First minis painted ( 1 squad tactical space marines finished)

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**ScottManDeath**

Sucked in by the DOW(2) video games and the Gaunts Ghosts novels, I decided to figure out how much I like painting and assembling figures, after having played a few games with proxy figures. Originally, I wanted to test/play Chaos Space Marines, but they only had the tactical squad at my FLGS (they coincidentally started carrying WH about a month ago), so "DO WANT! NAO" just happened. I ordered then paints, a Rhino (to see how much I like building and painting vehicles), and the 3 pack of chaos space marines, just out of defiance

So far I'm liking it and I am rather surprised that he looks like he looks for the first attempt

I kept notes (in the spoiler) and am in the process of trying out different paint schemes/techniques.

Spoiler:

I think I will eventually play chaos space marines (though I'd rather not deal with metal figures) or the Sisters of Battle when they come out with new plastic kits/codex, whenever that may be.

https://picasaweb.google.com/scottmandeath/Warhammer40kSpaceMarines?authkey=Gv1sRgCOStoPDwloqQZQ#

**MEanBOb**

Congrats on your fist mini. It looks good (and its great you thinned your paints).

It looks a bit too....blue right now, but I'm sure once you add chapter symbols and what not it will break up the blue.

Next step would be to highlight this bad boy if you want to go further with your painting.

**The Ghoma**

Good job, i would recommend learning how to highlight. It would move your mini from table top quality to low competition painting.

**Beef Nuggets**

Looks damn good for a first mini!

**Prophet40k**

Awesome job for a first mini! Keep it up!

**beef**

Thats great, My advice would be to get the Black spray undercoat GW sell/ then do the steps you have described. Its easier than trying to use paints as the first undercoat.

**Jone96**

Thats good! Specially to be first mini that you have painted. If you want to make hilights, i recomment to drybrush it with ice blue.

**Skalk Bloodaxe**

Excellent start! Your lines between colors are very clean and sharp. That's the biggest challenge I've seen that new painters encounter. You're ready for shading and highlight techniques. There are countless "how to" videos and text tutorials online. Hardest part with any of them is filtering out the bad info from the good and figuring out what specific style works best for you.

Looking forward to seeing more of your work!

**ScottManDeath**

MEanBOb wrote:Congrats on your fist mini. It looks good (and its great you thinned your paints).

The Ghoma wrote:Good job

Beef Nuggets wrote:Looks damn good for a first mini!

Prophet40k wrote:Awesome job for a first mini! Keep it up!

Thanks for the compliments and encouraging words!

MEanBOb wrote:Congrats on your fist mini. It looks good (and its great you thinned your paints).
Next step would be to highlight this bad boy if you want to go further with your painting.

The Ghoma wrote:Good job, i would recommend learning how to highlight. It would move your mini from table top quality to low competition painting.

Jone96 wrote:Thats good! Specially to be first mini that you have painted. If you want to make hilights, i recomment to drybrush it with ice blue.

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote: You're ready for shading and highlight techniques. There are countless "how to" videos and text tutorials online. Hardest part with any of them is filtering out the bad info from the good and figuring out what specific style works best for you.

I don't have all shades of blue since I am currently "just testing" whether I like it (which cost me $200 for paints, a rhino and a tactical squad, lol). I have mordian blue, regal blue, enchanted blue and ultramarines blue.

I experimented with two dudes, however with mixed results.

Both got 3 coats of skull white, then one got 2 coats of enchanted blue and the other 2 coats of regal blue. Then, I washed them both with azurman blue and then highlighted both on the edges with brighter shades of blue. Then I dry brushed ultramarines blue on the flamer guy, and a mix of skull white and ultramarines blue on the beaky guy. Which made him look like he blew up a bag of flour :( I however like the detail on the back pack, but in general I think the dry brushed highlights are to bright.

For the weapons, I didn't drybrush, but I repainted the edges with a bit of mithril silver (after chainmail + badab black), (and blood red on the flamer tank after mechrite red + devlan mud) which I rather like:

So the next thing I'll try is this: Base coat with mordian blue (to cover the plastic), then regal blue (to darken it), then mordian blue to paint the edges, then enchanted blue on the edges, then ultramarines blue on the edges (maybe skull white on the tiniest bits), then azurman blue wash. Then, depending on how it looks drybrushing with enchanted blue or ultramarines blue.

I really like the washes, they darken the model and they hide the discontinuitues between the paint shades. I hower learned that I don't want to wash over the drybrushed areas. (like next to the trims of the pauldrons of the beaky guy where the badab black of the trim dirtyfies the relatively bright.

beef wrote:Thats great, My advice would be to get the Black spray undercoat GW sell/ then do the steps you have described. Its easier than trying to use paints as the first undercoat.

Is the GW spray smelly after it's on the model? I played with Krylon plastic spray before, but it is impractical, since I don't have space to air out (due to living in a student appartment) and I don't want the mountain lions/ rattle snakes eat my little dudes :(

Skalk Bloodaxe wrote:Excellent start! Your lines between colors are very clean and sharp.

Thanks! I was a bit exhausted on the beaky guy (after painting for 5h), so the trims of the pauldron are a bit sloppy :/

It also seems that my new GW fine detail brush died a horrible death; the bristles aren't pointy anymore, so I used the GW starter brush, for all the details, including the eyes. I however got some small 00 sized brushes from the campus store to experiment.

Paint for the paint god!

**ScottManDeath**

Number 4 (paint time about 5h maybe) got a base coat with mordian blue, then regal blue, then mordian blue to paint the edges, then ultramarines blue on the edges and then the azurman blue wash. No drybrushing.

I really like the size 00 brush I got from the campus store. I can now easily do all the fine details

I used mithril silver and blood red (with a bit of skull white) to highlight with thin lines on the melta gun, the tank and the wax of the seal.

The only issue is that he is very dark. I'm thinking about skipping the regal blue (only the base coat of mordian blue) and use enchanted blue and ultramarines blue for the highlighting on the next guy before the wash, which I might have to thin down a bit in order to prevent too much darkening of the model in general.

**feluca**

I like that last marine alot! You're doing great for someone new to the hobby! Keep it up

And may I add that you make gorgeous pictures of mini's? No really, do you have some sort of secret? xD

**Nosus**

That last one looks nice, good work

**ScottManDeath**

I'm glad you like them!

I fear that I'm liking painting them too much

Must. Get. More. Paints. And. Minis.

Number 5 lives! And has more contrast than number 4

Base coat with mordian blue, then I stippled ultramarines blue coarsly on the edges, then I dry/smearbrushed with rather thin skull white, and then painted select edges again with skull white, and then azurman blue. Next time, I think I'll skip the ultramarines blue, it didn't make a big difference after the wash.

Number 1 (right, painted a week ago) and number 4 (left, from 2 days ago):

Family picture

I use my old Canon Powershot S3IS camera in the super macro mode, so I can stick the lens directly in from of the mini. They look better on the pictures than they do in real life, due to the artifical light (60W, about 10 inches away from the mini), which makes them much brighter. I'll take some in day light (on the window sill), which matches the brightness better.

**revackey**

I'm loving #5 looks really great!

Keep up the good work.

**Skinnereal**

Extremely good work. They must have taken some time to do. And, with so few colours.
Great eyes on #1.
Get the pics on ther gallery.

The only thing seems to be the flash down the middle of the weapons. It's the last thing I did on mine, and the time spent on it is time taken out of painting.

One thing I've been doing lately is drilling the gun barrels. It seems to look better, but if it's not centred correctly, it looks odd.

**Coolyo294**

I experimented with two dudes, however with mixed results.

LOLOLOLOL you experimented with two dudes. Sorry. I couldn't resist.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
They look pretty good however.

**Izeya82**

Nice job. And about 5x better than my first paint job =) Dang thick paint hehe

**ScottManDeath**

Thanks for the feedback!

I'm currently finishing (they have been base coated, drybrushed and washed, need details and final assembly) the final 5 for an FLGS Warhammer event this Saturday, I'll post new pics and an update after that.

@Izeya82
Said store event is this coming Saturday at Game Night Games at Sugarhouse (https://www.gamenightgames.com/index.php?dispatch=pages.view&page_id=60); I'm planning to go there and look around and I will bring my 10 shady smurfs. Are you planning to attend as well?

**Movac**

Izeya82 wrote:Nice job. And about 5x better than my first paint job =) Dang thick paint hehe

**Rogan**

I just love when newbies try to paint their miniatures as good as they can. There's lots of people around these days simply slapping the three-colours-minimum-tournament-paintjobs on their lads (which is a shame)...

You did well, and I think I needn't add any further advice about how you might improve, since everything has been said already. So apologies for a rather short and useless comment ^^

**ScottManDeath**

Skinnereal wrote:Extremely good work. They must have taken some time to do. And, with so few colours.
Great eyes on #1.
Get the pics on ther gallery.

The only thing seems to be the flash down the middle of the weapons. It's the last thing I did on mine, and the time spent on it is time taken out of painting.

One thing I've been doing lately is drilling the gun barrels. It seems to look better, but if it's not centred correctly, it looks odd.

Yeah, the next time, I will be more thorough with deflashing. And since I plan to magnetize the arms, if not the bases of my soon (i.e. before the price increase) to be orderd chaos army *(2x terminator lord, 1x demon prince, 3x chaos space marines, 2x khorne berserkers), I plan on getting a drill anyways. Right now, I'm thinking about getting Proxon rotary tool with a table drill press stand and a small table vice. Any other recommendations?

coolyo294 wrote:
I experimented with two dudes, however with mixed results.

LOLOLOLOL you experimented with two dudes. Sorry. I couldn't resist.
Automatically Appended Next Post:
They look pretty good however.

Yeah, you keep on laughing. I even paid for their gatorade, but the bastards wouldn't vox back. Mhpf

revackey wrote:I'm loving #5 looks really great!

Keep up the good work.

Glad you like them

Rogan wrote:I just love when newbies try to paint their miniatures as good as they can. There's lots of people around these days simply slapping the three-colours-minimum-tournament-paintjobs on their lads (which is a shame)...

You did well, and I think I needn't add any further advice about how you might improve, since everything has been said already. So apologies for a rather short and useless comment ^^

I like to make pretty things, so until I am starting a family, I am going to paint little dudes

@Rogan: Es ist schon witzig, ich studiere nun schon seit Jahren in Utah, und kein GW Laden weit und breit (Denver ist wohl der naechste) Aber wenn ich am Freitag nach .de zum Heimaturlaub fliege, bin ich innerhalb von einer Autostunde zum GW Laden in Erfurt. Hab' gleich mal einen Besuch eingeplant

So at last, the final 5, wich were done like #5:
Armor: mordian blue + ultramarines blue coarsely on the edges + drybrushing white + highlighting white + azurman blue.
Flesh: tallarn flesh + dwarven flesh drybrushing + devlan mud + dwarven flesh highlights.
Metal in the face: chainmail + badab black + highlights with mithril silver.
Base: rocks were prepainted in a sort of reddish brown, so I drybrushed and highlighted them whith bleached bone and washed them with badab black.

**Cave_Dweller**

Really good work on those! The bases contrast nicely with the color and I'm happy to see someone new to the hobby with such passion to do a good and thorough job like that.

Well above average and especially considering that many don't even bother to paint their armies whatsoever.

**Skinnereal**

I'm terrible at faces. That serg looks great.

**steeds of war**

Alot better than me and youve only just begun but i'm hoping to start again painting wise with the eldar

**ScottManDeath**

I'm glad you like them. I read a bit and then made the bases bright to contrast the smurfs.

And my chaos dudes are in the mail, so I'll start testing paint schemes soon

Maybe I will get some cheap plastic toy soldiers to test the spray paint on and the new paints/washes that I will get as well.

**Ambull**

If I was able to paint this well when I started up in the old days I'd be extremely proud: this is excellent work, the photos are sharp too which is great because it gives us all an excellent view of the progress and the variations.

The basing is excellent: nice contrast to show off the blues of the minis, but adds a nice touch of environment and context without being too distracting.

Get more minis, paint more - you have skills and an ability with paint that many take YEARS to earn. Seriously.

**jelrik**

Ah we have a Natural among us. keep up the works I think you will paint amazing things.

**ScottManDeath**

Thanks for the compliments

Here is the gallery with some of the images shown in the thread:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-43197-17299_First%20Painted%20Miniatures%20-%20Tactical%20Squad.html

I aquired some more boxes (among them some blood crushers which I will use as bikers with a marine riding on them) while being on a business trip/vacation and have been looking around for inspiration of how to paint the chaos army and their bases.

Right now, I'm tending towards lava bases and possibly some of the ash world bases with orange glowing crystals on them. The chaos marines then would be some combination/subset of blue, red and dark purple to contrast the bases, in any case with gold trimes

I will post a new thread once I have more refined ideas

**Malivon**

Good job on the painting keep it up. Now all you have to do is get good with green stuff and start churning out some hot conversions and bases