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Hi i'm Idols. I spend hours at the end of the week browsing the P&M blogs on here, and I love them, so hopefully I can just add to this.

I started 'the hobby' in about 2005 when I was 11 years old by collecting the LotR miniatures included with the Battle Games in Middle Earth magazines. I rarely painted them, and never even used a scalpel or clippers to get them out of the sprue. I never played a single game during my days collecting, as I knew nobody who played and couldn't get to the closest GW without a lift from my parents. I did buy a Tau battleforce and the 40k starter set (Macragge) however I didn't play this or paint my 40k models either.

Fast forward eight years and here I am, starting the hobby up again. I've always had that itch, as the manager of my local GW says: "the itch to collect plastic men never really goes away". He's totally right, and upon finding out my flatmate collected LotR and WH fantasy, I ended up buying a Hobbit starter set. While this isn't the best starter set i've bought, it still kicked off my love for the hobby again. I played my first proper games of LotR and wow...literally the most fun I have ever had!

At the moment i'm collecting Uruk Hai in LotR and Word Bearers for 40k. Here's an Uruk Shaman I converted (I'm not a huge fan of the official model, and it's really expensive)




The staff is made from a pikeman arm at a different angle with a piece of paper clip drilled through and a hormagaunt talon added to the top. The skull is a vampire counts piece (from my flatmate).

Here is my first Word Bearer. Extremely WIP, just testing the red I have (Mephiston) and trying my hand on the trim. The trim painting went awfully and it looks like I will be repainting it, then repainting the red, etc until I get it right!!



I got a helbrute, 5 chosen and a Lord from ebay for very little with a box of Khorne Berzerkers (which will be sold on as I hear they're rubbish right now - probably for a profit too!). I've also ordered a CSM box for £16 as opposed to GWs £23 which I think is ridiculous (especially after seeing the prices 8 years ago).

I know these pics are a little rubbish, but when my CSM box arrives you will hopefully see my love of converting at work. I plan to use black templar/dark angel bits for their tabards and hoods, but can't find them at a reasonable price at the moment so it may take a while to get my stuff built.

Looking forward to watching your progress Idols, on the CSM you will find that a red wash over the red and black over the metal will give it a bit more depth.

Painting from a black undercoat will also give you a darker feel and its easier than painting over white for dark colours

Thanks for the encouragement. The WB will certainly be washed to hell and back once I sort the trim out. I lost patience with it eventually, i'm too used to painting the simple uruks.

What red wash would you recommend?

Here's another LotR model until I finish the WB (which i'm getting on with right now.)

Subbed! Loving the Uruk pose

 lipsdapips wrote:
Subbed! Loving the Uruk pose

Here are some more converted Uruks as somebody is appreciating them

They're just reposed, but it gives great variety to the force on the tabletop. These were the first minis I painted in 8 years so they're not the greatest!




I'm painting the Word Bearer right now

For my World Eaters I use the old GW Baal Red, if you dont have it the new version should do the same job which is Carroburg Crimson.

Weirdly enough I only have a handful of paints and that is one of them. Will post results within the hour


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Apologies, the photos could be better. Here is my first 40k mini painted in 8 years (I was even worse, then).

I'm a bit disappointed about how scruffy it looks, however I think this is largely because the mini is so detailed and it's sometimes hard to work out what's what. When I get my simpler standard CSM box in a few days, hopefully I will do a bit better.




Advice would be appreciated. I used mephiston red for the armour, leadbelcher for the trim, and dryad dark for the tabard and scabbard. I then washed the armour in carroburg crimson and everything else in agrax earthshade.

I think he's looking loads better already

The Chosen aren't the easiest models to paint as all their parts seem to run together, I think you will find the normal CSM's easier as there parts are more defined.

One thing I noticed is the back of the knee, it's normally done in the same metallic cover, well thats how I paint mine.

Example below, also shows the bonus of painting over a black undercoat.

 GiraffeX wrote:
I think he's looking loads better already

The Chosen aren't the easiest models to paint as all their parts seem to run together, I think you will find the normal CSM's easier as there parts are more defined.

One thing I noticed is the back of the knee, it's normally done in the same metallic cover, well thats how I paint mine.

Example below, also shows the bonus of painting over a black undercoat.

Yeah if the detail was better defined I think I would have done a better job.

Good point, will paint those now!

I can see where the mini would be better if using a black undercoat. I'm running out of black and wanted to use the last of it on my Uruk Hai before a game on thursday so will see how much mileage I get out of the can!

I really like how you've posed your models! I haven't done any converting or assembling and I don't know if I'd have the knack for it. You, on the other hand, certainly do! Keep it up!

Are you having trouble with painting the details themselves, or with knowing what colors go on what parts, or just making your hand do what your brain wants? I'm really new to painting, too, and i've had issues with all 3!

If painting the details is the hard part, maybe it is your brushes? I got some disposable plastic crappy hobby ones that cost $2 for a pack of 10, and while they're fine for painting general areas and drybrushing, they're crap for details. I bought a couple of nicer (not really nice, but decent) brushes for doing detail work and it has helped SO much.

If it is determining what colors go where, looking at pictures of other peoples' paint jobs has really helped me out. While 'nids are generally a lot more segmented in their color placement, there have been a few spots where I was unsure, and google image search is your friend!

And if its the last problem, well, then just practice!! I've only been doing this for a month or two and already I've learned so much and have gotten so much better at painting.

Hopefully some of this helps!