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Okay, so I'm painting my first squad and I've gotten to the point where I'm not really sure what I want to do with it. Most of the major/easy stuff is done, but it definitely needs touching up, details, finishing touches, etc. The Captain especially isn't finished. What should I do? Here are some pics:

edit: sorry for the bad pics. I only have my phone. The flesh actually doesn't look that bad in person (it's actually an egg-white with a flesh wash), but it is most definitely lacking detail.

edit2: looking at it now, I'm going to drybrush a lighter shade of purple onto the Aquila and do lighter green highlights. What about all the other misc items like frag grenades, pouches, the Captain's Banner, the Captain's torso? What should I do there?

The pics aren't bad but if you put them individually ona white background and floor the detail will show better.
Just put a fold in a sheet of printer paper and propit against a wall. If you look in my gallery you will see I use my laptop.
Get a nice bright hobby light they aren't expensive and you will save your eyesight and see details you would otherwise miss.

As for the models I really like the colour scheme but one or both main colours could do with brightening up I think.
An ink wash on the faces would show the details and then you will get a better idea of where to highlight features.

These show great potential and I will be watching them develop with interest.

Have a look at this thread:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/416755.page

I picked up some tricks and tips from it and I've been painting for years.

Go through the Dakka Tutorials at random and you will be amazed what little techniques you'll find that apply to what you want to do.

Looks very promising.

As for the details on the captain: paint them how you like. My advice for the details is to stay simple. Keep to similar colours. You could maybe throw ing some reds, beiges, golds or greys into the captain to give him some zing, but try to sick to about only a few colours or else it starts to look rather messy.

A good wash and a couple of drybrushes should give that miniature some life.

Also as Sonophos has mentioned, you can find many guides and tips on Dakka and Youtube if you look around. I advise a few contributors on youtube like MiniWarGaming or Girlpainting.

Happy painting.

Love the colour scheme. Is that Dark Angels Green, Liche Purple and Scorched Brown?

As for the finishing touches you were asking about, a few highlights and some drybrushing would really make the squad pop. Here's what I would do:

Captain's Banner - Drybrush Calthan Brown to make the raised areas stand out. Drybrush Bleached Bone onto the skull. You'll probably need to do a few coats to really get that bone colour to stand out over the brown base coat. Paint the spikes in Boltgun Metal followed by a wash of Devlan Mud.

Chest Eagles - Drybrush Chainmail.

Frag Grenades - Paint Boltgun Metal, wash with Badab Black.

Pouches - Paint Calthan Brown, wash with Devlan Mud.

Guns - Drybrush Boltgun Metal.

Use red to shade the green armour instead of black. So you have a green base, shade with 2:1 green and red, much more dynamic than using just black. With the purple you can shade with a yellow ochre or you can turn to the same red as shading the armour. Your colours are green and purple, now purples accent is yellow and greens accent is red so bringing out the yellow in the green when you highlight and red in the purple when you shade would bring cohesion to the two colours.

Just managed to do a little more work today. It's tough finding free time. I didn't have much time, but the little I did feels like it made a difference. I only worked on 3 models. This is my first real painting so I'm trying to keep it as simple as I can. I'm just trying to get the basics right and with the right technique before I go any further. Also do the grey accents on the bolter work or is it too much? I'm still iffy on them.

Look like you are off to a good start there.

Eagles and skulls can be spiced up either with white or black or gold. I would suggest gold since it is easier to see and is not as hard as white.

Also, try washing the entire thing with badab black before doing your highlighting.

Keep updating these, I am sure you will go far.

Yup, definitely needs a little something on the skulls and details.

Don't wash the Captain's face with black though, try using brown ink like devlan mud then doing highlights.
I'd also be tempted to recommend using a leviathan purple wash on the purple areas.

With darker colours I like doing a fairly broad highlight then washing over it and then doing a final highlight on just the very brightest areas.

So if you have highlighted already, worry not. There tend to be many paths to the same end and it is what works for you that's the best way.

So I've continued this army, and here's is where I'm at right now. The green highlighting might be a bit too bright, and the shield isn't done, but overall I'm really liking this color scheme and I think my painting has improved. I like the end result much more now.

edit: yes, I see the glaring mold lines. I'm still relatively new to this and forgot to clean those up before priming. It won't happen again, except on basically all the models I already have primed, which unfortunately is almost all of them...

i'd say that you are on a good path. when highlighting, remember not to have too much paintt on the brush and to work with the side of the brush, not the tip.

if you're worried about the mold lines, just scrape them off with your knife, and then reapply the paint to them.

also, paint the eagles with gold, wash them with a dark brown ink and highlight with gold again

Cheers

Its really cool to see the improvement you have made from the first marines!