Hobby Cheating 67 - How to Make Lava Bases

In this Hobby Cheating Tutorial I take you through a new method for making Lava Bases. This is my second video on the subject as I have continued to evolve the technique and discovered additional mediums to create the effect. Hope you enjoy.
Twitter: @warhammerweekly
Vince's RPG Podcast: itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/u...

[@TheRunesmythe]

Very cool effect. Something I've seen done, which can produce some amazing results, is to add a final layer of Tamiya Clear Orange over the lava once everything has been sealed; depending on what type of look you're going for, this can really sell it. On a semi-related note, I'm glad you mentioned about the Cold Grey; when I got my bottle I thought to myself "It looks rather warm, brown-grey" and wondered if I'd gotten a bad bottle. Also, loved the mid-subject rant about people painting black directly over yellow; I was chuckling the entire time.

[@VinceVenturella]

Certain things really bother me, yellow over black is one of those things. I don't get how people just throw their life away for sub-par effects. I will have to think on the orange. I am thinking you could get a similar effect from the badger minitaire orange ghost tint without going to the tamiya paints, as it also is a clear coat with a slight gloss - I assume people are using the sheen to make the final white/yellow really pop and give the effect of a glow. I am always suspect there as I don't like anything gloss in general, as you lose control of the light and your shadows can start reflecting in the wrong light - that being said, I will have to give that a try, there could be some interesting effects there for sure.

[@TheSpectralFX]

This is a great base. I don't own an airbrush atm, but those techniques will be dandy in the future when I do!

[@VinceVenturella]

I hope so! :)

[@Wijkert]

2:10 great stuff for making water and ice affects. I have used it to make icicles using plastic packing material as a base.

[@VinceVenturella]

Yep, 100%

[@darthdubiousgaming]

Just wanted to stop by WAY too late, and say I used this strat for my ghouls (25 mm bases). I love how they worked out, I reckon this is an amazing plan for any lava base, regardless of size.

[@VinceVenturella]

That's awesome, I am glad to hear it worked out so well. :)

[@toobeeus4648]

pretty cool! Worked for me doing it with brushes. Thanks very much!

[@VinceVenturella]

Glad it helped! :)

[@willieduwe1]

Im using your method for a diorama with phoenix and elementals for a summer comp where the theme is hot and summery. I have lava flows and a lava river . My biggest problem will be moving around the diorama to airbrush as i cant move the actual base around while im painting as its too big. Ive nearly finished the prep as per your method and its almost time to start airbrushing. Everything looking good sofar so thank you for this excellent post and wish me luck

[@VinceVenturella]

Good luck!

[@cupraflash6892]

Looks great and some nice tips thank you. Would love to see some slime/acid vids soon 👍

[@VinceVenturella]

I have some slime videos in the basing playlist - kzbin.info/aero/PLcdsbwBroEmCHEnhbqM2E-TmREz12mEF2

[@robertballard7897]

brilliant effect will be using this method in future. Thank you.

[@VinceVenturella]

Thanks!

[@guydent8233]

Sorry to post on such an old video. This video is fantastic and is exactly the effect I'm after so I'm going to give it a try! Just one question- when applying the gel medium, do you place that over basing paste or just build it up over the regular base?

[@VinceVenturella]

Either is really fine, as long as the underlying surface is dry.

[@WillOMyers]

Back at this Khorne Army for NashCon, so is there a cracked earth paint you’d recommend. Thanks for the tips!!!

[@VinceVenturella]

You can get crackle medium from the art store, otherwise, good old Martian Ironearth. :)

[@willieduwe1]

This is working really well on my Mantic Phoenix and lava diorama wouldn’t like to be doing this without an airbrush though

[@VinceVenturella]

Yeah, this is definitely something that is well suited to the airbrush.

[@Coltain476]

Those vallejho texture paints, how well do they stick to plastic bases? Also do you need to prime over them in order to paint the texture paint/gels? Awsome tutorial!

[@VinceVenturella]

They are my go to for more or less 100% of my bases. It sticks to plastic or most any other material without issue. I always prime it first You could probably paint it directly, but I just have better results with a quick priming.

[@degghi]

Hey Vince, great video as always. Planning to refer to it for my upcoming S2D project... Just a question: it is not clear to me why you covered everything in White Stone and then Pumice and Gloss gel respectively the stone and lava: could White Stone just be skipped and the other two products applied to the cork directly? Or is it to give a certain structure before applying the texture? Thanks!

[@VinceVenturella]

It was just to build up texture, you could certainly do each individually.

[@markgnepper5636]

Great stuff friend 👏 👍

[@VinceVenturella]

Thank you 👍

[@IDICBeer]

Very nice tutorial mate

[@VinceVenturella]

Thank you sir, much appreciated as always. .

[@zakhoskins6404]

17:56 "Why are you going to paint yellow over black?" 99% of the time, I'd agree. That said, I'm trying to get back into playing Tyranids. Many of the paint schemes require having a normally transparent hue brush painted over a very dark color (often black) for doing things like the marks on the edges of their carapace plates (the tips or outer rims, not literal edge highlights). Some are even more exotic, like having multicolored dots within dots (usually with analagous hues). See CatgutPainting's Coconut Crab Tyranids to get an idea of what I'm talking about. While these do look cool, every tutorial I have ever seen with these NEVER zenithals when they make them. The downside of this is, as cool as the patterns are, it never looks like the light is interacting with them properly because you need a thicker paint in order to cover over the darker color (hence why these paints are never thinned). An even harder problem exists if you were to attempt to zenithal something like a Hive Fleet Behemoth scheme. While you may not have the odd pattern to deal with, you now have to worry about how to zenithal something that is warm in one part (the red), and cool in the other (the bluish turquoise color). This wouldn't be so bad if the chitin armor was only on the back and head, but with the leg armor, you can't just use one color to highlight the top and another color to shade from below. In summary, I guess this is really a two parter. A)How do you use a zenithal undercoat on a single surface where there are patterns that feature an abrupt change in hue and B)How do you zenithal undercoat a color scheme that features both warm and cool colors on surfaces at different heights on the model? I'm not even sure this is possible in order to preserve the original undercoat. I'm thinking you'd just have to use the zenithal as a guide, take a photo of it, base coat the areas in the colors they need to be, and then go over the areas with glazes/shades to lighten/darken the areas to where they should be in more of a traditional Citadel "how to" way of basing/highlighting/shading as the zenithal would be covered over and not preserved in the final piece. The reason I say this is because you have a similar problem when trying to paint things like pants for Harlequinns. Generally, I've seen great painters (Kujo for instance) who normally zenithal their models do something similar to that for Harlequinns.Granted, he doesn't zenithal the Harlequinn, he basecoats it in flat colors and does a bit of wet blending before layering and glazing. In the end though, the pants look like they've been lit correctly, and they have a ridicoulous combination of abrupt hue and value changes (between different colored diamonds) as well as more gradual changes (the yellow diamonds becoming more orange in parts as well as lighter or darker depending on how much light they receive).That said, I haven't been doing this for years/decades. Thoughts on how to make Tyranids look right (maybe a Hobby Cheating video in the works *wink wink*)?

[@dlvnmedia]

I am actually loving that gel medium. I am thinking it could do molten metal effects quite easily with a TMM paint

[@VinceVenturella]

I suspect that is true, it's really useful stuff, great for waves in water as well.

[@dlvnmedia]

also it goes without saying NMMs as well

[@mikeljokinecheveste1287]

A great tutorial, this lava looks hot and liquid, only a question, you don't apply gloss varnish over the lava to reinforce the glowing effect? Oops, another question, have you tested the gloss gel medium to do snow effects?

[@VinceVenturella]

I don't add gloss because I don't think Lava ultimately has a glow, but not a sheen, which is a subtle difference. That being said, I am sure you could do it and it would still look good, just not what I am aiming at.

[@athollmcnicoll256]

I actually use a Vallejo pumice which is black in colour and works well on cork and saves painting in black designators!

[@VinceVenturella]

Yep, I am familiar, it's great stuff. In this case, I just liked this texture and I always prefer to have every element of the base painted just to control everything. I am obsessive like that.

[@Jokreher]

The change of into music is a nice touch. Also, did you get a new microphone? Your voice has better fidelity & amplitude.

[@VinceVenturella]

Thanks, I like the new song. Nope, same mic, just playing with positioning.

[@ignitedxblaze]

Hello vince, I was wondering if you have came across ways to recreate cooled "Pahoehoe Lava". I'd imagine it involves painstaking greenstuff or some sort of texture paint. Any ideas?

[@VinceVenturella]

Yes, I suspect you would need some 2-part epoxy of some kind and basically shaping it up.

[@AFoulOdor]

Good stuff, thx!

[@VinceVenturella]

Thank you, happy to help as always. :)

[@alvalek7724]

I know this is a bit of an old video, but if you were to use lava bases for your army would you reverse your zenithal highlighting to hit the white from the bottom? Since the lava is probably casting stronger light than the alternative light source? On another note do you have a video on Zenithal highlighting red? is it brown/grey/white instead of black/grey/white? Thank you ahead of time if you see this comment.

[@VinceVenturella]

So in general, with my lava bases, I generally just make the center of the lava the hottest. Yes, if you have lots of other non-lava you can highlight those as the source of the light. Yes, I do have a video on zenithal warm colors - kzbin.info/www/bejne/qHeneaOMf86BeZI&list=PLcdsbwBroEmD2fNEJhcju6PD7qRmoo04Y&index=130 Hope that all helps.

[@alvalek7724]

Vince Venturella Thanks for the reply. I started watching your videos a few days ago and thought "maybe I should get an airbrush" then I got to video 6 "just get an airbrush". Do you happen to have any general care videos on how you clean out your gun? I feel like I never get all the paint out, someone suggested I need to further thin?

[@diaz5292]

Who knew the detective from Hill Street Blues knew how to paint lava bases?...lol

[@VinceVenturella]

I've gotten Steve Buscemi before, but never that one, that's a deep cut.

[@paulofreire7520]

Great job! 👍🏻 Subscribed

[@VinceVenturella]

Awesome, thank you! Glad to have you along on the hobby journey. :)

[@hobbithubby5076]

Is there a particular mini color palette that looks best on lava bases like this?

[@VinceVenturella]

Khorne guys with the same reds can work, but I also have my blue orcs on these bases (if you look forward into the early hundred in the playlist, you will see that scheme). Blue and orange is always a win.

[@Critical677]

Looks very good! Is their a difference if you use Vallejo Model Air for this? For example exchange Sun Yellow for Yellow (MA002)? I don't quite get what is the difference between vallejo air and model color. Thank you!

[@VinceVenturella]

Nope, it's just slightly different mixes of the same colors. You can use any paint brand. I am always paint brand agnostic. Unless I say otherwise in a video, you can use anything close (i.e. any bright red, any yellow, any warm orange, etc.)

[@Critical677]

Thank you! :)

[@edricivan]

Hi Vince! Would you suggest FW inks for the whites and orange? I'm thinking Flame Orange and the standard white.

[@VinceVenturella]

Yep, they will work great for that purpose.

[@edricivan]

Vince Venturella thank you!!

[@edricivan]

How would you suggest I OSL under the minis I’ll put on these bases? Light brush/airbrush of a brownish color? Or orange?

[@VinceVenturella]

@@edricivan Yeah, light upspray of a brown/orange would be a good play. You could touch the edges of a few areas closest to the lava with a little pure orange with the brush and you should be good.

[@edricivan]

Thank you!!

[@Wijkert]

6:00 Do you still enjoy using game air (or any air paint I guess) as much as you did in the past? Have been re-watching your old video's and noticed that you used a lot back in the day.

[@VinceVenturella]

Yes, I don't use it as often, but I still often use it.

[@Wijkert]

If I Google images of lava the surface is really flat (because of it's' viscosity assume). What you made here looks more how water in a fast flowing river would act.

[@VinceVenturella]

Of course, you are correct, but a little artistic license is fun here and there.

[@Wijkert]

@@VinceVenturella absolutely fair enough. In my mind I added a comment about artistic license being a reason not worry about stuff being realistic, but I clearly didn't.

[@davidkilby1043]

I am going to use this video to do a lava base. Only i get to try it with a brush! Eeek

[@VinceVenturella]

No issue, just make sure you have a big brush. :)

[@fredmulvaney7559]

Could u brush on the understanding if u don't have an airbrush?

[@VinceVenturella]

Sure, the airbrush makes it quicker, but the work could all be done with brush as well. If you were controlled, it could probably even be through drybrushing, so that would be fairly quick.

[@nicky8866]

that pop once it was in the photo booth!, the poor lighting for the majority of the video wasnt making this look amazing, but that final pic

[@VinceVenturella]

Proper lighting makes all the difference. It's always tough with Red/orange/yellow at my desk, because if I use my normal painting daylight lamp, the camera has a heart attack. I think it really did come out well in the end. Thanks for watching to the end and commenting, greatly appreciated :)

[@nicky8866]

Vince Venturella great vid

[@bethanygraham427]

Really useful tutorial. Many thanks.

[@VinceVenturella]

Happy to help as always.

[@xephonics]

"Volcanic rock is dark" Rhyolite: am I a joke to you?

[@VinceVenturella]

Fair