Hi Everyone,

I’m a relative novice. Started playing X-Wing at Christmas, painting my son’s IA miniatures about that time and just bought Legion this week. I have no prior tabletop wargaming experience.

I’m still glueing and priming things and agonizing over how to paint them, but I’m thinking about the bases. I went ahead and glued and primed them with my regular troops because it made life easier. But I don’t really know what to do with them. I’m impressed by everyone’s awesome environmental based but I am never going to paint up a new unit just to play on the Tatooine terrain at my FLGS. So is there a more versatile or generic approach?

im thinking about just painting them a solid color and leaving it at that. But I thought I would see if there are any alternatives out there besides dolling them up for one environment.

Having a different enviroment from the playing field on the base doesn't look as bad as you'd think. If it is a concern for you, though, concrete works pretty much everywhere.

When doing bases, don't put too much emphasis on everything being on the same battlefield. It's better to use basing that fits the color scheme of your models.

For example I but all my Stormtroopers and Darth Vader on bases with black sand, dotted with a few patches of grass (like Rogue One opening?). This gives the white Stormtroopers some great contrast and Darth Vader's light saber can glow dangerously on the black.

My Rebels (so far) are Green/Brown and Red/Brown - different color for different squad. I put them on wood bases. it has a nice contrast with the colors but also not too much to make it seem viable for guerrilla forces.

7 minutes ago, Bakga said:

When doing bases, don't put too much emphasis on everything being on the same battlefield. It's better to use basing that fits the color scheme of your models.

For example I but all my Stormtroopers and Darth Vader on bases with black sand, dotted with a few patches of grass (like Rogue One opening?). This gives the white Stormtroopers some great contrast and Darth Vader's light saber can glow dangerously on the black.

My Rebels (so far) are Green/Brown and Red/Brown - different color for different squad. I put them on wood bases. it has a nice contrast with the colors but also not too much to make it seem viable for guerrilla forces.

This is a very useful suggestion to me, so thanks. What does a wood base look like?

I admit that I’m feeling somewhat overwhelmed by the sheer volume of miniatures I have sitting in front of me and I have to remind myself to relax and have fun with it.

Most brands of miniature paints also offer some form of texture paints or paste. These are applied in a thick and uneven layer and when dry gives the impression of whatever texture they are simulating. You can find all kinds of mud, dirt, dust and desert.

A good ”generic” base would be a dark brown mud paste, drybrushed with a lighter brown or maybe grey. And there you go, a solid base that works just about everywhere

And if you ever decide you want snow or grass or similar, it can be applied on top of this since the brown/grey mudish texture is a perfect base for many different themes!

Just a though!

Gravel would be a good neutral way to base them too. Do the pva water mix and sprinkle some of the mixed grey earth pigments and that should be satisfactory. Maybe add some brush as well. I used a bunch of it on a piece of terrain that I’m working on. I’ll be posting a build log once it’s done in the next couple days.

I uploaded some pictures here: https://imgur.com/a/wOIch

For the black bases i used Warlord games Black coal - or Black sand? Not sure. - and Meadow Flowers and Tufts. Very easy to use.

For the wood stuff I just paid my local model train store a visit. You can basically buy that stuff in bags for different vegetation and season types. It already contained a mix of multiple basing that, when randomly applied, looked like in the picture above

Look in the topic Permit Painting for mine.

I do an asphalt base.

I lay down Citadel Astrogranite (you could also use a basing paste that was then primed grey)

Then I give it a heavy wash in nuln oil. Then when that dries I do another heavy wash but this time with 50/50 Nuln Oil/Agrax Earthshade I think it gives me a really nice "street paved 6 months ago" texture.

@Bakga for some reason I can’t get the imgur link to work.

In any case thanks very much for the input. I will look into those materials.

I think he meant "woodland" base. In other words, green grass and a shrub. Maybe a twig too. See any of the pics people have posted for their Endor themed figs.

damnit. Maybe like this?

One rather generic look is the overgrown/dirty stone/pavement look.

I'm using it for my rebels, where I started with a dark grey tinted with a hint of brown over the basic tops of the bases, then I used a watered down mix of acryllic artists inks (a black and burnt umber [basically brown]) that's largely focused in the grooves for the sight lines with vehicles but it gets a light hand over the entire thing as well. Then I use a light drybrush of the earlier tinted grey/brown.

At that point I used some superglue to add a mix of patches of fine sand to scattered points of the bases. Once that's cured, I went back to the burnt umber ink and thinned it down a lot less than before, I use that to hit the sand. It's rather easy if you aren't dousing it, but it's a dark earth color that is then brought out even more with a light drybrush of bone after the ink dries.

If you want it to be more of a sandy look, use a heavier drybrush of a darker tan before the bone.

For mine, however, I like the darker earth and add a cheap leaf litter option (Go to the grocery store and find some of the cheapest green tea you can find and use that) with a bit of superglue to cover part of the sand area.

For the larger bases, I add roots/vines. I got some cheap twine, died it with the burnt umber ink, then soaked it in white glue before coating it in the same flock before letting it dry and then cutting it to length and positioning it on the bases to add more interest to them. They can also add extra support for some vehicles if you need it...which I did because I accidentally switched the pistons for the AT-RT legs which creates an interesting running pose, but one that needs help for stability and positioning.

I have painted for a looooong time and its something I often think about.

My decision though is to base in one particular style (GRasslands/desert/ice/lava etc etc) and then just stick to it.

IMo it looks fine on different boards and if done well makes the miniatures look better overall.

nobody to my mind cares if you have green based figures and happen to be playing on an Ice planet...I bet most people dont even notice (unless they happen to notice how ell your bases are).

I think 1 scheme done well is far better than a generic, basic theme that dosnt look as good at the expense of trying to look like they fit in everywhere.

Thanks @Bakga . Turns out theboriblem was Imgur and had nothing to do with you.

i appreciate everyone’s advice. I will figure out what I want to do with all my guys, but I definitely like the black base with the Stormtroopers. I’m going to have to hit my FLGS and see if they have that material or something similar.