Light wood bases:

**Planking Bases**:
First of all the soft balsa wood needs some treatment to ensure it
toughens up, and is readied for a long life on the table, this is
simple, and can be dealt with easily in the priming stage. One or
two coats of spray varnish (matt) before painting will be readily
absorbed by the super porous wood, and once dry leaves it far
more durable.


Step 1: Priming/basecoat: 1-2Coats Spray Varnish, Followed by
Matt Black



Step 2: Basecoat 2: Go in with a brush and get any pesky bits that
have been missed.






Step 3: Heavy drybrush/overbrush of Khemri Brown, 2 Coats (now
Baneblade Brown). The same motion as a drybrush but with a little
more paint, aiming to leave just the deep recesses untouched.




Step 4: Medium Drybrush: Dheneb Stone





Step 5: Light drybrush Dheneb Stone + Matt White 1:1


As ever I put both on my pallet and dragged them together until I
was happy with the colour, this is a good way to be able to
increase or decrease contrast with the previous layer after seeing
how it looks while on the mini/base.




Step 6: Super Light Drybrush - Matt White




Step 7: Tufts + Paint Edges Matt Black - I chose Highland Tuft
to keep things dry looking.



Better Photo:


Next to its brother from another mother for contrast: