Hi all,

I wanted to keep a record of my progress with learning to paint.

As a kid I bought Space Crusade, but I never painted them, mostly because I had to keep them hidden from my Mum.
I always regretted not painting them and my interest in all things WH40k has peaked again recently because of the Horus Heresy books and the Dawn of War computer games.

So, I fancied learning to paint, but didn't want to shell out tonnes of money on brand new mini's just to learn on. So a few ebay auctions later I got a copy of space crusade and here I am.

Natakue did a pretty good tutorial on you tube here. Which I did my best to follow, I think he's right GW washes are awesome, but he never highlighted the black cloth, which I didn't like. I don't actually like how the black has turned out on these guys, but I learned from it so that's good. I've pretty much stopped using pure black now, and always add a touch of grey to tone it down a bit.

My first painted mini's



Then I found this here tutorial on Alpha legion - which I thought looked great, plus I'd just finished reading legion.
It was about this time I read about wet blending and NMM. So here's my first stab at wet blending and 1 go at NMM...

About half way through i realised this style of painting wasn't really me, plus the commander's back pack went missing so I never finished them and will one day strip them and start again.



Finally in the last couple of days I painted these Ultra smurfs. I tried to do a lot of blending. First I tried layers, but the first guy looked like he had stripey power armour on, not a good look. Then I just went with a wet blending technique I've sort of made up. I need to get a flow improver as water isn't really cutting it.

Anyway i'm quite happy with these guys and feel i'm getting towards how I want to paint, although I'm not too happy with the bolters and feel the grey is a bit too stark against the 'black'



That's all for now, any C&C would be great.

Soooo, after watching this tutorial courtesy of Alexandra (Girl painting) on you tube I decided to have another go at layered highlighting.
I'm well happy with the results and feel I'm finding my style of painting. Even toying with buying some real mini's this weekend.

Wow excellent work!

Even as Ultrasmurfs, I really do like what youve done with them! Your style of painting really looks good on these old school models!
I gotta say that Im definitely looking forward to what you do on new models!


btw... Is that red a GW paint?

Thanks for the comments Ramos, it's good old fashioned blood red. I just mix in blobs of bad moon yellow for the highlights.

Wow maybe thats what Im seeing in it...

I couldnt place the color as it looked far too bright for Blood Red, but Bad Moonz explains it.
Looks awesome altogether!

And your doing NMM too, am i correct? Thats a technique that I never really got the hang of. Something you learned yourself? or a tutorial?

Having a go at NMM, when I first read about it I was fascinated by the idea.

Can't wait to try SENMM on the dreadnaught I think, but before I do i'm going to seek some advice as i'm not too sure how the lines should work.

We'll see.

If you are at that level of quality already on old so-so sculpted miniatures, I look forward to seeing what you can do with new, much nicer miniatures!

Awesome work.. love the colours..

I LOVE the old Space Crusade miniatures (and I'd LOVE to get ahold of a bunch of the missile launcher versions!) - and I LOVE what you've done with them!

Looking forward to more!

Good-looking work!!

I'll not soon forget my cousin-in-law for giving his old 100% complete SC box away.

Been a while.
Work has been crazy busy, I'm doing a degree in my spare time and Codemasters released F1, plus I needed to pluck up the courage to enter GW to buy some more paints. I way pluck up the courage it's more of a try to keep calm as they try to upsell some random stuff that I don't want.
e.g. I popped in yesterday to buy just 5 paints. The guy tried to get me to buy a collectors edition paint set or something, so annoying.

Anyway, I finished the fourth marine (with assault cannon) and then went for the commander, which I really enjoyed painting.
Had to learn some new things, painting eyes, hair, flesh tones and NMM gold.

Here's the results, C&C really welcome.







Changing tac, i've bought my first set of real GW minis - Striking scorpions (the GW guy naturally then tried to get me to buy some Dark Eldar).
Not sure whether to stick with good old green or maybe try a desert scheme. If I do green it'll be something natural like Catachan green.

TTFN

Hang

Thanks to this here tutorial, i've learned how to take a better photo

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/317430.page

If you haven't read it, then I highly recommend it...

Wowowow!!

I remember when you first posted pics of your alpha legion try, It was really good, but I must say I'm even more impressed with your ultramarines.

Great Job, and I agree with Legoburner, I'd really like to see your painting skills used on more recent models, I think it would be f g great!

Hey, thanks for the encouragement.

TBH i'm strugglign with the Striking scorpions I bought.

Read lots of post where people said they were fed up of seeing "rainbow" eldar. So I wanted to do something a bit more realistic.

Ah well, I'll keep trying.

I can't wait to see the striking Scorpions! The freehand on the shoulder of the SM sergeant is very nice looking.

_Tim?

Dakka is just great for getting encouragement to get on and paint, and it's even better because the tar-heads who make up our I.T. department haven't blocked it...yet

So i've finally finished my first 'proper' GW mini - apart from the base, I messed up a couple of times and the paint is a bit thick in places - I'll call him Dulux!







Please feedback, go nuts, be really strict - I want to improve and I find feedback invaluable, so please be as picky as you like.

Thanks all

Hang

awesome stuff, i have a load of the space crusade plastics sitting in a box, all the marines and a few space orks/gretchin, might get them painted now

If you happen to have a spare Chaos marine back pack that you don't need, could I have it? Mine still hasn't turned up despite pulling the lounge apart!

I'm still trying to build up the courage to paint the dreadnaught, it's a fantastic model IMO, although the stance is a tad boring. Maybe it could be my first conversion.

Let me know if you do paint your space crusade models, i'd be interested to see how you get on.

I don't think i have any of the chaos marines but i will check, i do have the dread and all weapons for it though, might be fun to paint up sometime I will chuck you a pm if i find one for you

Really impressed, its really nice to see your painting development over the growth of this thread

I think its a great painted mini, i love the shading on the stones and the edging on the armour it has a real "Guyver" look.

The only bit that doesnt look quite right to me is the lighter edging on the edge of the sword, it seems a bit off - but very minor and not going to be noticeable unless someone puts there head RIGHT against the chainsword!

P.S. LOVE the holster looks really "leathery"

Thanks for the comments, took a second look at the sword - it's one of those macro photography things where in real life it doesn't look that bright.

I am finding the whole macro photos do show up errors that would not be visible by naked eye and blending that looks smooth on the mini looks like blocks of colour, oh well.

So I thought I'd paint the next scorpion slightly differently and try a two tone thing...Here's what i've managed so far...
Again the greens don't look so contrasted in real life, ahhh well we'll see what happens.



i think i've wrecked my paint brush, as it was behaving very oddly. Kept splitting and splaying out, guess I need a new one.

your painting skills are impressive ,i also need to learn how to paint minis again, my techniques went out with the second edtion!

its inspiring to see your work come along makes me think i can do it!

Thanks Neil, hope you get back into it.
There's so much info out there now-a-days, the youtube videos by Les Bursley (AwesomePaintJob) and Alexandra (GirlPainting) have just been amazing and of course the inspiration of seeing other people's work on this forum is what keeps me interested.

Welll big update. Dunno why but I just wasn't happy with my Scorpions to date, also the primer had gone on really thick and had a chalky texture. So I decided to start over.

My lessons learned :-
Assemble mini first, then paint.

Decide on a colour scheme and experiment with which colours work with each other.

Do not assume you can paint over a poorly primed mini.

Now there's a question you see a lot of on here, priming Black or White?
With most questions of this nature there's pros and cons to both. Ultimately you have to make your own mind up, so i've decided to try a few different ways of painting my squad.

Here goes...

A quick pic of where I was...


The minis in a sealable bag of Acetone free nail polish remover...


The freshly scrubbed and dried and assemled squad


Undercoat - applied with brush due to bad experience before - notice 3 are white and 2 are black


Current position Stage1


1: I have applied a black ink wash - next stage I will paint scab red leaving the black lining
2: I painted scab red all over - next stage black ink wash
3: I painted scab red all over - next stage brown ink wash or black lining haven't decided
4: I painted scab red all over - next stage - black lining and clean up
5: I painted scab red leaving the black lining (This took 5 times longer than the previous 4 put togther) - next stage re-apply basecoat

I didn't think I'd be a black undercoat convert, but I gotta admit, i'm tempted.
So there you have it, if nothing else you can see the difference of a black or white undercoat on scab red.

Hangfire for now

The step by step pics are really helpfull!

Definately going to hold to the black undercoat for my Emperors Children!

Stage 2 complete



1: Complete waste of time doing the black ink wash first. I found it nigh on impossible to paint the basecoat covering all the white areas and leaving the black lines showing. So the red ended up covering the ink lines.
2: How I normally paint - has added some definition, but not enough
3: Added a small amount of definition, but no where near enough
4: I like the colour, but not looking forward to lining this dude
5: loving it, the colour looks good and I think the lines work better than model 1 with the ink wash.

I think i've learned something!

Where are your CSMs Incurus?

4 & 5 definately seem to have come out the best!

Had no time for painting! Halloween is the social epex of my year Soon!

My order from Wayland finally arrived yesterday, with 2 new paint brushes.
Army painter regiment brush and the Kolinsky masterclass - I have to say they kick the out of GW brushes hands down.

If you've not thought about brushes, then I highly recommend watching this

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/320475.page

Thanks Les, you the man.

Anyway, i've made some progress on numbers 4 and 5 from above.

here



Thanks to the new kolinsky I was able to have a stab at black lining, which I think went quite well for my first go. It's easy to miss bits though and I still think I prefer painting black then basecoating to leave black lines behind.

So take a guess, which one is 4 (painted black lines) and which one is 5 (black lines left showing)

Noice! i'm liking it so far, i like the blending on the sm, and i really dig the green scorpion, that's cool. inspired me to pick up my old eldar

@PrivateHerbert - thanks for the comments, shame the green one ended up in the bag of nail polish remover!

Anyway - I've finally got around to finishing number 5

As before I'd really appreciate some feedback, anything you can think of to help me improve.

Looks great! My only (small) suggestion would be to get rid of the orange hieroglyphic on the chain sword, orange and green are a bit to contrasty, it works well for the armour and helmet but I don't really like it on the sword. I love how the eyes seem like they are glowing.

Thanks Cain, I agree, bad colour choice for the rune.
I'm finding I often rush the last bits of the paint job to get it done, but that can easily spoil the overall effect.

So here's number 4, Undercoated black, basecoated and then black lined with a thin brush.
Must admit the black lining wasn't as tough as i thought and I learned that it can really help other colours to pop and look more defined.



As always, please feel free to critisize.

Getting better every time! I know what you mean about the black lining, it would really make the armour pop out a lot.

wow your blending has reall progressed , and your colour choice is perfect , Jamaican flag red gold and green! i realy like the red what colour is it and what did you wash with! and thanks for the top painting tips brushes and tuts , exactly what i needed!

Hi guys and thanks for the kind words. I'm sure there's a little bit of critisism just waiting to get out.....?

In fact looking at it again, I can see that the basing is rushed so i need to redress that.

As the red, Scab, Gore, Blood, blazing orange - no wash.
I do two or three passes with the orange, but real thin.

Does anyone else get sore elbows from painting?

@Neil Pleasey weasy can I have more comic?
@Cain, that's an impressive gallery you've got there. I feel honoured that you are commenting on my blog.

which is better ... comic or praxian guard , there only one way to find out...... FIGHT!

Due to my kid's fourth birthday, Uni assignments and building work going on in the house i've not been able to put brush to model for a while.
Unlike a lot of you fortunates my "workstation" is a showbox which everything gets packed into when i've finished a painting session.

Plus my elbows really do hurt after painting!

Anyway enough of my moaning here's number 2, this one had a white undercoat then base coat then 2 washes with badab black before highlighting.



and another angle



So far i'm not seeing a noticeable difference between a white undercoat and a black undercoat with respect to the colour armour. The only area it has made an impact is to do with the black lining, which I think looks way better than the black.

I was hoping by now that i'd be feeling comfortable with a particular style - my curse, everytime i think i've got it nailed down I imagine a better way of doing something. Blending better, no layers are better, no blending, perhaps extreme highlighting is best, no blending, nah layers....and so it goes on.

Nice photos mate, the red really seems to glow, can i ask how you highlight? is it a combination of wet blending and dry brushing ? I ask because i am trying to decide wether to drybrush my models, in the past i found the chalky texture very unapealing, but your modle has none of that , just smooth blending. your grey/black edging is very good also.
I think the green and grey mask dont work very well, maybe white would be a better contrast to the green and repeated on the chainsaw blade. or it maybe just that the green isnt as highlighted as the last model, the helmet on the previous one looked perfect. Still much better than i can do , so please continue , i am enjoying learning new tecniques. Happy belated 4th, oh how i remember those days , constant attention was required ! and the energy , my god, where do children get it from!
regards

Nice!

Really like the Gold heiro on the green blade - I do agree with the previous comment that the orange was just a tad too much.

Your shading is great, Most jealous!

I agree about the faceplate and helmet, I was thinking of a light blue face plate for the next one, what do you think, would that be too many colours?

@Neil, I almost never drybrush if I can help it. For this guy I did a weird wet blending technique I've made up. In my palette I had blazing orange in one bit and scab red in the other. Both watered down with a water and Klear. I paint a layer with orange, then working from one side paint red and try to blend it into the orange. That never works first go, so it's back to the orange and start the other side. It goes on like that for quite a while until i'm either happy, bored or too angry to care anymore.

TBH i've gone back to more of a layering technique, which is working for me atm. But no doubt next week I'll change my mind again!

Nice to see you again incurus. When we going to have our first game?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually perhaps you can advise me.
This guy isn't finished, apart from his armour.

I used layering to highlight this one and the one above is highlighted with blending, but which one's better, there's only one way to find out FI....ask you guys.

Nice - You have good skills for a new painter. I think a few more washes on some bits which look untidy (example - the sword hilt and hand in one of the photos looks messy - little bit of a dark wash in those deeper parts always helps I find) Maybe a little more highlighted detail around the face. But thats just my two cents

Hey weety, thanks mate, good feedback, sometimes I get lazy cause I just want this model done so I can move onto the next one. A wash or 2 could help tidy up my laziness.

I love the range of backgrounds you use when you take piccies of your minis' another area in which i need to change my ways. Thanks for the inspiration.

Would really appreciate your thoughts on whether you think my blending or layering technique works better.

Thanks

The blending looks better so far. Thanks for your comments on my pics - the backgrounds are really helpful to make them look more real. I have a big book of space science and exploration thats full of lovely star-scapes and the more down to earth backgrounds are from a book on nature. If you have aprinter then its even easier as you can pick from a wide selection of random internet pics

Prefer the blending one myself!

Going to be a bit insane with the new job and all, however i have a box of chaos marines base and undercoated (again!) and sure we can book some time in postwork some point... maybe late next week?

Cool thanks guys, blending it is - yahoooooooooieeee.

Today's been a good day for painting, here's another done (apart from base)
I quite like the armour on this one. Not sure I choose the best colour for face mask and eyes.

I had a go at doing a glow off his targetter. Thoughts? Any good or does it look like I'm juet a messy painter?
Despite telling Neil that I avoid drybrushing, that's pretty much how I did it.



Peace and believe

I'd say that that looks just about right - look even better with a slightly lighter highlight on the very edges near the targeter

I like the red on the scorp, not really sure the green helmet fits but thats just my opinion, nicely painted though

The blue is so much better than the grey mate , really stands out against the green , the grey metals look better also on this model, thanks for the tips!

If those really are you're first painted models, then you are honestly a very skilled professional painter!

Love it! You're blending is very nice, and its great to see what can be acheived by old schoolers like us even if we don't have as much painting practice. The models take me back to my own teenage years!

One question though....are you using the new Citadel Wash stuff? As someone who grew up painting in the days of ink I was utterly amazed at how incredible a product they are.

I really like your Eldar! They're fantastic! I've often heard that red is a hard color to paint but you don't seem to have any problems with it!

One of these days I'm going to have to try and paint some Eldar, yours look good!

Wow. The beginning of this thread in no way foreshadows where it winds up. The improvement in your skill is stunning and impressive. I am showing this thread to my wife (new to painting and better than I am but needs motivation).

I think i have A LOT of catching up to do for saturday!


Looks really good and i love the glow from the targetter and the whole chainsword!

your ultramarines blue is magnificent. Anyone who can paint older models this well should be commended for their skills! Great work!

Oops hadn't checked blog for a while and got flanked by a bunch of comments.

I found an incredible tool to help me with my painting, it's called an "Incurus" just send him an order like, say..."One pot of Baal red" and it arrives on your desk the very next day! Outstanding service! Lol, thanks man I owe you.

So far i've mostly used citadel paints and their washes imo are excellent. i should have bought the baal red earlier, going to try it over a blazing orange base coat on my exarch.

Thank you so much for the comments guys, i was feeling a bit uninspired but you've perked me up (not like that!)

Fisting in the name of...

Hello Dakka, it's been a while.

After painting my SS exarch i've been a bit off painting and into learning rules/army lists/tactics and all that good stuff.
I've been really struggling to find my mojo for painting again, so I decided to return to the good ole space crusade minis for some inspiration.
Now the thing I like about the Space Crusade mini is that they're not so detailed, which gives a lot of space to work on blending - take this guys legs as an example.

So here it is, I'd really welcome any feedback on how to improve my highlighting/blending and creating a cleaner look.
I just don't know how I do it, but I always think my painted mini's come out looking not very well defined, which is why i've not yet experimented with any weathering/wear and tear because then my mini's would just turn into blobs of colour and you wouldn't be able to tell if that's an arm, leg, mandible, snotling....

Anyway, as I say I really really appreciate constructive comments, so please if you think "huh he should've done...." then reply

Thanks all

Hangfire

p.s. thanks Neil for the kick up the

Man, you really are doing fine with these old models! Great job!!!

Hey Everybody your friendly neighberhood Hangfire, is back!
Well First i must say brave choice of miniature , i have these also and i know from experience these minis are difficult to make look good. Well me and the boys have taken a good look and would like to critique , Logan says that he likes its but he thinks it needs more dust and scratch's , i say some nice weathering tutorials , for chipped and rusty paint. make it look more realistic. Rohan and Bailey said that it looks a bit plain , and the bolter blade should be a different colour to the gun it self. i think that it could do with either a darker wash in the recess's especially around the neck and chest area, and give it a great base, maybe a purity seal or two or kill markings to personalise it , make him and individual with a story to tell .

but all that said i still think you have done a great paint job on him , i really like your blending technique and fail to see how you can improve on that , i would say maybe add some black for contrast , maybe where the shells come out of, or on his shoe soles , or dare i say some black gitsplitta style cammo markings ! lol ;-)

Thanks Neil, any better?

Got to admit that looks knarly as feth!
your blending is spot on (v jelous) and the damage looks brilliant, just the right amount of highlights and metal poking through.
Pete

Wow , bloody hell , that looks Ace! So jealous of that chipping , Please tell me how it was done, i have to paint a tank and i could really use some good weathering techniques as i still have not tried any yet , some kill markings on the bolter would be nice , maybe diagonal stripes, and some black dust area near the bolter shell exits and front, , maybe also some blood on the blade and a slighty lighter or darker shade and a cool base would be finish it off nicely i think. although i can still see some white around the area where the pipes join his helmet come to think about it! ;-)

on a different note i just noticed how terrible my grammar was on the previous post :-0 i am suprised you managed to read any of it lol!

again really great job on the weathering mate.

This is a very interesting log - thank you for posting the links to tutorials that have helped you develope your painting style so far. Strange - I tried some blending last night on an SM's shoulder pad purity seals and quite enjoyed it. Evidently this thread was subconsciously asking me to read it!

Your latest Imperial Fist work is really nice, I think you should be very proud of it. The Ultras are impressive too - I will definitely be trying to work more with blending. Incidentally I had my first try with blacklining the other day too!

Great work, mate - I'm subscribing now.

Ragsta

Wahoooo 3 pages big, I'm gaining on Gitsplitta

Thanks for the comments, very kind, I think I've focused so much on blending and the like that I have completely forsaken techniques such as weathering, damage, blood, gore etc etc. I've not based this one because my basing materials are abit on the thin side, next pay day should see my getting some basing material and some scenery stuff for gaming with. Anyway thanks again for the feedback Neil and making me read up on damage. I went with grey_death's tutorial for battle damage except I used a tatty old brush which i splayed out a bit http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/224015.page I used VGC black grey, then mixed some yellow and white for the bottom highlights. Once that was done I added some black grey to my yellow mix for the top highlights.

I first I thought oh what have I done, but once I'd highlighted it I thought it looked better and then I gave the whole thing a sepia wash - man that is one useful paint to have.

@Ragsta - thanks for the comments mate, look forward to seeing your work, have you discovered the merits of a wet pallet? If not I can't recommend one enough. I made one out of the plastic from a boxset and chopped up a dish sponge.

Well I'm back on with the Eldar now, going with a different theme altogether, not sure where my tastes will take me, but I'm going for a more realistic look as opposed to the bright colours i've been using so far....here goes nothing.

Thanks for the link matey that will def come in handy over the next few days, i researched weathering with powders earlier ,
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/307631.page#1875708

i found it quite useful especially the forgeworld tutorial link http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Downloads/Product/PDF//w/weathering-powders.pdf

look forward to seeing the eldar again.

Evening dakka,

It's been a while, I have been doing a lot of painting but haven't really finished anything, so there's a lot of half finished models floating around the house at the moment.
I've also ventured down to my FLGS and played a few games, I have to say despite some bad press GW get, I have been genuinely impressed with how I've been treated by the staff - Thanks Poole GW.

Anyway I've made myself finish a warlock, one of 6 and as always i'd appreciate any C&C. Personally, trying to look at the model objectively I think I went too light on the black highlights and possibly too dark on the brown. As always I've struggled to get the definition I want, I think the feet are a good example. They're two tone - black and bone and yet somehow the line between the two colours is kinda fuzzy.







Oh yeah, I haven't based it yet because I want to base the whole squad together.

I like it, my first attempt at a Eldar army was black and bone for higher up models (warlocks, wraithlords, phoenix lords) and black and white for the lowly models and your model look exactly how I wanted mine to look like I believe I went for blue eyes though

Is the whole army going to be a similar scheme?

Hi Knightley,
I get bored real easy, so at the moment my plan is to paint the whole army the same way, but who knows what i'll actually end up with. I take ages and ages to paint a single mini, which doesn't help.

Here's my WIP jet bikes, do you think they go with the warlock or have I have changed it too much?

The reason these guys are WIPs and I haven't completed them, is because I got really annoyed after applying a Devlan Mud wash over the main carapace.
I had the black to blue transition going on, it wasn't amazing but it was okay, but I thought a wash would help with the gradation lines and I wanted to darken the whole effect, but as you can see from the photos the wash wasn't smooth and now they look blotchy.

I'm currently thinking of ways to fix it, but stripping and starting again seems to be the answer, just not sure if I can face it!

Tell me about it, I once spent 2 weeks on a model from conception to build to paint I never wanted to see another marine in my life. Yet here we are, pursuing a fantastic hobby.

With your jetbikes, it comes down to are you happy with them? personally I believe you have changed the scheme a bit to much going from black to aqua/teal (that's the colour I get from the picture) but the top down shot looks pretty good from a distance.

Hindsight is a superpower we all share I think, the devlan mud wash was perhaps not the best finisher to your scheme. However did you blend/layer normally paint the change from black to blue? you could try a badab black wash then just reapply the major colours to the raised surfaces. Black and blue/teal/aqua and see if that fixes it.

While I'm not proud of my attempts at an Eldar force I figure I'd post a pic of mine so that at least you wont feel so bad about the state of your bikes. This wraithlord was painted by me around 2004 I think and was about the 4th or 5th model I did (you can see Maugan Ra in the background who was the first) so it could get so much worse

So I simplified the paint scheme on this fella which I think helped.
I also went back to using washes, for the shading, which is a little haphazard.

Taking this photo has made me see a few bits that need tidying up, but you can't really see them in real life.

feels like a slightly dumb thing to say, but the gems are really standing out - lovely!

I think going to the school of finnan helped


Thanks for you advice buddy. Next time i'm in Gw I'm going to pick up a purple ink and see what effect that has on the bone.

ooh, purple on bone could be cool. (is now thinking of magnolia flowers: pale cream with a purple centre... hmmm, nice and elfy!)

You're welcome, just glad I could help in an tiny way

So, mostly I've been assembling my army and here it is as things currently stand.

To do
- I've magnetised the weapons on the Wave serpents, but need to magnetise the armour cowling that go around them.

- Finish filling the gaps in the wraithlord's knee and wrist, then add robes.

- Add Armour to first (boring) wraithlord

- Make base for second waveserpent

- Complete Dire avengers (targetters and stuff)

Painting wise, I've stripped the scorpions, again! I'm going to do them Dark grey, nearly black, with the odd orange element.

The warlocks are from when I was going through an Ulthwe phase, to strip or not to strip that is the question...I'm thinking just finish them in the colours I've chosen, as they have no place in my army in the future.

Jet bikes are a bit rough and ready, I just wanted to get those things done. I didn't do a great job of stripping the ones I got off eBay so there's area of roughness, but they're fine for tabletop standard.

My big expense this month was a carry case for these guys - £80 from Kaiser - lots of purpose made waveserpent shapped foam inserts! mmmmmmm

For the wraithlords, I want the one I've converted to have a feminine quality and the other one to be more masculine. I'm going for robes for the girl and armour for the boy, but I need to try and reflect it in the paint job as well, so any ideas are appreciated.

It's nice to finally have a decent sized army to play with - now to find an opponent!

Doh, just realised I didn't attach the photo!

For the wraithlords, I want the one I've converted to have a feminine quality and the other one to be more masculine. I'm going for robes for the girl and armour for the boy, but I need to try and reflect it in the paint job as well, so any ideas are appreciated.

the easiest way to do that is to give the suggestion of breasts under the robes. the hard way would be to paint a very faint image of a female and male face on the head plates.

How goes the painting of your force? or have you been gaming instead?

Greaat work!

So, I finally got a mini finished. I've got plenty of mostly painted mini's lying around but am lacking the motivation to get them finished.
When I have been painting/modelling it's mostly been modelling, building warwalkers and magnetising weapons. After chatting to Nerdfest (thanks for all the advice and encouragement Damo I got my inspiration on and turned my hand to the dire avenger exarch.

Here he is





I'm quite happy with the gems and I quite like the definition i managed to keep, which has been a sticking point for me in the past. I'm not sure about the scheme though, it's a little bit fussy and once again I kinda rushed things at the end, so now I tend to focus on those bits. As always I appreciate any feedback on how I can improve.

Next up a wraithlord. I think it's time I tried something a little different.

After an awesome game against Incurus on sunday - which ended in a draw thanks to my fast moving wave serpent grabbing the objective - i'm feeling motivated to paint so without further ado I gave my wraithlord a pedicure...1.5 hours damn i'm slow.

good to see you back 'fire

Lovely stuff - the Exarch is fantastic. Loving the grey and the orange, really unusual choice of colours, and they work so well together. The spots of blue from the gems give it nice little push as well and add a bit of balance between warm and cold.

again with my semi-stupid compliments, but the knife is really well done (it's all in the details)

I'm not sure you could possibly be slower than me when it comes to painting! lol Liking the feet so far - nice and smooth. Lots of thin layers?

You may be slow - but you are good. I haven't dared pait my eldar yet for fear of all those smooth armour plates and pretty gems

@finnan - The feet are right out of the finnan handbook to painting - lol. I actually had them painted and highlighted but there wasn't enough shade so I re-inked (probably too much) and re-highlighted. Probably why it took me so long to do.

@Weety - awwww thanks man, I still haven't done some backgrounds for taking photos and I always think that I should follow your advice and then I forget - oh and work took photoshop away from me - booo.

Only a little progress last night, got the calves done. I find that this paint is really grainy. I spend most of the time trying to wipe the grains away so I keep wondering if i'm doing anything wrong. I've ordered a bottle of vallejo thinner so when that arrives in a month or 2's time i'll try that to see if it stops the graining. I've noticed it's especially bad when I mix colours. Also it's so streaky when I apply it, but I think that's noticable because I make too big a colour jump. Oh yeah and I got bored painting grey so I did some orange.

At the moment my biggest concern is that i'm going to end up with a really boring model. I'm going to need something to jazz it up, stripes, flames, celtic knots, runes, dare I say battle damage...I'd appreciate some ideas and thought. I've done lots of googling re wraithlords and trawled CMON, every time I see something that looks good I think "Why didn't I think of that?"

That is looking epic Hangy! that's a pedicure I would happily pay and wait for! (well maybe not me but i'd buy it for the gf) what's the plan for decorations then? tough call i'd say as you don't want to cover up or ruin the paintjob you're going to have on the flat panels? maybe give him a tattoo sleeve? of thorns like that other craftworld? or something similar, hmmm the mind ticks!

I was looking in the swap shop today and a guy had a small eldar force for sale pretty cheap but it was too much to send to Australia :-( bugger! but it'd be great to give you more mini's to put aside until you're sixty and can find time to paint them when your daughter leaves home! :-)

any more updates coming soon you think? I finally started painting again this morning but it's taking me a while to get into the swing again and it hasn't even been that long! but I did discover i need new brushes pronto!


Nerdfest09

Runes would look awesome on that model, i don't think stripes would look good though.

The idea of a tatoo sleeve sounds really funky..
Eldar rune tattoo!

As someone who gets mork and mindy to the face on a regular basis -shakes fist at the Wraithlords- I think giving them a bit of individual character would be really good, maybe something 'aspecty' on the helms?

Looks really good though Hang, the legs look great!

Hangfire wrote:Fisting in the name of...

Hello Dakka, it's been a while.

After painting my SS exarch i've been a bit off painting and into learning rules/army lists/tactics and all that good stuff.
I've been really struggling to find my mojo for painting again, so I decided to return to the good ole space crusade minis for some inspiration.
Now the thing I like about the Space Crusade mini is that they're not so detailed, which gives a lot of space to work on blending - take this guys legs as an example.

So here it is, I'd really welcome any feedback on how to improve my highlighting/blending and creating a cleaner look.
I just don't know how I do it, but I always think my painted mini's come out looking not very well defined, which is why i've not yet experimented with any weathering/wear and tear because then my mini's would just turn into blobs of colour and you wouldn't be able to tell if that's an arm, leg, mandible, snotling....

Anyway, as I say I really really appreciate constructive comments, so please if you think "huh he should've done...." then reply

Thanks all

Hangfire

p.s. thanks Neil for the kick up the

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm fisties...
Cant be a fisty post with out me saying yummy !!

looking good 'fire

re: jazzing up the Wraithlord... I've kinda had this in the back of my mind for a little while, and I don't know how well it would work due to differences in design, but I like the colour schemes, and the range of colours on them... might be worth a go, or at least having two shades of orange/red on the grey?
(they're from the Anime: Neon Genesis Evagelion in case you're not familiar with them... )

@Nerdfest, new brushes...what you been doing to them? Must be all that extra weight you're pushing, putting too much strain on the brushes perhaps Biel Tan are the thorny ones, Yme-Loc (my guys) like a bit of flame going on. Tatoo sleeve, forgive my ignorance, are they real tatoos or those things you can pull on and off?

@Divine Comedy - by the time i'd walked to work I had pretty much decided glowing runes was the way forward - although that doesn't mean much. As Incurus will tell you I've swapped craftworlds a hundred times on the dreaded walk to work. Although it does help to have someone else suggest it, so it will probably be glowing runes.

@Incurus - I think i'll save the aspect theme for mindy, she's going to get the banshee treatment, although i'm going to need another sword to pull it off. As for individual character - kill marking for the number of defilers it's taken out - oh wait there isn't enough space - lolololololololol lmao

@Tauzor - Noooooooooooo not the overly bright yellow marine...believe or not when I started painting him I wanted it to come out like yours, with a realistic yellow. What colour do you use for your IFs? They look cool as.

@Finnan - Thanks for the picture man, haven't seen any manga since my mate got Guyver on video. That made me think about adding an extra grey or black sooooooooooooo see below.

So to break up the grey I added some black, courtesy of Mr Finnan's piccy. I think the black on the shin is okay, but I think doing it on the thigh was a mistake...what do you think dakka, should I paint over the black or roll with it and get on with highlighting the orange.

Thanks for the comments guys, it's really helping me keep motivated to paint and as Nerdfest points out (a little bit too regularly ) perhaps i'll get this army done before retirement.

It's lookiing great so far.

ooh, I'm liking the black - both on the shins and thighs! It's looking ace.
Any ideas on the colours for the gems? I think I'd be tempted to go for deep reds...
Looking great!

I was thinking of enchanted blue coloured gems...might try a couple and see which I like best.

For now i highlighted some orange. looking back over what I've done so far, i'm not happy with the black, you can see the brush strokes and the gradient layers. I'm not sure how to improve this, am i jumping too quickly between shades? I feel sure i've thinned it enough. Perhaps there's something in my technique that i'm doing wrong.

I still like the black : )

I don't think there's anything wrong with your technique - the highlighting on the orange is working great. For some reason, blacks, greys and whites are tricky to work with, I have no idea why. I don't think that you're making the transition from colour to colour too sharp... I'm not entirely sure what the issue is... you know I'm a fan of REALLY watering down my colours, so you could maybe try that. Maybe longer strokes, so the paint is spread more thinly? It's just that you need to soften the edges more...

As much as I love the Wraithlord model, it is an absolute bugger to paint - there's not a whole lot of large flat areas. You inspired me to do a bit of work on my WraithWalker - and I realised what I pig it is to work on! It requires more patience than I have at the moment! I only managed to do a couple of small bits...


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I only managed to clean up a bit of the shoulder, and then highlight a lower leg... fairly frustrating

Oh man your painting is sooooo smooth, can't wait to see how your avatar does at games day.

I zoomed in - ahhhhhhhhhh this looks horrible, you can almost see the individual brush strokes.



As you can see, with the shape the shin and thigh are (oval cross section) I figured light would run the length of the limb (although that would change with your perspective.
Perhaps I should've ran the brush stroke downwards as I think here you can see little strokes have left pools of paint.

Do you think a quick badab wash would tidy that up?

Thanks for the advice so far.

You're beating yourself up Hangy, what you've painted is really good! I can totally understand wanting to better yourself and painting skills as i'm in the same boat (maybe we should go fishing?) *ahem sorry* your blending is being scrutinised by yourself at very close range so of course you are going to see subtle variations and gradients on the armor as you paint, especially as you know how you applied the strokes! I would recommend following finnan's advice though as he is an amazingly good artist, thin down the paint heaps and almost glaze it on again and again, he uses over 30 layers to get a smooth finish, to me that's more time and patience than can muster but if you want the smoothest of blended colours then a wet palette and patience is paramount!

you do realise that all you've done so far is actually really well done? I think more confidence is needed from you! be proud, finish some mini's and pop them up brimming with confidence, we all can see the effort you're pouring into your plastic crack habit!

Nerdfest09

Oh dear, I just had a look at Nakatan's dark eldar, it's no good microwave here I come!

Honestly I swear, my paint is watered down to ink thin...looking at that picture it doesn't look like it at all does it. I'm sure it's my technique that's the issue, well that and getting frustrated, oh and poor lighting.

The good thing is i've got a second go on the arms as they are pretty similar.

Thanks for the encouragement Damo...right off to work for a long long day of staring at excel spreadsheets...if I don't go those spreadsheets just won't get stared at.

I always think my stuff's rubbish when I look at the shots too! Like nerdfest09 says, you're looking at it magnified and under a flash, which doesn't help. You'll always see the flaws (and, if you're anything like me, ignore the good bits!) jumping out at you.

I think long, vertical strokes might help, but that's not going to be the easiest fix as the leg is so thin (again, nice model, bugger to paint).

The other option is to cheat: basecoat of Charadon Granite, wash of badab, and boom! Done. Might not be as smooth as you want it in places, but a little judicious tidying up would do the trick.

Still think your too harsh on yourself - your models look amazing on the table, how often when playing a game does someone pick up your model, peer at it with a magnifying glass under a bright neon light and notice the brush strokes!

On the point of defiler kill marks - Just you wait for my oblits -shakes fist-

Alright mate , looks like you have been a busy man , since my last post , lots of lovely work , I agree with the others that your beating yourself up a bit much mate , but thats probably because your a perfectionist, no bad thing. Your colour choice is still bang on , and your work does look really good already , but i think i know where you want to be at , unfortunately I am not that good a painter my self so my advice is always going to be limited , but I have seen some things recommended for smooth transitions , windsor newton 7 brushes and vellejo model colour paints , seem to be a layer or wash mans fave acoording to my research . apparently the blends are alot smoother on most colours , due to the added flow aid in the paint . but like nerdfest says , patience and practice is what will do it , 30 layres or more sounds crazy to me. but if thats what it takes matey , looks like your gonna have to bite the bullet .
Though in my oppinion your models looks great already , if you havent got the patience for that many layers and wet wet blending is not doing it for you , maybe invest in an airbrush , a little practice and you blends will be crazy smooth .

keep well mate , and dont over do it on those spreadsheets.

Oh frick I dropped it.

@Finnan, good point perhaps starting with a grey then wash and highlight would have been better than going straight from black to highlight. Have added Charadon granite to the shopping list.

@Incurus, I know I know, but it's difficult not to be harsh when you spend a hour painting, take a photo and then think "WTF, that looks like I just painted it with my left hand (or right hand if you're left handed).

@Neil, hey buddy long time no speak, that's my fault, I'm terrible at not commenting of other people's blogs, especially when I realise i've got about 5 pages of reading to catch up on. Good to see you're still showing Blue Peter how it's really done. In fact could you rename your blog to "and here's one I made earlier" Re: blends, I did the middle grey sheild (where the belly buttin would be) as a wet blend as opposed to layers. I quite like it, but it takes ages and I find I get really frustrated doing it, so I'm going to stick to layers for the time being, I think I just need to learn patience and let the layers build as opposed to jumping colours in order to see a transition.

Well I got some gluing done and some more painting.

it's looking so good 'fire - well done and keep it up! The gems are looking great, and are a nice contrast to the orange.

I feel your pain about the time put into something - I'm punishing myself and doing another white scourge, and it takes a g e s, especially to get it smooth. Also, it's making me even more insane as I keep asking myself "Is that white, or grey? Another few more layes won't hurt...". However, it does pay off eventually - keep it up

Got a bit further today, painted the back - grey, which I'm feeling alot more comfortable with.
Painted the head and had a go at some NMM gold.

I'd really appreciate some feed back on the gold. Not sure I got it right.

A few more Wips, the end is in sight, just finish off the flamers. Paint and attach wings, then base.

pretty shiny thing! I love the sword - and your background

Looks ASTOUNDING!

You do realise i'm going to have to buy my obliterators quicker now JUST to destroy it on the first turn

that's looking wicked 'fire! Kudos.
Loving the warm reds, oranges and yellows against the blacks, greys and white, really nice colour scheme, and unusual too, so it stands out.
The gold looks good as far as I can tell, but I love the head

Real nice orange and effect on the sword!

Whoa Hangy! my man! that's nuts! I love it especially the sword, it looks beautifully like cold polished metal, you are just such a damn good painter now, don't ever let me catch you beating yourself up again over your work o.k! you have absolutely nothing to be concerned about! all we want to see is more work from you, especially to that standard, i'd love to see it in person one day, as somehow i don't think the photo's (as good as they are) do it justice!


Nerdfest09

Looks great mate , love your lighting too.

It's done, it's finally done.

Thanks for the comments guys, it really helped me push on to get this one completed. I think this is my first mini i've fully completed and not thought I must go back and do x y z.

Next up...another wraithlord this time i'm going off craftworld with a SENMM gold one. Going to be tough, but i'm looking forward to the challenge.

Final one looks amazing! Mork looks incredibly good and the colour scheme really, really works.

The sword looks great and I could well imagine it carving up those poor Noise Marines you butchered!

I await shiny mindy with baited breath

Thanks man, good game last week, finally my scorpions proved to be useful. Can't wait for our next game.

Greetings dakka,

So i've been busy with exams and course work and finding a new job etc etc.
I've been finding the time to paint but mostly just speed painting my Flames of War army or basecoating my Dire Avengers, neither of which is worthy or interesting enough to post up.

A few days ago I got the urge to paint something properly, my poor farseer has been in every game of 40k i've played but has alwyas been sans-paint, well no more.





As always i'd appreciate any c&c

Thanks

Hangfire

I think this is just lovely 'fire! Calm, composed, elegant, strong and just beautifully done - kudos! Really well balanced use of colour. You should be really proud of yourself with this one

Nice Hangfire, that's a very tasty model, well done!

I haven't updated my log in a very long time, but I have been a busy little Hangfire....so thought it was time I updated this bad boy...

First up, i've been enjoying making some hills, these are my 40k hills.



and this is my flames of war hill (I need to make more)



My Harlequins, an absolute finecast disaster, unfortunately I got a box from the first batch to hit the flgs, a lesson learned. These were in a right state and I spent many an hour with a hairdryer sorting them out. That kinda ruined it for me so I didn't really try that hard with the painting. These are a bit rough, but my standard for tabletop.



and finally for now, my first 40k vehicle a Wave Serpent



That's all folks, I have done other stuff but nothing finished, currently I'm working on my second wraithlord, I want this one to be special so i'm going to wait until tomorrow and photograph it under natural light with a background.

that wave serpent is sweet! Lovely crisp lines and fantastic saturationon the colours - thumbs up!

Howdy Finster,

We quite often end up painting similar things, your wraithseer is coming along beautifully.
I was chatting to a mate yesterday about going to Games Day this year and I was telling him about your avatar.

Anyway as promised, here's a WIP shot of my 2nd wraithlord, I stopped mucking about with that nmm gold gubbins as it wasn't really working and more importantly wouldn't have tied in with my army.



There's quite a lot left to do, re-visit some grey areas which I obviously painted in a hurry (round the lower legs), hands, fix some mishaps, do the wepons, then I want to go crazy with runes. I want runes everywhere and I'm tempted by the tatoo sleeve mentioned ages ago. Just need to find one I like.

A ton of work recently Hang! She looks amazing, can't wait to see the finsihed article.

Wave Serpent is really striking too

Good afternoon Dakka dakka

I've managed to take a few days of work,with which I can do pretty mush what I want. Wife is working, kid is in school, hangfire is free to play.

So, I recently bought an airbrush...yay! I've pretty much painted the GW terrainscape with it, just need to complete some detail work. I chose that as it would give me a nice intro to using an airbrush and if things started to go wrong it wouldn't be the end of the world.

Fortunatley for me, I live near an airbrush specialist shop (www.everythingairbrush.com), so I popped by this morning had a long chat with a fiendly chap named Tim and bought a load of paint, cleaner and primer.

I'm painting the bulk of my new German army for Flames of War, it's a mechanised Aufklarungs company. I say bulk because i'm still waiting for a couple of bits.

This took an hour...


Conclusion - It went on a bit thick in some places, due to my impatience apart from that...I love my airbrush.

Step2 - The basecoat


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Basecoating done.

The primer dried really nicely and lots of spots where I thought I'd airbrushed out the detail are actually okay - good drills.

This took 1 hour and 10mins. For those manager types amongst you, that's not a drop in productivity, the 10mins was spent clearing a blockage. (In the airbush not in me )

I'm going to let this dry really well before tackling the next step - brown camo stripes, at this stage i'm not sure whether to swap to a 0.2 size needle and nozzle - probably. Also I'll need to go a lot slower. I'll give it a go today, then hit it hard tomorrow.




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Seems to work okay, just turned the pressure down to about 15psi and made sure I tighten the paint control screw thingy.

These stripes are quite wide, but don't worry there's a reason for that. I'm going to paint green in the middle. Green in the middle I hear you say! That's right, I saw it done on the FOW website and it looked cool as. Hopefully I can follow suite.



I would carry on tonight, but I've actually got a game booked (40k, not FOW). Wish me luck, i'll need it!

All the best laid plans...

My daughter has come down with flu, so i'm playing nurse, which kinda ruins my plans a bit. I'll try and get some painting done when she's asleep or watching cbeebies

For now here's the brown stripes done. My airbrush didn't want to play ball today and I was constantly struggling to find the sweet spot between pressue and paint flow. When I did find it, it seemed to clog up real quick. So unfortunatley there are a few blobs here and there.

Looking at this photo the stripes look far too thick. I hope what I do next will sort that out.




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Oh yeah, this works for me...

I love this phase of painting, just when things are starting to take shape.







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I gloss varnished, before a thinned Devlan mud wash, which has really helped blend the colours together and make them look a bit more realistic.

In other news, my wife just went and had a go at some polish people using our driveway for their van - hilarious.

Nice tanks , mate , the airbrush is paying for itself in hours i guess ;-)

Hello Neil old chum.

I see your blog has grown to epic proportions, good stuff mate. Have you got an airbrush? Although for the size of some of your creations I imagine a spray gun is more appropriate

I managed to paint all the tyres and tracks last night, this morning I went to give the tracks a boltgun drybrush only to discover I ran out of boltgun metal a while ago and forgot.
So instead I painted the german uniforms and drybrushed all the yellow areas with a 50:50 mix of VAC yellowstone and GW Bonewhite.

I'm not 100% happy with the result and wish I'd done the drybrush before the ink wash. Lesson learned - establish painting recipe before embarking on entire army.

They look cool mate , nice change form 40k i imagine too.

I haven't got a airbrush or spray gun .;-) wouldn't mind one tbh

are they tricky to use ?

The thick camo lines are looking pretty cool. Look forward to seeing more!

@Neil - It was very very tricky at first, but it's a steep learning curve. It wasn't long before I was comfortable using it. I'm no expert and there's lots of mistakes, but it's fun to use and I think the results are good. I've got one of those cheap Chinese copies you can get off eBay - it's awesome. The chap at the airbrush shop said that was a sensible move, buy cheap, see how you get on and upgrade when you want. Apparently if I break something on the airbrush i'm going to struggle for parts unlike a proper named one and at lower nozzle sizes 0.2mm and below, the quality will start to show. Also the chinese copies use rubber o-rings, which perish with time/using solvents, whereas a quality one will use PTFE. For £70 for the airbrush and compressor I'm happy. Come christmas time, if i'm still using it I imagine I'll be requesting a nice one.

@Lego - Hey man, most of my wargaming mates are fed up with 40k and are awaiting 6th ed. Meanwhile it's all dystopian wars or malifaux or FOW. Glad you like the camo, I've just finished drybrushing the green and am really happy with the result. I've probably achieved more (painting wise) these last few days than the last 6 months.

Thanks for the comments...time to do the flesh colour.

Okay, apart from decals, which I haven't even ordered yet, I think i'm done.
I added some skin tones, dry brushed mud on the lower part of the hull and wheels. Then dry brushed dust into the same areas and I have just finished giving them a matt varnish.

Managed to get my Nebelwerfers done at the weekend. I was painting some artillery pieces as well but they are not finished.

These didn't go so well. I felt that the ink wash darkened the colours too much and I tried to compensate with drybrushing a lighter colour on, but it all came out a bit odd.
I ended up going back over it with the original colour. Also I made the camo stripes too thick, so they get a bit lost. Ah well, they're done and will soon be surrounded by crew.

Managed to get a bit of painting done over easter.
Thankfully I've finally started to learn to simplify my colour scheme, to keep it enjoyable.

As always C&C is appreciated

Those heads are excellent , nice work mate. can I suggest painting the tips of the gun to match the helmets ?

@Neil - hey buddy thanks for the feedback. I've got another squad to do so I might try that with them, thanks.

In the meantime, here's my warlocks - finally repainted in Yme-Loc colours

I feel that I've hit a good balance of quality v speed.

yep they look really good mate , You have learned miles more than me over the last year :-(

dude - loving the Dragons - really mean and moody and you've really captured a strong heat source : )
Funnily enough, I'm wanting to do another squad of Dragons myself (now that I've finally sorted out my Craftworld colours!)... who knows, I may even have enough to start playing with my Eldar soon! lol

As usual a massive break between getting units painted, but seeing as I have a game tomorrow against a new opponent I thought I should at least get these bad boys done.

Looking good winner!
Its nice to see plenty of progress. I look forward to smearing them all over a battlefield soon :-)

Really interesting to flick through this thread from the 1st page to the most recent and seeing your style develop! Looking forward to seeing all the shiny painted things tonight in our game

As usual it's a massive gap between updating my plog.
I went to town with the wave serpents. Stripped them all and them hit the air brush.

I've experienced a lot of frustration with the airbrush, lots of blockages and unexplained behaviour, but I persevered and am thinking about purchasing a proper Harder and Steenbeck.

And here they are

ooh, nice!
(jealous... I'm never going to have an army painted at this rate!!)
Liking the cockpit canopies very much. I've (vaguely) started a Falcon myself - out of interest, did you do much with the undercarriages, or did you just leave them the flat base orange? (looking to leave the underside alone if I can possibly get away with it!)

Hey Finnan,

I did do the underside, I simply couldn't let myself leave it untouched
However it is fairly rough and wouldn't stand the scrutiny of a close up.

I went with Blazing orange, then I gave it a Sepia wash, and a very quick yellow highlight.

HOWEVER....

I really wish I'd been able to paint before gluing the 2 sections together. If the underside and topside had been separate I would have done a more thorough job.

From what little I know of you (from reading you blog and a handful of PMs) I can't imagine you taking a shortcut

I can imagine me taking a shortcut lol

I too have glued the two halves together, but I haven't glued the turret in place yet, I want to be able to get underneath it before I do that.

As it is, the underside of mine is Charadon, so it'd just be highlights with the red. I was just hoping you'd say that you left it your base orange so that I wouldn't have to go and highlight it! ; )

Nein nein nein nein nein, ze airbrush is kaputt!

I could just about get a prime and undercoat with it, but it kept clogging up up after only a few seconds of spraying and I spent more time cleaning it than I did using it.
So these tigers have been done by paint brush.
Unfortunatley I went overboard when I gave them a drybruush and they came out really dusty looking. So to dull the effect down I then gave them another wash with Agrax Earthshade (the new Devlan Mud), the result is that these are a lot darker than I intended.

As you can see I hit them with some silver to simulate wear and tear, this helped with the fact that they were so dark. Ah well live and learn, but I do miss the airbrush and am saving for a new harder and steenbeck.

I'd appreciate any comments on how I could have made these look better.

Some more units finished for ze Germans

This time some PanzerGrenadiers and Gen von Stauken. I've managed to keep my resolution and do a piece of terrain.



Close up



I actually really enjoyed painting these guys, but I once again did not put enough effort into the clean up phase.

In a bit.

more Eldar! >stamps foot<

looking good though ; )

I can't...I've seen your harlequins...too much awesomeness for me to cope with.

as if! Just wait until they crash and burn at Games Day... ; )

Good evening Dakka dakka,

It's been a while since I painted any 40k stuff.
I'm currently having a clear out and am looking to paint stuff and then sell it on eBay.
i'll be happy if I make my money back, even happier if I make a small profit.

To that end, here's an aegis defence line that I just finished.

I'd appreciate any thoughts and comments before I stick it on the bay of goodness.

Dave

Well the above set is on eBay at the moment and has had some activity

I've started work on the second set...here's a wip shot following 4 layers of airbrushing

good luck with the sale mate, love;y airbrush work .

Hey Neil, thanks buddy. I'm hoping to spend the money on a new flame of war army.

A better wip shot, now with edge highlights and shade around the nuts and rivets...some of them are a bit too dark and need toning down.

Some more WIP goodness, this time with added skulls

So, after realising I'd forgotten all about the targetting unit, work has continued.

I used Tin and Brass for the ammo and grills.

Then worked on the lenses. I tried something a little different with the blue lenses...not sure if I pulled it off or not.

Thoughts would be welcomed.

Next I need to paint the battle damage and as this is going to be for a Chaos army, it's time to break out the dremel on the aquillas

I'm not gonna lie...I wish I'd done this before I commenced painting

Clearly my dremelling skills need some practice

I've just sent these photos to my client, I really hope he likes them. My free hand definitely needs practice, so that's something to work on.

I successfully sold the Aegis defence lines and have bought some goodies with the proceeds.
After looking around for what to paint next I settled on my Chaplain.

He's been sat all boxed up in the bottom of my wargaming draw for quite some time now, and I just fancied painting a marine figure.
I think i'm correct in saying this is my first non-space crusade marine.

Hope you like



Dave

My third and finally Aegis defence line...quite glad as i'm bored of painting these now.

Decided to try out the new Minitaire range of paints from Badger. Took a little getting used to and I didn't like the ghost tints very much, but the regular paint worked well.



Also had a go at using a mask...not as easy as I thought, but I got an end result.

Bloody beautiful Hangy! :-) I mean wow that looks cool as, the reds are almost candied and those gems I could just eat they look so nice! you have outdone yourself with this model dude i am really impressed! I would love to see you do something similar with one of the new big Eldar models like the knight?

No Damo...don't tempt me...

The badger paint do have natural Candy feel to them, even the basic black or white.

Have you checked them out at all?