Basing Nikephorians....

[anthonyf]

Hi. I'm in the process of painting up my first 15mm army for DBMM - a Nikephorian Byzantine force (Bk 3, Army List 65). I'm ready to start basing my first batch, but have a few questions about the process...

1. The Nikephorians have a Warm Climate - what materials or colours should I use to convey this on the bases?

2. Should I glue the painted figures onto the bases BEFORE texturing/painting the bases?

Any suggestions appreciated!

[Barritus]

Hi.

G'day, and welcome to the DBMM forum.

I'm in the process of painting up my first 15mm army for DBMM - a Nikephorian Byzantine force (Bk 3, Army List 65).

Ah! Excellent choice! If you go to the battle reports section of the forum you can read about my fun and games at Cancon this year with a Nik Byz army (played 6, won 4, drew 2, lost 0).

I'm ready to start basing my first batch, but have a few questions about the process...

1. The Nikephorians have a Warm Climate - what materials or colours should I use to convey this on the bases?

I'm not sure. I just painted my bases plain green and left it at that. I've never been very good at the flocking caper. Maybe you should try to track down some pictures of Turkey or the Balkans at various times of the year to get an idea of what the vegetation looks like. On the other hand, it's an army with Aggression 4, so will usually be invading someone else's climate!

2. Should I glue the painted figures onto the bases BEFORE texturing/painting the bases?

I think so. If you paint and texture the base first, then you'll be glueing the figures to the paint and texture, not to the base itself, which I suspect will weaken the bond between the figures and the base. Yes, it's trickier to paint and texture bases when the figures are glued on, but I think it's more important to make sure the figures are secure.

[Mithridates]

Anthony

Sorry for the late post but I do not check this part of the site that often.

I am not a 15mm veteran and would suggest you have a look at the www.fanaticus.org (DBA) site for examples ('eye candy') of Byzantines or other suitable armies that may help you.  The  www.madaxeman.com site specialises in 15mm and will have plenty of helpful hints.  Also have a look at 'The Miniatures Page' (google) - they have a specific section on Basing under their 'General' category of message boards.

Products that allow you to vary the base surface like a gel would be good - try "Golden" coarse/fine pumice gel.  Can be mixed with paint and create any texture/colour you like.  On 15's, grasses need to be quite fine or else they will flood the figures.   Try sand as well to create rough ground or even rocks for the psiloi!

I would echo Barritus (so to speak......) - glue your figures to the base and then flock/gel.  Bit fiddly with 15's but worth the effort in my view.   You will need to use PVA glue with sand and grasses but the gel will stick to the base on its own.   Varnish later.

Best of luck.

[anthonyf]

Thanks guys for the advice. Much appreciated. And Barritus, I enjoyed reading about your exploits at Cancon - well done!

[Richa_Eire]

Hi Anthony

I use Litko Aero System bases (check google to find them). Glue the figures to the base. I then take
PVA glue and mix into it builders sand. Then using an old paint brush I put the mixture onto the base
direct. It dries with a dark brown rocky texture. If you added a paint to the mixture then it would dry to
a lighter colour. Or alternatively dry brush a lighter colour onto the dried bases. Once the bases have dried I then apply static grass....

Some examples of this in action can be seen on www.corkgaming.com under the Arabs section. The one advantage to this technique is it is quick and effective (imo).... I am not a modeller but end up happy with my basing and I can achieve consistency.

Cheers, and see you at the Finn McCool...

Rich

[Barritus]

Thanks guys for the advice. Much appreciated. And Barritus, I enjoyed reading about your exploits at Cancon - well done!

Thanks very much. It was a lot of fun, and it's great to be able to share these sorts of stories.

[anthonyf]

Painting and basing of infantry going (reasonably) well, cheers lads.... was getting stuck into my cav and knights when a question arose that most sane men wouldn't consider....

What percentage of horses are brown/black/grey/white??

For the Kavallarioi I was considering painting the general's mounts white or grey, with all other horses split roughly 50/50 between brown and black. Does that seem a reasonable balance?

Mr. R. Rum

[vexillia]

1. The Nikephorians have a Warm Climate - what materials or colours should I use to convey this on the bases?

Try these methods from the tips section of my blog at http://vexillia.blogspot.com/search/label/Tips:

• http://tinyurl.com/cbk97v
• http://tinyurl.com/buqemt

[Barritus]

Painting and basing of infantry going (reasonably) well, cheers lads.... was getting stuck into my cav and knights when a question arose that most sane men wouldn't consider....

What percentage of horses are brown/black/grey/white??

For the Kavallarioi I was considering painting the general's mounts white or grey, with all other horses split roughly 50/50 between brown and black. Does that seem a reasonable balance?

Mr. R. Rum

I don't have any idea, though I suspect it may differ between different breeds.

I paint my generals' horses white to make them stand out - it's so much easier to say to opponents that my generals are the ones on white horses. Having said that, I still get opponents asking which elements are the generals, and this is despite them usually also having standards as well.

As for the other horses, I paint them a fairly random mix of brown, black and grey. To do this, I usually paint a few horses black, then add a bit of white paint to make a dark grey and paint a few more horses. Then I add some more white to make a light grey, and paint a few more horses. Once the grey is getting a little too white, I'll add some brown, and paint a few more horses, then progressively add more brown. Then once the paint is pretty much the brown I've been adding, I start adding some black, and paint a few more horses. The result is a pretty good mix of horse colours, though I admit I don't know how realistic the colours are, and I don't bother with things like white socks or blazes, or painting the mane and tail a darker colour than the rest of the horse. The key to this system of painting is to do it with horses which aren't glued to bases. Then, once the figures are all painted, I line them all up and use a dice to determine which ones to glue to each base. That way I get a genuinely random mix of horse colours on each base.

The one thing you don't want to do is paint them all one colour. I remember once seeing a Classical Indian army for sale in which all the horses (chariot and cavalry) were the same mid-grey colour. It just looked really odd.

[Valentinian Victor]

I've based my Late Romans using that basing sand stuff.
I bought fine, medium and coarse grades with both buff and brown colours. I then added a bit from each until I got the colour I was looking for. Having been to the Middle East and out in the deserts I knew the kind of colours and terrain I was trying to achieve.