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Hi all
got a few pics from my first ever 40k army. im a noob painter, never relaly painted anything before so please be gentle

i'd like to know what you think, and what you think i can improve on.

thankyou

I think the hammerhead looks nice. The transfers are too glossy, and I think you could try and get a gem/glass effect on the drone lenses, but for the most part it looks great.

The crisis suit on the other hand I think could use some toning down. Maybe be more sparing with your blue, like in the hammerhead? Its just covered in blue, and I don't really like it.

Great start for a nOOb! Keep at it! My only thought on the Hammerhead is that the black bits could use some highlighting.

yeah the battlesuit looks a lot better in real life, i couldnt work out what 3rd colour to use on the panels that would go with black and blue, so i highlighted it with a 50:50 mix of space wolves grey and ice blue, but you can only really see it in real life. what would you highlight black with? codex grey? or fortress grey? and how on gods earth do you do the jewel on the eyes? i'd love to do it, but i just dont know how :(

These look really good. Very neat work, nice color contrast.

Looks good and clean.

The suit looks fine, could use some fine detailing here and there like the lenses and maybe some highlighting on some of the black parts.


An entire force done like that will look better than what most people pass off for "tabletop" quality


Edit: if you look at the painting articles for high elves and eldar on the gw site, there's some for doing jewels there.
editedit: the space marine helmet one gives you more examples.

One more with the stealth team ... oh, and how would you make the transfers less glossy?? its a pain and i hate it that it does it, i tried using an anti shine spray, but it just looks crap.

I like them, you have a good paint job with clean lines.

Thanks for the posative replies guys, ill have a look on GW website for the jewel effect. would you highlight the curved black edges on the hammerhead, or just the smaller stuff like on the burst cannons etc? im just worried if i mess up the lines it'll look terrible. the black is actually chaos black spray, and the chaos black paint doesnt actually match it. its more shiny and slightly lighter, so touch ups wouldnt look to great :(

This is a great beginning. Very clean paintjob. The only fault I see is that the black parts in the tank would look better with a bit of highlightning, like you did in the stealth suits.

You are lying about just starting right?

Yeah...you're already about twice as good as me: hence why I dont really post stuff up on here.

I like the colors you are going with and you are off to a great start if this is your first attempt at painting.

The only think I would say is that you might want some high lights on the black.

It's a great choice of colours for a beginner and it has all been applied well

Some of the black areas look a bit samey though, seeing as you have already used white and red in other parts of your painting; why not use a bit more just to break up some of the black (especially the weapons on the railhead). Don't go over the top though or you'll end up with a very patchy look.

I think these look great! If you were looking for a way to get more black on future crisis suits, you could try painting
the left and right halves of the torso with the complementary color (black in this case) like the broadside in this pic:



I think your stuff absolutely rocks for a tabletop quality! And if you're just starting out and still improving, you'll be awesome in no time

I do agree about the black being a little plain looking... especially on the stealth suits. Also the transfers are very shiney,
I didn't notice that originally but IRL I've seen they tend to look that way. There may be something you can coat them with to take this away.

This is a very clear and crisp paint job. Definitely better than a lot of starter jobs I've seen. It's been said before, define the lenses on the crisis suits, highlight the black. It looks like you have a pretty good handle on highlighting looking at the blue, so hit the black with the same treatment in dark gray. Don't worry about messing it up, you did great on the blue parts.

thanks guys for all your posative feedback. i truly am amazed

it really is my first attempt, iv painted a battlesuit before, but that was before i even knew what a highlight was, i have a few friends who all play, and one especially is a real top class painter. i suggested he put some stuff into that golden daemon thingy, but anyway, he advised me on how to do highlights etc but this is my first go at my own army.

i'll defo highlight the black (am doing so now actually) i dont know about the battlesuit, only because the pic doesnt do it any justce, and im really pleased with it as one solid coulour, as i said you cant really see the highlights on here and they break up the fact that its only one colour. BUT, have you any suggestions on a 3rd colour? everyone says you pick 3 colours for an army. i have black and ice blue, what would look good as a 3rd colour in your opinion? white maybe? or should i just stick with what i have and highlight all the black to give it less of a bland feeling. i'm going to paint the back block of the railgun blue too to break up the colour back there.

That's a good idea about the back part of the rail gun... I think the burst cannons need a different color, too (they look like they're just black from the pic).

White could definitely work for a third color... you could try it out on a test figure (such as a fire warrior) to see where it might be able to go.

thats another problem. firewarriors. as standard, no matter what colour is used, there's always black on firewarriors, like the rear end of the gun, as black is one of my colours i can see this clashing big time. i'v googled a few black and blue tau armies and they all look gret, untill you get to the firewarriors which just look stupid.

will deffo have to get that 3rd colour sorted

working on sniper drones at the mo, comping along nicely, highlighted the black on them as you lot have said with fortress grey (codex was too dark) and it looks really well so far i think. i'll post later

Noob painter? my A** you pretty good man Way better than me.

Err, Wow, I hate you.

Jokes, Just the jealous! nice work. Really clean.

Keep up the good work!!!

Dude, that's not noob. Very good highlighting, looks very 'Tau' to me.

Nice. Another user of Hawk Turquoise FTW!

First off, really good work for a beginner. You said you had a friend who was a good painter: milk him for all the info you can Having a skilled painter to bounce ideas off of will only make you better. As for the decals:

1. Before you apply them, hit the entire model with a gloss spray. Make it all nice and shiny and smooth.
2. Apply your decals using Micro-Sol. It's a weak acid solution (smells like salad dressing!) that helps the decals conform and adhere to irregular surfaces. Any decent hobby store will have it for a few bucks.
3. [OPTIONAL] Hit the entire model with gloss again. Not absolutely necessary but will "lock 'em down" permanent-like.
4. Hit the entire model with your preferred brand of matte finish. I like the Krylon brand coz it's available everywhere, it's cheap, and it works just as good as the hobby brands.

As for your third color, you could go with a neutral like Bleached Bone or go a bit wild and use Blazing Orange. Either would look good, IMO.

*Edited for typos.

That's pro noob painting

That is some lovely painting, I know some guys who have painted for years and don't paint that cleanly. As for the next stage I think its already been said, highlights and shading. As to how to do them you'll need to research that your self to see which techniques suit your style best.

Good luck with it and would love to see some more pictures of your work so keep posting.

Kendomasta wrote:thanks guys for all your posative feedback. i truly am amazed

it really is my first attempt, iv painted a battlesuit before, but that was before i even knew what a highlight was, i have a few friends who all play, and one especially is a real top class painter. i suggested he put some stuff into that golden daemon thingy, but anyway, he advised me on how to do highlights etc but this is my first go at my own army.

i'll defo highlight the black (am doing so now actually) i dont know about the battlesuit, only because the pic doesnt do it any justce, and im really pleased with it as one solid coulour, as i said you cant really see the highlights on here and they break up the fact that its only one colour. BUT, have you any suggestions on a 3rd colour? everyone says you pick 3 colours for an army. i have black and ice blue, what would look good as a 3rd colour in your opinion? white maybe? or should i just stick with what i have and highlight all the black to give it less of a bland feeling. i'm going to paint the back block of the railgun blue too to break up the colour back there.

AND WHERE IS THE PICTURE OF THE ETHEREAL? PAINTED BY MYSELF, THE MASTER???? TUT TUT TUT!!! NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR ON HERE THEN???

shredhed wrote:

Kendomasta wrote:thanks guys for all your posative feedback. i truly am amazed

it really is my first attempt, iv painted a battlesuit before, but that was before i even knew what a highlight was, i have a few friends who all play, and one especially is a real top class painter. i suggested he put some stuff into that golden daemon thingy, but anyway, he advised me on how to do highlights etc but this is my first go at my own army.

i'll defo highlight the black (am doing so now actually) i dont know about the battlesuit, only because the pic doesnt do it any justce, and im really pleased with it as one solid coulour, as i said you cant really see the highlights on here and they break up the fact that its only one colour. BUT, have you any suggestions on a 3rd colour? everyone says you pick 3 colours for an army. i have black and ice blue, what would look good as a 3rd colour in your opinion? white maybe? or should i just stick with what i have and highlight all the black to give it less of a bland feeling. i'm going to paint the back block of the railgun blue too to break up the colour back there.

AND WHERE IS THE PICTURE OF THE ETHEREAL? PAINTED BY MYSELF, THE MASTER???? TUT TUT TUT!!! NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR ON HERE THEN???

Anyways....those are fantastic for your first models! A few highlights to the black and you'll have some high-end Tabletop quality guys.

Please tell me you have an art background. I mean come on thats the best Noob painting ive ever seen then.

Wait..? Did you say this is your first army and noob painter Bahahha I have friends that play that can't paint anyware NEAR the awesomeness of you! Wow1