Monthly Themed Hangout! April 30th, 2026 (Due at 6pm EST, April 29th) - Basing!

[smoky river]

Basing is one of those more subtle ways that we draw attention to our minis. You've seen a TON of styles if you are on the internet and in this hobby. My personal BattleTech collection largely uses a generic desert scheme, somewhat evoking that classic MechWarrior 2 feel, but we see awesome basing styles across this hobby! From cracked lava sheets to beaches to HPG facilities (reminiscent of MechWarrior Online) to icy tundras, we have an AWESOME variety of places to send our 'Mechs to fight!

So where do you send yours to?

Photo Credit to @glad rock for some fun and colorful crystalline formations!

[storm tapir]

I send them to the streets of Montreal!

Otherwise I send them to the jungle!

(NOTE: I've already submitted the jungle mechs in the past)

[plush prawn]

Love me some beaches!

https://www.instagram.com/p/DVT6xt6j7Tg/?igsh=YjFydDIwbHdzNHpo

comstar_000b

A loooooong time painting this one. Over 60 hours of work. Roughly the time it takes me to paint up 3 lances in dry brushing and minor highlights. Slow it down, and I did! I still have much more to clean up with it, but I got excited and wanted to show yall.
Have a great weekend!
#battletech #miniaturepainting #mecha #cso #catalystgamelabs

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[nocturne nova]

Some go to the desert, some walk through muddy rubble and very few enjoy counting seastars at the beach 🤗

[hushed sedge]

These days I tend to let textures and dry pigments do a lot of the heavy lifting for bases. I have used small scenic elements in the past though.

[restive silo]

honestly... I base to be based... not cuz I am any good at it, lol.

[velvet cosmos]

I got a cool box of resin-printed “rubble” that I left more or less alone after the initial dry brushing. I think it works well, though I’m also using a combination of two different model railroad ballast for a more forest theme.

[quartz light]

I'll admit to being completely new to basing... but I am trying to make the bases make sense for the paint job. Sometimes its using actual basing material... other times, a simple acrylic marker goes a long way...

[hexed token]

I roll out air dry moldable cement into thin sheets, and then break them into little pieces once they're dry. Then I add sand and coffee grounds in the cracks and accent it with basing bits or plasticard to create an urban rubble look.

[smoky river]

https://giphy.com/gifs/hulu-futurama-l4pTqyJ8XMhLZ3ScE

[chilly sentinel]

If you’re hitting the beach, you need to make sure you have proper attire.

[rotund knot]

I've tried experimenting with alien flora and landscapes in the past. Needs more work imo

[past hare]

Dude, those are absolutely gorgeous

Ok, I've been slacking lately, recovering from a 5-phass oral surgery, but I NEED to throw down on this. Over-the-top basing is my happy place

Gonna have to add some more

Been working on sone pieces, like my IlClan-era First Davion Guards

[regal monolith]

Basing is certainly one of my favorite bits of the hobby. While I have many styles, I will keep consistency across the lances/stars. From Terran-like forest (complete with emotional support trees), grasslands, deserts and swamps. Into the mechbay.

As well as more alien. Mars-like iron oxide, irradiated wastelands, and purely alien.

[past hare]

Great job, man!

[smoky river]

Bump.

[foggy shore]

A couple of my more fun ones using different colors and bits

[past hare]

Did Phil Harlos paint the blue ones?

[foggy shore]

Who is that?

[past hare]

Philbo?

Sorry, looked like his commission work for a second

[foggy shore]

Oh. No, I painted them.

[smoky river]

I should finish up the star of Snow Ravens I have painted. I just need to decal them up and finish the bases. They would be good for this round.

[past hare]

Do it!!!!!!!

[shy echo]

First time doing any damage on a mini. These have atmospheric entry burns so the ground had to be bombed and stuck by laser. Just used some bad 3D printed building bits.

[past hare]

How did you do the labels on the bases

[shy echo]

I sent you a DM. It a bit long to post here.

[severe ledge]

Not perfect, but I'm a fan of this urban street i did for my smoke jaguar Alpha Galaxy.

[orchid kettle]

For me, it's ice and snow!

[topaz rock]

Muddddd . All the mud .

[candid wind]

I've really gotten into painting my bases, both for dioramas and individual minis. No consistency where they go lol.

[vocal slate]

I tend to do a generic, dusty base, that fits in with many of the hexmaps

[little jolt]

Swap to clear acrylic so I can read the map without lifting the mini and I never clash with the map I'm playing on.

[nocturne nova]

Next we do some lead weirdos 😂

[past hare]

Are those actually old enough? I think they'd switched to lead-free pewter by then. No sweet toxic metal for you!

I'm working on a firing Gürteltier

And some Zibblers, a Prime and C, though, I replaced those ridiculous spindly lasers on the Prime

[nocturne nova]

Then I might lick on those guys in the meantime

[past hare]

Lolol

[zenith yacht]

The chances of Cuirassiers coming from Mars was a million to one ...

I have 3 base types, nothing too flash ... Desert (inspired by jbressel), Volcanic, and Mars (above)

[past hare]

Dude, I'm so glad I could help!

They look great

[past hare]

Dude, those look spectacular

[regal monolith]

An icy base for my Draconis March Militia Helios. More underway, but life and stuff happening has delayed my progress.

[hexed token]

Oh. Thanks!

[past hare]

I can't believe you even painted the license plate for the car!

[summer tangle]

A Good friend celebrated his 40th Birthday so I painted this Cicada because it’s his Favorite Mech.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXes0FnjX5L/?igsh=MXNwYXR1YmhhdDNtcA==

[past hare]

Dude, that looks great. Davion Guards always get an up-vote from me, but that's very well done. The CDA-4A, shockingly, is an absolute beast.

8/12(16), with a M-REL and 2 MVSPLs, boosted by a supercharger. It's evil. That gets behind an enemy mech, and it is gonna take some pain.

[summer tangle]

Thank you. Its Crazy how good this looks took me about an Hour

[spring nova]

Took the Grasslands map as my inspiration for this Visi in Valkyrie Galaxy livery.

[unkempt field]

While these are far less spectacular than a lot of the masterpieces here, I think they give pretty good bang for buck / time.

Varnish model first - you don’t want to spray varnish over fluff.

1. Cover base with texture paste from Hammerbarn ($10 for 250mls). Old brush, just kinda dab it on. Can be thinned if you want a smoother (less pointy) effect.
2. Paint brown with craft acrylic.
3. Mix standard basing fluff with sand and spices. I like Garam Masala for the texture and colour. Avoid anything with sugar.
4. Paint base with thinned PVA glue. Matte medium also works very well and doesn’t add shine if you miss a spot.
5. Dip base in basing. Start with some fluff and roughly press it down. No need to be careful - excess will fall off. Dip in all the way into the basing material and wiggle it around. The sand and spices will fill the gaps.

[regal monolith]

I was able to work on the additions to my Draconis March Militia lance last night and this morning.

[south schooner]

those are some fancy bases

[past hare]

Gorgeous work!

[tired mesa]

I'm back from the Space Symposium and have finally finished one of my long-term projects: The Wolf Pack.
https://www.instagram.com/p/DXpB7jqjZAH/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

[smoky river]

I really wish I could figure out how to get all of my minis in a shot in focus. Or at least the miniature in general in focus when it is by itself. Maybe one day...

Either way, here is my latest addition to Clan Snow Raven, a star of Beta Galaxy.

I have a video of them that shows them off a bit better. Maybe I'll have it edited and uploaded to YouTube before submissions are over?

[candid wind]

Using a phone? Step back and take the photo at a greater distance. That's worked for me in the past.

[smoky river]

But zoom ends up killing the shot, right? It has been drilled into my head to avoid zoom lol

[candid wind]

Dont zoom. Take the photo and crop. Most camera phones have decent enough resolution it will come out fine

Original

Cropped

[smoky river]

I'll give that a try with my next round then. Thank you 🙂

[tired mesa]

There’s a feature in Photoshop for this kind of multi-focus photography. To use it, you need to work with a tripod and keep the distance fixed. Then you take a series of photos, each with a different focal point. In the end, everything is combined to create a panoramic view. But since I never take that many macro photos, I’ve never tried it myself. Plus, I don’t really have a suitable camera. My cell phone has to do for me.

[smoky river]

I don't use photoshop lol. Though I should for work at least lol

[tired mesa]

I don’t use Photoshop either, since I lack both the photography equipment and the motivation to do so. Sure, it offers a lot of AI features, but why would an amateur need them?
The photos I take are good enough for me. They aren’t perfect—neither are my painted miniatures—but they’re authentic.

[unkempt field]

What phone is that?

[plush prawn]

This sounds so complex my head hurts haha

[candid wind]

Uhh, mid tier Samsung.

[tired mesa]

That makes me dizzy myself. 😉

[plush prawn]

Layer multiple images? What sorcery is this?! Haha

[past hare]

I don't either, but even just on my phone, Adobe Lightroom app offers a lot of features

[delicate tree]

You achieve amazing basing with just paint, really great job

[candid wind]

Thanks, much appreciated !

[delicate tree]

Am I too late, can I get in a little bit past the deadline?

[past hare]

Deadline is TOMORROW afternoon

[candid wind]

If they haven't locked it , go for it.

[delicate tree]

Oh, channel title says "due at 6pm EST, April 29th"

[candid wind]

Yeah

[delicate tree]

I have a few bases I had a lot of fun with:

[candid wind]

@delicate tree is that lava flowing into an ocean in the last one? That's awesome.

[delicate tree]

Yes! That's exactly what I was going for

The Agrotera is two metal minis on one base too so it's a hefty boi

[smoky river]

Is that everything? I just got out of a meeting, so I am a bit delayed on all of this.

[storm tapir]

I just gotta say thank you so much for handling this. It's a real treat, really brings the community together, and seems like a decent amount of work!

[smoky river]

When I started managing CGL's social media back in 2023 (holy crap it has been a while), this was something I actively pushed for, and will keep doing!

Every single featured image has been saved wherever I can along with their display name. The community does fantastic work, and I want to show it off lol. One day, I hope to figure out how to do an awesome collage. To show off everything we have featured and give everyone a cool graphic they can keep, preferably at high fidelity!

[eternal maple]

Oh lemme sneak one in

[smoky river]

Okay, you're the last one XD

[eternal maple]

Ive been using this base for my inner sphere and the majority of it is on my DCMS

Frozen glacier and ice sort of deal

I use ap battlefield snow on top of some frost heart and then after matt varnishing the entire mini i come back with a few coats of gloss over the base for the icy frozen solid appearance

[smoky river]

I love that. And the Shiro and Rokurokubi look great on it. I just hope they don't slip!