When painting models in large batches, should I flock the bases and then spray the models with the primer, or is it better to leave the "flocking" until last?

_________________
"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

I believe is better to let the flocking last...

I sand, then undercoat, paint the sand, then flock

Depends on your primer colour. I assume that by "flock" you mean generally "stuff glued on the base", such as sand?

If you prime black, it's going to work very well if you sand the bases and then spray the black primer. The primer will help in fixing the sand or flock and provide instant shading for it. Just a couple of drybrushes and your base is looking good.

However, if you need to use white primer for brightly coloured models, then I would add the sand after priming. Shading the white sand is going to be quite a lot of work because you can not let a single spot of white showing between the granules or it will look unnatural.

-- Pasi

Well, if you use watered brown, then it will be ok.

I always found the waterd down brown ink used ungodly ammounts of ink. Though a good way to finish basing if you didn't sand first. Yep there have been times i have been too excited to get painting.
If using White, just scorched brown over it.

Since I am all about speed I made a mix of different size talus from woodland scenics. I then added to this various " grass". I coat the base of the mini with glue then dip it into the mix. Tap it on the sides to get rid of anything not stuck to the base, then hold the mini upside down over a garbage pail and blow over the base to get the grass to stand up. Click the link in my sig to see some examples with scorched grass.

_________________
richmondwarmancers we play Lord of The Rings, Battlefleet Gothic, Infinity, some board games, and really whatever tickles our fancy..

Curtis has been painting a lot of Tyranids - they need priming white (and is it just me, or is GW Skull White primer dreadful) but the bases need to be black. I clipped part of the plastic length of the model that slots into the base, in front of the feet, then glue the remaining part in, and spray that black along with the base; it works really well and saves a lot of time washing the sand if your chosen base is dark.
Paul

Never had any problems with the white spray. Though i ain't used it in years. Though in the winter months i don't tend to get much spraying done, as my garage is too cold for the spray to work properly.
Though that sounds like a great solution Troll King.

Could well be the weather, you're right. We've kept everything indoors, then nip outside to spray, then bring everything back in but it's very cold and damp out there. The black doesn't seem to work as well in the cold as in the warm, but it still seems a lot better than the white.

As others have said, I too have had great experience gluing the sand, stones and other textures down in advance of priming.

I glue the model into the slot (or pin it if doing something unique). If I have some extra greenstuff around after projects I often use it to make small hills or such on bases in my Base Bowl so some of them have a little more variety when I get around to them. I'll then glue down any large terrain (rocks or bark), apply watered down pva glue and cover with my sand mix. When I prime black it really helps lock down the sand and gives instant shadows.

For most of my armies I then paint the base with a slightly watered scorched brown, followed by drybrush of snakebite leather in some areas and catchan green across most of the rest and this gives me what I consider a pretty realistic looking base. After all painting and coating is done I'll glue down some static grass in some places that I want to be heavier grass (usually sticking to areas painted catchan green already) and apply some bushes, etc.

_________________
Wait ye the finish! The fight is not yours.
Beowulf

http://TacticsInMiniature.com

I base my models with sand, give them an undercoat using Chaos Black spray, paint the mini, paint the sand with Scorched Brown followed by a drybrush of Bleached Bone and then glue some static grass to the base in select areas.

_________________
Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast.
Jake