For basic bases, I usually apply ground work to my bases with a Cyanoacrylate Adhesive (super glue) but you can use anything from white glue to a clear matt medium. I like CA glues because of the speed at which it dries plus its strength.
Once the base work is done I primer the finished model. I paint all my base work because I feel it gives a painted figure a natural look. I find that unpainted base work looks "Out of Scale". You ask, what do I mean by out of scale? Well we spend hours painting a miniature figure to give the illusion of reality. In other words we take a small metal miniature and try and paint and model it so that it looks almost like it could walk off the war game table. When the base work is applied unpainted, I feel it looks "Unnatural" or "Out of Scale" So if we paint or finish it, it looks more natural.
Examples of base work primed white and black.
Below are some examples of painted base work. They are a basic brown earth tones, a desert sand and a "Ash" waste land. As to exact colors used to paint them that's not all that important because there are so many different ranges of paint used to paint miniatures these days. But the basic concept is to start dry brushing with a dark shade of your chosen earth tone, followed by a medium and then lighter shades of paint. Its up to you as to how far you wish to take this. One image shows a small amount of static grass added to it.
To Paint these base examples I used there colors made by Ral Partha
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(Note: These paints are at the moment Out Of Production, But should hopefully be back soon by Iron Wind Metals)
This ends the first lesson.
If you have an questions or comments feel free to email jeff @ dragonforge . com
