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Hey guys,

I learnt about 40K from a friend when I was 11 years old, back in 1999. I ended up getting a bunch of chaos marine models, built them as best I could, and a couple times had some skirmishes with my only other friend who knew about the game. We never did get into actually playing serious games, despite me receiving a 3rd edition box set for my birthday that year. I remember being really into the novels and the fluff of the universe, but the modeling aspect never came together for me, probably due to my 11 year old attention span and also the prohibitive costs. Eventually I lost interest.

-16 years later-

My girlfriend decides to gift me a box of tactical marines as part of my birthday gift (she's awesome!). I was feeling pretty nostalgic and we had gone into a few FLGSs just to browse for whatever was in there and she probably picked up that I really wanted to get back into the game. Being older I now have more of an appreciation for the Imperial lore, how cleverly it ties in with historical institutions and events, the use of High Gothic, so the whole aesthetic is very interesting to me. Because of this I chose to go with an Ultramarine army, since they're zealots and total dogmatic lunatics, and I find it fun. I those 3rd company rather than 2nd, because, come on, way too many Swedish Smurfs running about.

So, I went out and got the Ultramarines painting guide and the required citadel paints (I really like the Games Workshop style of painting, I realise there are many wonderful products made by Vallejo etc, but I wanted to try and keep it authentic). I study calligraphy and so I have been familiar with good brushes and general art supplies at the stores I buy my pointed pen stuff at so I grabbed some Series 7 W&N's in 00 and 0, a synthetic 1/4" flatbrush for basecoating and a size 1 for everything in between and and got to work.

So, this is my first ever fully painted and based mini and I'm pretty happy with it. Edge highlighting is ridiculously difficult, you really gotta play with the consistency to get the paint just right. I really prefer thinning with Liquitex matte mediums or the Lahmian Medium if I have it near, seems to keep the paint from going to dust on the model. I used little fragments of drybrushed cork to make the rocks on the base and sort of just winged the sand. I had a lot of fun with this guy and I'm looking forward to the next 9!

(PS, I'm waiting for my Ultramarine transfer decal set to come in, so they're yet to be attached. The ones in the box I feel are too small to lay a Roman numeral over the tactical arrow.)

Cheers!
Chris

Very nice, first mini or otherwise!

Welcome to Dakka!

Thats probably one of the cleanest blue marines iv seen.

and its your first

pretty spectacular

Thanks very much lads I've been googling trying to find a good edge highlighting tutorial so I can further nail down paint consistencies but everyone seems to have their own way of doing it. To be honest, for the Fenrisian Grey highlights over the Calgar Blue I just took the smallest bit I could at the tip of the brush and quickly applied it. The biggest frustration with edge highlighting I find is that since you need such a small spec of paint, the bloody paint dries on the brush before the brush makes it to the model!

Very nice. You shame me and I've been doing this for years!

D

I find that a wet pallet helps paint drying too soon for the kind of edge highlighting you're doing. Just be careful with the paint consistency, and keeping your brush damp/moist will alleviate some of the paint drying too fast on the brush.

Head over to youtube and check out videos on how to make your own wet pallet for painting. You can generally make a decent one with things lying around your house or at the very least that you can purchase at most major hobby supply stores.

All that being said: DAMN I wish my first models looked that nice. Tremendous job sir, and I can't wait to see more of your work. An army painted to this standard would be a sight to behold, and Kudos for choosing Ultramarines. I have great respect for them, though they aren't my favorite Chapter/Legion Astartes, they are still very cool.

I hope my Blood Angels look that nice once I pick them back up in the near future.

Take it easy for now, and thanks for sharing your work so far! Welcome back to the Hobby, Legio_Ultra.

-Red__Thirst-

That's a bloody nice model, whether it was your first or 500th that's a nice crisp paint job.

Have you tried watering your paint down a little and using a bigger brush to keep the paint a bit wetter? Using a bigger brush than I thought I needed was a major step change in the way I painted. At the end of the day, the tip of the brush is usually the same size

Thanks so much for the wet pallet tip, I've been just using card stock and it's fine but yes, that would definitely help now that I've Googled it.

Thanks for the amazing compliments, I'm really flattered, keeps me motivated to carry on with this. I will be sure to post more as I crank them out


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 Inflatable love badger wrote:
That's a bloody nice model, whether it was your first or 500th that's a nice crisp paint job.

Have you tried watering your paint down a little and using a bigger brush to keep the paint a bit wetter? Using a bigger brush than I thought I needed was a major step change in the way I painted. At the end of the day, the tip of the brush is usually the same size

I started highlighting using a W&N 000, but found the 00 and 0 worked better since they hold more paint in the body and it flows out like a fountain pen onto the model. I guess it takes a bit of experimenting to find what works best, but yes, paradoxically the bigger brushes tend to be more workable for edging work. I use medium to thin the paint initially and then for edge highlighting I use a slightly soaked brush to grab the paint and it seems to work decently, the rest is probably a matter of technique and practice I suppose! The Fenrisian Grey seems to be of a less forgiving formulation, as too much medium causes it to behave strangely and too little makes it hard to highlight with. I suppose some paints are naturally thicker than others and don't take as well to being thinned whether with medium or water.

Nice looking mini, hope to see you post more (maybe start a P&M blog?).

Very nice job you've made there

 legio_ultra wrote:
Thanks so much for the wet pallet tip, I've been just using card stock and it's fine but yes, that would definitely help now that I've Googled it.

Thanks for the amazing compliments, I'm really flattered, keeps me motivated to carry on with this. I will be sure to post more as I crank them out


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Inflatable love badger wrote:
That's a bloody nice model, whether it was your first or 500th that's a nice crisp paint job.

Have you tried watering your paint down a little and using a bigger brush to keep the paint a bit wetter? Using a bigger brush than I thought I needed was a major step change in the way I painted. At the end of the day, the tip of the brush is usually the same size

I started highlighting using a W&N 000, but found the 00 and 0 worked better since they hold more paint in the body and it flows out like a fountain pen onto the model. I guess it takes a bit of experimenting to find what works best, but yes, paradoxically the bigger brushes tend to be more workable for edging work. I use medium to thin the paint initially and then for edge highlighting I use a slightly soaked brush to grab the paint and it seems to work decently, the rest is probably a matter of technique and practice I suppose! The Fenrisian Grey seems to be of a less forgiving formulation, as too much medium causes it to behave strangely and too little makes it hard to highlight with. I suppose some paints are naturally thicker than others and don't take as well to being thinned whether with medium or water.

Yes, lighter shades (white ESPECIALLY) will tend to thicken up and dry faster than other darker shades in my experience. This is why I recommended a wet pallet for these kinds of detail work, especially with lighter colors such as the Fenrisian Grey shade.

As has been said, great work so far, and I do look forward to seeing more of your army as you keep painting. Also, excellent job on the basing too. I meant to mention that in specific earlier but it slipped my mind before. It's basic, but for a rank-and-file it's both effective and very well executed.

I look forward to seeing what you can do with a Character next (Sergeant, or HQ choice).

Take it easy for now.

-Red__Thirst-

Thanks mate, I'll probably keep going on the regular marines for now and save the Sergeant and special/heavy weapons guys for a bit later. I plan to magnetise them so that I can have more options when I finally get to playing so they'll take a while!

Well done - his red shoulder pads are making him a bit Crimson Fist-y at the moment but I'm sure the transfers will sort that out.

Regarding the transfers, they can be a bit tricker than GW say to affix to a space marine, because of the curves. I'd thoroughly recommend making a little vertical cut halfway into any transfer you put on the shoulder pads - this helps the transfer go around the curve.

Also, I know you're planning on keeping it GW-only, but I'd really recommend looking for some products called 'Micro-Sol' and 'Micro-Set'. They're softeners for transfers, which you brush on after you've put them on the model, and which soften the transfer plastic so it sticks better.

Happy geeking!

That's a really nice model!

It looks like you have really good brush control, have you thought about doing the insignias freehand?

If that is your first mini, I quit!

LOL Great work. I am, looking forward to seeing a whole army.

 ArbitorIan wrote:
Well done - his red shoulder pads are making him a bit Crimson Fist-y at the moment but I'm sure the transfers will sort that out.

Regarding the transfers, they can be a bit tricker than GW say to affix to a space marine, because of the curves. I'd thoroughly recommend making a little vertical cut halfway into any transfer you put on the shoulder pads - this helps the transfer go around the curve.

Also, I know you're planning on keeping it GW-only, but I'd really recommend looking for some products called 'Micro-Sol' and 'Micro-Set'. They're softeners for transfers, which you brush on after you've put them on the model, and which soften the transfer plastic so it sticks better.

Happy geeking!

Yes indeed, I have both and I'll be following Winterdyne's decal tutorial found here: http://www.winterdyne.co.uk/maz/winterdyne_tutorial3.pdf

Very nice! Do more and keep posting

Edit: voted for it in the Gallery as well

Wow! Such an awesome paintjob!

If I could make a suggestion it would be: put them on 32mm bases. I know, it's one of those things you kind of hate GW for doing but they look so much cooler on 32mms..

That's just my opinion though, dude. Whatever you do, these guys will look really cool!

I put the decals on. I'm pretty happy with them, but next time I will be sure to not cover the ENTIRE shoulder pad with my gloss varnish/matte medium, and only gloss UNDER where the decal will go. The guide I used said to pre-gloss and then matte seal the WHOLE pad before and after affixing the decal in order to prevent there being any visible "seams" between transfer and the surrounding shoulder pad (which I thought made sense), but what it did was cause some brush stroke buildup on my formerly super-clean shoulder pads even though I thinned my gloss and medium out really well... Argh! Live and learn I guess... I may just remove these shoulder pads from the model and do them over after I finish the other nine.


Sorry for the poor photos but in real life they really do look painted-on, having used Microset and Microsol to affix them and Lahmian medium to matte them out after.

Impressive! Love the crisp blue. Is that just Macragge Blue with highlights?

That is amazing for a first mini. Always nice to see more Ultras, especially 3rd company ones.

 Havok210 wrote:
Impressive! Love the crisp blue. Is that just Macragge Blue with highlights?

Yep. All it is is 3 thin coats of Macragge (thinned down with Lahmian Medium + some water) over the model basecoated in Citadel Chaos Black (provides a smoother surface than anything else I tried from Krylon or Army Painter or Duplicolor so I'll stick with it). Then I picked out all recesses and gaps with Nuln oil. Then I edge highlighted all the firm edges with Calgar Blue and then gave a secondary edge highlight of Fenrisian Grey to all the most prominent hard edges.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Update: Can confirm that glossing only the general area you need for the transfer and then touching up after with matte over the affixed transfer and any stray glossy bits is much more effective and reduces the risk of brushstrokes than glossing and matting the whole shoulder pad. Save yourselves some grief. Just primed, painted and applied a transfer to a junk shoulder pad using this gloss-only-the-transfer-area method and it came out perfect.

Prob the best looking "first model" I have ever seen. Well done!

For example, my first painted mini:


I didn't really get good until I saw this video. Now I am really awesome painter!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FayBHOhucf0

Enjoy!

Well I'm gonna go cry in a corner now!

Very nice first mini. I'd recommend buying some Liquitex Flow Aid. Matte medium has it's place, but Flow Aid breaks the surface tension of the paint. This allows the paint to flow off of your brush smoothly, and allows the paint to level completely on the mini. Mix it with water, and use that to thin your paints. If you're using synthetic bristle brushes, ditch them. Acrylic destroys synthetic brushes very quickly. I'd recommend a good quality Red Sable, or even better, Kolinsky hair brush. With proper cleaning (Masters is the best brush soap) they last for years. $15 might seem like a lot for a brush, but it'll be several years before you need to replace it. You'll be replacing synthetics on a monthly basis. Keep up the good work. I paint 4th Co., FWIW.

 legio_ultra wrote:
I started highlighting using a W&N 000, but found the 00 and 0 worked better since they hold more paint in the body and it flows out like a fountain pen onto the model. I guess it takes a bit of experimenting to find what works best, but yes, paradoxically the bigger brushes tend to be more workable for edging work. I use medium to thin the paint initially and then for edge highlighting I use a slightly soaked brush to grab the paint and it seems to work decently, the rest is probably a matter of technique and practice I suppose! The Fenrisian Grey seems to be of a less forgiving formulation, as too much medium causes it to behave strangely and too little makes it hard to highlight with. I suppose some paints are naturally thicker than others and don't take as well to being thinned whether with medium or water.

The highlights on rather open spaces should even be possible with a size 1 or 2 brush (W&N), with some practice. When you dip your brush into the paint (on your palette) twirl it a bit so it absorbs the paint equally and then dab/drag it a tiny little bit on some tissue, cloth, or whatever you use to dry it so it's not too loaded and then you can work with it without the paint flooding the area where you paint.

Smaller brushes (000, 0/10, or however they are called) are useful for really tiny detail (most stuff should be doable with a 1 or 2) or when the bigger brush would get in the way and offload paint on adjacent areas (like painting eyes deep inside a helmet). W&N also has a miniature series of brushes. These are similar to the regular ones only the brushes' body is shorter so they hold less paint but they also have less bounce when working so you can think of the workflow as a bit like with a pencil (due to stiffness), but just a bit. This might be preferable depending on how you work.