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Hey Dakka, I am going to be entering the space Marine Captain into Golden Daemon.
I was wondering if you could help me and give some advice!

Any comments, and could you also please rate it!

umm, 4/10

Improvement over your last model Feforfar, but you seriously need to highlight over the darkening wash.

Only the red looks like it has more than one colour layer, the face has no definition, he needs eyes. If you put 2 or so layers of highlighting over the whole model, it will be looking great.

SO, just highlight it all?

Also, my explanation. You didn't paint the details on the back of the backpack, the purity seals look like...jello? Something.
You should paint them cloth colored, and have a different wax color.
The face could use some work, and the skull insignia on his leg and belt look too chunky.

The what belt?

Can use give some ideas on how to highlight things!

As with the Daemon Prince, he won't even come close to qualifying. Come back in a few years, after you've had considerable practice and expanded your techniques considerably. Basecoat and a wash is NOT Golden Daemon quality.

You will be laughed at if you actually try to enter that as a serious competition piece.

It's hard to suggest specific things to fix, when what you really need is a lot of patience and practice. The biggest issue is your lack of skill, and that comes with time and practice. If you really, really want to ever have a chance of winning a GD, you'll need to spend a lot of time practicing, and get a lot of patience. GD painters can spend months on a single model entry.

Feforfar wrote:SO, just highlight it all?

It would be a very good improvement, yes

Make sure you water down the paints for your highlight layers though, as you have already obscured some detail with thick paint and don't want to make it worse. Remember also that washes/ink should be used to assist the shadowing and colour on a show mini, not as a final thick coat as while that is fine for tabletop quality, it will make it really difficult to see any of the detail you have taken the time to paint on.

The gold skull on his belt.
Also, you should paint all the metal areas on the backpack, (the vents, etc) the skull, and the laurels.

Thank for explaining it.

Also how good are 14 and under painters?

Feforfar wrote:The what belt?

Can use give some ideas on how to highlight things!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dakka_Modeling_FAQ:_Highlighting

Also just try typing miniature highlighting tutorial into google or youtube.

ok, thx


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I read that, its good info!

Feforfar wrote:Thank for explaining it.

Also how good are 14 and under painters?

that would put you in the youngbloods competition. if you google "40k golden demon youngbloods", you'll find some links to galleries. i tried a quick search and found the marine pics below for you to look at and compare techniques.

here is this baltimore 2010 THIRD place



LA 2008 THIRD place



Chicago 2009 SECOND place


a few marine examples for you... hope that helps.

It's better than the DP, but I give it a 3/10

Good luck with that though

Thanx, some people are so nice, those figures are sensational for that age!

Feforfar wrote:Thanx, some people are so nice, those figures are sensational for that age!

And thats why they stood a chance in GD. It's not just about being ok or decent, you have to be absolutely amazing with huge amounts of time and research put into your model.

Fafnir wrote:As with the Daemon Prince, he won't even come close to qualifying. Come back in a few years, after you've had considerable practice and expanded your techniques considerably. Basecoat and a wash is NOT Golden Daemon quality.

You will be laughed at if you actually try to enter that as a serious competition piece.

It's hard to suggest specific things to fix, when what you really need is a lot of patience and practice. The biggest issue is your lack of skill, and that comes with time and practice. If you really, really want to ever have a chance of winning a GD, you'll need to spend a lot of time practicing, and get a lot of patience. GD painters can spend months on a single model entry.

Brutally honest as usual I like your comments


Automatically Appended Next Post:
As I was saying on your other thread....Invest in a color wheel and some basic color theory (nvm that. Invest in ALOT of theory if wanna go for GD).

I'll brake it down for you.


Area's "missing" paint

There are quite alot of areas that aren't really painted. For an example, the skull and wents on his backpack are blue, while at lease the wents should metallic. The purity seals should rather be brownish white, for an effect like that, you could paint him Dheneb stone, bleached bone and when its dry wash it over with Gryphonne Sepia. The wax should be different from the "paper" of the seal, the color depending on the chapter which the marine is. Also, the hawk on his back should rather be either golden or silver, you choose, although I'd choose gold since the trim and more are in gold.

No highlighting

By the look of the photos there is no or very little highlighting. If your not good with highlighting read that article, google it and check out people like Jawaballs, Lbursley, Girlpainting and more. Slowly but surely you'll get the hang of it. Although the sword is very well highlighted, I'll give you that much.

Over-washing

This model is basically just paint and wash if I'm looking at it right. Try using less at a time, and watch out that it doesn't pool, this can be done by watering the wash down or turning the model upside down my putting a toothpick somewhere and slinging it over a plastic cup or something. For an example his robe is pooled and over-washed. And I'd recommend a red wash instead for the robe, unless you want it to look dirty.

Thats the minimum of what you have to achieve to enter GD Youngblood, and will probably take way more practice than a couple of tries.

Dont let this break you down though, I'm sure that in there is a great painter, you just need to be guided in the right direction, the same for almost all of us at something in life
'
My last point. Have fun and dont just focus on the award and competition aspect. Although this is a hobby with lots of competition's like GD and more, the main point is to have fun doing it, hence the name "hobby".

Good luck,
Gretar

]@Fefofar: It is important to keep painting as well. I stopped for a few years and my skills got rusty. It took me quite a long time to get back to my old level of skill. While tutorials help a lot, there is no substitute for practice. Things like brush control, thinning paints and controlling paint flow are all trained through practice.

For what its worth, you've got a solid foundation on which to work. Your painting is reasonably clean, with the block colours going where you want them to go. This is a good start. In my mind, there are four things that are absolutely necessary for a GD winning entry:

1. There needs to be the right colour balance on the model. The colour wheel is your friend.
2. The model needs something to make it stand out from the other entries. Be it freehand, non-metallic-metal or conversion - it needs something flashy to make it pop.
3. Regardless of which flashy technique you use to entice the judges, make sure you've mastered it, as the paint needs to be as smooth as you can get it.
4. While not strictly necessary, a scenic base always helps your model stand out (despite the claims that the base isn't judged).

For now, I'd concentrate on understanding highlighting and thinning down your paints for a smoother application.

Don't let the naysayers get you down but have a realistic understanding of your skill level. Much respect if you have the stones to enter GD. Even if you get beat down (which you WILL initially), be sure to ask the judges for feedback. They'll usually give you some good pointers. My painting level is above tabletop, but below GD level, and never failed to make first cut at the old Warpstone painting contests they used to have. I've wanted to enter, but I never have... (and now that Toronto GD is gone, I probably never will...)

Good post Glad everyone else uses a color wheel too

Samus_aran115 wrote:Good post Glad everyone else uses a color wheel too

As a fine arts major, I practically live by it.

Fafnir wrote:

Samus_aran115 wrote:Good post Glad everyone else uses a color wheel too

As a fine arts major, I practically live by it.

You should get one tattooed onto your arm. Then again, if you live by it, you could probably do a better job than a tattoo artist

keezus wrote:]@Fefofar: It is important to keep painting as well. I stopped for a few years and my skills got rusty. It took me quite a long time to get back to my old level of skill. While tutorials help a lot, there is no substitute for practice. Things like brush control, thinning paints and controlling paint flow are all trained through practice.

This is very true. I also took several years off painting and I'd say my skills are only back to about 50-75% of my old level.
Two bits of advice:
1) Never stop practicing unless you have to.
2) It's not just about the paint. Learn other skill that can make an other wise average quality paint job not matter as much, a good conversion and a nice base can do wounders, as an exaple my Marines have real cloth capes and hand embroidered banners

keezus wrote:]
1. There needs to be the right colour balance on the model. The colour wheel is your friend.

I knew I'd forget something

How long are you spending on these things?? In my country one of those dps costs HEAPS, so logicically I would paint in sessions over a week or so...

I dont get you

How long do you send on these models, they look rushed...

Um, with this one, idk maybe 4 hours and my DP about 2 weeks!

Fafnir's comments might come across a little harsh at times but they are 100% right. By all means go ahead and enter GD it's an open comp at the end of the day and while your there you might get chance to talk to the other entrants get some pointers and see close up the quality of work you need to achieve to be a real contender. I think you know you wont get too far with the models you have shown us so far and as long as you understand that and accept it you'll be fine. The only advice I could give is the same as people better then me have already said. Maybe spend some time reading the tutorials section of these forums see what ideas you can take from there and apply to your work.

you are right actually, I know I wont win but I just want to say that at least i tried to and this thread must end, I am not entering this model any more I am entering a bloodletter with a banner!

Anyone know any good tutorials for making banners look terrific?