"painting base edges dark" Topic

Ive never done this until about 5 mins ago. I have a light brown skirmish base, dry brushed cream, static grass, bushes etc. I painted the edge dark brown and am looking at it.

Not sure whether I prefer it but I noticed that many of the best painters do this. I guess its to make the base blend in to the surface?

I see that a lot but I don't care for the look. I paint all my base edges an olive green that is a pretty good match for my basic table covering.

I used to paint the edging around My figures in thier facing color so I could spot who was who faster.

its a function of blending in or making your men look like chess pieces or counters. Painters do this to highlight their work. ..with good reason. …consider it the mini equivalent to a "frame" around a painting. The "wargamer" wants "realism' and so blends it into the terrain. I do a combination of both
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I went for black around the rim years ago because it drops out of my conscious vision like a shadow would.

On the slottas I like the "finished" look ..it looks better than trying to blend that pillar into terrain that will likely change under the figure anyways.

I use metal bases and simply prime them black when I'm priming the figure. It took me years to figure out this step saving process. I used to paint the bare metal brown after gluing the figure to the base. Doh!

I use a dark brown marker pen on the edges of my bases. Quicker and easier than painting.

I like for the edge to disappear, to blend as seamlessly as possible into the terrained figure bases on one end and the tabletop itself on the other. It's true, the exact nature of the tabletop surface will vary from open ground to road to woods or wheatfield, etc, etc. -- but I still prefer the attempted "blending" to "framing" movement stands with a purposefully distinct color.

I like my bases to blend in to the game table top as much as possible.

I used to just paint them green all the way around then put grass flock etc on top. Eventually I decided that can look sort of odd close up, like there's two kinds of ground cover but one has no texture.

So lately I paint the base brown then apply the grass flock on top.

That's because, a brown painted base looks like mud or dirt. A brown base with grass flock on it looks natural, like patches of dirt with grass growing out of them. It also looks better if some flock rubs off -- what's underneath the bare spot in the grass? Why, dirt!

Two things I've never liked are:

1) Flocking all the way around the edge of the base. It doesn't look bad (well it looks a little sloppy but not in a bad way), but it's impractical. Put those figures in a movement tray or base to base in a transport system, and the flock will rub off!

2) Black base edges. Plastic bases are usually black plastic, so not painting the edges, or painting the edges black … to me that looks unfinished, as if the painter didn't paint his bases but put flock on top of the bare black plastic.

To each his own of course. Some people's figures are works of art, and they certainly shouldn't care what I think.

My 40K (IG) are painted green, my WFB (Skaven) are painted brown and almost all my pulp have a black trim. And until this post I had never noticed I did that.

You can tell the earliest figures in my collection (the huge plastic skaven rats) from the simple too glossy paint job and the over flocked bases. Not that it bothers me enough to repaint them…

For me it depends on the army. Some are black, some are green, but most are some shade of brown. It just depends on the paint scheme and basing scheme of the army. What ever edge color looks best to me is what gets applied. My base edges blend in well.

I used to paint the edges of my bases black. It made them look grat in a showcase. But it also made them somewhat stand out on the TT.

Last year my girlfriend suggested that they would look better if painted in a colour that would make them blend with the table. So I went and repainted them in a medium olive green (yellowish tan for desert bases).

I feel they look just as good in the showcase as they did before, but look better on the TT!

Cheers,

Burkhard

On my ACW bases I painted the Union and the CSA bases blue or gray on three sides, The back was for the unit ID system I had come up with. I think it looked nice that blend of chess piece and miniature and when in a line looked almost like a 3D board game.

I usually paint the top of a slottabase in green, and add whatever gravel or texture I want, but the edge is always brown. I prefer it to an all-green base nowadays. Looking at photos on their website, it seems this is Games-Workshop's house style, so that is probably where I picked it up from.

>it seems this is Games-Workshop's house style

heh… I remember when the GW "house style" was to texture the base with sand and paint it bright green, drybrushed with yellow… with a bright green rim. How times have changed (for the better…)

Cheers

w.

I sand/brown paint/drybrush and then flock the edges the ame as I do the top on most of my bases.

Makes them dissappear….

I've always followed the GW house style… so most of my bases now have brown edges… even on the bright green GW battlemat I think it looks good.

I've always painted the edging of my bases to kinda go with the flocking I do. If I do grass I go with a green, desert with brown and modern (street/gravel) with black. I also base it on what its being used for, I just like mine to go with the rest of the base.

Mine are always a sandy brown, not darker than the rest of the basing but the same as.

Dark/Olive green. However on my WW2 I colour code the rear edge by platoon.

I tend to dry brush the edges to match the top of the base -usually a mix of earth tones/light-mid sand. The idea of olive green to match the basic table colour is also attractive.

Next question is do you 'blend' the bases with their movement trays?