Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Alright, so after planning and planning and planning over the past several weeks, my first order of troops came in. It's simply a tactical squad and a rhino, and I'm ready to get rolling on these! The only problem is... I need some advice to the order of a few things...

I want to paint these guys sans arms so I can put some detail on the chest details. Same with back packs. I want to be able to paint all these details without fumbling around weapons and such. My plan is to glue the legs, bodies, and heads where the bodies don't have overly large plating around the neck that might make painting the heads difficult. That's all fine, and I've done my best to shave off the mold lines with my hobby knife, as I still don't have a set of files. ( I now see why you all so heavily recommended getting a set! )

So now, I'm going to prime all of my torsos by standing them up in a little box I've made to catch all of the rogue spray paint. But now I'm wondering... what's the best way to spray prime all of my loose odds and ends... the arms, the couple extra heads, all of the weapons... Should I just lie them all down, spray them straight down, wait for that side to dry, turn them over and repeat? Should I kinda test fit the arms, and then glue the weapons and arms in place before priming? Hell, should I even put the shoulder pads on the arms before priming? I just want to get the most efficient way of doing this, as priming is a bit of a chore for me, and I want to get as many things in one go, but I absolutely do not want to sacrifice the overall quality of my minis just to try and save some time.

Also... I'm looking for some kind of video tutorials on painting and highlighting... I know Jawaballs has some sets, but he only has previews of his DVD sets on youtube, and I can't really fork over another $10 just for instructional videos.

usually there are 2 options people do.

1) they drill a hole, and stick the bits on to tooth picks , and spray them like that while you are free to rotate it.

2) if the pieces are too tiny, there used to be paint on primers, but i dunno if those exist anymore.

these 2 arnt done by me, but i saved it as it helps clearly illustrate the high light positions. hope it helps :3





as you can see a glossy black paint can easily catch and reflect the light on areas you normally want to high light.

you can always keep one around for reference, even if its other colors

The easiest way to spray-prime individual bitz is to do it while they still on the sprue - otherwise you may have some difficulties depending on your brand of spray-paint. if you've already cut them off I understand (I remember my first box of Marines too!), but that's it.

I very rarely use files - I easily remove 95% of flash with a knife-edge. Files are more fiddly as far as I'm concerned.

Check out the GW site for basic painting tutorials, or just fish around on the web in general. The videos are a waste of time and bandwidth IMO, as well as money.

I completely construct Marines before priming... as well as pretty much everything else. The exceptions are bolters, which I've reently started spraying on the sprue, and plastic shields for WHFB, which can be easily sprayed and batch-painted. Just repaint over where you clip them off. The hard part is removing flash on the sprue... it's basically your choice of convenience.

If you've already cut your bitz off the sprue, I seriously recommend just putting your models together first. As a beginner painter, it's easier to develop a sense of uniformity when you're doing it all together. Painting one colour at a time lets you go back over mistakes relatively easily.

Painting Blood Angels I presume? Take note of advice on highlighting red - do it with yellow/orange, not white. Washes are also your friend, but thinned-down can serve just as well.

Anything else in particular you need more info on?

No one wins painting competitions with their first models, so just do what's easiest. Even Monet needed practice. I suggest you put everything together, stand them up, stick them to some surface with tape or tacky putty, spray prime, and have fun with it.

I don't have a link to videos, but the best way to learn these techniques is to watch them in person. Visit your local hobby/Games Workshop store--they can show you the basics quickly. Enjoy!

My only issue with spray priming things on the sprue is that there are those nasty connecty bits that A.) won't get primed, because of the connection, and B.) I will want to trim down later to make a smooth surface. I still have just about everything other than the legs and torsos on the sprue, as I'm trying to keep everything organized. I may follow in suite though, putting the arms on and putting the bolters on later. It just makes things like chest eagles very hard to get to, since they are all foot sloggers and carry their bolters in two hands across their chest.

groz wrote:No one wins painting competitions with their first models, so just do what's easiest. Even Monet needed practice. I suggest you put everything together, stand them up, stick them to some surface with tape or tacky putty, spray prime, and have fun with it.

I don't have a link to videos, but the best way to learn these techniques is to watch them in person. Visit your local hobby/Games Workshop store--they can show you the basics quickly. Enjoy!

It makes me sad that everyone else lives in a world where they actually have a local hobby/games workshop store. I have nothing close by that has anything miniature related. I have a place that deals in some model railroad and cars things, but no kind of war minis, and nobody hangs around in the store doing work.

we are all here to help! here i listed what color could easily achieve basic shading for red. normally ink is used for a fail safe method of shading.
if you have a brown that you are confident about in the color matching, by all means use it too! a good thing about it is it wont have that unatural gloss.

Leave the guns and backpack off, and then prime as normal; or, you could superglue them on so that you can pop them off later. I prefer the former.

I'm thinking I might just try pinning all of my models. I could do a dry pinning to get their arms and weapons on and in place, prime with the arms on, and then once the primer is dry, take the arms off, paint everything up, and when all is painted, glue and pin the arms to the body for some nice durability.

As far as organisation goes......
buy a clear tackle box or two like this.
You can clip and clean all of your sprues infront
of the TV. You won't lose bits and it is far easier
for test fitting pieces with blu tac and or pins.

Alright, I have all of their heads on, and for the seargent, I green stuffed a bit to try and get a bit better pose. Now he's holding the pistol back by his head, and his chain sword (until I eventually get a power fist bit) is pointed forward, indicating time to charge. I'm going to pick up a small pin vice today, and a package of paper clips, and then I'll start fitting on all of the arms. Pictures will follow, eventually.

tackle boxes are evil! i have a few of them for bit box
but the plastic are constantly cutting my fingers lol ><

I don't think you need to leave the back packs off. Just the arms is usually good enough.

Hello!
Hopefully this what you mean.First off,you need the
following:
1)2 inch masking tape
2)roll of double sided tape
3)sheet of card make sure it's not too flexible.
First off,cut strip of double sided tape to the width
of the masking tape.Then place at edge of card.Repeat
at regular intervals across the width of the card.Place
strip of masking tape across the double sided strips.
Make sure masking tape is sticky side up!I use this
method to spray all the small items without losing them
Also works brilliantly for batches of figures.

It's really not that tough to paint behind the bolters and arms. I just use the small brush. I also use the inks and paint a little watered down because it spreads out and I don't have to fight and get every nook and cranny.
Honestly, there is two types of painting...the 1) rank and file and the 2) special characters. If you're painting a whole army like I am, you find ways to economize and learn that people pay attention to special characters and don't really look so hard at the rank and file.
One other thing, if they are plastic models and you are using the citadel foundation paints, you may be able to skip the spray primer and go right for the paint.

As somebody who has painted something in excess of 300 Marines, allow me to lend my authoritative blathering:

For Bolter Marines, this is the process...

1) Get a Bolter, cut off the pistol grip, and file the place it was flat. This will be your guide for assembling the other Marines.
2) Cut all the torso parts off the sprue, use liquid cement to glue them together. Don't bother filing/scraping/sanding yet. But do make sure to give them a good squeeze and some wiggling to let the cement get a good weld. Set them aside to dry.
3) Cut all your legs off the sprue, clean up flash and mold lines, and glue them to your bases. You don't need to think too hard about this step, as there's not much at stake yet, pose-wise.
3) By now your torsos should be pretty dry, but if not, wait till they are (spend times cleaning up Bolters, heads, shouldperads, backpacks). Once they're dry, clean them up with a file or knife, and pick out a set of arms. Note that the Bolter arms are paired, they don't mix and match. Get an idea how you want the model to pose, then glue the torso that way, and give it a while to dry.
4) Clean up the arms, and glue them. Get the Bolter you made in step 1, and use it to make sure the arms are positioned right.
5) Add the head, shoulderpads and backpack.

You win.

Alright... I think... I took more time than I should have, but am getting some good results...

First, I put the legs, torso, and heads on... after cleaning them up and everything.

Then... I did a small bit of pinning... I don't actually have a pin vice... I just grabbed a 1/16 drill bit and manually cranked it... I'm getting a pin vice soon... that sucked, and hurt like hell...

I positioned the arms on a dry fit, no glue, just the loose wires. I then glued on the arm that holds the handle on to the body, and glued the hand that holds the bottom of the gun to... the uh... gun... I then took off the second mentioned arm, removed the piece of wire, and then put in a new piece of wire, that was bent at an angle, and put it in to a strip of styrofoam. I made a full row of the styrofoam arms holding weapons. I then made a second row of back packs, all pinned to styrofoam, so they are about a millimeter off from the strip, suspended by the pins.

I double side taped my marines to my little make-shift spray box, and primed them front and back. I then did the same thing with both the styrofoam strips (it's the kind of spray that doesn't melt styrofoam). I now have 10 1-armed marines in black primer, and two rows of marine accesories, all ready to be painted and finally glued together! Now... I just need to be able to paint well ;_;

Another update: My Rhino fit together beautifully. No gaps, no warped pieces. From what I heard people saying, I thought it was going to be a nightmare, but this thing feels so sturdy, I think it could survive a throw out my second floor window... mind you... I would never do that

Video if you do!!!!!!

Glad to hear it's going well.
If you have the capacity pics will definately help us when you get to the painting stages.

Yeah, pictures should be fine. I just have to snag a camera from a friend. If I had my own, I'd be doing some step by step WIP pictures.

I started painting! It's going very messily, but I'm kinda a perfectionist... so though my standards are drastically lowered since I've never done this before, I'm taking a lot of time to go back over little mess-ups. I have him mostly base-coated in his various colors. I plan on attempting some highlighting soon!