Need help with liquid effects on base

[jimbo1701]

Greetings brothers / sisters. 
 

I have myself in a bit of a quandary trying to decide what product to use for a basing project and was hoping for some advice before investing in products to try. I’ve tried YouTube and scouring the internet to little avail. 
 

The basing theme is ‘lava’ but with rivers of blood rather than molten rock. I’ve used Vallejo lava effects over a black primed base and am now looking to add the ‘blood’ effect. I envisage this being a resin product tinted red but having looked at a range of products but I’m unsure what’s best to use.

 

Ideally it needs to be something that would self-level when placed in the empty area on the base so as to look like a static pool rather than waves etc. Also it would be ideal if it would be turbid enough to not bleed over the edges of the base rims to save me having to mask them. Only needs to be 1-2mm thick and opaque red. 
 

Any suggestions gratefully accepted. Cheers. 
 

 

[N1SB]

1st things 1st, your project sounds awesome, Brother Jimbo.

 

So knowing you're already an awesome painter that knows the colour red really well (from your Sons of Orar projects), I'm not sure what to tell you.  Because I'm sure you already considered GW's Blood For the Blood God.  It's probably too fluid for you, ya?  You want something thicker, more viscous?

 

The only thing I could think of is PERHAPS something like Tamiya Enamel Red.  It's beyond viscous, it's GLOOPY, it's like I have no idea how to paint with it it's so thick, I know it because here in Asia it's used for model cars (like y'know there's a cultural exchange between Warhammer players and Gundam painters here, etc.)

 

What I -do- use is Tamiya Smoke, which is like this enamel-y, glisten-y, smokey equivalent of Agrax Earthshade.  That's how I shade shiny paints.  So let's say I do a blood splatter effect with Blood For the Blood God.  I would apply a little bit of Tamiya Smoke to that, that gives it BOTH a shading effect and an extra shiny sheen.

(Why you might not have heard much of it: Tamiya paints are usually for model cars, not miniatures, thus might not be on your normal radar.)

 

So maybe some experiment with Tamiya Enamel Red, which will look like jello, then some Tamiya Smoke to "shade" it but keep its sheen.

 

Be forewarned: these Tamiya paints have a strong smell.  It's like Jack Daniels sauce.  I've developed this Pavlovian reaction to the smell because Tamiya Smoke takes my painting up a notch (so I'm like from -1 to 0), it's not for everybody, so you're going to have to experiment.

[Firedrake Cordova]

I've seen people mix paints/inks with water-effect resins (e.g. Vallejo's) to produce "realistic" coloured water - I imagine you could do something like that, but with red instead of browns/greens/blues? I'm not sure if you could get away with not masking the edge of the base, though - surface tension might be enough to keep the mixture on the base if you apply it in a few layers?

 

Please note that I've not used these products - it's just from watching various videos (example).

Edited 1 hour ago by Firedrake Cordova