Thoughts on Basing and Posing

Basing miniatures is often considered separate from posing them. It's often done as something like an afterthought, where you try to come up with something to avoid just having the base left blank. While I, too, often just base my models to tie them further in with the rest of my army, sometimes I take the base into account already at the posing stage.

 One of the more basic techniques is to simply put the model on uneven ground. This is a simple method of making the model seem more dynamic and realistic, since 41st millennium wars generally don't take place on golf courses. It also serves to make some of GW's standard leg poses seem more natural and give a reason to why the model's legs are in such an extreme position.

 This also works with less humanoid models, as can be seen with this WIP shot of Kataphron Destroyer. These models have very posable waists and left shoulders, and this pose takes advantage of this.

Another way to make the base and the model interact can be seen on this older shot of Thunderwolf Cavalry, where I added rough terrain and a corpse over it to the space the mount seems to be going around. Again, this makes the model seem a little more interesting.

Conveying movement is important in a combat pose, but that can sometimes be a little tricky, even with posable multipart miniatures. Here, I chose a wolf cloak from the older Space Wolf Accessories sprue that GW sold until fairly recently, because it's flaring to the appropriate direction relatively to the movement I'm trying to convey on this Wolf Guard. I imagined him dropping down to his left knee from the left, while simultaneously slashing with both of his Wolf Claws. His cloak would trail behind him while he twists to his right.