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noticed the lumpiness but it shows up a lot more in the hi rez picture. should i thin my paint? ... dust from the ally probly doesn't help either,
any critique would be helpful. ( oh yeah , anyone use magnifying glass ever?)

The first few minis I painted ended up sorta textured like that. It was because I didn't thin the paint. Thin your paints and do layers to get full coverage instead of one or two coats of thick paint.

I like the color scheme you have on the beaky, and the Emperor's Champion has good detail, just need to thin the paint.

Also, you aren't using enamels are you? I also made that mistake, lol.

Few questions.
Primer you use?
Paint brand you use?
How clean are you painting/how long are you painting before you clean the brush?


Thinning paints is ALWAYS a good idea. It helps smooth the paint job as well as go on the mini easier.
Some primers are not good IMO no matter what you do to them. Personally IVe always had problems with GW primer getting sandy looking after applying. MAke sure your primer is good, and not a million years old. Shake it ALOT for a minute or two, and then let it set for another minute. Shaking it up too much and then spraying right after can/has cause problems.
Some paint brands lay down differently. I use Americana paints, some people think they paint dirty, but personally I have zero problems with them leaving grim on the minis.

Also its very important to learn when you paint is drying out on your brush. You never dip and keep on going mini after mini without ever cleaning the brush. Usually Ill wash the brush off after every 3 or so minis. Then Ill clean out my paint pallet after every squad unless it dries up fast.

Hopefully that will help some. And make sure you dust the minis before painting

i was using a primer i got from the auto parts store that has an extra fine tip. but on the emporers champion i wanted to try those GW foundations paint with no primer
ive been using the GW paints because when they came out i remember them being the brightest water based paint. the other water based ones like testors looked dull. i just started to get back into it but when i first started i tried the enamels to.

im thinking it was a combination of not keeping my brush wet and not thinning the paint.

looks good in natural light, lol, you think i should strip and try again?
cant do much for the wings they were just poorly cast replica

Just couple of little tips:

Spend time on your prep work, i know that sometime you'll want to get down to painting as soon as you can (i still suffer from this, i always have a primed mini or two on my work area at any given time).But the more you do at the start, the better the finish will be.
This includes spray priming, do 2-3 thin coats, not 1-2 heavy ones. It takes time, but the less paint on the mini mean the more sculpted details you will see in the end.

Keep your paint thin and your brush clean.

Change your water often

And if you are using a white base (which i would recommend in nearly all cases), give the mini a very thin wash of colour before you start. This will show you all the detail on the mini, that you may otherwise miss.

On last thing, keep practicing, thats how you get better, no mini is a bad mini if you learnt something painting it.

Good work btw, keep it up!