Purple Marble Tile Base

A 32 mm Round Base painted with a purple and black marble tile effect.

First I scratched the base with some metal clay sculpting tools to create a tile or brick pattern on the base, as well as add a few scratches and dents.

Then I used my airbrush to paint the base according to the bright purple colors I wanted for the marble veins. I primed the base black, base coated with Heavy Violet, randomly sprayed Royal Purple (covering about 2/3 of the base), then randomly sprayed Purple (covering about 1/3 of the base).

Next I stretched out a cotton baby wipe (creating various stretches and small holes), let it dry out next to a fan, then wrapped it over the base. This would create the marble vein pattern by covering up the purple where the veins should be, so I could then paint the marble’s stone color.

For the paint job, I then sprayed the whole base black. I then sprayed it with Hexed Lichen, covering almost like a base coat, but with a slightly lighter touch in some areas so it wouldn’t appear too flat. Then I removed the baby wipe.

Finally, I touched up some of the veins with thin lines of Purple, painted black in the cracks and tile grooves, and did some edge-highlightingEdge highlighting is the technique where you paint the raised edges and corners on a miniature brighter than noraml, in order to help them stand out more, and because edges tend to reflect slightly more light in real life. with Purple on each tile. To finish up, I painted the base rim black and gave it a clear coat.

Overall, I think the effect turned out perfectly. It looks like some dark purple marble you might see in a necromancer’s dungeon. This was my first attempt to test a marble effect that I might use for the armor plates on my upcoming purple Necronhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000#Necrons army. I think I have the technique down, but it’s too dark for my purposes. I might brighten the black stone parts to be more purple, and get a brighter purple for the veins. It could also use a little more contrast on the veins and edge highlights. I also think it might be worth using a satin or gloss coat, since marble is generally polished and not matte.