Basing is a part of the hobby that’s easily forgotten or rushed, but a well painted base can immediately elevate the quality of your models.
Even in a game like Necromunda, a fully industrial setting, there are ways to do something unique. For this guide I wanted to suggest a colourful, stylised take on an industrial flooring. If you’re after something more suited to underworlds then make sure you check out my Harrowdeep/Nethermaze inspired base guide!
Even for those people who don’t play Necromunda, I’m hoping this guide will come in handy for any industrial styled basing for Warhammer 40k. Many of the steps in this guide were achieved with an airbrush for speed, but could easily be achieved by blending colours with a brush.
First up, base your model with Citadel’s Zandri Dust. This is going to form the base colour for the warm side of our colour transition, and is available as a spray paint if you want to speed up the process.
Next we want to apply the colder tone of our colour transition. Ideally you want a smooth, stretched out transition at the center of the base. Using a desaturated blue like The Fang is a nice alternative to a neutral grey tone and gives the overall effect of a more colourful base.
As mentioned, all of the steps achieved with an airbrush could be achieved by quickly blending, feathering or glazing the colours where you need them.
To further push the colour, add a more saturated blue such as Caledor Sky to the very edge of the base at the blue side. You only need to cover about 10%-15% of the base in order to get the right effect.
As an optional step you can choose to darken some areas for further variation. These darker areas often work best on parts which are slightly recessed or may naturally form shadows.
Next, pick out the vents in an orange colour. Jokaero Orange works perfectly because it blends well with the Zandri Dust we started with.
Any recessed bolts can also be picked out with Jokaero Orange to simulate a slight rust. It doesn’t matter if you’re not perfectly clean on this step, as the washes and highlights in the next few steps will neaten things up.
After adding all of our colours in the previous steps, we now need to add the feeling of depth. A quick shade with Nuln Oil is enough to settle in the recesses and give the feeling of a slight patchy grime, without darkening the base too significantly.
Once the shade has dried, it’s time for the highlights. For the stylised effect shown in this guide, I’ve used a clean white, but you could tone this down to a pale grey if you’re after a slightly less intense contrast.
As part of this style you want to focus your highlights on the corners and harder edges, rather than just a complete edge highlight.
Finally, paint your base rims up and the base is done. If you want some more base inspiration check out how I built and then paint some colourful tiled bases for my Soulblight Direwolves.
If you give it a go, let me know! Leave a comment here or tag me on Instagram at @ajb_minis.
Did you enjoy this article? You could always tip the author with a coffee (or something stronger). If you want to pick up any of the paints used in this guide then check out Element Games. They have great deals on a wide range of minis, paints and basing materials. Finally, make sure you’re following us on Instagram to stay up to date and get involved in our community!
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