I havent started any dwarf yet, I’m jsut collecting few of them for now.
I bought 1 y ago the shieldmen from Russian Alternative and I was making them as my Blood Bowl team.
As way too many ppl i went for the lava base.
I used a piece of flat cork with lot of “scrambles” of it, looking like a nice stone, swimming in the red lava like usual.
The effect is kinda nice for few singular models, but I dont really see it well for an entire army, it will looks stupid with all of them next to each other, everyone of them on a rock, like "WTF where are they?"
So here I am asking for some advice to some more expert people.
(Just saying, I never worked with greenstuff if not only for small fixes)
Check out my blog. Also use lava on my bases, but only a little. I’m especially pleased with my bigger bases. I have dirt, different types of grass, rocks and lava.
Link for blog in signiature.
RedSkullz have some very nice winter bases on his miniatures.
I base primitively with sand and pieces of gravel, usually applied by super glue as often as PVA glue to the base. Occassionally empty spots are left to be painted as water pools or even the outskirts of a lava pool. If there is space on the base, and certainly always on the edges of movement trays, I add vegetation, sharpened poles, skulls, trophies, small idols/statuettes/steles, dropped weapons and similar small paraphernalia, but not so much as to distract from the regiment or to look utterly unnatural.
Others will have much better basing advice, not least Skink, whose army is fantastically based. The same goes for the lava bases usually associated with, and copied from, Thommy H’s collection.
It’s clever of you to ask for advice around here, it’s a shortcut to some of the best hobby methods around, given the collective experience of the crowd.
In certain situations, having your models all on rocks is necessary because without the rock you wont have room for grass, skulls, and other little cool pieces to fit, this is the case I have found for infernal guard who really fill up a 20mm base. If done right, it looks really cool imo, and it shows a lot of effort on the hobbyists part for taking the time to turn every base into a little diorama and going far beyond the call of duty.
Additionally, I do agree that the whole rock on lava is silly, lava is so hot why would anyone be standing on it, and why is the rock not melting taking the guy on it with it? Does a 5+ ward vs lava really give that much protextion? Thats why I went for toxic pools lol. But you could just as easily do no lava,watery features of any kind and just have rocky terrain, which would look cool too.
I used som crackle paint, to get some… cracks (!) on the base. I usually leave them in black, it’s my vision of the Dark Lands, but I made a try, painting the opened earth with a lava pattern and it’s ok.
Not sure how it can render on infantry, but it’ll look less hot than a big lava flow.
Are you chaos dwarf generals or what;)? Chaos dwarfs dont give a .... if its hot:hat. Why else would a sorcerer-prophet sit on a burning bull? It just keeps his butt comfortably warm while riding through cool winds.
Realism is no point, too. I want no realism in fantasy games it just has to look good. Historic tabletops are for realism.
Skinks bases are excellent. I love them and I didnt see such anywhere else and thats definitely a point that counts if you wanna have a individual army. But at last its a matter of taste :hat off.
Perhaps try two or three different methods and then pick the one you like best? Invested time pays out in the end.
