Back to Basics: Assembling and Basing Dark Eldar Mandrakes

I've been working with a lot of plastic (and a little bit of resin) lately, so as a change of pace I decided to build and paint a box of Dark Eldar Mandrakes I've been sitting on for a while.  Here's a step-by-step of my process for getting these models on the table.

Friday Quick Tip: Wash Basics I

When I started my Orks oh so many months back, I knew that I would be using the new(ish) Games-Workshop Washes rather extensively, along with a few old school washing techniques I'd learned along the way. You might be new to these wonders of modern painting, and even if you're not, I'm hoping that this set of articles ( which should continue on future Fridays! ) will be helpful in guiding your use of them to new heights.

Today we'll be going over the most basic use of these great paints, adding depth. You've likely seen people all across the net telling people to wash over their entire model with Badab Black or some other dark wash color to bring out all the great detailing that's just waiting to be contrasted with some nice dark recessed areas. And to their credit, they're right! If you're not up for building your colors up from a dark color or going back in and adding it by hand, washing can really speed up the process to great effect.


To start us off, you're going to want your base colors all opaque and in place on the model. Here you can see I've used my US WW2 color set to paint a nice opaque color scheme on this Slugga Boy from the Assault on Black Reach set. I haven't built any of these colors up past their base color. Keep it neat, keep it clean, and keep the coverage even.


Now the easy, and honestly rather fun, part of the tip! Paint over all the surfaces you want to add the depth to with Badab Black. I have spared the skin on this project, as I use a set of other washes and highlighting that I will be sure to share in the future! Watering the wash down just a bit helps get a bit more even coverage. Be sure to not let a big pool of wash form in any spot and only into the recessed details. Play about with it for a little bit and you'll get the hang of leaving the wash where you want. Your colors will get darkened on the whole, so don't try and leave any spot without the wash, that's what we want!


After letting your wash dry ( Completely!! ), break out your base colors again and use them to highlight your model! No thinking, just reapply your paint to the appropriate areas leaving a bit of the darkened color showing. Use the highlights appropriately and you'll really get a nice effect with hardly any effort! It's all about picking out the higher or edged details leaving that washed down color to the lower or recessed areas of the model.

With this model, I've given him a dusting of Bleached Bone at the end of the process to give him a bit dirtier of a look without taking it too far. This also helps to bring out some of the harder edged details even more, again if you do this step, be sure to stick to the upper details and leave your shadows alone!

This model also uses my Rust recipe in a bit more of a wash fashion ( watering down the paints ), as well as a bit of Freehand for the check-marks and star detail.

I've been hard at the washes since they were released using them in all different manners and so far, I'm extremely happy with the results. Anyone have any fun tricks with washes they've stumbled across?

Friday Quick Tip: Static Grass

Continuing with our running tutorials on Basing, this week we're going to give you some very basic tips on how to use Static Grass. This tutorial builds off of what we've learned from the Basic Basing tip. The addition of Static Grass to your basing really adds a lot of character to your models with minimal effort. There are a lot of different colors of static grasses out there, and it's up to you to find the static grass that best suits the look you are going for.

For this tutorial I've used GF9's Arid Static Grass to give my Sons of Medusa a dry southwestern desert look.

Step One:


To start you'll need to dab some white glue onto your base in random fashion like in the photo. The amount of coverage is up to you, but for me, a little bit goes a long way.

Step Two:


When I'm putting static grass on the base, I tend to cover the entire base to cover any and all glue. Use tweezers to pick up clumps of grass and drop it on the base. Doing this over your container is always best so you can save any excess grass for future projects!

Step Three:


After shaking off the excess into the container, flip your model upside down and blow away loose grass. This knocks out two birds with one stone by both getting rid of the loose grass and helping to stand the static grass up even more in a more natural manner.

Step Four:


Now just let it dry! You really don't want to mess with it too much at this point. You can however clean up the rim some as you will notice some stray grass hanging over the edge.

Again, this is just building upon our basing knowledge up to this point. If you haven't read our Basic Basing tip, be sure you check it out. And if you're feeling up to it, try out our more advanced Snow Basing tip. For even more variety in your basing, you could mix all three of our basing tips!

So how about it folks, what other good tips for static grasses do you have?

Friday Quick Tip: Basic Basing

Basing is one of the base skills that every modeler needs to learn when they start out, and while it's simple to many, there are still folks out there that really don't have a clue where to start! This one is for them!

What You Will Need
Tub of Sand, Water, Glue, Old Brush, and your Mini

Step One:
To start out you're going to dot the base with Glue. You can see that here I've done two larger dots at the front and back, I've found this normally ends up being just enough glue for the next step.

Step 2:
With this step you want to take your old brush and spread it around to cover the entire top of the base. Don't worry too much about being super careful, just spread it out and you can clean it all up later!

Step 3:
This is your clean up step, clean the rim of the base with your finger, wipe away any glue on the model with a wet brush and generally fix any trouble spots before moving on to the next step!

Step 4:
Pop open that tub of sand and plant your trooper at least knee deep in it! Give your model a minute or so to sit and remove him. Blow away any loose particles and give him a quick shake, this helps later down the road when you go to paint it all as all of the loose stuff will hopefully have been nixed early on, and keep your brush from getting clogged with sand.

Another quick wipe of your finger around the rim and maybe a little additional clean up on the model itself and you should have something similar to this:


Step 5:
This is a step that I highly suggest to everyone. I always base my models prior to spray priming. This is to help lock all of the sand in with the extra coat of paint, and has really helped a lot in the long run.

Step 6:
This step is all up to you! Whatever color you want your base to be, paint it that color! For this model I've gone with a Bestial Brown hit with a quick drybrush of Bleached Bone. For the rim, I've gone with Chaos Black, again, it's up to you to find the best color for your model!

And that's that! From here, the window is wide open for experimentation into the world of scenic basing. Be sure you check out our Snow Basing Tip for a little more advanced methods. And if you're feeling up to it, enter our 'Take Cover!' Dawn of War II painting contest!