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I've just started my 30k Death Guard legion army led by Typhon, and I'm just figuring out my style of painting them. I prefer them being white rather than that cream colour they usually are. So this is my first one (if the photo is upside down then I apologise) any criticism on the model would be appreciated! And I'm sorry if the photo quality is also not that great.

Hello!

It seems you're lacking highlights on the green.

Also, bolters look much cooler when drilled - Using white as the base colour is a great idea, I would also look into using clean white (as yours seems to be washed) for the highlights to create more dramatic contrasts >>> that is a personal preference

What about weathering? Death guard is usually at the front suffering heavy casualties - have you considered paint chipping?

All in all, I like your painting skills - keep going at it!


One more thing! Your green kneepad is still has some white on the inside!

Good work so far !

First off you are definitely brave endeavoring on a white heavy army. They do look amazing and are some of the trickiest to do well, however you are well on your way.

My only suggestions is perhaps to thin out the white a little more using either water or mediums ( Such as Lahmian medium produced by games workshop, or Flow mediums produced by Jo Sonja's ). This will require some trial and error to find the right consistency ( which using a dropper/needleless syringe could help to measure if you don't want to wing it ) and will need multiple layers, however the end result is smoooooooth

I would recommend highlights on the green parts ( As stated above ) using just 1 or 2 shades lighter then the base layer used, and also considering highlights on the Brass parts. I find that certain silvery paints actually act amazingly for gold/brass areas.


As an example, Games Workshop produce a colour called Liberator Gold. If you haven't seen it before, its a fantastic mix between gold and silver and works amazingly to highlight gold with and could even work when mixed in with the brass colour you used.

As stated above, I agree with the battle damage. While this is a personal preference , I find battle damaged armies have such character to them. There are many ways to easily and effectively represent battle damage using only 2 different silvers and a brown wash ( to add dirt ). My favourite method to represent gunshot ricochet's off armour is to paint a tear drop using a dark silver ( with the large end toward the front of the model, aka the point of impact) trailing to the tail away.

Then, replicate this tear drop using a lighter silver staying WITHIN the darker silver tear drop, and it gives the illusion of a scratch with varying depths.

For extra points, use the brown wash and a fine detail brush to drag very find streaks down from it to represent dirty water / rust streaks .

Yeah, I could go on forever...

Great work man keep it up !

I do have a problem with weathering them, I'm a perfectionist at heart and I always feel like I can't get it right. However, I will follow the suggestions given to me, as weathering is the essence of the Death Guard.

I tried weathering the guy with Typhus corrosion and some Agrax Earthshade, and even a bullet hole in his head. I think that he's ok, but I think that I may have overdone it. I also highlighted the green, maybe not so obvious in the pic. So here he is.

Have you heard of/tried sponge weathering?

It's not much more complicated than it sounds, take a piece of sponge, such as is used to pack models in blisters, tear a piece off, dip it in paint and remove the excess, to a similar degree you would with a brush when drybrusing, then lightly dab the areas you want to weather.

This has the advantages of making it look like there are chips in the base colour that are far smaller and in keeping with the scale than you can easily paint, and also picking out edges which would likely attract more wear, helping to define the edges of armour plates etc.

I think the colour you've used for weathering is spot on, and I'd do a first pass with that, then a much lighter one over the same areas with a metallic silver to represent areas where the paint has worn through.

I'd also consider going over the areas where it seems like black wash has escaped (the vents on the face mask being most prominent to my eye) and tidying them up. It may be your intent to make the armour look dirty, but it looks a little too much like a brush slip for me. A grey, rather than a black, may look less stark for shading too (or even a brown) but that's a matter of taste, plenty of people like strong contrast.

If you're serious about your weathering, you may want to look at some of the products made by Mig Jimenez (AK Interactive etc) for a variety of powders and washes that are really easy to use with a few extra bits and pieces added to the hobby toolbox, and can provide really good results on infantry without spending too much time on each individual.

Yeah, I guess I should have thought about sponge weathering first, I've just painted a terminator, so I'll try it on him and another tactical for now.