While finishing up my SU-76, I decided to wrap up a unit of cultists I’ve had mostly finished on my desk for some time. I really dislike using cultists in my Chaos Space Marine armies, but having a unit available is nice for list building flexibility. While getting them ready, I noticed something awkward- I had 10 cultists but only 9 lava bases for them to stand on! This was a perfect chance to write up a tutorial for how I do my cracked lava basing. I really like how this turns out, its a lot of waiting around for materials to dry but makes a really cool effect that can be even more enhanced with some half-rounds (I didnt use that here, cultists dont deserve these nice things)

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Start by covering the base with Khorne Red. I use Litko 3mm plywood bases for anything not going on a GW base - great product that lets you grab the figure by the base instead of needing to touch the paint job. I had already primed the base black with a rattlecan.

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Next, MOSTLY cover the base with Evil Suns Scarlet. BE MESSY! This is the most critical part for getting a natural look, lava is unpredictable and has a whole swirl of colors to it.

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Glorious mess!

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Next, messily add some Troll Slayer Orange. Leave a fair bit of the red showing.

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Lastly, add some Flash Gitz Yellow. I do this in fairly thin streaks, leaving a lot of the other colors showing underneath.

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You are left with….a mess! Don’t worry, if it looks like mustard and ketchup that’s PERFECT. Its critical to wait 24 hours before proceeding. The next product (which you can pickup here) is very sensitive to moisture and you need the paint to be perfectly dry before continuing

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Once you have waited a day for the paint to completely dry, use Citadel Technical Martian Ironearth to completely cover the mess. I glob it on fairly thick, the thicker you glob the larger the crackle effect will be at the end.

And now, wait another 24 hours (I did say this involved a lot of waiting around) - this product takes a bit to dry.

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Hey it doesn’t look like a mess anymore! But it also doesn’t really look like a lava base yet.

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Much better! Using your favorite flat black, paint the “plateaus” that formed in between the cracks. This will REALLY make the lava effect pop.

This is my basing scheme for my Word Bearer’s army (gallery post to come in the future!)

If you want to fancy it up a bit, you can use hobby half rounds (little half spheres you can get from a craft store). Following the same steps as above but leaving some parts of the base uncovered by the Martian Ironearth, you can leave little “lakes” or “creeks” of lava. Putting these half rounds in them and then hitting them with a wet layer of Flash Gitz Yellow and Troll Slayer Orange makes a really cool bubbling effect. You can vary it up a good bit to give a lot of variance to your models. Check out some spares I have laying around:

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Hope you found this tutorial useful! Feel free to leave a comment if so!