Basing your Warmaster Figures....

Since I posted some scans and pics of my warmaster orcs  for others to see, and Ralph put them up on this great site, a few have written to me and asked how I based my figs, Ralph has also tried to convince me to write a ‘How to’ painting guide for this site. I don’t think I am that great at painting but maybe I have a ‘different’ angle for basing warmaster figs which people might find useful.  So here goes nothing….

I must say from the start I got my inspiration from Rick Priestley’s painting guide which was printed in  WD 247, previously on his site so I will not cover anything new from that front,  I just overcame some problems he faced, it might not be the fastest way, but will save a lot of hair pulling later.

Most of the Warmaster bases I have seen have been dipped in PVA glue and flocked, this is without a doubt the easiest and fastest way to finish your stands, but for me the bases looked too flat in colour and  I could see this unnatural step were the strip was glued.  No I would use the good old warhammer method, PVA glue brushed on and  the base dipped in fine sand. This is durable, can be painted green or brown, smoothes that ‘step’ problem and once highlighted add that extra depth to the base.

Most would tell you to paint and finish one unit then move to another (1 unit = 3 stands or 6 strips of figs) I work on my whole army at once (2000pts) but obviously concentrate in batches eg: all the Orcs (4 units) then all the gobbos (4 units) and so on.

I have scanned the various stages, but I also threw a few pics together to make it clearer.

First off  base the front rank on the bases, and the rear ranks are super glued on a strip of wood

Then PVA glue around the front and rear of the front strip, and just the front of the rear strip (glued on a length of wood). Be careful not to put glue over the feet and legs as your models will look like they are wading knee deep in mud.
(Mmmm just a thought,  this would look cool if this was a snow theme, wading waist high through snow)

Before the glue dries, with a spare strip or ruler drag it across the back of the base so you have a clean flat surface to glue the rear strip at a later date. Its like dragging your shoe in the snow, this has the effect of pushing the sand in a pile behind the front strip this will have the effect of merging the front and rear rank in the later stages.

Painting:
Once dry, normally overnight, 4/5 hrs time to paint. I use scorched brown. 

Then drybrush with bubonic brown, it may look a bit bright, but once everything is done it will turn out fine.

Don't forget to work on the rear strips seeing as you have the paint out and ready.

The good thing with doing it this way means you can be quick whilst painting the bases and do not worry about getting brown on your new carefully painted figs. Moreover, this method usually obscures some of the feet of the models, just that little extra detail you don't have to paint later, this make all the difference when there is 60 feet to paint in one unit. 

Before this page gets too big I will continue here
If you get the general idea you can still skip the rest and go to the Top Tips page.