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I just kinda had the idea and went with it. Constructive criticism is appreciated!

I would suggest more work on the details. Even a coat of wash would make them stand out a bit. Not a bad job so far I would say.

I'm no expert, but adding some washes would go a long way to adding depth, and breaking up flat areas. Particularly on that yellow. I use 'rust brown' on my yellows, but I suspect it went out of production years ago. Just a mid to light coloured brown, then touch up the edges with yellow again. Nice neat job though.

I do need to wash the gold but all the purple areas are washed with Badab Black.


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Also, Would say these qualify as good TT quality? If not what would these qualify as?

As the washed gold, once dryed, will deserve a lining in gold respecting the imaginary light source position the same the purple parts of the armors will be better finished with a good edge lightning in light purple.

You should also pick out some of the fine details in the helmets with some other colour, maybe make the mouth grills and hoses a bit darker and make the lenses a different colour, like white or red. Purple and gold works nicely, but every detail on the helmet shouldn't be gold.

 Rysgame wrote:
I do need to wash the gold but all the purple areas are washed with Badab Black.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, Would say these qualify as good TT quality? If not what would these qualify as?

I would qualify them as TT, with alittle more attention though they could definitely move up a few notches. They are definitely a good start as you've lay'ed out a good foundation to work up from. If I may offer a few suggestions:

First the Purple. Now that you've shaded it with badab black , you should work on bringing the base color back up by applying thin layers of the purple back to the solid, broad areas of the armor, avoiding getting to close to the darker recesses that you've shaded.Consider that a first highlight. Don't be afraid to play with thinning your paint, a little water on your brush does wonders for application. Thin paint is very important to achieve smooth finishes.Be mindful though not to overload your brush or you may lose control of your paint. I would try this on one of the Terminators since they have nice broad open areas. Also think of where your light source is, light usually coming from the top means the undersides of the model should be darker while the upper sections being lighter.

Applying an edge highlight would be the last thing you apply and is easy if you just add a small amount of your favorite bone color to your base purple and paint along the edges. You don't have to go nuts and paint every edge, just pick a few places that you think light would bounce of sharply to accent it.

The Gold should be washed with a nice sepia wash. I prefer Gryphonne Sepia but the new sepia shade will work too. A good tip with gold is to undercoat it first with a brown color. Basically paint those gold sections brown first then apply the gold in thin layers. Then wash. When the wash is dry, come back to it with the original gold and do the same thing as the purple, repaint the broad open areas( large parts of the helmets) .

Some people are intimidated by washes. Most washes take a little while to dry so what you should do is learn to manipulate it while its wet using your brush, pushing the wash around to where you want to shadow and moving it away from where you don't want it.

Add details that will create some separation of the components. Like painting the jump pack straps, jump pack vents and the soft armor ( those joints at the hips and elbows) bolt-gun metal then giving them a black wash. Paint the eyes black first then paint another color inside the black, the sky blue of the plasma pistol or red would look nice. Cloth parts like tabards, loin cloths and seals should be painted in a tan or bone color to make them stand out then given a wash then reapply to the high parts. Add some variety to the Assault marines , maybe painting a few knee or elbow pads a different color, or the heraldry shields on the Terminators. A freehand symbol or two here and there. I like to add inscriptions by using very thin white paint and a fine point brush to draw small squiggly lines on open flat areas to give them some more dimension.

Bases: Your sand seems a bit big. But that's not that big a deal. I find a nice way to add detail to base sand with minimal effort is a simple wash of brown shade or wash and then after it dries an ultra light dry brushing of bone color. Adds so much dimension to it. I highly recommend you get a little tub of static grass. Just add a few spots of it on the base and it will break up the solid sand feel and look great.


I hope this helps. Like I said you've got a good foundation to work up from, just keep at it. Also I highly suggest looking up some painting videos on YouTube, it helps immensely to see someone applying techniques.

Very good advice man. I will have to look around for some tutorials. I think I am just really afraid of mucking things up. I just got to get out of my comfort zone.

I like the idea of a royal purple and gold color scheme, but you need to work on brush control and pick out the finer details. Also, never forget that washes are you friend!

A good start, but everything is a little flat, which as people above have explained, washes and highlighting will help conteract, check out the advice I got on some of my models about just about everything painting, some of the advice in the this post really did make my painting go up leaps and bounds ahead of what it was.

http://www.astronomican.com/showthread.php?24282-Eldercaveman-s-Blood-Angels-WIP-thread.