Can't decide on base style

[Maritn]

Hi,

 

I'm currently unsure which way to base my Space Marines. I've got Black Templars and my own chapter, which I often use together, so I'd like to have a uniform design for both chapters. Some of them already have grey bases (urban debris style from GW app), but I'm not sure if I'd rather go with some desert / wasteland style. The grey is a nice contrast with the yellow from my own chapter, but I'm not sure if it fits with the BT design (black <-> grey). Which base style would you prefer? Urban, wasteland or indifferent?

 

Pics for comparison below:

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

Spoiler

 

Edited October 27, 2023 by Maritn

[Karhedron]

Both styles look really nice IMHO. Is either easier to apply than the other? Do you typically play on a board matching either of those colours?

[Firedrake Cordova]

Both work, but for me, it's the desert/earth base for both. With the Black Templars, it contrasts with the black armour and provides delineation against the model; for the Yellow Marines™, the black of the tabard blends in with the urban base a bit (I also think the model "sits better" with the earth base - there's almost too much contrast with the urban base, which is surprising, as I like urban bases....)

Edited October 27, 2023 by Firedrake Cordova

[Deus_Ex_Machina]

The best way would be for your bases to match your gaming mat. Second best option is to use the colour wheel. This means picking a base design which complements the colour of your minis.

[FashaTheDog]

I agree with Deus_Ex_Machina.  Match what you play on.  All of my Heresy armies are based on Sector Imperialis to match my Realm of Battle tiles.  It was the best base idea I have yet had; I just need to figure how to make a 160mm pewter stamp for bases GW does not sell as Sector Imperialis.  I need to find a material sturdy enough to remove in one piece, but melt quickly and evenly at 250C.  Trial and error when playing with molten metals is actually kind of fun. After that will be bismuth for my Daemon bases, but I digress.

 

My 40K started with jungle terrain as I have enough CD sized bases to fully cover a 4'x6' table (fake plants, peat moss, and plaster in a CD spindle lid sprayed with cooking oil set me back all of $50).  As I painted up my Dark Angels companies I decided to go with an homage to the old Goblin Green bases of my youth, but a darker shade so now they are fighting on a golf course, a display board I fully intend to make for them, with six holes removable for objective markers. Later I read an article in National Geographic about a volcano and they had a nice picture of the ash, which I replicated almost exactly on my new (as of 2000-something at a Games Day) Krieg army and then on other armies.  Somehow I got it in my head to convert and paint all my many, many Orks in a Thomas Kinkade Christmas style, which has turned out to be far more difficult to paint than I imagined.

 

I can feel your pain about making up your mind on how to base them.  This is one of those choices that you probably want to be uniform across all your armies, but attempting to appease all of them in long run might not sit too well.  Sort of how my gray Krieg look great on gray ash bases, but my Red Scorpions and Space Wolves...not so much.  The idea for the ash came from the Siege of Vraks, so you might find equal inspiration on what to use from fluff, either a published book, a display board, or a flat out "gift", as my Blood Ravens say their stuff is, from someone else's army.  Look at your terrain as well so you can ideally pair table surface, terrain, and base detail all together as a unified whole. 

 

Given the two you posted, I like the desert bases as I physically rarely see that style, even on a Tallarn army at Armies on Parade.  While the urban debris style offers plenty of basing extras, the desert will generally allow for small details like a skull or dropped weapon to standout with better results, especially if you want to add tokens from the armies you play against like a Hive Fleet Behemoth Termagant head here or a Praetorian lasgun there or whatever have you.  That is not to say you cannot do it with the urban debris, but the desert is a bit more flexible with as wide a selection of fallen colors you might want to employ.

[Bryan Blaire]

I prefer to match my basing to the story behind the army - so my Space Wolves and Tau are supposed to be counter to each other, so they share basing set up.  Both are fighting on a wasteland world with damaged and abandoned Mechanicus and Imperial structures, and they have different basing to show where in the battles they were fighting.  Some are on more open plains, so they are purely wasteland, others are supposed to be fighting on elevated structures, so they are purely on Mechanicus or Imperialis bases, and some were fighting on the border areas where the wasteland is slowly reclaiming its territory, so I have mixed elements on those bases.

 

I think this looks pretty neat when put into a display case, because the bases kind of merge across, even though they aren’t actually uniform for all the units.

 

My Stoneburners and Extinction Angels are similarly based in opposition to each other on a dark dirt battlefield fought over by multiple factions, with barbed wire and bits of various armies strewn out as debris.

 

@Maritn I would go with that badlands/wasteland/desert style for both - it’s different enough from the yellow to still show up, and looks a lot better than the grey with the Black Templars.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Bryan Blaire

[Maritn]

Thanks for all your input.

 

I have the full board that came with the Vertigus terrain, which is urban on one side and martian on the other. Also I have lots of mostly grey ruins. As I currently mostly get to play at a club or when I visit friends back home, I rarely play on my board but mostly play on all kinds of different mats. The urban base blends in better with my urban board, but like other said the contrast of the BT with the wasteland/desert is maybe the better choice for the BT, and also looks good with my yellow marines (maybe even better for models with tabard), and as I play on all kinds of mats matching my own board is probably not that important.

 

Edit: The ruins are sprayed dark grey and quickly drybrushed with a light grey, so changing them is easily done if I want to.

Edited October 30, 2023 by Maritn

[Urauloth]

The desert waste looks great for both colour schemes! I think the black elements get a bit lost in the dark grey rubble, especially with the Templars. The desert colour is sufficiently distinct from the yellow armour for it to stand out, though.

[Xenith]

On 10/27/2023 at 7:34 PM, Maritn said:

 

I'm not a fan of the dark grey/black base with the black elements on those models - the black of the tabard on the left is getting lost in the base - and I know it's been weathered to have the dust. I think the same is true of the black templar on grey also, and that both models don't stand out as much from the grey bases as they do on the brown. Part of the problem with the grey base is that your blacks are highlighted to a grey, which is similar to the base. The grey might work if you went much lighter to a concrete with the grey base, and made the black a lot darker, or went with blue highlights on the black (thunderhawk, dark reaper).

 

As it stands, I think the brown sets off both models better. 

[Maritn]

OK, I've decided to go with the desert / wasteland look. Thanks everybody. 

[Xenith]

Need more pics to confirm! 

[Maritn]

56 minutes ago, Xenith said:

Need more pics to confirm! 

 

I'm currently working on the Terminators from Leviathan. As soon as they are finished I'll post more confirmation pics. 

[Maritn]

Here's the current status of the first two Terminators with bases mostly done.

 

The structure on the bases and the basecoating was done a few months ago, as back then I thought I'd go for an urban base. Now I wanted to try two approaches with these first two models using the new desert look, so I did one base as stones and one as road.

 

 

Spoiler

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

I think it works well.

 

Have you considered adding some small grass tufts around/on the asphalt parts, to enhance the "returning to nature" look?

[Maritn]

Yes, I plan on adding them when the rest of the base is finished.

[Maritn]

Ok, finally the Terminators are finished...

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

They look great

[Bryan Blaire]

Oh yeah, those are lookin’ awesome!  Fantastic work!