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So it took me a while to be able to present my next model. After the fiasko with the Ravenwing bikes (the Sergeant turned out better) I tried my hand with the Terminators. Gawds. Good start, but fethed em up (that is I consider them to be sub par).
WIth my last model, I really really wanted to do my masterpiece, and since it was my HQ of choice, that effort was obligatory.
Somehow, while painting my termies, something.. clicked for a better lack of words.
This time, I went back to the basics and my main goal was: precision, precision, precision! No matter how many techniques I try to learn to highlight, doesn't help Gak if the basecoat already sucks.

Company Master Balthasar, the first Model I'm happy with (besides the feathers... I hereby now declare white my arch enemy! Painting white over a black primer.......)

Please excuse the photo quality... somehow my cat was very interested in blocking the light
What I intend to do now is to paint up a 2nd tactical squad to actually make my army legal... And then start over and bring every model up to this level.

Feel free to praise (oh, you... ) and critique. Keep in mind though that I'm only one month into this. I however don't currently know what I could have done substationally better (besides practice) at my level of skill.

Edit: And praises to MiniwargamerJ, that provided the tutorial I painted this one after!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxsrZJZ9tSs

Good start, just thin those paints, wash those feathers and highlight the lenses and you're there!

Hm. Weird... I thinned pretty much every paint beside the metallics... Every other colour took 2-3 coats to cover.

Yeah, the feathers.. I washed them with Nuln, but I think I thinned it down too much... Too scared of "dirtying" the feathers too much. I need to work on that one, true.

I didn't varnish him yet, so highlighting the eyes is something I could do tomorrow And painting the swords on the gloves which I forgot... bleh.

For someone relatively new to painting, this is very good. When i think back to my own models about 10 years ago....*shudder*

I am by no means a masterpainter myself, but since i am painting a Tau army which is nearly completely white, i learned a bunch about that, so i may give you a tip or two.
The trick is painting the white-to-be areas in a light grey and just edge highlight with a pure white. Your eyes magically turn it compeltely white, and you have some depth too.

So for your feathers....primed black, painting celestra grey, leave recesses black. Edge-highlight with ceramite white. Done. Looks quite cool.

You may have a look at my (very small) gallery. There is a picture of my riptide where you can see this technique :> (though i used more greys and a brown wash to get a somewhat "comicy" look.)

Interesting... I for sure will try that. Since I want to repaint my Ravenwing Bikes next I should go and pick up some celestra grey...