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So here is my first attempt at painting models ever. It is still not finished. I don't have many brushes and I am afraid of messing up even more without them. There are a bunch of spots where I accidentally touched the brush and got the wrong color there. I have to do a bunch of touch ups to clean it, especially with the highlights. I also haven't done any of the trim or metal bits except from the four vents on the top. I am lacking the paints I need to finish as well, but I am happy with my first foray into the hobby. Any tips?
This is for my Space Wolves force. I chose to do a darker grey and dark red combo with gold trim, a lot like the picture on the codex cover. I don't really like the pale blue default.

You seem to have a solid start there, like you said there is a bit of cleaning up to do, the red for example seems to have spilled over in some areas. After that it will be a simple case of picking out some of the details (probably in metallics) and you will have a very solid rhino.

For a first attempt this is amazing, I'm still shying away from painting tanks after 12 years just because of the sheer amount of surface needing painting (I like my miniatures small and detailed).

Look forward to seeing more.

Thank you! Yeah, it was a bit hard to keep paint in places I wanted it to be, due to my terrible brushes.

Thanks again. I always thought painting was some task only demigods could pull off. I mean, it is hard, but like with anything, you get better the more you do it. Hopefully I will be painting as well as some of the people on here soon.

I will be sure to post an update once I finish adding this gold to the trim and touching up some spots.

You can snag cheap brushes at places like walmart or hobbytown if you have one near you that are still decent quality 5-10 bucks for ten brushes or so. I try to stay away from synthetic brushes imo they do a terrible job I prefer sables and the camel hair ones myself.

As far as getting paint in the wrong places try not to worry about it overly as you can always go back over the spots later with the correct colors. You will find touch up work like that to be a pretty standard part of painting any model as you go on in your painting career. If you worry less about the mistakes youl relax a fair bit while painting and find your having an easier time of it too.

Tank looks pretty spiffy too would like to see more

If you are having problems with brushing paint on the wrong areas by mistake you can mask the areas you want untouched with tape.

The best tape for this is the Tamiya brand tape (yellow in color) as you can leave it on the model for a few days without problems. This can be found at most stores with scale model building kits/supplies.

You can also use good (eg, not really cheap stuff) painters tape as long as you remove it when you are done for the day or it will leave sticky stuff behind. Blue Tack and/or Silly Putty works well for small non flat surfaces as well but once again do not leave on for long periods of time.

Looks good man. Which company are you going to be making?

Lt.Soundwave wrote:You can snag cheap brushes at places like walmart or hobbytown if you have one near you that are still decent quality 5-10 bucks for ten brushes or so. I try to stay away from synthetic brushes imo they do a terrible job I prefer sables and the camel hair ones myself.

As far as getting paint in the wrong places try not to worry about it overly as you can always go back over the spots later with the correct colors. You will find touch up work like that to be a pretty standard part of painting any model as you go on in your painting career. If you worry less about the mistakes youl relax a fair bit while painting and find your having an easier time of it too.

Tank looks pretty spiffy too would like to see more

I am going to be getting a set soon. Thanks for the tip on the brush material, I will try and avoid the synthetics.

Yeah, I have already tried doing that already, and it isn't very tough. That is some good advice. I am also going to start using my lighted desktop magnifying thing too, haha.
Thanks! I will post another picture when I have finished or come close to it.

ZatGuy wrote:If you are having problems with brushing paint on the wrong areas by mistake you can mask the areas you want untouched with tape.

The best tape for this is the Tamiya brand tape (yellow in color) as you can leave it on the model for a few days without problems. This can be found at most stores with scale model building kits/supplies.

You can also use good (eg, not really cheap stuff) painters tape as long as you remove it when you are done for the day or it will leave sticky stuff behind. Blue Tack and/or Silly Putty works well for small non flat surfaces as well but once again do not leave on for long periods of time.

I didn't use tape this time, because I wanted to just get to it and see how well I did without. I think I will keep an eye out for the Tamiya tape, or pick up some tack. Thanks for the tip!

apocalypse022 wrote:Looks good man. Which company are you going to be making?

Thank you. I haven't yet decided. Either Engir Krakendooms, or my own made up one.