Army Basing Ideas

Not much progress on Joan of arc yet, but I have been thinking about some new basing ideas for a possible 'evil' army..

I’ve always had a lot of basing ideas, in fact several sketchbook pages worth, but these are mostly ideas for display pieces, not something I’d want to do on every figure in an army. Though I do feel that the basing of an army goes a long way to making it look impressive even if the painting standard is relatively low.

To start with let’s have a look at some of the basing schemes I’ve used in my two most recent armies, the first was a water based scheme, used for my Cygnar army:

Goblins love water, just ask them.

 This was done using Vallejo still water and was effective, though a bit cartoony, (lightning water!). The rocks were a bit tall for some miniatures as well (they are Gale Force 9).

More recently I’ve started a Trollbloods force using a snow effect basing, the snow is white paint, PVA glue and bicarbonate of soda:

 

Trolls don't like water, probably best not to ask.

 

The originally plan was to put icicles on the bases, I started doing this using plastic off-cuts and Vallejo still water again. However I found they were very time consuming to make and broke off very easily, so I’ll likely reserve them for the warlocks if at all.

More recently I was also pleased with the basic on some Chaos warriors I worked on, though very basic it seemed to provide a good counterpoint to the unit colour scheme, this was a similar snow recipe combined with cork/filler for the rocks:

I have also dabbled with the GW Agrellan Earth paint which I think can give pleasing basing effects quickly:

For my planned evil army colour scheme, I want something which can be done super quickly to match the speed of the paint jobs. I really enjoyed painting a wall I made recently for my Trolls which might provide a good idea, a similar thing could be done on each base, using Cryx runes, though the sculpting would be time consuming:

 

This was super fun and fast to paint!

Another option would be to do something super basic with sand, which would be quick but a bit flat and un-impressive. Another idea I’ve been after trying for some time would be some lava, I did this a bit on a display miniature some years ago:

I really like the way it provides another light source to play with, but this probably isn’t right for the colour scheme I’ve chosen.

How do you base your miniatures, what plans do you have for future schemes?