Black Legion themed/inspired bases

[Bloody Legionnaire]

I'm starting a small (relatively) Black Legion collection and I'm trying to figure out what to do with the base design. I'm not well versed in the fluff for the Black Legion to know of any famous battles or incidents I could use for inspiration for the bases. I'd like to do something fairly involved and unique modelling wise because this probably wont be a very big collection but I would like it to have a striking effect. Can you guys recommend anything? 

[m0nolith]

Not a fluff reason, but I always thing that black works fantastically well with on a orange brownish type of base, something like rust. If you do a google search you'll find some pretty cool examples.

Instead of just regular acrylic paint tho, I'd try out some pigments because you can also throw some of that dust around the models feet, and that looks fantastic on black models.

The easiest pigments to get are probably Vallejo, AK Interactive and Ammo by MIG, but there's a ton more out there. 

[Marshal Loss]

For both my Black Legion & Sons of Horus I went for a tiled/marble floor sort of ruined city theme, made out of plasticard with interspersed rubble and gravel. The pale colours contrast with the dark armour, you can add in various brown/red tones to the shadows with pigments & glazes for visual interest, and i love the whole "bestriding the ruins of the Imperium's former glory" look. Fits in better with most gaming boards than the usual martian earth style red base that people always seem to use with black (imo).

[Bloody Legionnaire]

Marshall, that is one of the ideas I've been entertaining and it may end up being my fall back on. That's essentially what I've done for my HH Space Wolves and what I'll be doing for my Word Bearers/Daemons but with more of an urban style to it. 

I would like to have something very sinister and dark looking for the Black Legion. I can always use an airbrush to bring up the highlights a little bit so that it doesn't get lost against the black armor. 

This is where some of my thinking/motivation is coming from. I don't know if any of you have watched squidmar's videos on youtube. The guys is brilliant. Now, not all of the bases have to be this extravagant or display worthy but I like the detail and it seem's to capture the Space Wolves them.. So I guess I'm looking for ideas on how I could do that with the Black Legion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c41BUH4XDpo
 

Maybe focusing on a ruined city could wind up looking unique compared to the marble tiled look of my other armies. 

[techsoldaten]

Mine are all Red Sands of Mars. Used Golden's Crackle Paste to create a cracked earth theme, painted them desert yellow and tinted them with pigments.

[Ascanius]

Most of my Black Legionnaires are on the Sector Mechanicus bases, painted rather brightly to contrast with their dark armour:

 

The idea of this was to show them invading Imperial territory, rather than aboard their own vessels or the like.