Coat d'arms Brushscape

"O.k. I admit it! I'm lazy. I like to have stuff pre-made and pre-packaged if it makes my life easier. It is easy to make my own with sand and paint, but if someone has already done it for me then why should I bother?"

So how's that for an opener, eh? The little play above expresses my feelings on the subject of textured paint and basing materials when people ask me why I don't make my own. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there just as lazy as me, so this article is all of you!

Unless this is the first article of mine you have even read, you know that I'm a big fan of Basetex and use it on almost every project. This paint and sand mixture is easy to use, dries tough, and makes the perfect basing material. However it does have a few flaws. Now Coat d'arms has released their own textured paint and it has fixed the flaws.

Coat d'arms Brushscape is almost the same material as Basetex. If I used Brushscape on one miniature and Basetex on the next, after they were both painted I would not be able to tell them apart. The size of the gravel in both products are the same. This is good news for me and anyone else who uses Basetex. You can immediately start using Brushscape instead and there won't be a noticeable different in your army's bases.

There are two main differences between the two products. First, the paint is Brushscape is much more opaque than Basetex. With Basetex it is  necessary to paint over it to get the best results since the color of the sand grains inside the paint varied in color and  show thru once dried. No such problem with the Brushscape. Simply paint it on and add a wash or quick drybrushing and your done. For additional detail and better appearance you can still paint it as you would Basetex, but  if you want an army in a hurry Brushscape is the way to go.

The marine is based with Brushscape Grass Green with a dark green ink wash. The Arab horsemen are based with Dark Sand with a drybrushing of Dark Sand and White.

The second difference between these two products is the design of the bottles. A major problem with Basetex is that it has a tendency to dry out. Either the hard plastic bottles simply have a poor seal or sand gets trapped in the grooves on the lid making it impossible to seal the bottle properly. You have to thin it every month otherwise it will dry into a solid, useless block of paint and sand. The Brushscape bottles are made of a softer plastic which allows a tighter seal. I can't guarantee that they won't dry out, but they haven't done so on me and I haven't had to add water to them once yet.

Coat d'arms Brushscape comes in six colors and retails for $4.98 for a 60ml bottle. Dark Earth, Dark, Sand, and Grass Green are also available as regular non-textured paint.

Coat d'arms paints and Brushscape are available from Brookhurst Hobbies