Painting Basalt Column bases

The following are tutorials on painting Figure Painters Basalt Column base toppers. There will be a few different versions of them. These bases can be purchased in our store.

Here are the finished bases for starters.

First is the standard paint scheme.

Start with a base coat of P3 Thornwood green. This will give the bases a little warmth vs just going with a neutral grey. After this, apply a heavy wash of GW Nulin oil (not shown).

Most of the highlighting/drybrushing will be using a large flat brush. This lets you hit all the flat tops without getting paint in the cracks.

Mix Thornwood Green and Trollblood Highlight, apply a highlight using the large flat brush. Make sure to leave the darker color in the cracks showing.

Do another Highlight layer of Trollblood Highlight. Make sure to leave some of the previous highlight layer showing.

Using a smaller brush this time, add a little highlight around the front edges with Sickly Skin. Right now the base is pretty plain. We will use weathering pigments and paint to add some interesting color.

This shading can be any color you want. I chose purple.
Wetting an old brush, dip it in the powder, make a little slurry on your pallet and apply to the cracks. Once it drys, take a wet paper towel and wipe down the top of the base. This will remove some of the weathering power and leave it down in the cracks. Use some pigment fixative to set the powder so you can paint over it.

Take some purple paint and add it to the deeper cracks, as the powder is not very bright.

Lastly take some white and hit just the front edges for a final highlight.

Next are alternate color schemes. These bases are easy to make look like lava, ice, or any variety of other colors you may want.

First will be the lava set. Above are the colors use.

On the right is the first base coat with yellow. Next, on the left, using an airbrush apply the first shade of golden yellow.

First on the right is the next shade of Orange Fire, then (on the left) is the last shade of Hot Orange, keeping it more to the center of the columns. The less orange you have on the base the “hotter” the glowing will look when done.

Using the same large flat brush from before, do a wet’ish drybrush with Scarlet Red. We want to make sure to leave the yellow/orange of the cracks and crevices showing through. Mix in a little Coal Black with Scarlet red for the next darker tone. Lastly apply just a little bit of Coal Black to the edges. This finishes off the base on the left. For the right side, do the same steps as before being more liberal with how much shadding is applied (how much of the previous yellow/orange is showing underneath). Next mix Black with Coal Black for another top layer, and then lastly just a little black on the edges.

This give you two different version of lava type bases.

Next is a toxic green version. These are the colors I used. This will follow the same principles as the previous lava bases.

Based with Livery Green, then shaded with Dark Green.

Then shading with a brush in steps of Scurf Green, Scurf & Coal black mix, Coal black, and lastly Black.

Lastly is an ice/blue theme. Base coated with Sky blue. A little bit a white added to the deepest recesses (you could just start with white too), and a Shade of Spellslinger Blue.

Again with the flat brush apply steps of Cygnar Blue Base, then Cygnar and Coal Black, then lastly Coal Black.

That covers the 4 different potential color schemes. Hope you find this helpful!
Again you can find these in the Figure Painters Store