Nightwing Scenic Base 2: Forest Pond

Just time for a quick shot of my scenic base for the Eldar Nightwing fighter.

Although my inspiration pic features green water, I figured I would make mine blue. This is to tie it in with the blue gems on the fighter. Just like the picture though, I am going to try to use lots of oranges and reds on the rest of the scenery, again to tie in with the paint scheme on the fighter. There, I must be getting better as a painter. I'm talking about 'tying in colours' and stuff.

Just pretend that glue isn't there...

So, I painted the slates with Bestial Brown, and dry-brushed them, quite heavily, with Kommando Khaki and Bleached Bone. They look earthy, with enough of the brown showing through to get that red hit.

I have then glued on some of that rubbery foliage you can get from any model shop. Its a little stinky and, if you use too much, doesn't look great at this scale. But if you just use a little, and put some thought into where it goes (i.e. coming out of the crevasses between rocks, not just slapped down randomly on top) it looks reasonably like natural foliage.

I also used some Woodland Scenics artificial grass to make reed-like clumps of greenery around the edges of the pool. Not too much - Just enough to show there is life around the edges of the water. I also kept it away from the 'beach' - if this is a living world we're looking at, its likely animals would be coming down to the waters edge to drink. This also helps the base feel more like a portrait - the open edge draws the eye into the water, while the rocks at the far end frame it all.
I ddid add a couple of fallen logs at the near end and some rocks though. I see them as an opportunity to add more red and orange accents, probably in the form of lichen or leaves, to again help tie the base in to the model flying above.

The water itself is really simple. Its just three layers of blue, starting with a dark layer under the rocks and finishing up lighter where the water ends. I will be adding Water Effects later, but this simple paint job will help give an impression of depth and reality to the whole thing.

Overall I'm very pleased with how this thing is turning out. Just have to wait a few hours for all that PVA to dry now...

Basic Bits

Because I saved a huge amount of money when my friend Matt left me tonnes of sprues when he left for the States this week I splashed out on a 40k basing kit. I had been a little dubious about its worth - I can get slate off my roof, for example ;) and I live at the seaside so it seems silly to pay for sand. But Matt didn't leave me any bases and the only round ones I have spare are the useless slotted ones in the the Citadel Round Bases set. If I'm going to have to greenstuff up the slots I might as well add some detail to the base to cover the joins, I figured, so I might as well go the whole hog and check out the resin parts in the GW set. Here's what you get and my thoughts:

1. Two tubs of small resin pieces. These are, for me, the standout part of the set. I got 4 pieces (2 styles) of resin big enough to cover a terminator's base, four more big enough to cover normal infnatry size bases (2 styles again), and a couple of doxen smaller pieces designed to be fitted radomly on a model's base. These unclude features like wrecked Eldar and marine helmets, assorted emblems, grenades and shell casings, and piles of skulls. A really nice assortment, and, if used sparingly, enough to add flavour to the bases of a fair few squads.

2. One tub of 'medium' slate pieces. A good selection of 'rick' fragments to add geological features to your bases. These range from approximately 0.25cm2 to 1.5cm2 and, as I have already mentioned, while slate is generally available if you look around a few gardens or parks, its a nice convenient source.

3. One tub of 'small' slate pieces. These are really small fragments, maybe 0.25cm2 and are probably best used for filling in gaps between other features to make them look more natural. Think piles of pebbles for your mini's as opposed to boulders.

4. One empty plastic tub. Yep, empty. I had to ask if it was supposed to be this way and apparently it is. Probably intended to be used to store:

5. One sheet of brass etched features. Almost totally bogus, in my opinion. There are a few grilles, a couple of pieces that look like textured floor plates, and some cogs. Three Imperial eagles, a few of what appear to be bullet ridden panels Whose correct application I cannot imagine, and some skull tokens round out the sheet. I'm really not sure what I would do with any of these - maybe some research will make it clear.

So, there you have it. For quick and easy basig solutions this boxed set is not bad. You will still need to use artistic sense to figure out the best way to use most of the pieces but some at least are unique to the set.Worth £12? I'd say its pretty close to value for money, but I'd be happier paying less for a set without useless brass and reject pieces from a building site.