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so I am working on one of the old school metal assault marines. and the paint just doesnt look to smooth. any suggestions?

and dont mind the overall bad paint job, I am just now getting back into this after a few years of not playing. he is still a WIP.

Is that with a spray undercoat? GW's sprays often leave a very rough surface.

Some of the metals also weren't particularly smooth. Although that one does look a little excessive. If it's the actual casting that's rough, though, there's not a lot you can do about it short of stripping the paint off, filing down the rough parts, and repainting.

If its not your basecoat, have you tried thinning your paints? If you use water, or some other medium, you can thin the paint which will yield a smoother coat, but generally will require more layers

It's so evenly rough, I'd have to guess that it's the casting not the paint finish. Only a guess though. If it is, Isaniak's suggestion is the only thing I can think of to solve the issue.

Hmmmm rough mini, middle of winter. I'm going to guess that you just primed this mini, probably outside, and that's effected the way the model looks because the temperature effects primer.

What kind of primer do you guys use? I've had mixed results with GW black.

Elnicko5 wrote:If its not your basecoat, have you tried thinning your paints? If you use water, or some other medium, you can thin the paint which will yield a smoother coat, but generally will require more layers

the paints are already pretty thin. it takes a few coats to get a good covering already

BigToof wrote:Hmmmm rough mini, middle of winter. I'm going to guess that you just primed this mini, probably outside, and that's effected the way the model looks because the temperature effects primer.

nope, it wasnt a spray on primer. it was just regular black acrylic paint that was brushed on, while I was inside my house.

it was a matte acrylic though, would that make a difference?

My bet is it is an old model. Older pewter models are often very 'porous' like this. Many of them actually need to be 'smoothed' out with a putty/water mix to fill in these mini pockets.

Its likely not your paint or primer but old models

dashrendar wrote:it was a matte acrylic though, would that make a difference?

Not specifically. Whatever paint you're using, it can go on lumpy if it's a little too thick.

But this case really does look more like dodgy model than dodgy paint.

dashrendar wrote:

BigToof wrote:Hmmmm rough mini, middle of winter. I'm going to guess that you just primed this mini, probably outside, and that's effected the way the model looks because the temperature effects primer.

nope, it wasnt a spray on primer. it was just regular black acrylic paint that was brushed on, while I was inside my house.

Doh! Looks like my weird boy psychic powers are doing a serious fail.

I honestly haven't had a great deal of experience with brush on primer, since I never have a use for it, so I can't answer your question.

Joyous_Oblivion wrote:My bet is it is an old model. Older pewter models are often very 'porous' like this. Many of them actually need to be 'smoothed' out with a putty/water mix to fill in these mini pockets.

Its likely not your paint or primer but old models

yeah, they are an old model. I have had them sitting for many years now. I have some plastic assault guys to, I am gonna paint them the same way and see how they turn out.

thanks for the comments guys.

any comments on the paint scheme? look good or not? my Dev squad will be a reverse of the red and blue colors. while regular tacs wil be mainly the blue with only a shoulder pad done in the red.

i think your color ideas are pretty good. specially the flip from devs to tactical squads. but uh yea my brother started playing 40k forever ago (just after RT came out) and i remember he had to smooth out alot of those old minis. good luck on that