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Hi guys,

I'm just getting into the hobby, and although I've had some embarrassing painting ventures in the past, this is the first time I'm pursuing it properly. My current model inventory consists of:

Dark Angels Starter Set

I bought this just to get some paints and models without spending a fortune. I like the set, I've completed 4/5 miniatures (the 5th is a WIP), following the walkthrough leaflet included. Following the leaflet was probably a mistake on my part; I think I've followed the instructions just fine, but they don't include any highlighting or anything - so the models look pretty flat. I ordered the Dark Angel Tactical Squad from DV off eBay, so I have them to paint and I think I'll follow the GW iPad walkthrough for them, which looks much more comprehensive, and hopefully I'll have some more displayable models at the end of that. Any C&C on these models is welcome (but please do bear in mind that I didn't paint them autonomously!).

Space Marines (Three Man Squad)

I bought these fellows to try out the paint scheme I actually intend to use - Blood Ravens (I'm a huge DoW fan). They seem to be going pretty well, although I'm really struggling to work out how I want them to look; I think the red of the armour is how I want it, but I'm really not sure how light to make the pauldrons. C&C is more than welcome on these guys - all three are in rather different stages of production - but I've been practicing washing and highlighting on them.

Dark Vengeance Tactical Squad

They're still on the sprues.

Combat Squad

They're still on the sprues too.

Sorry for the text-dense post, I hope you guys like what I've done so far and any tips or insight will be very much appreciated! Any tips on painting eyes would also be warmly received as I keep messing them up.

If these are your first models, then I hate you. My first models looked like utter crap and should never have been allowed to see the light of day.
Although, to be honest, I started back in '95, when there was no Youtube to teach me everything about painting.

Anyway, yes, they do look pretty good. If anything, just a bit of shading is needed to make them really good tabletop quality. Two options for shading are using inks or the dip method.

@Tannhauser Hi there, thanks for the reply! No, I mentioned that I've had some embarrassing attempts before. I've got a whole box of awful Tau and Chaos units, so these aren't my first painting attempts by any means. This is just the first time I'm bothering to read up on stuff and intend to stick to a scheme.

YouTube's definitely been a help, as well as the old GW Painting Guide. How do you actually do the dip method? Because the pots are kind of too small to fit a whole unit into them, so how do you go about it?

Very nice table top quality minis. The next step is some edge highlighting to help them pop a bit more. The lenses could also use a little something.

But a good start, and something to be proud of fielding.

Nice. Suggestion, hit the eye lenses with some Nuln Oil. It will help define them a bit and mitigate the wide eyed look.

Did you drill the barrels?

@Nevelon Thank you very much! Yeah, I tried highlighting on the Blood Ravens a bit more (and I'm not quite done yet), but I think I need to acquire a slightly more delicate brush, as the strokes feel pretty wide. I'm also not sure how bright to go with the highlighting, as I'm worried about just wrecking them with white edges or something.

@Ifurita Thanks for having a look at my minis. I did use Nuln Oil, but on the DAs there's still only the tones of the armour and the washed red so it didn't seem to help that much. Then I used Nuln Oil on the BR eyes, but they looked a bit muted considering that they're supposed to shine quite brightly, and I was trying to get a bit of contrast with the armour by going over them with the brighter green, but I can see what you and Nevelon mean about the eyes lacking a certain something. To be honest, I'm struggling to get paint in the right area with the eyes, it seems to be a constant battle between getting eye-paint outside the eye, retouching it with the armour-paint and getting that in the eye! It's driving me a little nuts, so if you have any tips on that it would be a lot of help! Also, I'm not sure what you meant about drilling the barrels? (Sorry if that's something really obvious).

Thanks guys.

Take a -very- small drill bit, and use it to hollow out the barrel of your guns. So it looks like it could actually shoot something, rather then just being a flat, solid, bit of plastic.

I don’t do it personally, but many people do. Done right, it makes the guns look much more real. Done poorly, you end up with off center/crooked holes that detract from the mini. YMMV.

To be honest, what I like most about these minis is your effort to go out and research how to do it properly and recognise where you need to improve. The fact that you've made the effort to do shows in the quality you've produced - impressive for a beginner. Regarding the models more specifically, you've got the basics down to a 'T'. As you've already noted yourself - highlights are going to be the next thing you'll need to conquer as it'll add an extra layer of depth to you models. Also, I'd note that on the red bolter casings, the paint looks thickly applied. No doubt, this is because that's how GW will tell you to paint it, which is fine in some respects, but in order to get a smooth finish, you'll want to look into thinning your paints. The best way to do this is as follows:

1. Get yourself one of Reaper or Vallejo's dropper bottles. They're ust their standard paint pots and you can get them off eBay easily enough.
2. Get yourself some of Winsor Newton's Artist's Acrylic Flow Improver. Some people use Liquitex Flo-aid, but it's harder to get ahold of in the UK outside of dedicated art stores as it's an American product. W&N's works just as well, and you can get it off eBay as well.
3. Mix the Flow Improver at a 1:9 ratio in the dropper bottle. The bottles are 20ml, so 2ml of Flow Improver and the rest water.
4. Finally, just add a drop or two to your paint and mix it together (You may want a palette or wet palette to put your paint on if you usually paint from the pot). You'll soon get a feel for how much to add, and it'll help you apply a smoother coat.

Regarding eyes, as I noticed you said you have trouble here, the best way I've found to do it, IMHO, is to follow the following method (Using GW's Copy-pasted from my own notes, so I apologise for any confusion regarding paint names):

1. Basecoat: Black
2. Basecoat: Scab Red
3. Layer ½ of Lense: 50:50, Scab Red : Blood Red
4. Layer ¼ of Lense: Blood Red
5. Highlight Lense Bottom: 50:50, Troll Slayer Orange : Yriel Yellow
6. Highlight Lense Bottom (Fine Line and Corner Dot): Ceramite White
7. Gloss: ‘Ardcoat

Hope this helps

For marine armor, try using a #2 flat brush for the edge lining. Because it's flat, you can run the edge of the brush along the edge of the armor plates to get very nice, even, lines.

Thanks for all of the replies guys! I've been super busy this week so I haven't had a chance to work on any of the ideas suggested yet. So this weekend, if I get a chance, I'm going to try and:

- Improve my shading, using inks or the dip method.
- Improve my highlighting, and try to get hold of a #2 Flat Brush for the edges.
- Sort out the lenses on my marines. I would try the GW walkthrough, but I'm not planning on doing my DAs just yet, and the BRs have green eyes, so I might have to try and adapt that method or something.
- Thin my paints.

I'll make sure to post my results!