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I'm not playing 40k anymore-- I sold my 'nids and have taken up WHFB in it's stead. Lovin' me some vampire counts!
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I've decided to turn this into a blog, because its nice to track my progress and see how things come together! I'm still definitely a beginner, but already I can see that I've gotten a bit better at painting. Please, feel free to leave feedback, suggestions, ideas,questions, or whatever! I'd love to get some outside opinions.

--Anna
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Hi! I'm new to Warhammer and to painting. I honestly probably haven't painted anything since I was 9, and so I'm kinda making things up as I go along.

Anyways, I have some tyranids and some paint and I'm making things happen! I've finished one model so far, a warrior. (well, not finished- it isn't based and I still have to paint the tongue and teeth because I don't have the right colors on me, and I'm not 100% sure I'm going to do them all this way.)

I'm gonna go see if I can scrounge up a couple of AA batteries for my camera and get a few pictures.

But yeah, I figured I'd jump right into the actual forum instead of introducing myself on the introductions one, since in my experience no one ever really responds on those. Right, about those pictures!


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I like the color scheme, but I don't think it looks... finished. I don't know what else to do, though. Anyone have any suggestions?

Looks good to start, just clean up those transitions from ribcage to legs. Mabye paint the eyes a different color, red or purple for the tongue? And another color for the chitin (head and leg plates)

I think I just need a wider selection of colors. I'm gonna go to the craft store tomorrow and get a bunch more. (I only have 3 colors right now.)

I want to do lighter dry brushing over the blue and a darker blue wash.
I'm also gonna make the gun slightly different colors. maybe a bone-white over the current blue and a purple where it is now yellow? I'm not sure yet.

I started a gene stealer and I'm as far as I can get without more colors. I'll post a pic of that in a bit, too.

Nids are easy to paint. If you want that to look good for not a lot of effort. Make an ENAMEL wash of 2/3 paint thinner and one third bright green or dark blue enamel. Then just wash it completely over the figure. After that, paint in a few details, do the base, and you are done, You'll be surprised how nice and weirdy.biological it will look.

Or, for a slightly more advancedtechnique:

1. drybrush all the blue parts in a very light blue, and

2. Buy a can of Minwax polushades tudor satin, dip the piece in that, let it sit and wipe off any drips or excess that forms (this is very important).

3. Let it sit overnight and you will have a fine model. All you'll need to do is the base.

A wash would be awesome for you, imo. Try a blue wash, brown or even black.

The blue and yellow together look sick dude!

awesome pick, sorry i can not lend much advice as i just started myself. but i would like to see the eyes and tongue a different color.

In some wash advice i was told when asking about color wheels was to use green on teeth and tongues for a sickly venom type look.

Not bad. You're on your way dude.

Suggestions:

Try to keep your chitin and your body different colors, even if the chitin is a different shade of the same color (example: Navy Blue vs Sky Blue). Typically the chitin is darker, but that is for you to decide.

Hitting the whole mini with a wash and drybrush will help to accentuate depth. Washes help to darken the recesses, while drybrushing a lighter shade of the original color (in your case, blue and yellow) will cause the higher edges to pop out more. Doing both causes a wider range of hues to show, making your details more distinct.
- As was suggested, a blue or black wash would work quite well. I might also suggest trying purple

When basing (as you haven't done it yet), try to keep the base color(s) different from your miniatures color(s). That way, when looking at the whole project, the base helps to make your mini "POP" rather than looking like it's part of it. The Tyranid is standing on top of it, not glued to it, ya know?

Somebody had also suggested dipping the miniature in Minwax Polyshade "Tudor." This will act as a wash AND a protective coating. If you choose this route (more power to you! They can look wonderful), grab a can of Matte spray (I use Krylon) to dull down the gloss "Shiny." It also acts as a thin 2nd layer of protection against scratches and such.

In the end, no matter what people tell you to do with your miniatures, they are YOUR guys. YOU have to be happy with them. If you like something that somebody else does not, then so be it. At the end of the day, they sit on your shelf, no somebody elses.

Yellow is an ambitious color to start off with. You might consider a different color until you get your bearings. Even long-time painters often avoid using so much of it

Thanks guys!! These are some really helpful tips.

I did wash both of those models with the darker blue paint; I literally had 3 colors to work with (and no black or white) so I ran out today and got more.
Its hard to tell in those pictures, but the chitin is a darker blue than the body; but like I said, with only 3 colors there was only so much I could do.

Either way, I got more today and tried a different look for the warriors and finished the gene stealer (pics attached!) but I probably will change up the gene stealer look a little for my final design.

I went with a black wash, because blue was turning the yellow too green. I did dry brush highlights, but the yellow didn't really want to go over the black. I think it turned out a lot nicer than yesterday's attempt.

Definite improvement.

For your washes, you mentioned using a blue wash on the whole miniature. Keep in mind that you can use different washes for different applications on your minis. The blue on my Space wolves gets a black wash, while the yellow and bronze colors get a sepia wash. You could thin down a straight black wash for the yellow, so that it's not as harsh, while using the full strength on the blue areas. You'll find out what you like as you go.

Now, I assume that when you say craft store, you're using their brand acrylic paints?

If this is the case, most people in our hobby frown on this, but I personally think that it's fine, AS LONG AS you thin them properly. The craft store should also have acrylic paint thinners that you can use. I would tell you to just use distilled water, but craft paints have a low coverage as it is, thinning AND diluting would kill it outright. Just use lots of thin layers and your coverage will be fine. If this is not the case and you are in fact using high quality acrylics, ignore this whole part of my post

If ever you learn anything from dakka, ever, learn this: many thin layers are better than 1 thick layer.

Keep it up, and show us your updates when you get to them

Yeah, I'm using store brand acrylics. (I'm learning, and I don't want to use expensive paints just to change my mind on the color/design and waste a bunch!)
I haven't thinned most of the paint, it didn't seem like I needed to--only one color was a bit thick and I thinned it with a tiny bit of water--but hey, what do I know?

And I'm loving the way the blue turned out. I think using a brown or bronze-ish wash on the yellow would be better than the black, but yikes trying to keep it where its supposed to be... that sounds like a pain in the butt. I'll give it a shot, though!!
I'll probably do further experiments on the genestealers for now-- I like the design of the warriors and I think I'll stick with it. Next are the gargoyles and zoanthropes.

Saving money is awesome. And you are learning, so keep on rockin'. When you get yourself a bit more adjusted to the hobby, then you can upgrade.

When you apply a wash that you want to be limited to a specific space, don't absolutely fill your brush with the wash. Rather, dip just a part of the tip in the wash, then apply. That way, you don't accidentally flood your mini and have the wash running where it doesn't belong. Practice on a slip of paper if you can't get it right at first.

Keep experimenting, that's how we learn.

Welcome to the hobby

Thank you!!
I've been painting in an assembly line today... I have the yellow on half of the warriors and a few genestealers. After it dries I have to do another coat. I'm going to finish painting all of them first before I try to come up with designs for the other models.

What seems to work best for painting a whole bunch at once? The assembly line method, or one-whole-model-at-a-time method? I can see advantages to both.

Also, what kind of paint brushes do you guys use for tiny details? I found these Ultrabrush mini paint brushes in very small sizes, and while they work for most of the painting, they aren't too good for dry brushing for some reason. I know expensive paintbrushes are generally better, but again they're expensive (and I'd destroy nice paintbrushes, I'm sure).

While it's nice to save money, my experience has been that with paints in particular, going cheap just leads to frustration. It's very difficult to learn new, useful techniques when the paint doesn't respond the way that it should. I've used about every brand of paint out there over the last 15 years or so and keep coming back to Vallejo and Citadel just because they work well. The Apple Barrel and Deco Art brands from Micheal's work acceptably but the pigment isn't as finely ground and it comes out a little grainy most of the time rather than giving you a nice smooth finish. I tried the Army Painter brad a year ago and was a bit disappointed because it simply didn't coat well at all and even when trying to layer for highlights or shading, the results were uneven. P3 is the only paint that I don't think I've used to this point.

As far as paintbrushes go, you can go with the cheap ones and replace them constantly or get a couple good ones for everything, except drybrushing, and some brush soap and conditioner and have them last you for years. In the long run, good brushes that are well cared for will save you money.

I'm using FolkArt acrylics. For now, I'm ok with them; but I will take the advice of getting an acrylic paint thinner and working in lots of thin layers. The yellow is finicky, and I figured it would be going into the project, but I don't mind the streaks. They're only noticeable if you look very close, and on the table it isn't nearly as obvious.
I'm also gonna go with replacing crap paint brushes for now. The little pack of 20 mini brushes I got was $1.99, and I'm still using the original 5 I started with (I have one dedicated to each color). And I've used the mini brushes for everything except washing; I haven't really touched the "normal" sized brushes I bought (those are cheap kid-project brushes, too).

I am interested in inking, though. I have a pot of calligraphy ink, its Higgins brand waterproof Black India ink. (It says drawing ink on the back). Would that work for my models?

Still wondering about the ink.

Also got my gargoyles primed! Ready to get painting them!!

India ink? Nope, don't do it.

The inks that we refer to are specific to the hobby (more recently replaced with washes).

Lets see those gargoyles!

the second set of pictures looks amazing.. Great for tabletop quality.

I'll take some pics tomorrow, way too tired right now. I'm trying to decide what color to do the membrane of the gargoyles' wings that will be in keeping with the current color scheme. Orange was suggested to me, but I think I want to go lighter than the arms (which I was planning on making the same yellow as the Warriors'). Any suggestions? Again, I'll post some pics tomorrow which will probably help with getting an idea of what they will look like.


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Oh, and thank you Lord_Ghazghkull I'm happy with how they're turning out! They wouldn't win any awards for neatest paint job, but I think the colors look pretty good on the tyranids.

Ok, heres one of the gargoyles. Its obviously not done, but I just wanted to see which color for the wings I liked better... and I can't decide. I like them both! What do you guys think? Any suggestions for different colors?

I definitely like the orange better than the blue, but I think it needs to be lighter, so that you can see where arms stop and membrane starts. Mix the orange color with a little bit of white to bring it up a few shades, then rock it. Just remember to write down your recipe so that you can reproduce it later.

This will also make your life easier if you'll be mixing colors and such:
http://www.fullborerminiatures.com/articles/wetpalette.html
Tupper-ware of some type (with lid!), a sponge/cloth/papertowell (to hold the water), parchment paper (to keep the paint on), and water. Keeps your paint wet for days on end (mine typically lasts about a week or 2, depending on how much I use it). Mix your paint, put your lid on it when you're done for the day. Go back tomorrow, don't need to mix more until you run out!

The blue, even though it's not finished, I just don't like. It looks out of place to me.

My 2 cents. Either way, definitely put together a wet palette, you'll find it quite useful as you continue painting.

I also tried purple and yellow:

I like your approach here, very scientific.

Diggin' the purple and yellow... I'd say orange or yellow, imo.

Haha, thanks! I figured it's easier than painting 4 models! I like the purple and yellow the most, I think, although I like the orange too. I might even do different colors for different squads. I could also try the other light blue I have and a green or brown. Maybe I'll do that, paint one more and see if the brown or green looks good enough to consider.


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Alright, I tried a few other colors but I don't like any of them. I think a lighter green might look good, but I don't have that and I don't want to have to mix my own colors because I'm gonna be painting a LOT of gargoyles. For now I think I'll just paint all of the yellow and blue on them, and give it a while before I decide which color to do (or I might even do a wash on the two I took pictures of and see how the colors would look finalized).

I like the purple wing best. The test model looks a bit flat, but that'll get fixed when you do it up properly.

I also think that different colours for diferent squads would work well. Nothing like trying to work out who belongs to what squad in a giant mob of Nids

Alright, I'm going to paint those up a bit nicer (I probably won't paint the guns yet, these are all gonna be re-sprayed white after this, this is just to determine which wing color I like!) and then do the wash and possibly dry brushing, and see how they look a bit more finalized. Then I'll decide. I'll post pics when they're dry!

Ok, I'm too impatient to wait for them to dry. So here's them with the half-dried wash, and already they look a lot better! Still not sure which color I like, but leaning towards orange.

edit: I drybrushed them and messed up the chitin on one of them because I did it too soon, but it doesn't matter because these aren't the finals anyways. I like the purple and orange the most.

Looking good. I like the orange one best

The different colored wings would make themm stand out if you can't decide on one color

I think I'm gonna go purple.

I haven't done much painting lately, its finals time and so I've been really busy with school. But I played my 'nids for the first time today! it was 1k of tyranids + 2k orks vs 3k tau with IG & dark eldar allies. (Yes, I know, 'nids don't ally with anyone, but you have to play with what you have and sometimes you have to bend the rules. ) I didn't feel it worthy of starting a thread in the "tell us about your game" board, but I thought I'd mention it here. It ended in a draw after turn 5, but honestly I think I prefer painting the models to actually playing.

Two more weeks and finals will be over, and then the painting shall recommence!!!