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.

I'm just getting into 40K and I've never really painted miniatures before. My teenage son plays Space Marines and Tau, and it seems like a fun hobby, so I thought I'd give it a go. Anyway, here is my first miniature. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts, if they have time to share them. I feel like I have a good sense of colors/textures, but clearly my techniques need improvement and are either a) way too time intensive or b) not quite ready for prime time

While I've never been all that fond of the Soul Grinder's sculpt (mainly the head). You make it look very good. Did you just use a metallic primer on the mechanical part, or did you actually go through an entire bottle of shining gold? I'd like to see some close ups of the body itself, since the paint scheme looks pretty interesting.

Something ive learned about painting large surfaces metalic its always a good idea to wash atleat in the reccesses with watered down badab black.

But as you are new to painting that is a good go much beter than my first.

TempusCorvus wrote:While I've never been all that fond of the Soul Grinder's sculpt (mainly the head). You make it look very good. Did you just use a metallic primer on the mechanical part, or did you actually go through an entire bottle of shining gold? I'd like to see some close ups of the body itself, since the paint scheme looks pretty interesting.

I'm a n00b and the metal took a couple tries I started with a black primer coat which I've since learned was not ideal. I had to go over it with a grey foundation paint because anything I laid on top of the black was very muted. The metal was done with:

Bronze metal:

1. Heavy coat of Dwarven Bronze. At this point the metal looked very showy. Like copper mixed with butter
2. Light irregular coat of Tin Bitz. This gave the bronze a filthy well-used look.
3. In certain spots, like the sharpened facets of blades, and outside corners/edges, I brushed "scratches" with Dwarven Bronze to simulate certain grimy spots being scraped clean to reveal some of the original color beneath.
4. Light highlighting coat on blades and some raises surfaces with Brushed Gold. This was my n00b attempt at simulating specularity.

Insets on metal, and "tendons" on the metal:

1. Heavy coat of Catachan Green.
2. Medium coat of Red Gore. Some of the green shows up as brown/purple depending on how the light hits it.
3. For "tendons" I used some Blood Red highlights.

Silver pipes and rods are a really gritty shiny silver paint from A.C. Moore, topped with Chain Mail. Then some Tin Bitz to dirty them up a bit.

I attached some close ups of the body. The color theme of the body evolved. I first did the "red daemon" vibe with a base coat of (I think) Red Gore and then Blood Red. It didn't really work for me. So after reading some of the 40K codex about Khorne and Nurgle, I thought it would be fine to try a red daemon / plague vibe. So I did a selective coat of Scorpion Green and then put some some shiny Golds on top of that. It seems to fit with the chaos theme. The organic parts of the soul grinder are corrupting the machinery, and vice versa.

Thanks for the feedback, I do sincerely appreciate it!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

tobi-nid-guy wrote:Something ive learned about painting large surfaces metalic its always a good idea to wash atleat in the reccesses with watered down badab black.

But as you are new to painting that is a good go much beter than my first.

I'll try that!

The last thing I did to this mini was to give a wash a try. I used Devlan Mud on the rotted body bits and it added some depth to be sure. Now I want to learn how to apply washes properly

I just opened up my box of Bloodletters of Khorne, and I'll paint them next. I've got another Soul Grinder but it will be neat to wait a while until my skills improve and then compare the two side by side.

Sean

great job on the flesh! the only recommendation i'd make is to agree with a wash (ogryn flesh works for me) on the metallic parts. they look too clean for a creature of chaos!

warboss wrote:great job on the flesh! the only recommendation i'd make is to agree with a wash (ogryn flesh works for me) on the metallic parts. they look too clean for a creature of chaos!

I'll definitely give this a go! Thanks!

Sean

Agree with the above - the flesh looks top-notch, but the metal could use some sort of wash/ink. Just something to bring out the crevices and details.

I would do badab black wash over all the metal.

Badab Black works very well over any silver/gunmetal. Devlan Mud is a nice color over any bronzes or brasses.

that was your first try? dang my first try was just coating the hell out of my SM and then "teaching" myself how to dry brush, just to come clean, they SUCKED compared to what you just brought to the table. I tip my hat to you.
Edit: I think I will post some of them just to show you what i mean

I think you did a great job all around. Same as just about everyone above, a wash could really enhance the metallic, or chest. and Hell, i would never be brave enough to jump right into a soul grinder for my first model. Very well done!

Thanks for the pointers everyone!

I'll be at my local game store playing D&D tomorrow night and I'm going to stock up on washes. I've started assembling my Bloodletters and I'm hoping to start painting them tonight.

Thats pretty nuts for a first try!

I second the recommendation for Devlan mud. That stuff is god tier when it comes to making stuff look more realistic.

That's a heck of a model to choose for your first attempt - well done!

Yeah, very good mate, I started nearly fifteen years ago and my first models were ultramarines that I pretty much just dipped in blue paint!

Now I use two brushes!

wanted to ask, what painting tools do you use? one of the hardest things for me is trying to get the eyes of SM right. now dont get me wrong, this is not a question of how to layer the paints, rather how the crap do you or whoever, manage to get just one, forget multiple colors, on just that damn eye socket? any help would be appreciated
Cheers

@joxermnk

Dude, I know your pain, I mainly paint IG and they're all got faces but I can't be bothered doing eyes for all of them.

On my Ultrasmurf Sergeants though I do, and I've got a couple of tips. I don't do anything fancy, I just get the finest possible point on my standard brush, (GW brush, not one of the better ones) and dip just the tiniest amount of white for the eye ball, drop it in the socket and then once it dries, do the same thing with a tiny drop of black for the pupil.

Okay, so thats the description, but you probably already knew how to do that, so here are the tips that I use to make it easier.

Firstly, good strong lights and have your hands resting on the table, as people tend to have a slight shake if holding model and brush in the air. Only use a really tiny amount of paint so if you do make a mistake its easier to cover up.

Also, don't try for perfect, just because your own eyes have white all around the edges doesnt mean your tiny model does, so its okay if thier pupil is bigger that it should he.

Don't worry to much about the eyes looking a little big, if you think about it, its not a bad thing that thier eyes look a little wide, they're supposed to be battling right, so it just makes them look really, really angry.

One of my favourite models actually has one eye bigger than the other, I swore and knocked over my cleaning water when I did it, but later it actually turned out good because he's got this sort of columbo look about him now!

Finally, there is one thing I tried initially that worked for me, until I realised that I was good enough to not use it, but it might help you. Brace your model on something solid, and then use a small modelling vice to hold your brush at a set height, and the move the vice until the brush touches the socket. Once you've got the height right, then dip the brush in white/black and use that to get the perfect eyeball!
Obviously, dont take brush out of vice to get paint!

Hope that helps a bit mate, at least it worked for me...failing that, stick with helmets!

Good luck!

Oh, and forget about that layering garbage GW says in thier guides about how to make the perfect eyeball. Remember, while it might be possible...they get paid to paint, the rest of us mere mortals have actual crappy jobs to worry about, so don't sweat it if you can't get it right first go!

[quote=Jihadnik

Finally, there is one thing I tried initially that worked for me, until I realised that I was good enough to not use it, but it might help you. Brace your model on something solid, and then use a small modelling vice to hold your brush at a set height, and the move the vice until the brush touches the socket. Once you've got the height right, then dip the brush in white/black and use that to get the perfect eyeball!
Obviously, dont take brush out of vice to get paint!

Bugger, I should have patented that before I said it! I thought I was pretty lame for trying it actually even though it worked pretty well. I was imagining a legion of Dakka folks in my head shaking thier heads in disdain at my noobosity!

Another tip is to paint the eyes in first, then block in the helmet colour around them. It's marginally easier to trace the blue outline around the outside of the eyepiece once the eye is already done than to try to dot the eye in without splodging all over the rest of the face

I've only done one set of eyes so far (the soul grinder) and I failed the first two attempts. Then I saw someone else's soul grinder and the photo was high enough resolution to show the eyes in detail. I saw that the eyes were clearly painted all black first, and then the whites of the eyes were painted around the black to create the pupils. I had been trying the reverse of that and was failing. My third attempt worked well enough but I'm hoping to improve my technique beyond the "keep trying until it doesn't suck" phase

I also have a very very fine pointed teensy reaper brush that I use for very very fine details like eyes, nails etc. That seems to help. Also, my $40 daylight lamp from Micro-Mark is really kick arse! It helps me see more clearly and helps me zero in on where to apply the paint. As a non-painting example, my 8 year old daughter gave me a knotted necklace of hers to rescue, and after 5 minutes I couldn't sort out the knot, so I sat with my daylight lamp and the knot was gone in less than 1 minute The take away is daylight lamps are awesome!

Also, I have better luck when my hands aren't shaky. Most of the time my hands are very still, but some days they're shaky (small high frequency shakes) and it's harder to get the details painted. I haven't yet tried to sort out what's causing the shakes, but I suspect in my case it could be too much caffeine just before painting - or maybe if it's been 3+ hours since my last meal my blood sugar could be low and cause micro-tremors? Further testing is required

Sean