefield - yet one can still give flavour to it. My rule of thumb is that the smaller the model - the simpler the base gets. On my two blobs of gaunts (yes 30 hormagaunts and 30 termagaunts) only every third or fourth model has some dried grass or a tyrannid themed bracken on it. Coloring is always tricky. My Tau have (true to the codeX) changed their armor color to fit the batlefield - but because i use a different hue of green they dont get "drowned" in the base, and the sa'cea orange tab's make them stand out. My (acidental) Kraken nids stand out via the carapace and the raven guard have a good contrast with a blue white grey tundra due to their black armor (i dent to give little variations to them, like some have dark grey legs, some have a cross grey pattern - gives each squad a bit of its own style - it might not be 100% codex astartes adherend but fuck you gulliman they are MY dudes.

Fancy bases look fine on display, but for gaming I want the bases to blend in with the table as much as possible. And I play on many different kinds of tables so I try to make them pretty subdued.

Thank you so much for this idea. Recently got back into 40k due to lock down and really pleased with the contrast offered by a dark grey base. Excellent tip 👍

I love the desert look of your Star wars Legion Models. Thanks for the tips on basing and painting stormtroopers!!

Golden rule for sure is texture the base before you prime. Saves so much time and heartache.

Another great bit of content as always. I love how you explain your theory and logic to justify the advice. I'm from a very different school of mini painting where I feel the 2 focal points when peeps look at minis are the faces and the bases. I like to put some effort into making the bases compliment the mini and even add to their narrative. That's why I love this hobby. You can find your own style.

I've started using Necromunda bases, simple to paint, slap on some Vallejo Gunmetal/Citadel Leadbelcher and some Nuln Oil/black ink. Works well with those Know No Fear "mats". Plus most of the models I've painted recently are Necromunda anyway. Did use Mordant Earth recently on a Bloodthirster's base though, looks very good, and so easy - lava for noobs!

contrast paints are a blessing for painting bases

Thank you for validating what I chose to do for myself. I got into 40k two years ago and received a little grief from certain circles on this style. Your guidance I took to heart on texturing my base first (I simply use fine sand which I have for other projects). After a good priming and painting my models, I use Eshin Grey on the bases and a slight bit of Stormfang. I think the neutral/dark tone fits in with most terrain; and with that which contrasts, the tone is easy to ignore. Thanks for all you do!

The model is not finished until the basing is done!

Great tips! For my first army (Khorne Bloodbound) I only used Agrellan Earth, after painting the whole army. After watching some of your videos I started using Stirland Mud (or any similar technical paint) before painting the models so I painted the base and the model at the same time.

One correction I feel compelled to add: During WW2 cities that had been fought over a lot often had a lot of them covered in reddish dust from the bombs and artillery destroying bricks. The Idea of the grey over everything is good but the materials of the urban area will change the color of the dust (Concrete like in a "modern" city would indeed be grey.)

I like the basing part. It's like decor on icing of the cake. However, I do have some Imperial Assault minis with no basing mainly because was not sure how to achieve the effect I wanted. My Legion minis are getting desert basing and I get it done at the end of model painting.

I paint Adeptus Custodes, which have a warm tone, so cool grey bases look great with them. Awesome video!

Bolt Action player here, and I've painted and based all my figures prior to putting them on the table. If they don't have paint, they don't see the table. I learned early on to paint the base, as I think that an unpainted base takes away from the overall experience of having a fully painted army. After the grass and gravel and stuff are on the base, I paint the edges with the primary color of the unit. It just kind of ties it all together. Many of the 40k players in that shop are kind of socked that the BA players, for the most part, have all their minis painted before putting them on the table, and especially, I've had comments about the basing, as apparently, many of them don't bother with the base. Saying the same thing "I'll get to it eventually." Once I'm done with a mini, I don't want to go back to it. I can't see getting it 90% done, then just putting it on an unfinished base.

For me basing is the most fun part. Working with cork, texture paints, stones and stuff is soooo much fun!

I got the Citadel essentials kit for about a tenner here in the UK with a few extra paints, iuse the plastic pot holder it came with to hold my paints in the specific order i use them in, really helps.

I now base and paint all my figures in a single house style using round GW slotta-bases to the closest size for the rules. I have a standard scheme: Vallejo earth paste Army painter leather brown (because it comes in a rattle-can for movement trays) GW Desert brown dry brush Agrax-earth shade Partial covering of summer flock 1 of four different Army Painter tufts It’s quick and I can bring together GW bestigores, Rackham Sessair and Privateer Press Orboros constructs into a Saga Magic force that looks as if it was a purpose built army.

I'm simple with bases. I just get something on there that makes it have some thematic ground, like a texture paint or a few bits and bobs. But once I started painting the rims to either match the faction colour of my army or have some sort of theme to the rim connected to the army, man does it help just tie em all together regardless of my painting level when I did the models, age of the mold or size of the model. I got gold rims on my CSM Black Legion Army, Red for my Admech Mars army and my current project has Purple Rims, which while not a colour represented on the models of the army, represents a factor of the thing they were based off and I like the little invisible in joke that brings while being dark enough to not distract from the rest of it.

I think of it in the same way as the frame and border of a good painting/poster. When done correctly it does everything you mentioned, while looking a bit better than it did without. As other commentors have said I also like to tell a story and show time passing like foot prints (how the model got there). I prefer to do my base rim color different for each group so there's cohesion and I get to play around with different ideas. Great job on the chaos riders btw!

I love basing and often put alot more effort and thought in to that process. When starting my Gloomspite army, i handmodelled over 200 mushrooms (basicly a simple greenstuff pinched piece with a metal pin under to attach to bases) and finished over 100 bases with sanding, flock, tufts, shrooms and brushery.... whilest my goblins where still just basecoated. I have a problem.

For a more generic "cavern" base that I've been doing for a while on both terrain and minis (mainly for D&D), I've kind of shifted to something interesting. I texture with a mix of sands, I found some really nice, fine sand that I mixed in with some rougher construction sand, and use superglue over the base and then soak a bit into the texture afterwards if there are some parts I'm concerned about. I tend to prime the entire thing in grey, either by brush or by spray depending upon what I've got and the weather. To do the rest of the base, I thin out some brown acryllic ink (I'm mainly using FW Burnt Umber, but since Hobby Lobby near me doesn't carry FW anymore, I'm thinking about switching) to about 50/50 ink/water, and give it a good layer over the basing material and let it dry. Then I use a similarly thinned black acryllic ink and carefully use it to line around the actual mini, it tends to give a slight shadow to the base, before thinning it out more to a 10% ink for water and go over the rest of the base and let it dry. Then I go with a drybrush of an off white or bone color and then paint the rim. For larger bases, I add some larger stones when gluing the materials on, and then, after the brown ink, I hit them with a light grey paint and let it dry, the thinned black and drybrush make it look a lot more like stone and I occasionally add another, lighter, drybrush of white on the rock as well. The end result is kind of an off-grey look that seems to fit caverns, dungeons, ruins, battlefields, and more. It also works really well to be modified for lighting with inks/washes and drybrushing...or you could go even colder and add a bit of snow flock for more frozen wastes, or a little bit of polyeurethane gloss to make it more marshy

Good call. Gray with with the Imperials would have been blah but the desert basing looks great. And yeah, I've seen lots of bases that are just plain excessive. A personal pet peeve is when people put a 1-inch cube sized chunk of cork on the damn base. Lazy, impractical, and excessive- the worst of all worlds... I do bases after painting the minis themselves, but my methods can make that work, while other methods might not. I make what I call "mud mix" using equal parts cheap brown craft paint and PVA glue, watered down as needed. I use that most of the time but not always. I can slop it onto the base and cover it with any kind of flocking. If mud gets on feet, that actually makes sense. I add rocks or rubble or chopped up bits of sprue, etc. I can paint it onto a rock, cover that part of the rock with fine grass flock, and then soak the flocking with green ink to make a nice mossy rock effect. I developed a whole "tundra" theme using a combination of these methods.

I am currently basing my necron army a lot like you suggest: texture, rocks and grey drybrush, and it looks cool, like they are on a sort of moon/asteroid. To add a spin that i never tried i decided to use snow on top of it. Man i like the resoult! The whole grey-metal white theme bonds toghether and gives contrast, and the green necron details on body and weapons drive the attention on the model itself. I’m still unsure of how to base my new battle sisters, i’m torn between ruins from a temple and green fields with high grass and cute blossoming flowers

My 40k bases are all neutral too, but more of a greyish-beige. I have a pebble or two on some and maybe even a very short grass tuft, but basically rather bland and unobtrusive. As well as not wanting to distract from the models, allowing the bases to visually disappear into the board, it means I can put all the Imperium stuff together for Apocalypse and they appear as a single, harmonious force.

Great thoughts. Thanks Adam!

I’m painting all the bases for my Astra Militarum army in grey! It’s looks sooo clean! 💯🤘🏼

I love basing AND radishes :D When I'm painting a squad basing gives me more fun than the actual painting since all the models look the same while I can make each base give them a truly unique look. Plus it's more realistic. If you have a large group of people even in the same area they will be standing on different terrain (e.g. in a city not all will fit on the pavement, some will have to stand on the street, some on the lawn, etc.). Edit: Plus I suck at painting so I actually do want to draw attention away from the mini :P

Been seeing a lot of transparent bases recently, so maybe that's a good way to go for people who don't want to base. I personally always do my bases with vallejo dark earth texture with drybrushes and patches of static grass. easy and fast.

I've really enjoyed the look of Astrogranite debris topped with some Valhallan blizzard. Super simple, not very distracting. I like basing but I've come to accept I don't have the time to put in that kind of time.

Some armies I base in brown and tan, it works from grass to desert, as well as snow. Others I use greys, works with Urban, Grass, and snow, desrt only so so. I have my Eldar on mud with snow, the only force small enough to have a specific fancy basing scheme, all my other armies are in the hundreds of figures. That's the Sci-fi 40k stuff, my fantasy is all on grass, I imagine that Ireland is the penultimate example of what a fantasy terrain would be.

I like to have my basing tell a story for my group of models. Like for my fantasy army of Empire I use just a regular brown muddy texture but I added orc bitz to some bases like bodies and stuff to show that the army is fighting Orcs. And with my orc models I added Empire bitz(bodies) to the bases to shot they are fighting each Empire. Looks good. But for people who just leave the bases black - it's totally worth going to dollar store, getting some white glue and any kind of rocks/sand/plastic pebbles and doing some texture, then painting it a dark colour.

I pre-make bases, using sculpy on mdfs bases and using texture rollers on them. I attach the mini (pin both feet) and paint the mini and base at the same time. Even base coating the base makes the mini feel a lot closer to completion. Theme-wise I make the bases pretty generic, for fantasy its just cobbles or stone pavers. I want to make the mini fit into as many settings as possible and not draw focus from the figure. I'm not a big fan of elaborate scenic bases, it may look epic to have your hero on a big rock but looks weird moving him around the battlefield like that.

I have adopted a similar belief, I found a jar of DecoArt snow texture paint. It was a bigger pot then GW's texture paint with a nice wide opening and only a little bit off scale from the chunkier texture paint. I'm like ok all these Stormcast are now fighting a winter war, ohh look at that this doesn't detract from horrors looks like they are Pink horrors in the snow now.

I personally just paint my hq bases golden and that's pretty much it. I need to do more but man that's a lot of work. This video is good for my soul

My minis tend to be really dark for some reason so dark bases don't help. So I paint mine Mars-like bright brownish red

Basing is my favorite part so mine are always fancy. Buuuut I do take in mind to make sure it's not taking too much away from the model. The model is always brighter than the base and draws the eye

Best quick base i did was on a unjt of GW swooping hawks (eldar) finecast models solely supported via a 1-2 mm piece... I used hot glue to support the base of model... Painted the glue like clouds and the remaining of the base a sky blue color. It plays with their ability to decend from the clouds (skyleap ability) plus it helps off balance the top heavyness of the model and support the finecrap...

I have only two basing styles, grey ash waste, or " muddy northern European field" with possibly a skull or two for variety, or rusted bits of junk. I paint the edges in " clasic" black. Not sold on snowy bases or excessively covered in foliage. I just want to get the models painted to a decent standard, and on the table frankly. If I was a competition painter or gamer I might consider a unique basing convention but nah, I'd just rather go with what I have been doing for a cohesive look across all of my armies. Also, I do the basing after the mini has been painted and purposely "dirty up" the model when I finish the bases, bringing the ground colour up onto the lower areas of the model, placing them in " their enviroment" good enough for me! Great topic Atom, and I am sure there are as many ways to base as there are painters! Thanks again!

I admit I like to put some grasses or a skull or something, but overall YES THANK YOU! I kinda think of the base as the frame of a painting. It should look nice, support the artwork, but not detract.

I suffer from chronic no-basing. Ive always struggled picking a base scheme that isn't going to take away from my painted mini. I'll give grey bases a go! Love your videos mate, always get me in a hobby mood.

I primarily collect Necrons and a generic Death soup army where the majority of the models are very light tones like white or silver with black or darker grey-silver details. So I've actually taken to adding colour to my miniatures through the bases and a few little details on the models. For example my necrons are all based on black sand with little green crystals on the bases to add that colour to the lower part of the mini and my death are all on midnight-purple sand bases with a slight beige drybrush with a couple of instances of fissures of turquois light that I tell myself is like soul rifts or whatever. While grey is fine in general I think you really have to decide based on your model. If you've used a lot of desaturated colours then perhaps a more bold base is a good idea. My small space marine army is all done in greys so their bases are over these pools of lava. I think its more important when gaming on the table top to make your base look distinct from the model to guide the eye. My only critism of your varanguard is that the mount and the base share too much of the same colour pallet and I think its difficult to distinguish where one ends and the other begins. As a guide to those who aren't a fan of basing though, I don't think "paint it grey" is a bad bit of advice. I only know my GF would NEVER accept that as a 'done' base. (Her Imperium army theme: instagram.com/p/CBjStVBpEtt/ and her sylvaneth: instagram.com/p/CBjQ_zepDNh/)

I like basing last. I'm totally fine if some base texture and color gets on the feet of my minis. It looks like they've been trudging through it! My personal favorite, simple yet cool looking recipe: astrogranite technical paint, heavy Agrax Earthshade, medium drybrush of Golgfag Brown, and then a light drybrush of Ryza Rust. Up close it looks Martian, but on a table top, it looks like regular ground, but the orange helps it have a bright highlight from that distance. There is an Army Painter grass, Wasteland Tuffs I think? I use that for grass. It's my go-to. My opponents like it, and it was a very quick way for me to base!

I mostly paint miniatures from board games (Imperial Assault, Descent, War of the Ring, D&D etc) so most of the time i stick with black bases and rim colors depending on the model's type (regular, elite).

I like plain black bases, I look at the base as an invisible black plinth for my models. I've done other stuff, but in the end, I paint and make models for my own enjoyment, so I use I tiny amount of glue to attach my models to a painting base, then when its done, I break it off, and put it back on a perfect new out of the packet base. For a time I used colour absorbing black paint on the sides and gloss black on the top, but that didn't add anything for me.

hehehe, I'm "baseically" done paining all for desert ground ... that is my way I do it for my Kill Team Orcs. Because sometime I still play GorkaMorka :D and I can use them there too. Waaaagh dakka dakka.

This is my issue with the standard Mars bases for Adeptus Mechanicus. The Red-Orange drowns out the model.

I love the fez!!!

Ok, I don't think I am alone here, but I am digging the Fez! It is awesome! Remember "Fez's are cool." -- The Doctor.

My mental struggle is that I want to be able to play on multiple tables and have the mini not look to out of place with a base that does not fit in. And I don't want to go crazy and do magnetic bases or clear bases. Clear would be ok, but most of my minis are glued already. I like your videos. They are always so informative.

Taking notes of how you paint: I just started painting zombies and was experimenting with blue as a base, and shading with green, going from blue to lighter green and mixing colors. Tried that on the head ,was satisfied, started painting the hands and couldn't remember how I've managed to make the head. Never to soon to take notes.

I'm a huge fan of contrast in bases. Grey soldiers on grey bases looks just as "samey" as yellow on yellow. Having green Astartes on a red mars-like base however, looks awesome. You still don't need to spend tons of time on it, same kind of formula as your grey ones but with some slightly brighter colours.

Painting bases is the best part as you can make tons if fixes without worrying about ruining the actual model

i love basing, its so satisfying.

Going to have to look at multi bases for my kings of war stuff.

I don't paint the bases anything but the black they came as. That skull by their foot isn't going to move with them when they advance 6 inches up the table, and your army isn't going to stand exclusively in snow while your enemies stand in lush grass. They're jet black to encourage you to forget they are there, and only exist on the model as a necessity. But that's just the way I do it. If you like painting bases then by all means, they are yours after all.

The Fez is a great touch

i paint mine grey gravel for 40k for the same reason you do. The models pop more on a grey base and don't usually get lost. I learned that when I painted imperial fists. I used to base my 40k stuff with sand etc, but the IF didn't pop. So the switch was made. I also think that grey "rubble/gravel" can fit in almost any gaming surface. Cities, ice world, grass world etc etc. If i painted them lets say "lava/ice/snow etc etc" it would be harder for it to not look out of place. Grey rubble/gravel is in place no matter what. My AOS however are all painted sand/wash/tufts of grass.

I play guard, infantry heavy guard. I would get overwhelmed with all the different troop units. I gots to paint the base walls "squad colors". It makes it a lot easier to play with and against. Mixed with movement trays, 150+ unit army is under 4 hours of game play. Besides practical things like that I usually have drab bases. The only difference is the Harlequin. I have a chaotic colors and nail polished over to make it look Warp-y, like they are popping out of the webway.

You had me at "Fez."

All mine are astrogranite grey, nuln oil, longbeard grey and edged steel legion drab. I put two or three grass tufts...the dead grass colour. These fit in on loads of different boards...cityfight, ashwates, country bases etc. Its a nice scheme, but compliments the model rather than overpowering it...in my opinion at least, lol. its fast and easy.

Radishes are an amazing vegetable. I need to work on my bases, though.

A surprisingly interesting video!

Clear basing for the win!

My playmatch is a snow field, guess i’m painting my bases white-ish than, pehaps with some of the underneath grass/ cobble stones revealed

Great tips here. As far as painting journal goes can't beat google docs. Unlimited free storage if you only use google docs. Can access from tablet, phone, computer, etc. Hell I can even do it by voice in the car, inspiration doesn't care what you are doing when it comes (actually I personally think it does care, it cares it comes when least convenient. Greatness of inspiration is inversely proportional to how convenient it is at that moment.)

I use bases to convey information. So generally the top of the base will be consistent across the army. Or mostly consistent. (I am consistent in my inconsistency.) But the edges will vary as I paint them by unit. Orks for instance, ork boyz specifically. We are talking about hundreds of models. So we have black boys, sand boys, oak boys, bone boyz. Each group edge tells me at a glance which initially this boy belongs to. Also. With tzaangor, I had a hard time distinguishing the leader. So that base is striped so I can see him. I use the based to convey game information and board state. Just an idea

This is my main problem with pretty much all my minis. Where a large portion of my army dates back to RT and 2nd Editioin they all have Goblin green bases with flock on it, classic GW bases right? But even back then we were wanting to move away from that and started messing about with slate bases, slate color, slate pieces etc etc. So now my army is in tens of thousands of points and you can see when you look at them that they span so much real time, from Goblin green to blue grey, lighter greys, sands and then into the more contemporary bases we see today and my army just looks like a collection of armies, its like 5 or 6 guys brought their armies and put them on the same table... My advice on bases is pick a theme that you like and can do in a few simple steps because in 5 years time when we get half way through playing 10th Edition you are still going to have to make those bases and it will be a choir to do it, so keep it simple but imteresting and easy to do otherwise you will end up with mixing palette bases.

I like to make my bases for my army match my army’s home-world, as an homage to the lore.

Exactly this, I’ve spent a tonne of time on my Custodes bases, turns out it’s too much, the whole thing is a confusing mishmash. The plain cream bases with a sprinkle of leaves works much better

Grey bases on Bolt Action minis, its usually either looks like any one of the great city battles with enough rubble texture, otherwise if its just grey gritty sand, it just looks like Iwo Jima.

I'm not that great of a painter but one of the ways I make my models better is by basing well. I understand not drying the eye from the model but I feel a good base can really up the overall quality.

Thank you

I use a $1 school note book to log any information from painting colors, order of battle, model wants, etc for each of my armies.

Basing is fun, and radishes are great.

For people that don't like basing and just want to get it done, you can get great results in minimal time using the great diorama products from Vallejo or AK Interactive. It's almost as easy as "muck it on and it's done."

The base is part of your armies color scheme, i think of it as part of its "uniform". Polishing off that base also improves your miniature soo much.

I personally do a black base. But I also only play TTRPGs not war games (yet)

Neutral colors tend to get 'ignored' by the eye, which means the viewer focus on the more colorful things on the model; it works for basing most models. Of course, a grey base is not going to work for my Carcharodons Astra, so they got Martian red-orange for their basing. Because my Ultramarines are predominantly dark and cool colors, their bases are a lighter earthy brown with some static grass in order to contrast with the blue. Similarly, because my Stormcast are full of warm and bright colors, their bases are a faded blue. Really what seems to matter is how much contrast your base has compared to the main model's colors.

Sorry if off topic but I think I eard you talking about weathering enamels, on another show, a few weeks back and how you don't want that method to be a crutch. Do you have video about that weathering method? Sorry if I am remembering wrong.

I use my bases to distinguish squads. Flock with 0-3 piles of sand/rock. Most of my battlefields were grass back in the day.

Basing is what makes the miniatures really look great.

I like the fez.

I mostly stick to browns instead of greys. But your advice makes sense.

Totally agree. All my bases are predominantly grey with a rough stoney look. I do, however, like my rims brown.

Gr8 advice for AoS wargaming. What about Napoleonic figures?

Personally, this is one of the few times I'll disagree with Uncle Atom. Bases can help tell the story of your army. And as such, should be thought of as part of the model and not an after thought or as a monotone thing. I wish more people would find the joy I do in using the bases as an extension of the model.

For Chaos, it makes sense to have a generic base colour, as the Daemons could be used in both sci-fi and fantasy. You don't want them to differ.

Im a messy guy. One of the things I regularly do is built/paint models and then take OTHER bases and then create the 'basing' for the models, and move them model form the original base to the finished one. It just allows me to be messy while painting both

Basing is like drilling barrels, scraping obvious seams and filling gaps. Needed to completely sell the effect. Better if done the same across an army. uniformity is key across an army. Take notes.

I paint mine in smooth, bright contrasting colors to the models, they look like Spree candies...bold and classy.

The base should blend into the table while holding the figure upright. The base is almost more a part of the table than of the figure.

I hope the guy in the popcap Obi Wan Kenobi costume in the background isn’t stalking you or something.