How to paint lava bases for miniatures

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Nice one Austin! I'm going to go give this a try myself, who is with me?!

[@Kaasbaas1234]

My base is drying right now, did a skaven one with nurgle rot showing underneath :D

[@WatchItPaintIt]

@@Kaasbaas1234 :-O that sounds amazing, please link us a pic when its done :-)

[@jackneiner7322]

Great tutorial I’m Totally trying this

[@Cade467]

Why didn't you use Mordant Earth as the technical paint instead of painting black over every piece?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

@@Cade467​​⁠just didn’t exist in the olden days! I keep meaning to make the easier v2 version of this

[@GlobbitsGaming]

A pre Mordant Earth effort, i salute the dedication to painting all the raised areas 😮😮😮

[@CollinBuckman]

Citadel actually released a new texture paint called Mordant Earth that does the same crack effect as Martian Ironearth but in black

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Nice. We need to pick up a pot and add a faster version tutorial!

[@NuclearLetsPlay]

I Prefer the red one because the red color is showing in the cracks, producing a shine effect.

[@Vesdus]

@@NuclearLetsPlay You're right, bro.

[@TheOilerfan99]

Does the media paste separate as much as the Citadel technical will? Videos by DecoArt seem to show the pieces much closer together.

[@astormofwrenches5555]

This takes way too long.

[@ARodriguez8t4]

Best method I’ve seen so far. Effects like this are such a pain in the ass for me.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

I’ve never dared try it myself. I’ll be following along with this tutorial though!

[@HeroesBosses]

I've never seen anyone make a lava base like this. Very cool Austin!

[@WatchItPaintIt]

I’ve not either, it’s come out looking very slick

[@Austin-D20]

Thank you good sir.

[@IronAndy]

I tried this effect on my own a few months back prior to finding this video. It did not turn out. I'm excited to try again now knowing you need to wait a full day between coats. Your videos are easy to follow and straight to the point. I love it. Keep up the good work.

[@BaijoGosum]

Great looking base! If you dab a 50/50 mix of black wash + black paint after the texture paint has dried a bit, the crackle pulls the wash apart and you get a similar effect but don’t have to paint each bit after. I tried it with agrellion earth and it works pretty good. I bet the red texture paint would look even better. Great video!

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Nice tip!

[@Ezekialify]

Same thing I was posting to post. I have done over 100 bases in this style and the dabbing will save your sanity for other things.

[@L3GHO5T]

I don’t know how I’ve missed this one. I do lava bases for my world eaters army and this is by far the best results I’ve seen. It got me out of bed to try a few of them, hopfully my result is as good as yours and the wait was worth it. I’ll check back in and let you know how it went for me

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Look forward to seeing! Tag us in on Instagram if you use it! Also laughing that you got out of bed to try this. Sounds like something I would do :-D

[@L3GHO5T]

@@WatchItPaintIt same handle, I found and followed you. Will absolutely tag you when I’m done!!

[@gingerfreakstudio6362]

To make it even more easy and quick. Once you applied the texture paint, do not let it dry but spray a layer of black paint directly on top of the fresh texture paint. Let it dry and you are done !

[@GM1006]

"Spray" ? Litterally, with a sprayer ?

[@2XS]

Or just as easy as shit, use Mordant Earth instead or Martian Ironearth. It is already black.

[@tyhatch3771]

I tried this, using chaos black primer, and it didn’t work, because the primer dried before the texture paint and trapped the moisture, stopping it from cracking.

[@dwsonye]

@@tyhatch3771 Use Vallejo Black ink and mix them together. Magic!

[@Burgerzaza]

Thanks for this, I was wanting to paint my avatar of khaine in warhammer 40k as a kind of volcano god and this is super helpful

[@SpazFrag]

Great tutorial! I much prefer the Martian Ironearth to Mordan earth for this. I think the orange sides of the cracked parts give the lava an extra effect that brings it all together really nicely. Can't wait to make these for my World Eaters army.

[@scottthemachinepaintedmini7469]

So if I use dark blue, med and light. Then Apply the stuff would I then be able to paint the sections white giving me an ice style base. Also considered greens with a glow for a toxic spill.😁

[@Austin-D20]

I have used this for all kinds of bases. Ice, Toxic, hell mount with blood of blood god oozing out. The sky's the limit. Also thank you for the shout out on Facebook.

[@scottthemachinepaintedmini7469]

No problem, i just got the stuff and knocked out a lava, ice and water and underground toxic turtle themed one. Great stuff that i can see me using a lot more.

[@bevanlangford5012]

Awesome! Always happy to see new techniques, especially for fire/lava hot surfaces. I struggle to get an effect I like.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Glad you liked it. I’m going to try this myself following Austin’s example

[@13Robzilla]

Great job, especially the consistency of the width of the gaps used, superb.

[@SirDokk]

Nice Austin. Looks amazing! You nailed the size of the gaps...very difficult to do. Good suggestion to simply apply some of that Ironearth in varying thicknesses to say a ceramic tile and gauage how much it cracks. I assume humidity and temperature have an effect on how this plays out. Another trick I found for the lava basing is that after applying the Ironearth, let it dry for about 20 minutes...just enough to start to harden but not enough for it to start cracking. Then mix equal amounts of Abbadon Black and Nuln oil and lightly apply it on top of the ironearth by tapping your brush to apply it (versus pulling/stroking). Once covered, let fully dry for the 24 hours. It dries black and doesn't effect the cracking at all.

[@yoyoyo9669]

this is really good! wow would be great for a huge monster or the balrog!

[@tyger2891]

I love it! I’m going to use this but with green, make it a nether kind of base

[@mikeogden6239]

When you're actually attaching the models to the base, do you use the pin method or simply glue them to the base?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Gluing has worked fine but I guess it depends how much handling the miniature will get. I’d pin if it was any concern, only takes a couple of minutes doesn’t it?

[@celp7008]

Starting my very first army! Gonna be doing Druhkari and I'm gonna use this method but do a green lava using this method😍😍😍

[@nomore2226]

I learned something from this. So I subscribed. Thumbs uped.

[@DeSousm]

Great vid!! This is exactly the kind of thing i am looking to do with the bases for my Salamander Space Marines. Defo worth a sub!

[@GusWingAn]

Keeping these top quality tutorial coming !!! Great job

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Thanks man :-) we’ll try and keep them coming! Not done a base in a while, will do a new one soon

[@ArstanWB]

If you want to speed up the process of painting the tiles black drastically, apply the black paint to a flat spongy surface and simply dap the surface gently, this easily cuts 5-10 minutes of each base. I take a melamine foam sponge and cut it into a smaller piece so i have better control of the process.

[@AJB2K3]

Oh cool, nice effect!

[@Burstame]

Wow! Awesome effect!

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Thanks dude!

[@Austin-D20]

Thank you. I’m glad you like it and trust me it’s super easy to achieve.

[@Burstame]

@@Austin-D20 By the end of the year I'll be getting The Edge: Dawnfall with cool demon fraction. Now I know how the bases will look like :D

[@FEBear1]

Would adding black to the texture paint work? I only say this because I have around 100 Arcadia Quest Inferno guys to do, and tbh I don't fancy doing any more than I absolutely have to a hundred times.

[@scottthemachinepaintedmini7469]

That is really cool and I must try it.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

I wonder how fast you could do it :D

[@scottthemachinepaintedmini7469]

@@WatchItPaintIt knowing me I'd be able to paint it before I've finished typing this message. So I'll drag it out a bit and see.😉 seriously though I've just added that technical paint to my wishlist.😁

[@sibldave]

Looks brilliant. How do the the individual crackles hold up to having a model glued on top of it? I'd be worried they'd pull away from the base.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

You should definitely glue the model on first. Sometimes we leave the model off if we're demonstrating something just so it's easier to see.

[@sibldave]

@@WatchItPaintIt thanks. I'll be getting the frostgrave demon for Xmas and plan to have lava under his feet with snowy base everywhere else. Great tutorial 👌

[@Vesdus]

Very nice!

[@wipiwife5936]

Looks amazing Austin! Really realistic! 👏

[@ShowGn0m3rcy]

Very cool video, I'm gonna use these type of base for my Salamanders. My question is, how to attach the model afterwards? Do you just glue it to the base?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Or pin the model! I’ve glued some, seems fine to me, but if they came off I’d add pins. You could also consider sticking the mini before adding the basing. Will be harder to paint BUT could make it look like they are in the lava? Another option!

[@dylanobrey7104]

What’s a good substitute for the Martian Iron earth is I want to have it more like a grey or black to begin with, rather than red?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Mordant Earth is what you're looking for. It's a newer technical paint from GW. (sorry for the late reply - just saw this :) )

[@sirbaconbuster]

I prefer using crackle paste. It's a bit harder to work with, but it’s cheaper, you get more of it, and it works better once you figure it out.

[@TheTwerp]

So this looks really cool but how would you get the miniature on after painting it? I have been using the citadel plastic glue but I guess I would need super glue?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Yeah - I would just super glue it on top. Perhaps even scratch off a little area under the feet to give a better surface to adhere too

[@Ugnutz]

Pin vice hand drill and pin the model to the base with superglue would be your best bet.

[@RequiemWraith]

Complete beginner here. What's the best/advised way to attach a miniature to a base like this?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Just super glue is the easiest and will most likely do enough. Pinning the miniature is super easy and a better way to attach it. I’ve done a video on pinning but it’s only for Patreons at the moment

[@RequiemWraith]

Thank you 😊😊

[@YouTube-Grifter]

This looks incredible!! Would you do this before glueing the model to the base??

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Thanks dude. You could do either but it’s going to be A LOT easier if you can do the base without the model in the way

[@philRminiatures]

Superb and very very impressive, well done!

[@leonardopardo9178]

Super easy, super effective. I was looking for sth like this, some easy tutorial bout lava. This looks pretty nice. Perhaps i d just feather a bit more the outer parts of the cracks with likely a dark brown going in for pure black at the centre. Gonna try 😏

[@GSquirrel16]

Great video, love how easy you made it look with a great finish. Trying it today!

[@shawnaladelpha3994]

What bases do you use? I like how they are textured.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

These are just Games Workshop standard flat bases, but we added an earth texture on top. You can get a lot of different texture pastes - such as Agrellan earth - a crackle paint that will create the effect in this video.

[@mehdi1765]

Great tutorial! I picked up Martian Ironearth from a local shop but didn't realise that what I picked up is labeled as a "techical" paint and yours says "texture". Still the same?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Yep! Same stuff. I guess they changed their naming convention :-)

[@ImTheDudeGames]

Teach me your ways...but how do you glue the miniature to the base after it's already been painted?

[@acchan1885]

Great video! love your tutorial 😍😍! can this effect be achieved even with the mordant earth paint as well or would it darken the base colour too much?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Hey man, thanks! That paint didn’t exist back in the day :-D I think Mordant Earth would work great. I’ve been meaning to try and update the tutorial if it’s successful. All just money and time :,( let us know how you get on!

[@oldlobster]

@@WatchItPaintIt it works great and replaces Martian Ironearth and Black cover steps but your way allows to have the insides of the tall cracks red while Mordant is full black.

[@DArtagnan-n5s]

new/bad painter here, when you start applying orange & yellow, how are you getting that consistency? with the orange are you just loading the brush? and when you apply the yellow into the orange it just seems to melt/blend in. how do you do that? apologies as very novice. great video as well :)

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Hey Joe - I'm not the one who painted this, but we're friends. We typically mix our paints with a little bit of water to make it flow better. When mixing the colors on the base you apply each color while the others are still wet. This is called "wet blending". You just mix them at their edges so that they blend smoothly into each other. I hope that helps! - Mike

[@DArtagnan-n5s]

@@WatchItPaintIt Thank you very much 😄

[@dracosummoner]

Very pretty effect. Thank you for the video.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Part 2 is coming out soon! Working on it now.

[@dracosummoner]

@@WatchItPaintIt Good to know, thank you!

[@Drexxl]

They just revealed a new black crackle paint at GW!

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Ohhhhhh really!! Oh well this is useful when it’s the middle of the night and there’s no time to buy some :D I did some asphalt basing last night using Stirland mud as it’s all I had :-)

[@1dcriticalcritical854]

Hey, dumb question. But are you thinking the paint that you're applying onto the base after you primed it but before you applied the Martian Ironearth? Just curious for when I try and tackle this.

[@FrostandFists]

Really awesome tutorial! I want to try this out sometime for sure! ~ Wolfbrother Methos

[@Abbojnr]

Did you do something to your Martian Ironearth before applying it? Because my bottle of it is more clay-like and takes a lot more effort to spread out, Maybe I need to get a new bottle, but I don't remember it looking like that,

[@WatchItPaintIt]

It should be quite thin in the pot - about the same as cream.

[@maxroberts90]

Can I ask what you use to put the base on so you can handle it while painting? I dont want to get into drilling and pinning into cork yet as thats quite advanced, im using blue tack on a cork at the moment but it falls off a lot Thank you so much I will definitely be trying this!

[@jakenator13]

Do you do some sort of varnish too stop the paint from flaking off?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Yeah. A matte varnish would toughen this up nicely

[@kacpermakosa3304]

Mon, great tutorial i must redone all of my bases for Chaos Dwarfes !!!!

[@GeeHood666]

Thanks for this, looks great!

[@ToaMuzz]

Hey mate love the tutorial, i gave this a shot last night before i seen this. trying to do a toxic looking one for Death Guard by my green is barely showing through nor did mine crack that much. but i also didnt let the base colours of green dry overnight, do you think that may have been my problem?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Hiya! Glad you liked the tutorial, you definitely want your base coat to dry, but an hour should be plenty. It’s more likely that you didn’t apply the crackle paint thick enough. More is more in this case, you want it seriously thick. Have some practices on some spare bases. Do a thin one, what you think in normal, and then an extreme, like 5mm thick. See how they dry differently. The thicker ( to an extent) you do it, the bigger the cracks, the more green that will show through.

[@ToaMuzz]

@@WatchItPaintIt Hey mate! I ended up having a play around on some more spare bases and did exactly that, put it on real thick in some places and it cracked perfectly! for all the colour to come through, Thanks a bunch

[@chriszorrozua9895]

Dude that’s amazing

[@thumbreee9124]

how do you get the earth on there so smooth?

[@jamesbarrass3968]

Would this still work if u varnished the lava first before adding the texture paint

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Some people do that, just make sure it’s all very dry!

[@jamesbarrass3968]

@@WatchItPaintIt cheers

[@MrElliptific]

It's absolutely an awesome effect. The only concern is if you have a full army with 60 bases to do. That'd probably drive anyone crazy.

[@AmbientJoe]

So do you suggest to apply the colour thick?

[@ScottofOakland]

Could this be done with Agrellan Earth as well?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Yep!

[@ScottofOakland]

Drying now!!

[@callumjennings6336]

I've never used paints with this sort of effect and I've got alarms going left right and center, so much thickness, so much wetness.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Haha. Thin your paints!! Except here :-D do it as thick as you can. Confusing isn’t it :-)

[@Djones0125]

I'm actually going to try this effect on a lava axe.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Great idea! Love to see how it turns out!

[@Djones0125]

@@WatchItPaintIt it came out great, I need to upload it somewhere to create a link

[@Djones0125]

@@WatchItPaintIt www.deviantart.com/tubeku/art/DnD-Orc-Barbarian-w-OLS-and-lava-axe-side-picture-883692075?ga_submit_new=10%3A1624596877 Finally got around to uploading a picture of it.

[@MenzaCrow]

Can you mix the crackable paint with black before it is applied?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

I'd use black ink or speedpaint. If you mix in black paint it won't crack as much. GW does make black crackle paint now.

[@Rehabed7807]

Watching old vids for new minis

[@cromwellthesynth]

Not trying to take away from your amazing work but couldnt you get the same effect with just using Mordant Earth?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

I think so! I think that came out after Austin made this video though! We could do with updating the technique, but this is still nice if you have Agrellan earth and not the other (like myself :-D)

[@cromwellthesynth]

@@WatchItPaintIt Ahhh okay ^^ I really hope they make a white version of this for snow. Using a white version of Mordant Earth on top of Baharroth Blue would look amazing for Ice

[@TheMariusDarkwolf]

Okay, I'm definately gonna do this with my Leagues of Votann army.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Awesome! I did something similar with my Votann, but I used a light blue instead of orange - to make a kind of "frozen methane" look.

[@TheMariusDarkwolf]

@@WatchItPaintIt Ooooh, I bet that looks amazing!

[@smoke264]

Will this work with stirland mud technical paint?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Nope! That’s a very different technical paint. I have a look at it here - Stirland Mud alternative for 10% the price :-O Alternative mud texture basing for miniatures kzbin.info/www/bejne/m6TWhpuGpNuAepY

[@Crafty.pro.]

Which material do you use init

[@Vancity3]

How do you manage to get the cracks so big? I've tried using these GW cracking tech paints in all different amounts now but still can't get it to crack that I can clearly see the underneath...

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Hmmmmm. All I do is put it on REALLY thick. How thick have you tried? Personally I’ve never done it too thick... like I’m talking millimetres thick

[@Vancity3]

@@WatchItPaintIt I did what I thought was thick, but wasn't enough. I watched your video and tried again putting like double on and it looking like a similar amount to yours and it did make bigger cracks, but still not big enough to be able to actually see the colours underneath. I'll have to give it one more try but at this point I feel like I'm just wasting the paint!

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Yeah, you need A LOT. I had the small pot they used to do and I ran out and had to get another pot before I finished Arcadia Quest (60 minis)

[@Baragon999]

Thanks

[@littletif1631]

These paints can you get for Citadels paints instead???

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Flash Gitz Yellow and Troll Slayer Orange are you best choices.

[@mostexcellent1577]

I tried this but it didn’t crack quite the same as yours did. Do you need to water the texture paint down for larger cracks or something? I mixed my paint with a toothpick but it just seems way thicker than yours for some reason.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

I never add any water at all. For larger cracks pile the paint on thicker. Do a test base with the tones of the paint piled up. You probably need even more than you think!

[@40kthrawn30]

Do you thin it down or just apply straight out the bottle

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Which bit?

[@40kthrawn30]

@@WatchItPaintIt the Martian iron earth

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Straight from the pot!

[@GuthanSlayer]

4have u tried other brands like vallejo texture stuff? :o

[@WatchItPaintIt]

I haven’t no! Would you recommend?

[@GuthanSlayer]

@@WatchItPaintIt well im not sure if they have something that creates this same effect but generally ive heard great things about them and you its a bit more expensive1 than the gw stuff but you get almost 10x as much. And it seems it has a large range, was thinking of making a similar effect but greenish for stuff like necrons, and was looking for alternatives since gw is pricy.

[@Zectari]

Do you mix the texture paint with water?

[@Austin-D20]

Zectari I did not mix it with any water.

[@justinbraungardt7168]

This is perfect for my salamander of 40k

[@Walican132]

How do you add a model to the finished base?

[@pkubiu75]

Skąd taka podstawka żeby była chropowata

[@joshfoss7407]

Anyone have any success with this effect using golden crackle paste? It cracks the surface for either a good dry desert or cracked stone look, but it doesn't shrink into little islands like this does by default

[@marcogarcia5051]

Where do you buy your bases?

[@lardface6]

or just add black paint to mixture?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Good idea, but I'd bet it alters the properties of the paint and it wouldn't work the same :-(

[@awesomeness9ish]

Mine just keeps looking like sand when it drys and doesn’t crack. What am I doing wrong

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Are you applying in thick enough? I’ve put this stuff on too thin, but never too thick. Like 2mm thick

[@Fissi0nChips]

Why not just use Mordant Earth which is already black?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Why do it the easy way!? :-D it didn’t exist before :-( that would be an upgrade to skip a step in this process now though! I keep meaning to do an updated tutorial using it but there’s not enough time in life

[@cmaurisset83]

Hey :) no need to shade something ?

[@danielwilliams1936]

Did you have to water down the texture paint? Yours looks WAY more gooey than mine.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Nope! Have you given yours a really good shake?

[@seanofwar]

but....... isn't there a black crackle paint?

[@WatchItPaintIt]

There is now! Not when this was made I don't think. Funny you should mention that. We just made another lava base video using the Mordant Earth (black crackle paint)

[@sean5201]

why not using Mordant Earth instead? So that you don't have to paint the surface into black...

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Didn’t exist at the time!

[@grayjappe562]

Why not use black crackle paint?

[@SantiagoHorsFraile]

Trick: after aplying the texture paint, spray it with black primer before it dries... or just use GreenStuffWorld black cracking paint instead! www.greenstuffworld.com/es/inicio/904-pintura-craqueladora-badlands-60ml.html

[@jeremiahbachmann3901]

"...just by simply using Martian Ironearth..." (adds another 5 steps during the video)

[@WatchItPaintIt]

:-D

[@ЛеночкаКалюжная]

😲

[@LeonosRithi]

I have returned for another watch.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Glad it’s useful! Did you see the updated version of the lava base?

[@Solarec]

Yup good job yup a

[@connorlee3805]

Just use mordant earth then you don’t need to paint the red shit you applied

[@Godonstilts]

My god, you utter masochist! Who paints each individual crack? Crumbs, my pile of shame is aching at the very thought of spending so long on bases

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Hahaha :-D

[@epicminecrafter91]

gw has a video on this and there method is better and easy

[@flannelmann]

This is not efficient. There are more effective means to do this.

[@WatchItPaintIt]

Fo sho. It is over four years old now though!

[@battleshipman56]

Paint is dried in about 5 minutes, idk what bs this guy is on

[@everyhandleistakendamnit]

does this work with cheap acrylic paint too?