A good brown for the side of the base?

[Spooktalker]

What's a good color to achieve that standard GW look with the sides of the base painted brown?

I have quite a few that are unsuitable. I like P3 browns and have a lot of them: Battelfield Brown, Gun Corps Brown, Bloodtracker Brown (GW Bestial Brown) and Bootstrap leather. I have a view Vallejo like leather brown and a red brown or another. I have GW Snakebite Leather and Graveyard Earth. Of these, graveyard earth is probably the closest, but none really do. I have a lot of craft paints too but the pigmentation is poor and the those colors aren't quite right either.

I'd rather not buy GW if I can help it.

I want something subdued, fairly neutral (not too red) and medium tone - not too light or dark.

Pics of your method appreciated, of course! Thanks!

[Daeothar]

I struggled with the same thing. Especially since I wanted my bases to match my table surface(s).

So I went to the local DIY which has a paint mixing service and one of those walls with sample strips. they have thousands of colours and can mix everything on order. I took a small piece of paper which I painted in Graveyard Earth (as that was my colour of choice) and had them mix up a liter pot of water based wall paint, in the colour most closely matching it, be it ever so slightly darker.

I lucked out, and they accidentally mixed up a pot of their highest quality paint instead of the cheapest one I ordered, and I got it for the price of the cheap one.

Not that it would have mattered much, considering its use of course.

So far, I've painted my modular road boards with this paint, a 90x90 teddyfur/sand table and about 50 odd bases, and I've barely made a dent in the pot's contents.

Here's a thread of mine, where you can see some of the roads (look at the road sides, not the road surface) and bases I've done with this paint. Basically all the dirt/sand/mud you see in that thread was painted with this stuff.

It dries the same as the acrylic paints we're all used to, and even though it might not have the high pigment count of the more expensive model paints, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference, as it's not used to layer/glaze/blend on a miniature's details, but rather large, broken up surfaces.

Oh yeah; the pot set me back € 8,- back in 2011...

[sundayhero]

I took a look on official GW minis, it looks similar to Steel Legion Drab color from Citadel Base range of paints.

[Cosmotiger]

I use Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Brown.  Similar color to GW's Graveyard Earth and the Vallejo Game Color Earth, but in their version of the high density "foundation color" format.

[psyberwyche]

It used to be Graveyard Earth in the painting guides, now I think Steel Legion Drab is the official replacement. There's a paint comparison chart on the DakkaDakka forum to match it up with other companies' ranges.

[Spooktalker]

Thanks for the replies!

@Daeothar: Thanks for the ideas. I actually have a couple (dark and light) pots of housepaint I had mixed up for terrain following a method in a railroad terrain book by Dave Frary and while it works great for terrain, I tried the housepaint on some penny bases for another project thinking it'd be thicker so would protect them better than standard paint. The opposite was true. The paint comes off at the slightest provocation. I'm not saying all housepaint would give a similar result to mine, but I'm not going to take the chance. It's funny, the sides of the base might seem like an afterthought, but it's actually the most surface area of any one color you are likely to see on a model, and I want to make sure it's a nice high quality paint that's going to go on smooth and stay there.

I use Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Brown.  Similar color to GW's Graveyard Earth and the Vallejo Game Color Earth, but in their version of the high density "foundation color" format.

This seems like a great option. I found a review (http://dc23-mecharts.blogspot.com/2012/03/vallejo-game-color-extra-opaque-review.html) that shows the color really well. Let's see if it will let me hotlink the image:

I can tell you it's darker and redder than graveyard earth, not very similar, but that's not a judgment either way.

As for graveyard earth, that and the mention of the heavy-pigment paint made me remember two things. First, that I liked the result of the graveyard earth when I tried it but it was that it didn't cover well enough; that was what I didn't like about it. I also remembered I have a pot of GW foundation Khemri Brown, which is very close on the spectrum to graveyard earth but less saturated, more a dull tan. That Dakka conversion chart (http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart) (thanks psyberwyche) says Khemri Brown is now Baneblade Brown.

Anyway, I found the combination of a Khemri base and then a pass with graveyard earth works pretty well. In fact, I think this is more what I'm after than the darker, redder Vellejo paint. I see there's also a "heavy gold brown" vallejo extra opaque paint, though I'm guessing that would be pretty yellow.

I also tried P3 Gun Corps Brown (which you'll see is matched up with graveyard earth on the chart) over the Khemri Brown basecoat and that actually makes a quite decent effect too. It's a bit more saturated and warm than graveyard earth. I think I may end up choosing between these too. And it's nice to know that when I run out It will probably still be on the market.

I'll take some pics next time I have my camera out and my desk is a bit less cluttered than at the moment.

[Cosmotiger]

That picture is the Heavy Sienna. I use Heavy Brown, which is lighter and less red. More of a dusty earth color.

[Spooktalker]

That picture is the Heavy Sienna. I use Heavy Brown, which is lighter and less red. More of a dusty earth color.

Ah, thanks, ok. I'm looking for an opportunity to pick it up.