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Hello, new to the whole tabletop business, and just finished a few of the figures. Looking for any advice.
Right now, I'm waiting for some smaller brushes for highlights and the like, as well as some base grass/dirt.

I really need some advice with the whites and reds. It takes so many coats of white/red to make it look the part, but getting white/red to play nicely is becoming hard. example, the commanders standard. Pretty much, all white. I can't make whites look natural, and I can't mix red to look more red and less pink.

I personally think I did the best job on the dread, but I'll let you all decide!
Also, can anyone offer any advice on brushes? I think a foam pointed brush would be the best for the trim, anyone else try this?

You indeed did the best work on the Dreadnought. However, what's most consistent through all of the pics is that there are multiple places that don't like clean. Maybe it's the quality of the pictures.

What do you mean by making the whites looking natural? Judging from what you're saying it seems as though you're watering down your paints too much.

AresX8 wrote:You indeed did the best work on the Dreadnought. However, what's most consistent through all of the pics is that there are multiple places that don't like clean. Maybe it's the quality of the pictures.

What do you mean by making the whites looking natural? Judging from what you're saying it seems as though you're watering down your paints too much.

I gave up trying to fix the trimming after the first few marines. I kept either putting blue over gold or gold over the blue. Waiting for smaller brushes to fix all that up. I agree though, very dirty looking.

My whites just seem to stick out too much. Doesn't look natural to me. Maybe it's just my eyes.

Thanks for the feedback though!

Several things you could try. One is washes. Another is a base layer of light grey or bone, then layers of white over the top. Never tried foam tips, though someone here once receommended them.

Good frst effort though.

I've seen worse.

I'd highly agree with the above, also. Until you learn to do highlights, washing is the way to go (or dipping, if you are so pursuased). Eventually, you'll learn how to build up color from dark to light, but right now the models would look a great deal better if you took your light colors and brought them down from light to dark. The technique is pretty easy too, and will yield good results.

For example, this guy's army was done by painting his marines blue, picking out boltgun detail, and then washing. Three easy steps yielding some pretty good results:

I actually didn't have any idea what washes were for. So if you could go into a little more detail about them, it would be greatly appreciated.

And by building from light to dark, do you mean one layer of a light blue, then slightly darker blue etc etc?

For my base I'm use the base black that comes from the starter kit paint set. from there I just use one coat of mordian blue. then paint the bolter/backpack.

I paint with the units completely disassembled. Seems easier to get all the detail without getting paint on other areas. Is that a good way or is there a better/smarter way of going about it?

Sovereign6 wrote:I actually didn't have any idea what washes were for. So if you could go into a little more detail about them, it would be greatly appreciated.

And by building from light to dark, do you mean one layer of a light blue, then slightly darker blue etc etc?

For my base I'm use the base black that comes from the starter kit paint set. from there I just use one coat of mordian blue. then paint the bolter/backpack.

I paint with the units completely disassembled. Seems easier to get all the detail without getting paint on other areas. Is that a good way or is there a better/smarter way of going about it?

Washes are used for shadows and highlights. They give a sense of depth and realism that is superior to traditional highlighting, since the wash goes over the entire painted surface rather than just certain areas. IMO of course.

Going from light to dark means that your basecoat comprises of mainly light colors, but after washing the brightness is dulled and shading occurs at the same time.

It's best to use spray paint in order to prime, as it gives an even coat and is far faster than priming with a brush. It also prevents a lot of primer from clumping up in certain areas.

I've found out immediately (I'm also a brand new painter but have been doing research for 2+ months on the hobby as a whole) that it's far far easier to paint without the limbs or heads as it'll prevent any mishaps. It also increases your speed, especially if you assembly line.

For whites, even with a black priming, this is what I normally do, put down a clean, solid basecoat of either Astronominican Grey or Dheneb stone, and then many layers of (slightly watered down) white, it will take quite a few layers to get it done, but will result in a smooth white, in a similar vein for red, a solid basecoat of mechrite red, followed by many layers of blood red (though generally I prefer mechrite red as my cloak colour etc)

Reds, white (and as well yellows) do take patience and many layers and time to do right.

For the trim, any normal brush will do, just remember to use the side of the brush, that way you can cover a bigger area.

I'd advise watering your mordian blue down ever so slightly (about 1:1) itthen makes for really nice smooth coats, although it may take an additional layer to cover completely.

A good wash to use, for mordian blue is a 1:1 mix of Asurmen Blue and Badab Black, either carefully brush this in the recesses with a small brush, or wash the entire model and then go back over covering all but the very edges with Mordian Blue (the first method is easier but takes practise)

Also, a tip with washes as well, this is more for shoulderpads inner edges and in more complex parts than just sculted recesses, go over where you want your wash to go with a small brush that is wet (although not heavily wet, not so theres a drop of water hanging off it) to sort of mark out where you want your wash to go (it's easy to clean up mistake sthis way) and then, while that water is still there, get some wash on your brush and touch the tip ever so slightly to the wet lines you've marked out, the wash will flow from the brush onto the water you painted out, resulting in a clean application of the wash.

Also, if you have a local GW, never be afraid to pop in and ask for painting advice, most staff (and players) i've met, will happily give you advice if you ask nicely,

the idea is that you can paint your models dark and then paint on lighter colors after, or you can paint your models light and then paint the recesses darker. Those in the latter category include people who spray prime white and those who dip or use washes, the latter of which I'd recommend for newer painters.

That or learn to do it from the other direction (which is what I do), but that will take a bit of practice.

Get a bottle of Testers Model Master paint thinner. If you add it 2:1 to any color you get a wash. Basically, the paint goes into the recesses of the model, so if you imagine an all white model, with a wash of black you get a grey model with black "shadows" in the cracks.
I thin just about everything now. I find the GW paints to be just too think, especially the foundations.
So, looking at the termie head, if you washed it in black and then added layers of thinned white (1:1), being careful not to get white in the cracks, you'd have a "naturaller" white. If you build from grey, like they said above, even better...

For the dreadnought the easiest thing to do would have been to prime him black and then dry brush boltgun metal all over him. The go back over the parts that need to be blue. This is faster than inking as you dont need to wait for him to dry before moving on.

Dry brushing is wiping most of the paint off the brush and going over an area with the mostly dry paint brush. This should pick out the raised areas and looks really good on a model that you want to look a little dirty or has a lot of metal parts. It takes some practice but it is a cool technique.

brettz123 wrote:For the dreadnought the easiest thing to do would have been to prime him black and then dry brush boltgun metal all over him. The go back over the parts that need to be blue. This is faster than inking as you dont need to wait for him to dry before moving on.

Dry brushing is wiping most of the paint off the brush and going over an area with the mostly dry paint brush. This should pick out the raised areas and looks really good on a model that you want to look a little dirty or has a lot of metal parts. It takes some practice but it is a cool technique.

That's exactly how I did most of the painting on the Dread. I started doing it on mostly everything after that. (dry brushing)

I'll be trying more of your all suggestions soon. The new brushes and paints should be here today/Monday and I'll finish up the last 12 or so of the marines/termies and post pictures. Thanks for all the advice, it's been really helpful!

Looks good to me. Just try to thin that paint a tad. However new/smaller brushes will really improve you lines. All in all I think you did good, Im no master myself I have only been painting 6-8 months. Also be sure you have a really good lighting set up.

I usually put 1 drop of water into the paints. I pour a little out into a pallet and then the drop of water.

It seems like anymore water and it gets really really runny and looks like crap.

1 drop of water to a couple of drops of paint is usually right for me, and yeah just one layer will look crap, so you have to do several to get it looking good.

Just did another coat of black foundation on my remaining marines, put more water in it and it does look much smoother.

Tried mixing some wash into my silver for the bolters but it came out terrible. Think I put too much in.

Trying to find new ways to make my units look less flat.

The trick is to paint the item with the paint first, and once its dried properly, wash over it with the wash to get the effect, not mix the two together, for mor information on citadel washes,and how to use them have a look at GW website for some good info, here is the link:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?aId=6800011

Keep up the good work, im new to all this too, it does get better with every mini you paint, definately invest in some fine detail brushes and a dry brush or two and your on your way.

to see how I got on with washes here is a link to some of my first ever paint efforts using washes on my black reach tactical squad and thier rhino.



Ellis

Alright, well since you all have given me a lot of advice on the washes, I think I'm just going to go ahead and try and 'wash' some of my units today.

Just to see if I do it right and get some feed back.

Before I do, for a space marine, should I just wash the entire unit? Or only some areas?

Edit: I did a little coat of wash over my units and wow, what a difference. Especially on their helmets and backpacks. I think the biggest one though is on the dread.

Edit2: I uploaded duplicates. I apologize. Here are the real pictures. Sorry.

http://i56.tinypic.com/2lj027a.jpg
http://i56.tinypic.com/2lj027a.jpg

lol if i had my camara i would upload some piccys and stuff about painting but i lost it