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This is as close to finished as I will be getting with this model. I am just looking for a bit of feedback on the overall paint work (i.e highlighting, colour etc) The model isn't screaming with "wow look at me" But this is my first finished assault troop, and just wanted other peoples opinions, good and bad, or ways to improve, before I set about finishing my troops off.

Thanks.

Good, solid, tabletop.

I'd spend some more time cleaning up mold lines. The legs jumped out at me, a few other places as well. I also think your highlights a little too sharp. Might tone them back. I'm no expert, but they just seem off to me.

I appreciate your comment Nevelon. When you say clean up the mold lines, do you mean the "cracks" in the armor? do you reckon another black wash into them?

When you say legs jumped out? what do you mean?

Sorry for sounding quite stupid in my reply, I just realy want advice on how to improve my model.

Thanks again Nev.

Mould lines are a side effect of the plastic casting process, which manifests as small raised lines along a surface.
Highlighted:

Use a knife and scrape it off, there's probably a ton of tutorials on specific ways to do it. It may be too late to do it now, depends how willing you are to redo that whole leg, you can either do it now or bear it in mind for after.
By "Legs jumping out" he means the highlight is very sharp on the top of the kneeguard, which draws the eye to it immediately, distracting from the whole model. Try using a more muted colour, I guess.

 RunningWithScissors49 wrote:
Mould lines are a side effect of the plastic casting process, which manifests as small raised lines along a surface.
Highlighted:

Spoiler:

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Use a knife and scrape it off, there's probably a ton of tutorials on specific ways to do it. It may be too late to do it now, depends how willing you are to redo that whole leg, you can either do it now or bear it in mind for after.
By "Legs jumping out" he means the highlight is very sharp on the top of the kneeguard, which draws the eye to it immediately, distracting from the whole model. Try using a more muted colour, I guess.

Yup. Said it better then I could. The "legs jumping out" was both the mould lines and the highlight. I am currently cleaning up an assault squad myself, so have a heightened awareness of where those lines are. Also on the inside of the jump jets barrels, near the pack.

The cracks in the jump pack would be good if gone, but that's probably a lot of work. The things just have bad joins in obvious places. In an ideal world, the seem would be filed, cracks filled with green stuff, and then smoothed. Mine look a lot like yours, for what it's worth. But if you are looking for places to improve, that's one of them.

On the highlighting, for practical advice, others can help you more then I can. I'm a basecoat and drybrush/wash guy, so the only edging I get is from that. I suspect that you need to go with a color closer to your base, or thin your paints more. It's just a very hard line which looks artificial, rather then natural.

I'm no expert painter, but I do look at a lot of pretty pictures. So I have some idea of what my betters do. But I am a sucker for threads about Ultramarines, so thought I'd put my two cents in.

Keep up the good work!

Thank you both very much for clearing up the mould lines, I may consider getting rid of them, being honest I thought it was just part of the model, although looking at it now, it clearly shouldn't be there.

With regards to highlighting, I have tried a dry brush technique, and felt it worked quite well, but left a misty residue behind, don't get me wrong I got the raised edges of my models, but also had a misty 'backdraft' with it. So I thought I would try my hand at painting the highlights on. (Nev, I would be interested to see some of your work, a fellow ultramarine, maybe you could share come picutres of your work?)

Again though, thank you for taking the time to add some feedback, I do really appreciate it, I am looking for ways to best improve my models.

The highlights on the legs are too much I agree. I was going to attempt a half dry brush, half painted highlight, with the dry brush on the lower section and body, then paint the jet pack and helmet on to give it a little more definition (as I always fail when it comes to drybrushing a helmet lol).

You guys opinion again would be greatly appreciated.

Nice and simple, but will look great if your whole army is to the same standard. A bait of Lamian Medium will help hide the glossy bit around the tranfers

Thank you stargasm, I will certainly use the Lamian Medium idea, bloody transfers! wish I could freehand lol.

Wow this is the first time i think a UM looks cool! I thnk the dark area's work very nice on this model.

Thank you Spincr, I really appreciate your comments, was starting to think that this attempt rather sucked lol :(.

I have decided I will add some "burn" marks where the jet pack thrusters are, just trying to find out how to do it now.

Emperor.. We have found it.. A good-looking Ultramarine.. BRING ME UP THE COMMANDER ON THE VOX

 BrotherOfBone wrote:
Emperor.. We have found it.. A good-looking Ultramarine.. BRING ME UP THE COMMANDER ON THE VOX

Haha! Thank you battle brother.

Mould lines are a pain in the backside (I bought my first "fine cast" model the other day and was horrified about how much cleaning it needed - maybe I got a duff one) and sometimes you don't see it until the model is painted!

The bits I would add are possibly some dirt on the boots (dry brush for dry and wet looking mud) and some blood on the chainsword, but that's really just because I like the mid-battle kinda look. Also the mud might not fit your base look if its more gravel looking?

Noticed you're already looking at soot/burn marks on the jet packs, nice touch. You can buy weathering stuff if you want to try that or you could dry brush some black on, see how it looks? Start small and add as you like.


I like the model though; I think your painting is really very neat. A fully painted squad is going to look rather nice on the board!

Yeah noball, I am similar to you (although looking at the model you wouldn't think so) but I prefer a mid battle type look, with dirt, blood and a messy, but tidy, looking model lol. Don't like models that are too "clean". But just wanted to get the basic's right.

I will maybe drybrush some light dirt/dust colour across the boots and hope for the best, and drybrush some black around the jet pack with a thin line highlight on the inner moulds of the jet pack. (ill add some pictures and see what you guys think)

 mikeyboy69x wrote:
Thank you both very much for clearing up the mould lines, I may consider getting rid of them, being honest I thought it was just part of the model, although looking at it now, it clearly shouldn't be there.

With regards to highlighting, I have tried a dry brush technique, and felt it worked quite well, but left a misty residue behind, don't get me wrong I got the raised edges of my models, but also had a misty 'backdraft' with it. So I thought I would try my hand at painting the highlights on. (Nev, I would be interested to see some of your work, a fellow ultramarine, maybe you could share come picutres of your work?)

Again though, thank you for taking the time to add some feedback, I do really appreciate it, I am looking for ways to best improve my models.

The highlights on the legs are too much I agree. I was going to attempt a half dry brush, half painted highlight, with the dry brush on the lower section and body, then paint the jet pack and helmet on to give it a little more definition (as I always fail when it comes to drybrushing a helmet lol).

You guys opinion again would be greatly appreciated.

If you are interested in my work, I have some pictures in my gallery. But I will warn you, I'm a mediocre painter and a worse photographer, so enter with caution. I also sporadically update my blog (link in sig) if you want to listen to more of my unfocused ramblings.

Criticizing someone else's work is always tough, particularly on the internet. Without tone an inflection, everything comes across as overly harsh and curt. And you never know exactly what level of skill someone has, or how much time and effort went into the piece. Here on Dakka we have people polishing their latest golden demon project rubbing elbows with new painters proud that they finally got a squad painted to a 3 color minimum. And everything in between. Some times it can be daunting, looking at all the high-end work out there. Your "bog standard" assault marine is painted better then about half the armies at my FLGS. Do you have room for improvement? Yes, we all do; everyone does. But you should still take pride with what you have.

Hey Mikeyboy,

I paint BA, which are of course red instead of blue. I've done all of one Librarian, and I've actually been having a harder time figuring out exactly which shades to use for blue, but maybe this advice for reds will help you blend the edges more since I think you have your shades down pretty good.

Firstly, check my gallery. They're not great images or outstanding paintjobs by any means, but you can see highlighting, as well as what blue looks like in the exhaust.(hell, you see some mold lines there that I missed but thought I got too)

For the highlights, I use a layer one shade lighter than the coat underneath, and just go over the edges, I frankly go too thick. However, to make it blend well, I then do the red glaze over it. How that translates, is try to do a blue wash(I'd do Guiliman Blue glaze, here: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800006a&prodId=prod1500270a ) over your model. That does mean you highlight and wash before detailing the model, as the wash will tint white or metallics blue. The glaze simply dulls the contrast between colors, blending them a bit more, which would take some of the stark contrast from your highlights.

Hope that helps, and makes sense!

That is very true nev. To be honest I just wanted opinion on ways to improve my models, I am trying to find a nice technique to work with so I can fully paint my army up, and be happy with it, for the first time since painting I am happy with what I have done, but I don't mind putting in the extra time and effort to add that little extra, I've done the jet packs and added some effects to the legs ( I will upload some piutres tomorrow afternoon ).

Hi Troa, thanks for the useful adivce, I think I will buy that guiliman blue wash, and give it a try, see if it helps in anyway.

Thanks for your comments. I look forward to see what you guys have to say about my added effects on the troops.

Ok, so i've completed 4 models., i've added a dusty look to there legs, and tried adding a using jet pack look to the boosters on the packs. What do you guys think? or any other pointers?

So far the idea's put forward have been great, and have really added more to my models, so thank you to everyone who has commented on the pictures.

4 Finished.

They look excellent - you've really taken on board the critique and used it to significantly improve your work. The beauty of forums eh? Love the dust on the lower legs, and the soot on the jump packs. For the transfers, there are products called micro sol and micro set which soften the decal so it conforms to curves such as shoulder pads, and melts the backing to they adhere properly. A coat of varnish will help

Really like the dusty boots and the sooty jet packs, gives them life; going to go from strength to strength dude!

I would love to know how you got the look of dust and soot?

It looks awesome and I have a few minis that could use that look!

These look great, I'd also like to know how you done the dust on the feet. With regards to transfers, i had very similar problems at my first attempt. As million said, micro set and micro sol work really well, but I've found that a coat of gloss varnish on the area where the transfer is to go, before application of the transfer, really makes a huge difference.

First of all guys thank you for your kind words. Totally agree with you million, I love these forums, I got exactly what I wanted, advice, and like to think I transferred that advice onto my models pretty well.

Phrixus and Alan, with regards to the dust and soot, I used very simple techniques -
The dust look was merely drybrushing bleached bone, starting from the very bottom of the armor whilst ensuring I caught the bottom bases of the troopers armor (the part that sticks out, ridges, offering a more defined highlight if you will), with softer strokes of the brush the higher up the leg I went. I think this look is more suited and simple for my troops because the bases also have a dry brush of bleached bone of the gravel, so the dust really blends in.

The soot on the thursters again was very simple. I got my drybrush, but instead of wiping free the excess paint, (undercoat black) I painting the inside of the thrusters, so they are all black, to really replicate the paint stripped from the inside due to use of the packs, then dry brushed the excess bits of paint (not much though) around the rim of the thrusters. Then, using myhtril silver, I again drybrushed the insides of the thruster section (not completely painting it like I did with the black, just a very light dry brush), and gently drybrushed the rim of the thrusters, giving it the worn away paint look.
Both very very simple techniques, pretty much using what was at my disposal without buying more paint or other products being honest. But I do feel with the advice I received putting my original pictures up, my "bog standard" assault troops, now have a little more definition, and dare I say, impact.

Again, one last time, Thank you to everyone who had an input, this is the first batch of marines in my army I look at, and actually feel a sense of pride in them.

P.S reading back I say the word drybrushing ALOT, but hey, it seems to have worked lol.

Looking again Mikey, couple more tips. If you get down your local hardware shop and buy a pin vice and a suitably small drillbit (should come to sub-£5) you can drill out the bolt pistol barrels. Doesn't take long but really adds to the realism. Regarding your hard line highlights, going for a tone closer to your original colour would make them less harsh and more realistic, and instead of drybrushing them, try using thinned paint on a detail brush held at 90o to the edge, and gently stroking it on that way. It avoids the uneven look drybrushing gives

 mikeyboy69x wrote:
4 Finished.

Those look great dude. Weird thing is though, the table that you photographed them on? I'm sitting at exactly the same type of table in the same position you photographed them from...

Thanks million, will certainly try that drill bit technique on the guns, and the highlighting, I will finish off this squad as i've started, then try that highlighting technique on a different one, very good advice .

Lol Skittle, Weren't sitting on a fishing style camp chair also were you? or the very flimsy black chairs this table comes with?

 Million wrote:
Looking again Mikey, couple more tips. If you get down your local hardware shop and buy a pin vice and a suitably small drill bit (should come to sub-£5) you can drill out the bolt pistol barrels. Doesn't take long but really adds to the realism. Regarding your hard line highlights, going for a tone closer to your original color would make them less harsh and more realistic, and instead of dry-brushing them, try using thinned paint on a detail brush held at 90o to the edge, and gently stroking it on that way. It avoids the uneven look dry-brushing gives

I testify on this. Although i don't always notice the drilled gun parts, it is typical for the most amazing (40k) showcases i've seen and yes as far as realism goes, it does alot. I usually do it. Got a 10 (USD) set with like 15 different sizes of parts, 4 different handles (for the drills) plus a bunch of files(?) in a pack together, which satisfied all needs i had And yes, great work on the second set of pics.

Edit: only point although already addressed, the molt lines, those are killer when i looked at the high res. photo's. I know its a bitch to remove them all (and personally i always find more when paint is on) however its worth it in the end (at-least i think so).

Just as a word of warning, be careful drilling. Well drilled barrels do look very nice. But I've seen some off-center and poorly drilled ones that detract from the mini. I'd practice on some spare guns in your bits box before hitting a model.

Gotta admit since being pointed out (the mold lines) they have rather distracted me from the model itself, I do still have 2 models left in the squad which haven't gone through the final phase of painting, so I may attempt to take them out, and if all goes well, do the same to the newly painted models, and re-paint the legs.

Just out of curiosity, as clearly I am a noob at spotting the simplist of things lol, are there anywhere else where these mold lines occur?

As for the drilling the gun bit, I will certainly try and find a decent pack of drills with bits in, and practise on a few boltguns that aren't on my models first haha.