Lo folk here's a thread about:

"How do you paint the red desert bases for Mars?"



I'll start of with a few prototypes on my own, feedback on them would be great but I'm also very interested in your ways of doing it.

Oh and warning like all my pictures these are going to be big you can find them in this blog post if you want to see them in more acceptable sizes.

Macharite red wased with earthshade.


Calthan Brown washed with baal red


Blood red washed with earthshade


illyaden darksun (dark yellow) washed first with baal red then earthshade.


darksun washed with feugan orange and then earthshade.


how about you?

Hi Dungen, Eileen and myself have built Mars twice, but we also built Tophet for Starship Troopers. Mars boards were covered with fine sand from fish tank suppliers and available in many shades. I always cover the boards surface first with a top coat of car filler P-40 or similar. Then whilst still wet use a damp sponge to texture the surface. Wheels, tank tracks and foot prints of walkers or large animals can be added to suit. The boards were then sprayed with red primer and an orange car paint, and dry brushed with burnt siena grey, scarlet and a shade of pink used on a S.A.S land rover. The sands were glued where geater texture required, "hair spray" is used to seal. Tophet had the same treatment but was a back to back board with Hydora. Figure bases are textured milliput, painted and dry brushed the same as the boards with the exception of the Red primer which is a tin still available from some car shops. Hope it`s some help .
Cheers Geoff.

well since im in a dessert its a little easy for me I have acquired a bucket of fine iron sand from a mine (via a runoff into private property with permission from the owner) so it has that same rust red color to it I plan on flocking the bases with it. as for a board my local game shop already has a red sand board (its how I found out about the sand)and I plan to play there frequently. I may use some of the sand to make myself a board as well but we will see.

Making a Martian southern hemisphere desert board (and bases) and still fiddling with colours and stuff.

But expect some input from me later on.

Here's how I painted my mate's Menoth:



*Basecoat with Citadel Vermin Brown (Vallejo Game Color Parasite Brown)
*Drybrush with Citadel Graveyard Earth (Vallejo Game Color Earth)
*Drybrush with Citadel Bleached Bone (Vallejo Game Color Bonewhite)

Gives a nice reddish brown desert color.

I do so loathe to drybrush (or any kind of highlighting) but that does look good... I was hoping I could solve it with washes...

A desert look? Probably but it would be sooo much easier with drybrushing. You get that instant dry, dusty look you want for a sandy desert.

yeah I guess I'm going to make a few more test bases.

Looking at most photos from NASA Mars rover the soil actually is pretty much reddish browns or ochre with only a hint of red. Given the choice, this is what I would do. Which would have the added benefit that one could sue the terrain for other settings as well.

No matter what... I would not go for washes. They will always create a wet and puddle look even when varnished matt afterwards. If you are scared by drybrushing try this:

https://dhcwargamesblog.wordpress.com/2011/09/25/basing-101/

It creates a finish similar to dry brushing (even more natural), but with less effort. If you use a terra cotta or dull red instead of the brown paint, you should also get a nice reddish effect there.

Cheers,

Burkhard

yeah I did try drybrushing in the end, you can see the results in my dark legion thread. thank you for that link i'll check it out before basing the next model.
Does anyone know where to get nice dry looking statigrass? I only have the standard gw kind that looks like a golf course.