All Ur Bases R Belong.....

Well it was time to rethink the basing on some of the models.
They need to look coherent across the whole force.
ESPECIALLY when we are supposed to display them on a battle board for December.

My turn in for the month of September will be
10 sniper scouts + landraider + 3 objective markers. (410 pts)

landraider - complete
sniper scouts - bases!
objective markers - idea stage

Without adieu heres whats new....

Yesterday I bought a texture sheet from the cake decorating section @ Walmart.

The texture I chose I think will make an excellent base that I can paint as lava bases for the
Salamanders.

Out came the green stuff which I pressed and rolled onto the sheet with the smallest patterns
ie....small bases.  NOTE : use some kind of release.... I didn't and getting them separated was
a minor chore.  Of course I could have used my Instamold which won't stick to green stuff, but hey
isn't this ALL about learning?

Here's what I ended up with.  The air bubbles and imperfections are fine in this case...
it is basalt after all. I drew the bases out on the back.

cut them out and glued them onto the standard bases with superglue.  After trimming
around the edges here is what I had to work with.

Now to paint...I wanted the pattern to match the rest of my force, but the color scheme
definitely needed to be different for the scouts as they are blending into environs other
than lava....per their paint scheme.  So I envisioned higher ground still formed of
built up lava rock but filled in with ash and dirt...and very sparce vegetation.

I based them black.  Then painted a heavy line between the rocks of fortress gray.
Then I drybrushed the tops of the rocks with the same gray.  After a couple of coats
 of gryphon sepia wash....I was scrambling as the color just wasnt quite doing what
I had envisioned.   In hindsight I should have really watered down the gray or used a
lighter color to get the wash to color better.  In any case, using white glue I added fine
sand / dirt along the top of the rocks and stipple dry brushed a little more of the gray
in just to help blend it a little bit.   In the deeper spots where more dirt would have
gathered I chose to add very small patches of static grass just for a little more depth
and feel.  Here's how they came out...not fantastic but a better fit to the overall image
 I will display come December.

See the scouts?!  They are SOOOOO well camoflauged that well....umm
OK, OK! I didn't mount the scouts yet....but for a reason!  I matte coated the bases
just to help hold them all together just a little better and wanted to give them a chance
to dry 100% before attaching the scouts.

Oh and I had just a big enough piece from my first press mold that I can do 1 of my
objective markers with it.  But that's for another day.  We've got miles to burn.