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Alright, I've been lurking dakka for the longest time without contributing anything, and that is simply because I didn't have anything to contribute yet. Now, however, I have finally painted first few minis ever. They are far from perfect, but I'm proud of the job I did. Anyway, these are the first three of a ten man tactical squad for my own DIY Chapter, the Grey Crusaders. I realize that the paint scheme is rather close to the White Scars, so I'm trying to make my own differences with the brown as a secondary color, and instead of bringing things up to a pure white, I'm trying to make a dirty gray-ish white.

Comment and criticism would be appreciated very much, as again, I have 7 more to go! So without any further ado, here are the first 3 Grey Crusaders.

Here's the first guy I painted, just an ordinary foot slogger with a bolter. I gave him a nifty little scope, just to try and make him a little more interesting.



Next up is my veteran seargent. I worked on his pose a bit to try and make it a little more dynamic, but I didn't want to stretch to far and start hacking my guys to pieces on my first squad. I just used a bit of green stuff to fill in the gaps so I could spread the arms out wider, and re-molded the wrist a bit so he could be pointing his chainsword out in a manner that says "ATTACK!"



Finally, here's the first of my two beakies. He doesn't have a backpack on yet, because I've decided that I HATE painting the backpacks. I'm going to paint all of them up in one large angry painting session. The beakies have a specific place in my chapter's make-up. Beaky helmets are given to the group scouts. They are the eyes and ears of their squad, and it is their job to know where any enemy may lie at all times.



Well that's it for now. I know the paint job isn't that great, but again, my first models. I still have some finishing touches for these guys yet, I just need more supplies before I can go on with them. I need a tiny pin vice so I can drill out their gun barrels, I'm thinking of doing some water slide trasfers of the tactical squad arrow on to their right shoulder pads, and I need a few different green paints so I can actually paint their eyes.

Any other suggestions would be great.

Welcome aboard!

Now time to rip you a new one!

Just Kidding, this is actually a good first shot.

Your colour scheme is very nice. Your sergeant and second bolter guy look great in the scheme.

Obviously you'll get better the more you paint, but for now, great job, and I do mean that.


I have a couple questions though. Why is the first bolter marine not holding his bolter? And any idea on what you are going to with your bases?

From what I can tell from the pics (more light please) it looks like you have good shading going on and all the parts look nice and clean. Cant ask for more...unless your going for a Golden Demon..

good job man. I wouldnt have looked at them & thought 'white scars'. Youve got enough red parts for them to look unique. keep it up.

Try a little more lining. Look at the knee caps. There is little definition where the cap is and where the thigh and greaves start. For white, you might try lining with a dark grey. it won't be as stark as black.

The bolt man isn't holding his bolter because I did a poor job with his pose when I glued him together
I didn't realize that his hand was too far back to actually be where the handle should be. I may try to pop that off and re-place it eventually.

As for the bases. I'm going to get some gridded plasticard and follow a tutorial on making some nice battle torn urban bases that I found on the bolter and chainsword. I just need to get the plasticard... which is available NOWHERE in my region. Other than that, I have the paints and flock and some extra bits all ready.

Edit: I couldn't stand looking at that little bolter man without my eyes wandering to that little mistake, so I popped the arm off and glued it back on in a better position. Now I need to do some touch-ups around the shoulder where the torso used to be covered by the arm, but it'll be fine.

Alright, I've started putting on some water slide transfers. I don't have any gloss varnish or matte varnish, so I'm gonna kinda try this the ol' fashioned way. I'm going to hit the three of them with a good coat of dullcote tomorrow, and hopefully that will set them straight. First though, I want to go over any touch ups, and maybe try some lining like Ifurita mentioned. I'm not entirely sure what she means by it, and it'll be hard because my fine detail brush is rather... uh... sub-par... but I want to get these guys nice and protected.

Nice color scheme... I especially like the beakie's helmet.
As for urban bases, the plastic sprues can be really useful as they can be hacked up into any shape you man want/need.

wow I think you did really well on these. I chanced upon my first painted figures buried in my friends 8 year old sons toybox over the summer(RT beakie dark angels) and they still looked decent enough. I think your first army will look good if you keep this up.

The red and white goes well together I especially like the two tone helmets. I hate painting white and try to avoid it but you did pretty good on yours. The red parts would look good with some more shading and highlights.

What are you thinking of for a chapter badge? I found some suitable transfers for my marines to save time.

light source need to be from the front :x

yours seems dark because light came from the back of the mini.

i like the way you shade your mini though, ( from what i think i see ) the reverse shading ( what i call Japanese use on their models ) i like way more then GW "highlights"

Also, here's the link to the article I'm going to use to make up my guys' bases, just so you can get an impression of the final product.

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.php?showtopic=93332&hl=urban+base

Try thinning your paints and painting on multiple layers instead of painting straight from the pot. This will make your minis look much better, by avoiding the "chunky" look you get from using paint that's not thinned out. Try a 50/50 water to paint ratio to make things simple for you.

I like your reverse shading you've done (most noticeable on the kneepads in the second pic). Looks very cool.

Nice first effort.

Good work dude!
Looks like all that prep really paid off!
As said earlier, the more you paint the better you get so keep it up
and keep us posted!

You're off to a good start and, just as important IMO, you have the ability to see for yourself where you go wrong and can work out ways to correct it. That's as much of a skill as how you handle a brush if you ask me.

Chrysaor686 has a good point about thinning your paints a little and using multiple layers, red can be a pain to get a smooth finish with otherwise, but you're doing well for a rookie.

With this kind of result as a starting point, and your willingness to take advice (including your own) I can see you making rapid progress.

Keep it up.

Your first are better than my first.

I would make one suggestion. Your shoulder pads-I would test a regular tac with some sort of edge lining like you have with the sergeant's right shoulder pad. From a personal view it might look more complete in that manner.

Good work.

Nice job... I am waiting on some paints to come in the mail and then I will take my first stab at painting too.

darn good joob on the marines

Looks a bit chalky, but that may just be the light. I really like the colour scheme though, nice on the eyes. Keep up the good work.