Proof of Concept - Lava bases

Introduction

I tried lava before, but I was never truly pleased. This is another iteration, with some other nefarious purposes in mind for later on.

The experiment

Spray the bases with Mephiston Red.

I tried 3 different gradients. From top to bottom:

• orange to yellow: Hot Orange, Orange Fire, Sun Yellow, Fluorescent Yellow; 
• red to yellow: Gory Red, Bloody Red, Hot Orange, Orange Fire, Sun Yellow, Fluorescent Yellow;
• Warlord Purple to Squid Pink. Mix and layer as follows: 1:0, 2:1, 1:1, 0:1

A layer of gloss varnish.

And then the Mordant Earth technical paint. From left to right, I applied less; going with large blobs applied with a modeling tool on the left, to applying with an old brush on the right.

The leftmost look the best. The next one also looks cool, but large portions (especially near the rim) did not crack.

I corrected the rightmost ones using another large blob of Mordant Earth.

It cracked alright, but still looked bland. So I tried to liven it up with a drybrush of Sombre Grey, then Wolf Grey. I also tried it on the other ones. Surprisingly, the large crackles on the left are the most resistant to drybrushing, whereas the thinner layers tend to flake off easier. Be extra careful and keep your hand light!

Conclusion

For lava, I'd go with the red-to-yellow gradient and large crackles. I will apply this technique later on for both Warhammer daemons and other fantasy miniatures. 

The purple gradient looks decent, but it could use more contrast. It would go well as some sort of sorcerous earth for Tzeentch daemons or other magical creatures.