After my last blog entry, I was putting the flock and paints that I bought today into the draws I use for storage when I realised that paint I had used on the original modified Heroscape™ hexed terrain was not Goblin Green ... it was Camo Green!
Anyway, the new Heroscape™ hexed terrain will be painted in Goblin Green (and not Camo Green!) as the latter does not match any of the flock that I have bought ... or even seen on sale.
I don't know how I confused to two colours as they don't look anything like each other!Camo Green
Anyway, the new Heroscape™ hexed terrain will be painted in Goblin Green (and not Camo Green!) as the latter does not match any of the flock that I have bought ... or even seen on sale.
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I must confess that I much prefer the Camo Green to the Goblin Green.
ReplyDeleteFor me, I want the ground color to be more of a muted background so that my focus is on the figures and not the ground. I find the Goblin Green to be much too bright and attention-grabbing.
Now, having said that, your taste may well be different AND you are trying to match certain colors . . . but bases that "overpower" figures is one of my pet peeves, so I'll ask your forgiveness for my tirade.
-- Jeff
Bluebear Jeff,
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I would have preferred to stick with what I now know to be Camo Green ... but a lot of my figures already have Goblin Green-painted bases AND I could not find a flock that matched the Camo Green ... so I made the best of what I had.
As to bases that 'overpower' figures, basing is a much under-rated art. Too plain ... and they can ruin an otherwise well-painted figure; too ornate and they overpower it. That said, a nice base can make a very ordinary figure (my standard of painting!) look better.
All the best,
Bob
PS. In the UK, Goblin Green (or something very like it) is a very popular colour for the base paint used on figure bases, so I suppose that it will not look too out of place if I ever take one of my games to a show!
I agree with Bluebear Jeff that bases should be as unobtrusive as possible, so they fade into the background. My ideal would be a thin, transparent base onto which the figures' feet were fixed, so that the terrain underneath showed through. For want of that, I go for a simple, plain green base that has an 'old school' look. I can't be bothered doing textured bases and think a group of men surrounded by clumps of grass &c. marching down a road or fording a river just looks odd. I'm quite happy for my troops to look like toy soldiers - which is, after all, what they are! - rather than mini-dioramas. Perhaps this works better in earlier periods when troops are NOT wearing camouflage nor trying to blend in with/hide amidst vegetation &c., whereas your approach creates a nice effect for your later period models.
ReplyDeleteArthur1815,
ReplyDeletePlain bases on plain table tops make the bases 'disappear' - and this seems to be the effect that many of the 'Old School' wargamers go for. For more terrained table tops, then I think that the bases need to have a little bit of detail on them ... but not too much. Like you, the sight of troops marching across the table top whilst apparently wading through all sorts of obstacles, makes me cringe.
Balance, as in all things, works best.
All the best,
Bob
I have a somewhat different take on basing my troops. I had started out with plan flocked bases and have since progressed with making them a bit more textured. The reason behind that was I play at other peoples homes and at a local games store so my troops of the same type can get intermixed with other people's, so I make my bases a bit unique just to ease placement and pick up.But I do agree that this can be over done!
ReplyDeleteI've seen quite a few brick and stone walls and the odd tree progressing across the table! I know the "Realism Vs Toy Soldier"
debate but, I think substantial terrain should remain
stationary!
Don M,
ReplyDeleteSome of the worst 'offenders' for over-terrained bases seem to be FOW players. I think it is because the FOW website encourages it ... but the sight of soldiers advancing with their own brick wall in front of them (as I have seen on the FOW website and some of the 'look at my latest unit' posting on TMP) is both absurd.
All the best,
Bob