On to Dreadtober Challenge #4: Painting the Base! At this point, our participants have created a plan, built their dreadnought (or similar) and painted the primary colors. Now it’s time to give it a frame.
As a continued reminder, these challenges are only meant as milestones. If you keep your bases simple or super complex, do Dreadtober your own way. As long as you are making progress and having fun, then it’s a success!
Challenge: Build and Paint Your Base
With the Build your Dreadnought and Paint Your Dreadnought (base colors) challenges, I recommend skipping the base as we would come back to it. Well, here we are! Now it’s time to build up an impressive base for your dreadnought to stand heroic. Then get the paint applied!
While I typically wait to paint the base last, I purposely moved this challenge before the Paint the Details. This way, if you get base colors on your dread’s feet or want to add consistent weathering between the base and the model, it will much easier to do at this step.
Result: A Base to Stand On
At the end of this week, you should have a dreadnought (or something cooler!) built, mostly painted, and now on a finished base. You might even consider it done at this point (though I hope you try next week’s challenge too!) and ready to play.
Helpful Tutorials
To help you build and paint your base, I’ve pulled together some tutorials on the subject below. Read what you need, find some inspiration, and I hope, push yourself a bit further. Most of all, have some fun and share it with the community!
Painting Large Bases
I created a tutorial on painting the muddy base used for my Tyranids including using gloss paint to add water effects.
Ice Bases
Thor uses a mix of ice and snow on his bases, so it’s no wonder he created a tutorial for creating ice effects using still water and using a combination of mediums to create fluffy snow effects.
Using Weathering Powder on Bases
Weathering powders are versatile tools, especially for bases. John on the 40k Hobby Blog wrote how he used them to color foam board brick walls.
Creating a Display Base
Andrew from Miniature Miscellany describes his process to build up a display base. I especially like how he uses leftover lids to create the height.
Still Need Help?
Remember, this is a community event, so jump on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+ and post your questions, a WIP picture looking for critique, or ask for opinions. I’ve found Twitter is the most responsive community (I’m more active on there too). Use the hashtag #dreadtober and we will jump in and help each other out.
Get Your Base On!
I’m looking forward to what everybody comes up with! The idea of basing our models has evolved a lot over the years from the simple flock and Goblin Green to some amazing resin and scratch built display pieces.
No matter where you go on this spectrum, it’s your hobby. Have some fun this week, catch up on painting model if needed, and share your progress!
