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It's been roughly 6 years since I played Warhammer 40,000 last and I've decided that it's high time that I jump back into a formerly beloved hobby. So, this time I'm bringing my wife along, thank god for easy access opponents . I wanted to take the time to post my most recent attempts at a test paint using a spare head from my wife's Carnifex. Your thoughts? I'm open to criticism, otherwise I wouldn't have asked. I have also posted my wife's first test paint on another spare Carnifex head and how it translated to a complete Hormagaunt that she painted. Again, constructive criticism is welcome and remember that these are literally her first miniatures EVER. I apologize that some of these pictures aren't the greatest quality and/or a little blurry. They were taken with my phone.
I also formally apologize at the sheer size of these damned pictures. I didn't think they would show up so...massive.

My Carnifex test paint




My wife's Carnifex test paint



Wife's first complete mini.

First of all - welcome back. I am also a recent returnee.

Both attempts are looking good and, for a first attempt, your wife's effort is really commendable. Keep it up!

I assume that you have spotted that there are loads of tutorials available. Once you feel happier with the basics, try some of the other techniques.

Looking forward to seeing your next update.

Thanks for the input and I'll try to update this thing as often as there are things to update it with =P. As far as tutorials, my wife's spent a large amount of her time since induction into the "gaming community" watching and learning. I've been doing somewhat the same thing. Mostly just honing old skills as it's been a long time =P. That and trying to find new and potentially better techniques than the ones of old. Should be a little bit easier for me as I play Crimson Fists and have a whole lot less fleshy bits to have to give depth to. But, we will see.

WB it's been 15 years for me. Doesn't look like you lost your touch, looks good. However I found now there are a ton more techniques that would make thing easier now than they once where.

 Sammoth wrote:
WB it's been 15 years for me. Doesn't look like you lost your touch, looks good. However I found now there are a ton more techniques that would make thing easier now than they once where.

Welcome back to you as well. I've been noticing this as well. Seems that a lot of the older techniques I picked up from my roommate when he worked for GW years ago have somewhat been faded out and replaced with newer techniques (mostly because of the newer types of paint that are out there). I'm also digging on GW's new paint line. The dry brush compounds are beautiful and I can't wait to put them to a true test of effectiveness on my Crimson Fists when I begin painting them again. Just gotta get new paints haha. I still have a bunch of old ones but they have the consistency of ceramite in their pots and I don't like the sickly fade the colors seem to have developed over the years. This fade I found after trying to revive said paint using water. For whatever reason the paints just don't carry the same vibrancy they once did. Oh well. Tax return season is here and as soon as I get my check it's off to make my local GW squeal with joy.

The purple and green is a great match up and works really well the way it's been done.

Not entirely sure about the Guants claws though. I'm not a fan of multicoloured talons on nids, but that's just me. If it were mine, I'd be sticking to a single colour for the talons, in your case, maybe off-white colour or greyish-white. Something to match the teeth.


That being said though, it's hard to find fault with the actual choice of colours or the skill with which those colours were applied.

 Snrub wrote:
The purple and green is a great match up and works really well the way it's been done.

Not entirely sure about the Guants claws though. I'm not a fan of multicoloured talons on nids, but that's just me. If it were mine, I'd be sticking to a single colour for the talons, in your case, maybe off-white colour or greyish-white. Something to match the teeth.


That being said though, it's hard to find fault with the actual choice of colours or the skill with which those colours were applied.

Well, we both appreciate your sentiments. As for the multi-tone talons that was mostly a design choice my wife went with to represent the idea that the talons are poisonous. The same reason why much of the internal colors of the nids are the same blue tones. It was intended to blend a bit better than it did, but the results weren't quite there. As far as the teeth, it's hard to tell from the picture but they're actually a translucent white/silver color. What I did was base paint the teeth the same dark blue base as the internals and then dry brushed over that with ceramite white and then again with leadbelcher to give it look much like the Xenomorphs from the Aliens movies. However, from a distance they very much look silver =P

 DFTR_Remorse wrote:
Well, we both appreciate your sentiments. As for the multi-tone talons that was mostly a design choice my wife went with to represent the idea that the talons are poisonous. The same reason why much of the internal colors of the nids are the same blue tones. It was intended to blend a bit better than it did, but the results weren't quite there.

I figured that the talons were supposed to match up with the tongues. And I think the reasoning for doing it that way is totally solid, poisonous gribblies are gonna have poisonous claws.
Blending is a hard technique to get the hang of, no doubt about it. If you're interested there are a few tutorials here on dakka about blending and many more around the web. Here's a few I found on Dakka with only a 2 minute search. The last one is a NMM tutorial but you might be able to adapt it to your own needs. A few need an airbrush so that is also a factor.

As far as the teeth, it's hard to tell from the picture but they're actually a translucent white/silver color. What I did was base paint the teeth the same dark blue base as the internals and then dry brushed over that with ceramite white and then again with leadbelcher to give it look much like the Xenomorphs from the Aliens movies. However, from a distance they very much look silver =P

That's really cool. Consider that purloined for my own usage.

 DFTR_Remorse wrote:

 Sammoth wrote:
WB it's been 15 years for me. Doesn't look like you lost your touch, looks good. However I found now there are a ton more techniques that would make thing easier now than they once where.

Welcome back to you as well. I've been noticing this as well. Seems that a lot of the older techniques I picked up from my roommate when he worked for GW years ago have somewhat been faded out and replaced with newer techniques (mostly because of the newer types of paint that are out there). I'm also digging on GW's new paint line. The dry brush compounds are beautiful and I can't wait to put them to a true test of effectiveness on my Crimson Fists when I begin painting them again. Just gotta get new paints haha. I still have a bunch of old ones but they have the consistency of ceramite in their pots and I don't like the sickly fade the colors seem to have developed over the years. This fade I found after trying to revive said paint using water. For whatever reason the paints just don't carry the same vibrancy they once did. Oh well. Tax return season is here and as soon as I get my check it's off to make my local GW squeal with joy.

Thnx, yeah I moved on from citadel. I started painting military models with Vallejo line of paints. I love them myself. IMO the pigments tend to be a bit stronger and crisp. There is also a paint chart that helps me match colors.

Good Luck and happy painting.

First of all welcome back. I will try to provide some criticism on the pics you posted.

1) Thin your paints. I can stress this enough but it is the most common advice given and applies to almost all rookie painters . You will get a tenfolds better result even if you have to do multiple coats in order to get even coverage.

2) Drybrushing. It is the easiest of techniques that offers great results especially on rough surfaces. Instead of highlighting the green parts of that carnifex head you could have just drybrushed the lighter green tone on. The result would be even better if you drybrushed twice using a lighter tone each time.

3) Washes and Inks. Another really easy techniques that adds a lot of depth. You just splash wash on the mini wipe the excess off and when it drys you got instant shadows. Master washes and then look into oil washes (tons of tutorials on youtube) that

Highlighting comes right after the above but first I believe you have to give it a go using just the above techniques.
Good thing is that you are staying within the lines making your work look consistent and tidy which is a big plus for tabletop.

If you need any more help just ask . Welcome back and happy painting.

 Snrub wrote:

 DFTR_Remorse wrote:
Well, we both appreciate your sentiments. As for the multi-tone talons that was mostly a design choice my wife went with to represent the idea that the talons are poisonous. The same reason why much of the internal colors of the nids are the same blue tones. It was intended to blend a bit better than it did, but the results weren't quite there.

I figured that the talons were supposed to match up with the tongues. And I think the reasoning for doing it that way is totally solid, poisonous gribblies are gonna have poisonous claws.
Blending is a hard technique to get the hang of, no doubt about it. If you're interested there are a few tutorials here on dakka about blending and many more around the web. Here's a few I found on Dakka with only a 2 minute search. The last one is a NMM tutorial but you might be able to adapt it to your own needs. A few need an airbrush so that is also a factor.

As far as the teeth, it's hard to tell from the picture but they're actually a translucent white/silver color. What I did was base paint the teeth the same dark blue base as the internals and then dry brushed over that with ceramite white and then again with leadbelcher to give it look much like the Xenomorphs from the Aliens movies. However, from a distance they very much look silver =P

That's really cool. Consider that purloined for my own usage.

By all means, have at it =P. Yeah, as far as the blending on the blade I didn't paint it. So, I have no idea what the results would be if I tried my hand at it. But, we'll be finding out soon enough as I intend to start painting all blades on power weapons in a similar fashion to emulate the glow of the weapons energy field. Not my own idea, but something I watched a tutorial on and fell in love with the concept. We'll see how it turns out when I do it


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Capamaru wrote:
First of all welcome back. I will try to provide some criticism on the pics you posted.

1) Thin your paints. I can stress this enough but it is the most common advice given and applies to almost all rookie painters . You will get a tenfolds better result even if you have to do multiple coats in order to get even coverage.

2) Drybrushing. It is the easiest of techniques that offers great results especially on rough surfaces. Instead of highlighting the green parts of that carnifex head you could have just drybrushed the lighter green tone on. The result would be even better if you drybrushed twice using a lighter tone each time.

3) Washes and Inks. Another really easy techniques that adds a lot of depth. You just splash wash on the mini wipe the excess off and when it drys you got instant shadows. Master washes and then look into oil washes (tons of tutorials on youtube) that

Highlighting comes right after the above but first I believe you have to give it a go using just the above techniques.
Good thing is that you are staying within the lines making your work look consistent and tidy which is a big plus for tabletop.

If you need any more help just ask . Welcome back and happy painting.

All valid statements and things that I do as a general principle now albeit the dry brushing highlights which I will be trying my hand at now that you've mentioned it. Not sure on my wife's 'Fex head but I used quite an assortment of washes on mine which is how the sockets for the eyes ended up almost a black color rather than a dark blue. Not sure that I'm against it though, I kind of like the look. Either way. Thanks for the feedback and I'll let you know/see what I come up with after I try out the dry brushed highlights.

So, I have finally started painting my Crimson Fists. Here's one with a finished base coat. I apologize again for how terrible my camera is. This model is one of those cheapo ones you find in the starter box sets, so try as I did I wasn't able to get the mold lines to completely go away. But, those are the breaks.











Automatically Appended Next Post:
Man, After looking at these photos I realize just how poor the casting is on these box set figures O.o..Good lord GW, wtf!?

Nice now you need some washes for details. Dry brushing only if needed. I feel for you my Smartphone for some reason the flash over exposes and if it's off it's to dark. I need to get a setup with light source for better pics of mine. Great Work BTW.

 Sammoth wrote:
Nice now you need some washes for details. Dry brushing only if needed. I feel for you my Smartphone for some reason the flash over exposes and if it's off it's to dark. I need to get a setup with light source for better pics of mine. Great Work BTW.

Yeah, I'm waiting on a tax return atm. Should be here tomorrow =P. Hopefully. Just felt like buying all my base paints today since I'm starting my army over with a fresh paint scheme. I wasn't enjoying my Purple and Gold (kind of like Hawk Lords, but not quite). That and since I actually have Pedro Kantor, I figured what the hell. Crimson Fists it is. I'll put up more photos as soon as I obtain my washes and such. Hopefully with the added detail it'll draw the eye away from the terrible cast job. I'm hoping so, since I have 20 more models from that same set that are equally substandard casting quality. But, only time will tell. Thanks again for the feedback and the praise. I hope I don't disappoint.(FYI to anyone who may be wondering why I'm so critical on the casting of these model. I work in a foundry and cast steel machine part for a living, it's kind of a pet peeve now)

So, I've decided that I am extremely unhappy with the work I did on that SM. Therefore, I am going to strip him back down and start over. I know I can do worlds better than what I displayed in the pictures that I removed. So, in its stead until I repaint the model I've decided to show off my finished work on a Battlescape terrain piece I just finished. Enjoy.

Really nice mate .

 Capamaru wrote:
Really nice mate .

I appreciate the praise. I had to take down those SM picture. Every time I looked at them I wanted to find a way to kick myself in the face. I think it was just that I allowed the sloppy mold job to frustrate me to the point of rushing to finish. I just wanted to get it over with. Inevitably the result frustrated me further. So, now it's back to the drawing board.

Well, it's been a good long time since I've posted anything on here. So, here's a finished product from tonight.