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Hey guys! Thought about starting some guard. This is the Sergeant of the first squad I've painted up. What do you guys think? I know the eyes are terrible, I need to work on that. Anyone have some advice in that regard? What about everything else? It's my first time posting my work, so be gentle! EDIT: Added Squad photo.

Thats pretty good, clean crisp painting, but could use some shading and you need to remove those mould lines :x otherwise great job!

Even though you're gonna be painting dozens of these guys, I think you could put a bit more detail into your IG with minimal effort but the payoff would be big.

First, It might be good to have a different shade of Grey or some other color for the armor (which you could change on the guys you have painted already).

Then just take that color and go a shade lighter by mixing white with whatever you have. You can see what I photoshopped on the armor, gun, and boots.

Paint the belt buckle gold or silver or brown.

Maybe paint the trim of the uniform jacket a different color.

Then look into the washes GW has now to pick out some character in the hands and face. Easy Peezy.

I think a nice wash of Payes Grey would do you wonders

Makov wrote:I know the eyes are terrible, I need to work on that. Anyone have some advice in that regard?

The black dot needs to be bigger. There shouldn't really be any white either above or below the dot or else the models have a kind of stunned look.

Also, definitely second the vote to use some the GWs new washes on this model. The painting is fairly crisp but some wash will give'im a quick shot of depth.

Thanks for the suggestions. SHould I apply the wash before the camo scheme I presume? Spiff: I like that mock up you did. WHat color would match up best with that green you used do you think? Also, when I went and did the eyes, the paint would always dry on the brush too fast. SHould I just use more water or is there a better method?

Use the foundation paints, Knarloc green is very close to that, it´s what i´ve used for my Grenadiers.

Also, washes after camo paint will make the uniform look more battle worn.

Yes, definitely get some washes! they're great, best $20 you'll spend

As far as eyes go..... I never paint them. Every time I try, they come out like yours. I even tried using a cheapy brush where I ripped out all but like 3 bristles, the paint dried on the brush before I could get it on the model. they're just a pain, and imo unless you're doing a piece for a painting costest, I'd just skip the eyes. You're not gonna see them across the table anyway, unless you paint em all big and buggey.. the helmet sits right on top of the eye sockets so for guardsmen you're prolly just not gonna notice if they're there or not...

Try painting the eyes before anything else... that way you can always go back and make touch ups or even paint completely over them until you've got it right. Just make sure you water down your paints or it'll build up quick. I use a craft paint Extender that keeps the paint from drying out when painting eyes to stop the problem you describe.

I recently got a calligraphy pen to do my eyes, a .25mm nib, since I heard that's one easy way to get them done, but I guess we'll see how that goes...

Dunno about Spiff's green armor over the gray camo, but a slightly lighter grey for the armor would work very nicely. Maybe add a drop of space wolf grey to the base and another drop for highlights.

I second the use of washes, GW or Paynes Grey. They make a big difference with minimil effort and really are easy to use.

Try painting the eyes before anything else...

Isn't this a problem if you use a wash on the face? I thought the argument about easier shaping made sense, and tried to follow similar advice myself last week, but the whites ended up indistinguishable from the rest of the skin after adding a wash. Is there some way to keep the wash away from the eyes? (It seemed pretty hard to control.)

They won't look bad, as long as you either:

1. Prime them black, but don't paint them

2. Paint them black afterwards.

With Guard, as long as they look good from 3 feet way, you've done your job.

Click on the pic for a close up.

Gavin Thorne wrote:Try painting the eyes before anything else... that way you can always go back and make touch ups or even paint completely over them until you've got it right. Just make sure you water down your paints or it'll build up quick. I use a craft paint Extender that keeps the paint from drying out when painting eyes to stop the problem you describe.

I recently got a calligraphy pen to do my eyes, a .25mm nib, since I heard that's one easy way to get them done, but I guess we'll see how that goes...

Dunno about Spiff's green armor over the gray camo, but a slightly lighter grey for the armor would work very nicely. Maybe add a drop of space wolf grey to the base and another drop for highlights.

I just used green because in Photoshop I was just adjusting the scales randomly and that was the first shade that looked decent. A darker (or lighter) shade of grey would probably work better with the rest of the uniform. I just wanted to demonstrate that a different colour or shade would make the model 'pop' a bit more. I'd actually think that a very light grey bordering on white would actually look best.

As for eyes...they're really hard to nail down on guard. You can use a wash or inks and they look fine without the eyes painted.
But if you do, I've always painted the black pupil first with a micropen and then just put the lightest wisp of white next to it. It just takes practice to figure out what works for you.

Here are a few tips for eyes...

Get a decent brush...you dont need the most expensive out there, but one with a nice smooth tip. The tip is the most important part. Heck, a discount brush would be fine if it has a nice tip. I use a 5/0 lining brush. It has a nice tip and comes to a clean point. If you look, you may find an inexpensive 10/0 or even an 18/0. The important part is to make sure you do not get a short tip. If the brush is too short it will not hold enough paint, and will be harder to make a clean line.

Thin the paint a decent amount and this will help it flow and keep it from drying too fast. You can use a flow aid or an extender if you would like.

Here is the sequence use and it leaves pretty good results...
1. Paint the whole eye and socket black.
2. Paint the actual eye white. Try to keep an oval shape if possible.
3. Paint a horizontal line from top to bottom of the entire eye. If needed you may need to make two passes.
4. Come back under and over the eye with a thin line of black. If you can, try to give the eye a bit of an oval look.
5. For a bit better look, you can come back and clean up around the top and bottom with your flesh color. Paint a thin line over and under the eye to trim the black left from step 1.

This may sound a bit indepth or complicated, but it is very easy to accomplish with a little practice.

Hope this helps.

This sounds pretty close to what I do for eyes, except I use a flesh wash greatly diluted with "magic sauce" as a glaze to give the lined look, keeping it off the eye itself as much as possible. I wonder if a brown or black "Liner", like the ones from Reaper Master Series could be used for your step #4, Loomisc? Any ideas?

Even a watered-down black wash would do wonders. As for the eyes, all my figs have the thousand yard stare; I'm a student of the 'it looks good at arm's length' method. You have an excellent basecoat, now just go for the details!

Gavin Thorne wrote:This sounds pretty close to what I do for eyes, except I use a flesh wash greatly diluted with "magic sauce" as a glaze to give the lined look, keeping it off the eye itself as much as possible. I wonder if a brown or black "Liner", like the ones from Reaper Master Series could be used for your step #4, Loomisc? Any ideas?

I am not familiar with the Reaper Master Series, but I don't see where it would hurt. Doing the line in brown or black as opposed to the flesh you are using now should work as well. The brown might even make a better transition to a flesh tone than the black. Best thing I can suggest would be to give it a shot!

Valhallan42nd wrote:
With Guard, as long as they look good from 3 feet way, you've done your job.

Are you saying me spending 8 hours per guardsman is a bad idea?

The model looks fine, just needs a black wash to bring out the details.

That said, for Guard, you can get away with a simpler dark grey / medium grey scheme for urban work and leave the camo for Veterans. Having to paint camo really makes it tough to just add new units at a whim.

"That said, for Guard, you can get away with a simpler dark grey / medium grey scheme for urban work and leave the camo for Veterans. Having to paint camo really makes it tough to just add new units at a whim."

The more I think about it, the more I agree with this statement. I think I'm going to go with plain gray fatigues, washed with Badab Black, and a lighter shade of gray armour, also washed black. Or maybe I'll go with the Gray/Green combo like in Spiff's mock up. I'll test them out and post examples of each.

How about this for your urban scheme:
- grey fatigues
- urban camo fatigues for your Veterans / Elites.
- "black" (dark grey with 2 coats black wash) armor
- "black" armor vehicles, with grey contrast panels

With this, every unit or vehicle has some "black" armor and base gray to tie things together, so your army looks like an army. The camo makes your BS4 Elites easy to track.

Ok, so I went out and bought the washes last night. Overall, I think they are great! I took some suggestions and redid my color scheme. I took out the camo and went with my base grey color and a brighter armour. The gray and the armour were both washed with badab black and then repainted with the base colors except for in the recesses. I don't really like how it turned out any armor though. See the pics below:






Keep in mind that I haven't done any touch ups or details on this guy, I just wanted to get a look at the colors. God, I don't like how my paint looks so thick, which is funny because I really watered them down.

Just going to have to play with it and figure out what works for you. But once you do, write it down and you'll be cranking out minis in no time. Welcome to the wonderful world of painting!

Maybe try a darker grey for the armor?

JoeyFox wrote:

Valhallan42nd wrote:
With Guard, as long as they look good from 3 feet way, you've done your job.

Are you saying me spending 8 hours per guardsman is a bad idea?

No, as long as you're painting them for me.

I think it looks great, but I support JohnHwang's recommendation for slightly darker armor. That wash looks nice...

I actually tried one model with the darker armour, but it just didn't seem to jump out and grab me. After painting 4 guys in the above scheme (with a small modofication or two) I gotta say they look good grouped up. i'll post a pic of the finished squad, which I should have done by the end of the week. Then I'll turn this into a P&M Blog!