Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Here is my finished set of 18 marines from a tactical unit I completed a while back. They are still without their decals but complete via paint job let me know what you all think - thanks

The marines are great! You may want to get some paint on the rocks on the base though - not much depth to them, and for me they are detracting a bit from your paint job. Think of it as framing the picture once you've painted it.

thanks very much - Im glad you like them.

I know what you mean about the rocks....to be honest I wanted to try and get a real feel of them passing over rubble but they do look pretty bland.....

what technique is used for giving rocks a bit more depth and make the marines more believable to be passing over them for what they are supposed to be.

If this is your first go, then excellent job. Bases are not in line with your paintjob in terms of quality and rather than compliment the mini they rather take a lot away from it.

Again thanks for the compliment. Would I use a wash mix for that depth effect or are their better techniques? thanks again

There are loads of basing guides out there. If you want a quick and effective technique though, paint them black, drybrush them with a mid-grey or a grey/blue, then a light drybrush with a light grey. Should tone them down and make the red armour pop more.

Excellent - sounds good. I will start checking on those guides then and have a crack at giving them a darker depth feel to make the armour colour pop out more.

Oh and for reference the marines are using the newest colour codes from GW but I tend to like the Vallejo paints a but better bit for the newer washes are only available from GW like the blood letter wash.

thanks again for the tips

I congratulate you, red is a hard color to pull off. I like your paint job. I do have issue with the base though. Not just about depth, but about the size of the gravel.
I know you want a the look that they're walking through the remains of a demolished city, but it just doesn't work
Here's a pic of a urban ruble base by secret weapon.

Thanks for the comments. Yeah im starting to see why the base is causing a rift with the paint job. My initial idea was to do something different to the conventional basing which to looked very plain and unattractive. Im not a fan of small grain green bases and tried to push a vicious terrain where my marines were trying to display a moment of hardship in the attempt to pass it. These rocks were broken and made from every day stones and are currently unpainted. At the time it made sense but now im starting to see they are too oversized and not distributed properly on the base. I will attempt a re-application and hopefully post a revision soon so peeps can tell me what they think.

The paint job was from a youtube tutorial using the new gw game codes for blood angels. It wasnt easy as these already had a crappy layer of paint on them which i didn't strip iff first.

Thanks again for liking the paint job its much appreciated

I find its best to keep bases fairly uncluttered. Think of them as the picture frame for your work. A bit of sand, a rock or two, painted and dry brushed is more than enough.

If I were you I'd whack some sand or flock onto your base, these are really great for first time models and you don't want to ruin them with gravel :3

 BrotherOfBone wrote:
If I were you I'd whack some sand or flock onto your base, these are really great for first time models and you don't want to ruin them with gravel :3

yea, i think just adding something in with the rocks will take care of it
nice work on the models themselves also

I would just paint the rocks a dark grey and highlight with a lighter grey or white let dry and then paint the rims of the bases a dark grey or brown then add some sand mixed with crushed kitty litter not the good stuff just the generic dollar store grey clay and i mean fine crush it almost to dust glue in any exposed spots and tadah you have a mountain or ruin/rough ground base add maybe some lychen or weird colored aquarium plants i think for some reason a purple or bright green here or there would be cool looking

Also Marines look great i for some reason can never get smooth looking power armour i havnt tried in years. Keep up the Good Work

thanks guys for all the comments and tips.....

I think im going to go with sticking to my main concept of that heavy terrain look of rock carnage but will apply the details mentioned above. Add fine granule materials into the grooves, apply a darker grey with light grey / white highlighting and blend the exposed base to go with the rock colour.

I guess if I practice it on the one first and post back on here it will give me the motivation to continue with the rest providing it doesn't make it look miles worse.

Appreciate again all the comments - hope to hear a few more opinions out there how I can improve.

How do you guys get your cloth type materials looking realistic. Not the scroll partridge but the actual material cloth falling from the marines near the torso areas?

thanks again

Well done, they look ready for battle. Great work

Thank you very much means a lot to me

OK everyone it took a damn good while to get round to do this but ive finally added the textures to the rocks as per requested by you all super artists out there.....I hope they look much better than before. im proud of them now and feel they have a pro sense to them but god knows how many hours I pumped into these few models I have another 80 to do now........pardon me while I puke up a cry......lol enjoy everyone and let me know your feedback - thanks

so any comments?? i guess this is a bump

Hadn't seen this. Very nice work, the shade of red is great!

Like the others, the only issue I have is the bases.

Otherwise, you did great with the reds. Really good work with the wash. I cant tell if its the pics or me, but looks like the could use a tad more detailing maybe? They kinda look like my pics - taken with a cell phone? lol

But really, they are looking good.

Yeah the camera is over 7 years old now so it's not getting the details as it's blurred a bit.

Their are highlights on the armor as it's using the new paint scheme from GW blood angels but i haven't added she corner edge shading yet

I wanted to know how to do this with what colour to give the edges that highlight look.

Any help appreciated and thanks for comments

Wish I could help there but I dont usually use GW paints. I mainly use Reaper or Vallejo paints for my figs and various acrylics from Hobby Lobby (ie Apple Barrel) for terrain.

But from what I understand about red, if you get one specific shade of red and a few months later get that same shade but it is made from a different batch, it will be slightly different. Red is supposed to be the hardest to match and may cause issues.

That is why when I started my Angels Sanguine I made sure to stock up on my red paints in bulk so I would have enough for all of them and enough to store away should I ever add to them or need to do repair work.

hey great work on the marines and the updated bases look great!!

a couple of hings that i would say just to help give them that extra little 'pop'

1. try a very light drybrush of a grey/wite on the rocks on the bases to give them that extra edge. it recommend either the dry paint 'Longbeard Grey' or perhaps a mix of 'Hoeth Blue' and 'Slaanesh Grey' or perhaps just 'Ulthuan Grey'

2. The reds seem to lack a little bit of depth. try a light wash of 'Carroburg Crimson'

Just my two cents lol and it may just be the camera quality. plus the decals should hel to give them that extra bit of detail.

other than that i think that they are great! well done

It's obvious the camera isn't doing them the proper justice because both the base rocks are using grey/white shade dry brush effects and the charro burg crimson was heavily used on the marines ( not a lot to give them a dirty feel).

I just looked again at the uploaded pics and it's true not good at all.

My issues was to give the red armour that edge highlight which I'm struggling to do and if anyone else has had experience with these specific highlights what would you do to get them? Dry brush again? I'm starting to think tests the route for the shoulder pad edges but what colour to use with the red?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Thanks again by the way for the comments, I feel very chuffed


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh by the way what is the best wash to use on the actual robe whites??