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Hey there folks, I'm a first-time painter, I don't wargame, but love the books and computer games so I thought "what the hell, lets give painting a go".

Please have a look at this diorama,... my first go, so don't be too critical, but advise is welcome.

The glue is barely dried, so it probably needs a bit of cleaning up etc, but I think you will be able to see that in the pic's.


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I used air-drying clay in a biscuit tin as a base. Bricks were made from clay also.
I used painted lichens as the bushes and a few actual purchased parts such as the two threes and razor wire.

The marines themselves were varnished with matte varnish, which seems to be making it look really bright in the photo.

Hi there! First off, I love it! The arrangement and design of it works well for me, and I love the marines' poses! That being said, the marines need a bit of shading to really stand out. I see some variations in the red, a good start! Did you apply a wash to the models? It might be too subtle for my weak eyes.

Anyway, it's a fine piece! A lot of action going on there! Please keep sharing your work with us!

--- Frankie

First things first - never use gloss paint! It looks tacky and frankly, terrible. Get some acrylic paints from Games Workshop, Coat D'arms, or P3. However, you might just be using gloss varnish instead of matte varnish, which is causing that tacky effect. Right now they're just really, really glossy, and that makes it hard to really see the paintwork. The terrain, however, looks rather nice.

I agree with BrotherSRM, except Ill say it slightly nicer. It is very shiny and I believe a wash would help dull that "sheen". Great job for your first squad. Perhaps cleaning up the chainsaw a little as well. Perhaps a black backing? It is all preferenc though. As long as you like it that is all that matters!!! Keep up the good work!

Washes won't go over gloss. They'll literally slide off in many places.

Yeah, I used two different tones of red and a dark red wash. Did not use any gloss paint, just a matte varnish, which sadly makes that bright shine in the photos.
In the flesh, they are darker and not shiny... pity how it comes out on camera,... I'll try different lighting.

Are you using the flash on your camera? That could be why they're coming out looking so glossy. Try just using a few desk lamps and some white paper to back the photo. That's how I do all my photos, and it simulates a professional lightbox.

Here is a photo in daylight:

Alright, that's looking a little better. All the silver metallic areas should be hit up with a Badab Black wash. Right now they look rather flat, and that wash will bring out the detail like you wouldn't believe. I've talked to a few folks about washing red, and a lot of people prefer to use Devlan Mud or Gryphonne Sepia to wash reds instead of Baal Red. Baal has more of a pinkish tone, and doesn't so as much for shading and color variation as the brown washes do. A lot may be personal preference, but I don't have that much experience painting red so I'm taking their word for it for now.

You may also want to try edge highlighting your armor. It's the next step towards making your minis really pop off the table.

hey there nice work, I agree with brother SRM about washing the mini's with gryphone sepia or devlan mud, but if you're painting edge highlights and you need to bring the colours back down or tie them in a bit then use baal red until you're happy, you could even try the darker washes just in armour crevices. keep it up, they look good for someone starting out these are ten times better than my first ones! :-)

Sweet! I tend not to use varnish, for me it destroys the 'natural' effect on a model. Instead, imo, try mud, rust, or even just a wash. But i don't think a wash will work on matt varnish either, or at least not as well... None the less, for someone starting out painting minis, this lot is quite good!

Thanks folks, I tried again, but the light keeps catching on the varnish.

That idea of using the mud wash might just be a better idea.
I think my next foray into WH40K diorama's will be with a different colour.

I have a load of Warzone minatures I also ordered, I thought they would make good "auxillary" models,... ie: in scale they would make good guardsmen/ traitor guardsmen.


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The stupid thing is that the matte varnish looks pretty good in the flesh, no shine visible. I really only had it to protect the paint job. I applied the clear matte varnish after the whole painting process was complete, so it did not affect the wash,... just choose the wrong wash perhaps lol.

You don't really need varnish to protect the paintjob on plastics too much. Metals often require a sealant, but paint generally sticks to plastics pretty well. Looking at that picture, I may try to use a different color for their trim. Red and then slightly darker red doesn't do much for color variation, and any washes will just bring those two colors together and make them look like just one color.

Right-o. Next time maybe it will be chaos marines, maybe a dreadnought or Imperial guard, will see how it goes.
It's hard to dievote time to this kind of thing between wife, child and work. Don't know how the best painters get the time.

Well, not to say you should, but I get carried away, and end up painting late into the night Oops on that one lol! I still go to school, so haven't got a job or family, yet even when I'm really busy, I manage to cram in 6-8 hours of painting / modelling a week. That's roughly how much time I spend. Back to the topic then...

I would say that varnish is unnecessary - just be careful not to drop them! altough over the years metal models do chip. I find i hard to find the time to paint too these days - was a real manic painter in my youth - but then i was also a loner and so had bags of time to kill - these days what with job and friends i only paint like one model a fortnight.

Oh! and please try not to put sand on the whole base. leave the black/any colour you want sides unbased.
Its actually a matter of liking or not but... Yeah.
For your first miniatures those are awesome (my first mini had its torso on upside down and had a big green chainsword) and I see you have learned to use Transfer sheets pretty well.

Yeah, I was actually going to remove the base completely, instead I settled for covering the whole base and gluing them to the diorama (so now they can't be removed, but then I don't plan on wargaming anyway). The idea was to have it "less" noticeable that the bases were attached to the model.

We have a little baby nearly 2 months old, so I thought this would be a nice indoors hobby. Also thought it would be a nice skill to make things for my little baby girl when she gets a little older.
Planning on buying the nativity set from prince august, to make a nice nativity scene this xmas. -Hence the need to hammer down my skills and get advice from you guys.


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On the plus side, I think those are pretty nice walls. I'm pretty happy with them.

Definitely not bad at all. Far from it actually.

A suggestion is to wash the entire model in Badab Black or Devlan Mud (Or, at least the red areas) This will help create shading on the model that will help break up the bright red.

However, this is just a suggestion, they're fantastic for your first miniatures.

First of all, I would say that these are awesome and the diorama is killer as well.

Second of all, don't try to 'fix' these models. Because they are very decent paint jobs and you will drive yourself crazy trying to redo them. Just start a second group using what you've learned from the first try.

To protect a model when you are done, you can spray it with testors gloss coat, and then spray it again with testors dull coat. This combo works great and keeps the original look with tons of protection. But please test it first on one model because you can never be sure how it will react to the paint you are using, local humidity, etc

Great job so far!

I won't try fix anything, just move on and hopefully do better the next time. It's sadly too time consuming to make so large a diorama to be honest.

Will maybe do smaller ones with less models, ie: maybe one fighting another. I ordered the space marine captain in 54mm scale off games workshop to that end. Not sure what colour scheme, won't go for red as the primary colour this time,..

Will have to look around for ideas.


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Also, can anybody suggest a suitable opponent with respect to scale for the 54mm space marine captain, ie: a demon or Hive tyrant? Would be nice to do a diorama with them locked in battle.

I do have plenty of the "bricks" left over from the diorama, so they might be good as loose rubble etc on future designs.

You have a 54mm scale Marine captain? I don't think a Hive Tyrant or anything would look right since it's scaled for 28mm. There's a Chaos Marine in the Inquisitor range that could work though.

I think they could use another color on their trim. Something to really draw out the red.

id have to say awsome,these are your very first models,take pride in them,always keep one to see the improvements you get through the years.

as for washes...they seem to have become the fix all for everything...ill tell you the same as i tell all first timers

youve done very well,your base is epic,for the first attempts,your colors look good,the over all look of your display is great

in all you should be very proud of your work,have fun with your painting,dont worry so much to what others say,because their are a ton of armys out there not even painted

the advice giveing to you is good from the others,but take it in stride,it takes a long while to become an above tabel top painter and many years to become a GD painter

keep up the happy painting
and for the emporers sake HAVE FUN DOING IT

Okay, have used a little time to make a second experimental attempt, just to see how the colouring looks and what is a good colour scheme.
I have made a new colour scheme with a white green thing going on, a little like the Dusk Raiders as inspiration, an imperial fist clearing a blockage on his bolter and one of first batch of Space marines I made for comparison (I think I'll call their chapter "Wolf Hounds").

The pictures are crude and hastily made (time is pressing) and I think the Dusk Raider-esque marine come out top.
Remeber guys, this is my second (this time more hasty) attempt so be gentle.

Not bad at all! This time, I think the majority of the advice you're going to get is to be careful how you're applying Washes. It's particularly visible in the Second Picture, although this may be some Camera-Lighting-Problem, that the Wash has been applied very liberally and thickly, almost globbed on there, so it's beginning to pool in places that don't even make sense. Try 2-3 thinner, more carefully applied Washes; this should give you a smoother, cleaner finish, whilst achieving the Shading Tone that you're looking for. That's the area of your Painting that cries out for immediate improvement, and once you've got that sorted - you'll get used to Washing with practice, so we should see a natural improvement anyways - your Miniatures will look a whole new level of awesomesauce.