As soon as the red has dried clear, you can then go back and retouch the highlights.  This is the point where I will then go and add in the OSL (other source lighting) glow.  I do this by drybrushing from a dark red through to red then to a warm orange.  Maybe then, if I need to, I’ll add a small highlight of a lighter orange, but not too much.  It’s hot lava not the surface of the sun!  You can then tie the OSL effect together but glazing a dark red over the highlights, so that it draws the brightness down a touch and brightens the shadows up toward the red more.  You might notice in the pics I did a lot of that as I went.  It's up to you how you go, by the time I did the terminators I'd done the lava so much I did it all as I went pretty much.  Either way doesn't make much difference, to be honest.

So now if you’ve followed me through to this point you should have yourself a very convincing looking lava base.  But you will probably notice that there is something missing.  That’s right, I then use a clear gloss to brighten all of the lava areas up.  Tamiya Clear is my choice paint, but you can use whatever you want to.  I apply it quite thick, but not so that it runs over the edges and up the rocky areas.  And I also do this both before AND after varnishing the overall model with a matte varnish.

Now you might be saying to yourself, “Why would that crazy dude do that?”

The reason is simple, when you add multiple layers of clear it gives the illusion of depth.  One thing I also did on the base of the Ripley Defiler was to add in layers of colour in between layers of clear.  With Ripley I ended up about five levels of clear thick.  It looks quite rich and it gives the lava an excellent illusion of liquid depth.

My Iron Giants army does look quite effective with the entire force standing on the hot lava bases.  One day I might make a display base for them to stand on and enhance the entire effect more.  It won’t take that much work but, well, I’ve got to finish the army first so I know how many models are supposed to stand on it!