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Thread title says it all. Was curious to know what dakkites do. A friend does his space wolve's eyes yellow to represent wolfen or something, not sure how he does his other armies, DE and IG. My models get the shadowed eye treatment.

EDIT; Added an option for everything has a helmet. I figured that if you didn't paint faces at all, this poll wouldn't apply, but dakka asked, so dakka shall recieve.

I paint them skin coloured (most of the time) its a drag for me.

Kinda depends for me. Like Necron eyes, I think I painted them all with my thumb. I'm trying to do eyes on Tyranids a little better.

For my 1.3" tall Romans...hell no.

Even if the rest of the model isn't completely finished, I like to have eyes painted before a model goes on the table... It's the one detail that really brings a model to life, for me.

 jasper76 wrote:
Kinda depends for me. Like Necron eyes, I think I painted them all with my thumb. I'm trying to do eyes on Tyranids a little better.

For my 1.3" tall Romans...hell no.

I would've thought painting the eyes on crons and nidz were a given, as one's glowing and the other's more animalistic/potentially glowing as well.

I can well imagine why you wouldn't try it on your Romans

Yes, and yes pretty much since ever.

Eyes only seem difficult to do when you haven't done them before. Paint up a few hundred guardsmen, and they're no more difficult to do than any other part of the model.

I paint them a solid color, but that's a bit of a cop-out of an answer since the only models of mine that I paint myself are Salamanders, and their eyes ARE one solid color.

My sisters get white-blue-black eyes to look as real as possible. My guardsman were visors, so all good. My Dark Angels get solid colour eye pieces, and my Eldar get solid blue, black or purple, coated with hard coat, to give that alien feel.

But yeah, it can suck.

Eyes, what are those?

I paint a thin black line down the centre and (after its white) and then paint skin around the eyes.

Quick simple and better than blind soldiers haha.

Even my Tyranids and Necrons get their eyes coloured over. Everyone gets their eyes painted in the manner their lore permits. Eyeless models give me the willies. More than any Chaos Spawn, Painboss 'Speriment, Grotesque, or Tyranid murderbeast, a canonness with unpainted eyes looks unnatural.

That being said I do try to get as many full face helmets and mask bits as possible. Even Abaddon wears a helmet taken from some Archaon bits. He looks better without the stupid topknot anyway.

For me it depends on the model, usually heroes always get it done but for grunts it varies from model to model. About half my cadians have painted eyes, as a bunch you cant really see them unless you are holding them up super close.

The only times I paint eyes is when I paint a new becth of Tyranids for my swarm, when it comes to PA armies I avoid using unhelmeted heads.

I've tried to do human eyes multiple times but I can't get the pupils right and they always come out strange looking so I just leave them a dark color like brown to represent shadows. I may try Swastakoweys method of painting the eyes first before the skin since you wouldn't have to be so precise.

Ork eyes are easy. Their heads are a lot bigger than SM's and the eyes are a solid color.

Paint the eyes black then a dot of white in the corner cleaning up the black if needed. I've done the iris as well before, but I don't really think it's worth that effort unless I was just doing them for display.

Paint white, dot of color, clean up edges with flesh tone.

The hard part is getting the eyes looking in the right direction. But unpainted eyes just look off.

Where's the "Everyone wears their bloody helmet so I don't have to paint eyes" option?

 Nevelon wrote:
Paint white, dot of color, clean up edges with flesh tone.

But unpainted eyes just look off.

Maybe he's blinking.

 lilgammer123 wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Paint white, dot of color, clean up edges with flesh tone.

But unpainted eyes just look off.

Maybe he's blinking.

Everyone in the army at the same time? Not only is that eerie, but will get you killed by the Weeping Angels.

 CrashCanuck wrote:
Where's the "Everyone wears their bloody helmet so I don't have to paint eyes" option?

^ This. I -never- use non-helmeted models.

~Vryce

You never know Nevelon.

 Nevelon wrote:

 lilgammer123 wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Paint white, dot of color, clean up edges with flesh tone.

But unpainted eyes just look off.

Maybe he's blinking.

Everyone in the army at the same time? Not only is that eerie, but will get you killed by the Weeping Angels.

Well, my army is screwed then. Also, that would be an interesting episode, a planet occupied by creepy blinking humans and Weeping Angels. Would like to see how the Doctor figures that, "Why are the people blinking like that? Why are the Angels here and not attacking everyone?"

I paint 'em with Screaming Skull and draw the pupils with a thin marker. Works pretty well.

Eyes? Real men don't show their eyes to the enemy.

More seriously, I've taken to painting what little exposed flesh my armies have (Steel Legion have a few goggle-less fellows, unlike proper Kriegsmen) with white with a very small touch of red and brown, washed first with a very thinned red, followed by a brown. Varying degrees of this produces varied skin tones, and as eyes are often rasied, the washes don't darken them much. I'll often re-touch them with just white before the brown wash, and apply the tiniest dot of black when practical, usually using the end of a needle. As has been mentioned, making sure they're looking the right way is important. One of my mates had a very "crazy-eyed" Marbo, which while oddly suiting, was a bit off-putting.

That being said, I think I've only painted 6 models with exposed faces, only one of which have his whole face exposed, go Yarrick!

Absolutely. Every time. Gotta have proper-looking models.

Though I did on one occasion put a bionic eye onto a Sister whose eye was proving annoyinglyy fiddly to paint.

I do my best to paint the eyes of any model, but I honestly shouldn't because it makes me rage so much: When I manage to paint the pupil and then I notice how all I managed was to make the model look "DERP" annoys me so much.

Eyes are a big deal for me, I seem to get them right enough of the time to really annoy myself when I don't too.

Fill with black
Almost fill with white (leaving a thin black outline)
Vertical line in black joining the outline (must be aligned right)

Alternatively, fill with black
Two white dots in the corners

The key is knowing how to fix it WHEN you screw it up, then you can do it without fear, which produces better results.

 CrashCanuck wrote:
Where's the "Everyone wears their bloody helmet so I don't have to paint eyes" option?

This!

Unless it's my Sororitas, then its pupil color, flanked by ulthuan gray, then framed in with flesh color.

Mr. Mordian disagrees.

The hat is where it's at.

Since the rule book requires you to draw line of sight from your model, I put them on everything. Orks. On the lenses of Space Marine Helmets. On the front of my Rhinos. On the top of my drop pods (think Sauron's Tower from The Lord of the Rings). On all 4 sides of my razorback since they fire as a turret. I don't bother with my Helldrake since Helldrake does what Helldrake wants.