How to Base Everything: Desert Bases

We’ll kick this article off with a very basic approach, working with Games Workshop’s technical paints to create quick and easy desert bases.

Step 1. Basecoat

When you’re working with crackle paint, it’s important to remember that the primary function of crackle paint is to break apart as it cures and leave cracks beneath. That means whatever is under the paint is liable to show. So working with crackle paint like Agrellan Earth means starting with a basecoat. I like to use Rhinox Hide for this, though any dark brown will do.

Step 2. Texture Paint

Now we’re adding the texture paint. I primarily use Agrellan Earth for this, though whereas I used to use that solo  now i do a mix of that and Agrellan Badlands. This lets me get a mix of cracked earth and sandy texture and also helps prevent flaking later – the biggest problem you’re going to have with the crackle paint is that it loves to flake off your base in transit, and that means touch-up work later. You can prevent some of it with additional washes and varnish, but you can’t stop it completely.

As you paint, note that the thicker you goop on the crackle paint, the bigger the cracks and chunks it’s going to form.

Step 3. Dry

You have to wait for your paint to dry. Not much else to this step, but I wanted to show the difference between the two states so you can see what changes. You can also see where the Agrellan Badland puts in work on the lower left side of the base, offering an alternative texture.

Step 4. Drybrush

You can wash before this part with Agrax Earthshade if you like but at this point I typically just jump in and start drybrushing. I use Reaper Polished Bone for this, but if you’re a Citadel-only person, Wraithbone is pretty close in tone.

Step 5. Final Details

Time for the final details. I’ll clean up and fix any problem areas, including spots where the texture paint may have flaked off, then it’s time to add a tuft or rock or something. For tufts I use Army Painter Wasteland Tufts from their basing kit, scattered in various places in order to give the whole thing a little more life. The results are quick and easy and look more than good enough to say “hey someone put some work into this.”

To me, Necrons are only as good as the ground they’re standing on and I really wanted my ground to stand out. I landed on a desert world, very much in the theme of the old Tomb King range from WHFB. Starting the bases is simple. Lay down some cork torn into various shapes and adhere to the bases with super glue. Then, use some Vallejo Ground Texture Acrylic base (I used Grey Sand, but any gritty texture will work.) While the paste is still wet, I sprinkled some crushed walnut shells into the lower recesses on the bases, pressing them into the paste a bit to make sure they stick.

I then primed all the bases with a zenithal highlight.

To paint them, I picked the following three colors: Vallejo Tan Earth, Vallejo Iraqi Sand and Screaming Skull. Start by covering the whole base with a fairly thinned down Tan Earth, then Iraqi Sand then Screaming Skull, focusing the brighter colors on the raised or exposed areas. Once that is dry, drybrush the entire thing with Iraqi Sand followed by a second, targeted drybrush of Screaming Skulls across the rocks & highest points.

I use desert basing on my Adeptus Titanicus army, which is the Legio Astorum. They fought at the Battle of Tallarn (hence the little Ultramarines, Imperial Fists, and Iron Warriors who also feature) which was virus bombed by the Iron Warriors during the Horus Heresy, turning it into a desert world. I should state right up front here that I didn’t develop this technique myself – SA goon General Olloth taught me it and I have copied it shamelessly for your consumption.

The cork rocks get glued on in the building stage, and then once the model is primed I start off with the simplest of all basing techniques – slapping down a layer of Armaggedon Dunes. This creates an easy base layer of broken up earth with the appropriate colour. Once that’s dry, I throw down a bunch of washes on it – a mix of Casandora Yellow, Fuegan Orange, Agrax Earthshade, and Seraphim Sepia. What you need to do here is basically blob these on in pools, mixing each colour at the edges so that you get a variety of different shades. This will give you a multi-tonal layer which looks quite mad. After that, a little drybrushing is in order – personally I drybrush Zandri Dust, and then Screaming Skull over the top. This restores some of the yellow and evens out the colouration. Finally I give it all a thinned-down wash of Agrax Earthshade, and glue on some Gamer’s Grass dry tufts. The other bits and pieces are about storytelling – this is Tallarn, hence the Marines, who are set up in little dioramas so you can imagine them fighting battles around the titans’ feet (or, in the case of one unlucky Iron Warrior, under them).

That sounds like a bunch of steps, but really it’s very easy or a hobby idiot like me couldn’t do it.

For my bases I wanted a dry, parched, bleached look that complemented the bone on my Regal Skulls. The effect is extremely easy to do and I think it looks great. To start I take the base and superglue on pieces of oyster shell. Oyster shell is a fantastic material because it has a ton of texture, scales well to 40K models, and is cheap. Once the shells are on the base is painted with a textured crackle paint like Games Workshop’s Agrellan Earth before the model is primed in gray. My preference is to airbrush with Badger Stynylrez in gray, which is far easier to use than it is to spell. I then airbrush Vallejo Game Air Bonewhite and then apply a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone. Any brown will work but I prefer the Army Painter series of washes. I then drybrush with VGA Bonewhite (yes, the pre-thinned airbrush paint) which provides a very interest effect where the material is both tinted and the edges are raised up. I then finish up by drybrushing in white, either user the an airbrush paint for a bit of tinting or regular paint to bring out the edges. The rim is done in a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Black and Liquitex Ink! Carbon Black; the combination provides an extremely smooth coverage. Incidentally that recipe is nearly identical for how I do the bone; the only difference is that I use Army Painter Soft Tone for the wash. You can easily expand this technique and make it your own by adding additional flora such as grass clumps, or perhaps some alien plants in a very vivid color.

I’m doing what I think of as hybrid basing, combining old style sand and rock basing with newer technical paints. My basing toolkit includes fine sand, coarse sand, sifted fine gravel, and pieces of sandstone. The sandstone is from fairly common landscaping material (at least in the United States). I happened to have some in my yard (and a 6 year old who enjoyed smashing it to bits) but I have seen similar material weathering the same way around homes and businesses. Weathering causes thin layers of various thickness to separate from larger pieces. It can be easily snapped by hand and metal tools can quickly wear down the edges for shaping.

I used this technique to base my Darkoath Chieftan. My idea was to have him standing on a rocky ledge next to a dry creek bed. The base size here is 50mm. To begin I roughly laid out sandstone pieces and snapped a long down the middle for a nice crack, then ground down the edges with pliers to simulate erosion. The stone was glued down with superglue and the gaps between stones were filled with greenstuff. Then laid out where I wanted sand and tufts before glueing them down. These tufts are Army Painter highland tufts.

Small bits of gravel were added in front bottom area and on the greenstuff with superglue. Sand was put down with PVA glue over the green stuff and also under the ledge and around the bits of gravel. Then agrellan earth was spread across the front area that was still bare base.

For my desert-themed Skaven, I needed a quick and simple base that I could produce en masse. Something easy to create in giant batches, while still looking good individually and cohesive when viewed at a distance. After quite a bit of experimentation, I found my recipe of choice.

• Step 1 – Glue slate chips to the base. I’m using 1/8 to 1/4 slate gravel I bought on Amazon, but really any type of small rock that appeals to you will work here. Using regular superglue, I typically put two pieces of gravel on a 25mm base.
• Step 2 – Armageddon Dust texture. This texture paint from GW is the backbone for this whole base. You need to put a thick enough coat down so that it looks smooth while wet. I glob a bunch on, smooth it out, tap the base against a table to even it out even further, then use GW’s texture spreader to create some scattered channels throughout the base. I’ll then repeat “tapping the base to even it out” and “creating channels in the texture” until it’s mostly smooth, with channels easily visible in reflected light.
  Let the texture paint dry overnight.
• Step 3 – Skrag Brown glaze for the rocks. I heavily thin down some Skrag Brown: around 4 parts flow improver/2 parts Lahmian Medium/2 parts Skrag Brown. Though all those ingredients are likely overkill, and some plain old tap water would probably work perfectly fine. You’re looking to create something like a glaze with the Skrag Brown: more pigment dense than a wash, but doesn’t coat like a paint. Slap this on those slate chips, and don’t worry too much about being clean. I purposefully let a bit encircle the stones, as I feel like it gives a good defining line between texture paint and rock.
  You want this brown paint to be thin enough that slapping a layer down causes pooling in the crevices and covers maybe 30-40% of the rock. Don’t worry if you uses too much or too little though. Trust me, it’ll look fine, and you can always experiment with more or less on your next base.
  Let this also dry before continuing.
• Step 4 – Drybrush Karak Stone. This paint is extremely similar to the color of Armageddon Dust, but a little bit more vibrant. Drybrush Karak Stone across the entire base, including the slate chips, until there is a bit of highlight on all the raised bits of the texture. Be sure to drybrush all sides of the slate chip, as that’s how you get your defining lines on the stone that you can see at a distance.
• Step 5 – Seraphim Sepia wash. Wash the whole base, including the stones, in a light amount of Seraphim Sepia. You want it to put it on thin enough so that you aren’t creating tiny pools of wash all over the base, but thick enough such that the ravines you sculpted in Step 2 have more than other parts. How much wash you use has a fairly large impact on the final product, and it’s something that easy enough to play around with to your liking.
• Step 6 – Drybrush Tyrant Skull. Tread carefully with this, as too much will stand out. Get some Tyrant Skull on your brush, wipe the vast majority off, and drybrush the base (including the stones) only until you just start seeing the paint become visible, and then immediately stop for that area. This will likely only happen after a couple strokes.
  You’ll want extremely thin, yet even coverage of Tyrant Skull across the entire base, as that’s what gives it that “pop” at a distance.

As I mentioned, this is a fantastic horde base. It doesn’t require any real crafting or planning, and can easily be done in batches. If you don’t like how one particular base turned out, don’t throw it away. Go ahead and use it, and try different paint/wash/drybrush ratios on the next base. Once they are sitting next to 50+ other models with similar bases, they all blend together and any imperfections are entirely lost.

There are also tons of ways of spicing up this style of base. Tiny grass tufts, skulls, or spare weapons scattered about will all make these bases stand out even more. Maybe add tiny ponds, swamps, or putrid green bile-pools. The sky’s the limit! Well, the desert is, but still.