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Hello,
I have just recently started painting Warhammer 40k miniatures and have also recently joined dakka. Having looked through many of the other pictures posted in the forums have noticed that most everyone here is tremendous at painting their miniatures. I was wondering if you guys would be willing to help me out with my army and give me some constructive criticism?

First of all if you just started, that is pretty darn good. You are off to an awesome start.

I'd say that using a wash would help bring out details, usually you do this after you just paint them blue, then shade them with a badab black (or other brand) wash by painting it into the cracks and recesses. You can just slop it on too, but then you have to do a little more touch up work. It makes all the contours and ridges really stand out.

Also, put a little white spec towards the outside of the space marines eyes, like a little highlight in the lens, this goes a long way and is easy to do if you just use a tiny bit of paint.

But again, you are off to an awesome start and these are more than good enough to play with!!

Also, there are many specific tutorials for gold out there that you can find.

Looks fine to me. I agree the eyes could use a dash of highlight and a wash would help, but if you field them as it you're probably better than 70% of the armies out there.

Hmm, I think I'd also finish painting the base. They look a bit off with that white ring around them.

Okay. Thanks for the help. I greatly appreciate it. I'll look into that wash and how to make the eyes better. And as far as bases I'm sure I can find a better way somewhere on this site. But do you paint the bases and then attach them? I just dont think I have the order of painting right...

Very great start! you are off to a awesome start! Im not to your level so I dont really have any tips but I just wanted to say good work!

Thank you very much!!! I greatly appreciate the great remarks!! Although I wouldnt mind someone really ripping them a new one. Thats the only way I'll get better! But again, thank you for all the kind words! I am really glad I stumbled upon this website!

Torch: Your painting skills are very, very solid. It is very easy to make space marines look terrible..which you have completely avoided.

CC: The only things i can say about these models is that they could benefit from a wash, as well as the highlights seemed to be a bit heavy handed. I am not a highlighting master so maybe someone could offer more elp then I can give. drybrushing instead of painting on highlights is one suggestion. However your skill as a painteris amazing if these are your first models. Keep practicing! Golden Deamon winners started somehwere to!

Torch: Your painting skills are very, very solid. It is very easy to make space marines look terrible..which you have completely avoided.

CC: The only things i can say about these models is that they could benefit from a wash, as well as the highlights seemed to be a bit heavy handed. I am not a highlighting master so maybe someone could offer more elp then I can give. drybrushing instead of painting on highlights is one suggestion. However your skill as a painteris amazing if these are your first models. Keep practicing! Golden Deamon winners started somehwere to!

Well as alot of people ahve said washes would help, allso i spy mould lines

There really isn't anything to rip. You have solid tabletop work. My major comment is that you need to spend more time thinking about your base.

1. I see that you painted the rim. You should take the same color and extend into the top of the base as well, that way your top blends into the side
2. Your painting is solid enough where you want the base to really complement your work. Get some sand from the local playground and lay that down. You can wash it with brown, drybrush with some bleached bone, and then add some static grass.

You're definitely ahead of the game as far as beginners go. Three things I would give advice on:

1. Thin down the highlight lines. You can do this by wiping most of the paint off the brush and running it along the edge you're working on. Takes a bit longer, but looks much better.

2. Bolters. Looks like maybe a Boltgun drybrush and black wash? Hitting them with a bit more highlight would give them a little more pop.

3. Bases Either make sure that the basing material covers to the edge, or paint the top of the base an earthy color that won't look out of place if it shows through. Also, as Ifurita said, painting a little of the edge color around the top of the base will help, but you want your basing material to come further out to the edge to meet it, or it can look out of place.

Sorry it's not ripping you a new one, but your stuff looks pretty good for a rookie.

Heres a tip for you:
If you want to wow the people in your FLGS
PLEASE! PLEASE!!! dont make Ultramarines they're so made ...and... ...and... ...and... GAAAAAH!!!

Whats wrong with ultramarines? i mean yeah its probably the most commond chapter but its the same for the blood angels and black templars. I personally love the ultramarines in fact im still workin on mine but mine are base on the tyranid wars or also known as Tyranid Hunters

Well, if that was my space marine, i would mix abit of Ultramarine blue and white together so you get a light blue and extremly lightly drybrush the blue and than put a black wash on top of that and with the bolt guns, i would lightly dry brush with black and yeah and the brass is too shiny aswell! To get rid of that you just put a wash of black over that! (P.S cant spell)

Some people have said a little dot of white in the upper corner of the eyes would help them look a lot better, but i would go a step farther and say highlight them with a lighter shade of red first. Maybe it's just the pictures, but they look very dark right now. I would take a little bit of blood red and cover the lens down the the lower corner, and then add a dot of white on the upper corner. Speaking of red, I think if you painted the bolter's frame in red it would add some nice contrast to the model. Just my two cents, and you're a Chevy guy/gal, I'm sure you'll figure it out in no time

I agree with most of the above, you are already in the top 70% of army's out there. Master some wash techniques and more careful highlighting and you will shift into the 90% level.
I have a minor tip on painting gold, I always thin my paints and Gold is a difficult one to achieve a deep metalic colour. I used to use Tin Bitz as a base colour, but any Silver metallic paint will do, then paint over a thin layer of thinned gold, wash it, then a gentle dry brushing of gold will really give the gold depth and realism.
It is a rewarding hobby, my painting skills and ability have been stretched by people on these Forums and the articles i just wish all this had existed back in the 90's when I was 12, i would be pumping out seriously good models right now!

To echo the tip on edge highlights ... it looks like you used the tip of a fine brush to paint the lines. A faster and cleaner way is to use a #2 or #4 flat brush and use the edge. This will lay down a very thin line of paint (depending on how much pressure you use) on just the raised edge of the armor and it will be very clean and uniform.

Everyone!! Thank you so much for helping me out. I purchased some skull white and I'm going to try to lighten up some of the colors (Like in the eyes and try to make the highlighting better). I also didnt think of painting the bases once they have the sand or gravel on them!!! I wanted to just thank everyone for their two cents and helping me become better. I ordered some terminators and I'll apply all of these techniques to them once I practice on the tactical squad!!


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Ah... mold lines are the left over little raised bumps from the packaging I missed.... I Didn't quite get what that meant. I'll work on those too!

Torch, as the others have said, fantastic first models! Far better than what I was painting when I first got started!

A few suggestions:
Mold lines: I notice in pictures #1 and #3 that the backpacks have mold lines (little plastic ridges where the halves of the mold fit together). Be sure to scrap those off with the edge of a knife or file before you assemble the parts. It also looks like some lines on the front edge of the shoulder pad rims.

Washes: As everyone said, a wash before highlighting will help make it pop. I use Asurman Blue wash for my Ultramarines (Courage and Honor, brother, don't listen to the haters). But black wash will also work. For the chest eagle I recommend a wash of gryphone sepia.

Basing: Finish the bases! You have some great rocks on there. Just paint them, highlight (and wash) them and add a little flock or static grass and you are good to go.

Eyes: They are too dark. Build up to a lighter shade of red and then you can finish with a dot of white. For my UMs I start with mecharite red foundation (because it covers my black basecoat well) then do blood red and fire orange. If you make the lighter colors in progressively smaller areas towards the front of the eye, it will give it more depth.

Guns: The guns look a little flat at the moment. All metal is fine, but for interest you may want to make the "casing" part (the upper raised area) different than the barrel, clip, etc. One technique could be to lightly drybrush the gun with metal and then go back and fully coat the clip, barrel and other parts. That way there is some contrast. Also a wash of black will help it pop. Finally, you may want to make the imperial eagle detail gold or some contrasting color.

Thank you for being so detailed about the gun and basing. I'll do that right now. I think I saw some fake grass at my hobbyshop in town. It was pretty long though, I can probably cut it though. And would you recommend like... resting it next to a boot? I do not really understand how the fake grass works on a base.

I recommend "Static Grass". Woodland Scenics makes good stuff and they are a thousand times cheaper than GW. Just paint some glue where you want the grass to go. Dip the base in the grass. Give it a little puff of air (blow on it). And you are good to go. Do this all after you have painted the base.

I went into the local hobby store and found a predator at half price!! I couldn't pass it up!! So i painted the gunner and I used your hints. Let me know what you think!

Your Painting is most impressive, absolutely solid as others have rightly said. The Predator Gunner is looking sweet, and the Gold in particular is excellent. Be very proud of your Minis when you put them out on the Table, because I can tell you, I don't know many people whose First Minis looked that good.

Edit: What are you arming your Predator with, by the way? Are you into the Gaming side yet? It took me a while, but once I got in on it - the best way is to find a local club, like I did - I got totally hooked on all aspects of the hobby.

Happy Painting!

Here's how I do my bases.

http://kan.org/michael/mkp/basing.php

Well.. I am just getting started into the gaming aspect. The nearest place is like 30 miles away. So it is not something I can do on a weekly basis. I am using bolters, and I'm planning on using it against squads, since my tactical squad has a missile launcher. But again, I am very very new. But thank you for the kind words!!


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Ifurita wrote:Here's how I do my bases.

http://kan.org/michael/mkp/basing.php

So... that website is great. But I have a question. Are the gravel in my picture too big? Should I go get some sand or will that be too fine? I know it is preference, but I would really like to make these guys look good. I am sure I could peel off the gravel thats currently on there.

You're painting looks pretty damn good. I started playing SM about a year and a half back and painting them can be a bit repetitive since most of the SM Chapters and Successors wear identical armor. One problem I had when painting my Elites was when i painted them gold the gold seemed to stand out a little more than i would have liked. Try priming your models Chaos Black, then painting a coat of Shining Gold, and a second coat of Mithril Silver and Shining Gold 1:1.




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You're also going to want to base your models before you primer them. What this does is covers the base with whatever color your models are getting primed with so youre able to paint over the sand or whatever youre basing with. After painting your model and your base, add a little bit of static grass of snow, depending on where you want your SM to look like theyre fighting.

If you haven't fully assembled the predator yet, please please please consider magnetizing it! You will thank yourself later if you can swap out the weapons and turn it into a rhino or razorback if need be.

You can see a tutorial here: http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62319

Though there are better ways to attach the sponson guns (I need to do a tutorial of my method one of these days)

OH!!!! You base them and then put the sand on, and then paint the model!!?!?!?!? I did that way out of order....

With regards to bases, You'll find a variety of ways to do them, some will fully base the model before undercoating, some will paint model then work on base, some will work on the two as seperate items then put them together. I confess I do all 3 depending on my mood/model I'm working on or sometimes just because I've done it that style without even realising. As to size of gravel/sand/whatever, that really depends on the finish you're loking for, there's no definitive right/wrong way to do anything in this hobby. As others have already said, you've got a good solid base with your current skills to work on and improve, and that's all any of us can hope for really

I think your sand grains are too large. I use sand from the local playground and just sift out the larger pieces. I want big enough grains so that the base retains some texture, but not such that they look like they're walking on big rocks.

Many people sand/prime/flock in different orders. I always paint the figure first then add my sand as the last step. Many others swear by gluing sand first, priming, and then painting the figures.

There is no wrong way, whatever works best for you.