Basing Guide: Burnt Lava Bases

[@gaborboth3602]

These are great. I like that there is enough solid ground to actually stand on. A pet peeve of mine when the lava basing has the characters basically standing on liquid lava with a thin crust on it.

[@GamersGrass]

Thanks so much for commenting :) ! Yep! We completely understand what you mean!

[@geoffok]

My pet peeve is when the base is covered with so much detritus that you can't see the bottom half of the miniature

[@davidtorres1300]

Can lava even melt or burn space marine armor ? lol I thought it was heat resistant

[@oldmate86]

Best basing on YT hands down. Amazing work. At several stages I couldn’t see how this was going to create the final result but wow!

[@metajock]

Sweet job. I can never get crackle to work right, I'm going to watch this again later. Thanks!!!

[@BuzzkillZone]

This is an AWESOME guide. Thank you.

[@jebus3497]

Visited your booth at Essen today. Nice products and nice people!

[@switek61]

definitely using this for my chaos space marines!

[@jittersgeyser620]

Perfect

[@nikot.9920]

Definitely trying this at some point. Absolutely fantastic work 👍👍

[@3eyeDrone]

I just ordered basing material for an overgrown city/temple base style. F****. If I just had seen your video 5 minitues before :(. Anyway awesome Basing! Great video! You Sir have my follow for sure!!

[@toadflax8665]

Looks fantastic!

[@Bluefire42156]

Holy shit, these look amazing!

[@BoomsterJoe]

i can't wait to try this! this looks amazing! awesome video

[@Mucky_bg]

absolutely fantastic

[@D00M3R_MAVS]

Good stuff. Love your tufts, I have a box full of them. Loving the newer alien ones like "void" and "bloodmoon" (how come no one ever made a black tuft before? ha ha) I really like the frozen alien tufts for my frozen alien Tyranid bases though. I'm going to be working on a black planet style base for a Tau army soon though, so getting to use more of the brightly coloured ones, a long with the Void tufts. Should pop really well against the white armour plates. I was wondering if some sparse lava on some of the bases might be nice as well. It wouldn't be a realistic volcanic landscape, but still might look nice. That being said I probably have all the colour I could need from the tufts (also thinking about doing some resin crystals and painting those)

[@cameronthompson7314]

Amazing! Can you please do a swamp base next?

[@GamersGrass]

Hi Cameron! Thank you for your suggestion! We will make sure to add that theme to our list of basing guide ideas!

[@jimduchene]

This video may be a bit old to have answers, but man is it a gorgeous base. I want to do something similar for my black legion marines, but it may be a bit too dark. I'm torn between logic and heart, so any advices are welcome. 😅

[@GamersGrass]

Always follow your heart, we do the same! (in case of doubt roll some dices, if you get 2-6 you do a light theme, if it falls between 7-12 you do a dark one :) gamersgrass.com/roll-the-dice/)

[@TheSpectralFX]

This is so siiiick

[@TheSpectralFX]

I've started basing my Tyranids from hivefleet Hydra with a lot of techniques from this video. I never thought I'd be so excited watching crackling paint dry but here I am lol. Also got some of the Gamers Grass basing kit and they are wonderful to work with!

[@dl3565]

😱😱😱 magnifique. Bravo

[@Gwalchjuni]

Great stuff.

[@adrimate9467]

can i use instead medium grey from ak the colour from vallejo medium sea grey 71.049?

[@GamersGrass]

Hello! Thank you so much for your question! Yes! Of course! It should work fine as well. Like we usually say you can use any similar acrylic paints and achieve the same effects :) If you have any more questions don't hesitate to reach out to us! Happy Hobbying!

[@CalumBoal]

I got some of the basing bits in this video, but I was surprised by the size. Barely any of them fit on a 32mm base?

[@GamersGrass]

Hello! Thank you for your feedback! Our Basing Bits range are randomly assorted in each blister. Their sizes are made to fit the overall standard bases sizes. As we sometimes show in our videos you can also cut the excess of some of the bits to better fit the edge of the bases.

[@C.D.2288]

Would be nice, if you could add them to your shop for battle ready bases.

[@MrCroney29]

awesome 👌 you used two earth textures at the start what was the second and was the white stuff you painted on PVA or varnish?

[@GamersGrass]

Hi! Thank you for your comment! The second texture we used is Vallejo's Earth Texture "Brown Earth". We coated the first paste with PVA glue in the areas where we later apply the crackle texture paint.

[@MrCroney29]

thanks for getting back to me I just ordered the gamer grass tufts I'm going to give it a go

[@michaelbrehmer6450]

​@@GamersGrasswhat is the first one then?🤔

[@GamersGrass]

Hi Michael! The first paste is basically a mixture of wall putty with some rock dust and a little bit of PVA glue. The ratios are not very important, it's just to give the base some ground height variation. Thank you!

[@adrimate9467]

which wall repair paste is the best for this?

[@GamersGrass]

Hello! Thank you very much for commenting! Any putty paste of the kind will work well. It just needs to dry to a solid state to create the height that we will then cover with other textures :) Happy Hobbying!

[@TheBulletFreeman]

What is the second powder applied to the pva glue? it leaves very ashy looking geometric rocks

[@GamersGrass]

Hi! Thank you for your comment! It is a mixture of earth/sand with a lot of rock dust, obtained by crushing some schist/slate like rocks. These types of rocks sometimes tend to crumble in horizontal and geometric pieces. We gathered some outside here in Portugal, try to look for some cool rock types for cool effects near you :)

[@TheBulletFreeman]

@@GamersGrass Thank you for a quick reply! Absolutely adore your work.

[@Jolley_Bear]

How do you guys manage such a nice and natural looking effect with that crackle paint? I've tried applying mine over pva and texture paints, experimenting with thickness and application method, but it always seems to crack radially from the outside and give a very unnatural appearance. Any tips or tricks?

[@GamersGrass]

Hello! Thank you for reaching out! We understand your concern, the radial crackle has also happened to us in some cases where we tested the crackle paints that exist. Unfortunately we didn't reach any good way to control when it happened. We found that the one we used in the video was most effective in giving a realistic look, but if the same has happened to you while using it perhaps it can be linked to a different drying environment there. Happy Hobbying!

[@bakedbeings]

Would randomly varying the thickness of the crackle paint help? Even paint = more even, regular cracks?

[@GamersGrass]

Hello! thanks for your comment! Yes! Varying the thickness of the texture should change the size (and amount) of the crackles themselves, and is a great way to achieve an irregular and more realistic look on the effect :)

[@Hog__Goblin]

Guess its time for me to build a new army so I have an excise to make lava bases

[@DespairInFlames]

Just curious but couldn't you use another texture paste instead of the first paste mixture that you used to create the height volume? Or is it needed for another reason?

[@GamersGrass]

Hi! thanks for your comment! We used a mixture of putty with pva glue and sand because we end up with making more paste quantity in a cheaper way. But you can use anything that dries to a solid and hard state. For example just putty directly from the box, or greenstuff, or really any other stuff that works to add height this way, since we will cover the whole surface with other textures afterwards :)

[@DespairInFlames]

@@GamersGrass So either putty/wall paste or would another Vallejo texture paste work? Any that you'd recommend from vallejo or other brands? Appreciate the reply back! Looking to whip up some of these for some Chaos units!

[@GamersGrass]

We use both things. The putty/wall repair paste is to first add some height difference. Then we cover the whole area of the ground that will be "earth" with one of those texture pastes from Vallejo or AmmobyMig or Citadel, depending on the result you're aiming :)

[@DespairInFlames]

Just one more question. Wanted to know what the ratio for your wall repair paste mix was? Thank you :)@@GamersGrass

[@christophermaver4683]

What is the 1st dirt affect you put down?

[@GamersGrass]

Hi! Christopher! Thanks for your question! You mean the first paste we apply to create a height difference? It is a mixture of wall repair paste, PVA glue (about 50-50), and some sand or rock powder. The ratio is not very important for this though, since we mainly want the height volume in this stage.

[@mcgarbagle]

Where do you source the sand/rock powder? New to the hobby and any tips would be greatly appreciated. The basing series has been a fantastic resource@@GamersGrass

[@Jolley_Bear]

Raw coarse sand is probably your best option, or if you want more manual control on the rock and sand sizes you could buy and mix various sizes of model railroad ballast. @@mcgarbagle

[@DespairInFlames]

@@GamersGrass Just curious but couldn't you use another texture paste instead of the first paste mixture then to create the height volume? Or is it needed for another reason?

[@dwwolf4636]

Burned grass near Lava ? It's called ashes.

[@GamersGrass]

The last burned survivor tufts xD

[@goldencobra9247]

Indeed