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Hullo,

My friend and I are just getting into 40k, and I purchased some Chaos Space Marines to get my feet wet. I have finished painting my 1st one, and need some advice.

The bulk of the armor is purple, but it needs to be more striking. The problem is it took me 3 coats to get that color (excluding black base coat). I wouldve continued coating, but I was starting to lose some detail. All you can really see are the highlighting lines around his neck and elbows. I also think the skulls are still a little too white, should I start with tan and just highlight them in white?




I was happy with how the face and bolter came out (both look better in person, the eyes and bolter detail got cut out by the camera), but when I applied a black wash the the shoulders it makes the white trim look like I just didnt put enough coats on.

So I guess my questions are:
How do I get the purple more contrasting to the black shoulders?
How can I keep from ruining the white trim when I apply the "aging wash"?
Opinion: should 1) I scrap the silver trim and just do all white, 2) scrap the white trim and do all silver, or 3) keep it how it is?
Also, is this color scheme close enough to any actual CSM legion to claim affiliation, or should I just start noodling on a name and backstory?
Any other critiques, opinions, tips, etc. are more than welcome, too!

I know its a nub wall of text, but thanks to those who read and respond.

The joys of chaos- is that you can paint it however you please As is however, that scheme can easily fit in with the ubiquitous Black Legion. If you get the purple to stand out more, the Alpha Legion uses purple as a primary color.

The purple is rather hard to see, the fig right now looks mostly black and highlighted with purple. If you want that purple to pop out as a dominant color- you'll need to add more layers- or, if you applied it over a black base coat, you can try paint it over a lighter color like a gray or white base coat.

The aging wash, Im guessing Devlan mud? On the black and dark purple you have it wont be worth the time, since it wint shade much at all. A wash would work well on the skulls though, and on the silver since it will make the rivets & such stand out a lil more. It wont ruin the trim at all, if you see it puddle up on an area you dont want it on you can chase it off with your brush. And after it dries you can go back and put another layer of paint over the white if it did darken it any.

With metal pieces like the bolter, you can add some details by hitting the edges with a lighter metal color. This gives a worn look, and helps add highlights.

Also- if a few layers of paint are obscuring details- you need to thin your paints down a bit. Just a bit of water will do it, some paints work alot better with a lil extra water anyway

If you want purple then there is a very simply way.

1: basecoat the purple areas white.

2: wash with blue ink (or a dark blue wash)

3: highlight with liche purple (leave the dark blue in the recesses as shading)

4: mix a small amount of white with the purple and highlight the raised edges of the armour.

this will give it a 3 tone look that stands out and looks good.


Also, on the silver (boltgun metal?) use mithril silver to highlight the edges of the metal to make it stand out more.

ps- welcome to Dakka

Thanks for the advice!

JD - If I just wash and highlight a white basecoat, wont it still be predominantly white? I'm still figuring alot of the terminology out, aside from a few DnD minis, I havent really ever painted anything.

Ive started my second marine, and Im trying a rough gold where the silver is on this guy. I painted a layer of white over my black basecoat before the purple (thanks mist), and the purple is definitely more distinct, except that I have hit an unfortunate medicine reminiscent color now. I have been toying with the idea of lighter shoulders to force the armor to pop more, but I think white shoulders over purple armor may be a bit cheerful for chaos.

Thoughts?

Alpha Legion was Purple Pre-Heresy post Heresy they are a Darker-Ish blue with Light Silver trim and Light Green intermixed with the blue. ;P

I would watch out how much Metallics you put on a model (this is IMHO) because I see a lot of newbies paint their marines strait metallics and I think it doesn't look very nice and marine looking if that makes sense.

White actually looks great on chaos btw.

This might help you a bit http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/csmp.php

I would do something like this personally with purple

http://bolterandchainsword.com/csm.php?bpe=4D034F&bpj=3B043D&bp=FFFFFF&bpc=FFFFFF&bpn=3B043D&hdt=3B043D&hrn=C9B9C9&hdm=3B043D&hdl=3B043D&ey=FFFFFF&er=3B043D&pi=3B043D&nk=3B043D&ch=3B043D&abs=3B043D&bt=3B043D&btd=FFFFFF&cod=3B043D&ull=3B043D&lll=3B043D&lft=3B043D&url=3B043D&lrl=3B043D&rft=3B043D&slt=4D034F&sli=FFFFFF&srt=FFFFFF&sri=3B043D&ula=3B043D&lel=3B043D&lla=3B043D&lh=3B043D&ura=3B043D&rel=3B043D&rla=3B043D&rh=3B043D&ri=000000&tr=FFFFFF&bg=FFFFFF&rb=000000&gr=000000&

EzeKK, I cant seem to get your B&CS link to work. If not the metallic silver what color would you recommend for the trim?

Here is the 2nd one I painted with gold trim...he ended up looking like he was a member of the Space Lakers (whose Primarch would be Kobeus Bry'annt, I suppose)


Ive been playing around with extreme highlights on the 3rd one:




Is the highlighting to much to be tabletop friendly? It looks decidedly more Slaanesh-y with the painted helmet and strong highlighting. Is there fluff anywhere that prohibits warpaint? At this point Im still open to playing with the colors a bit, so if anyone has any ideas for trim/shoulders, feel free to weigh in.

Sweatshop Kid wrote:Here is the 2nd one I painted with gold trim...he ended up looking like he was a member of the Space Lakers (whose Primarch would be Kobeus Bry'annt, I suppose

Now that is funny!

-------------------------------------------------
When it comes to painting, I've found that less truly is more. I'm an incredibly impatient person by nature and no matter how well I start out with my 'milky' paints (intending to paint several nice, smooth layers) I end up getting frustrated and start globbing a bit more. It never ends up being a good idea and I'm always a little disappointed with the result. If you can avoid that temptation, you'll see the benefits very quickly. Some of these pro painters on Dakka can probably give you better painting tips but I've found that rule to be invaluable to my painting more than anything to date. More layers and less thickness works wonders, especially with lighter colours and metallics.

As for the colours/trim, a good example of a nice purple motif is the Soul Drinkers (not technically CSM, but eh). Purple and bone trim actually tend to look quite good together (especially with horns/tusks) and it's fairly straightforward. You can always add gold or silver as accents to help stand out rather than trimming all in metallics and losing much of the 'pop' that you get from the shiny stuff. When it comes to the highlights, try to pick something that will stand out but not *too* much. A very stark highlight only looks good if it's very crisp and accurately painted and takes a steady hand indeed. A more muted highlight can look much better when you're starting out and the best part is that you can always go over it with a brighter one when you feel more confident. Then you have a two stage highlight, win-win!

Either way, you're on the right track with experimenting and not being afraid to slap paint to model. If you don't like it, no biggie. At least you figured out what you don't like and the next one will invariably be better!

Best of luck and more pictures, please!

DoW

Looking good.

Try warlock purple

DoW, here he is with a quick bone trim work. Trimming with the acrylic paint is much less forgiving than my oil based silver and gold. If, for the sake of argument, I could clean the trim work up a bit, I think its a good look.



Penut - I use the cheapskate craft store paints. Just buying the minis was a budget stretch at the moment (bout to start grad school), so the fancy paints are out of the question. What shade of purple would you say warlock purple is?

Very nice!

The only other suggestion I would have is a light wash of brown or 'skin' to give the bone a little bit of depth to it.

As for paints, I can definitely understand the budget issues. Damn this expensive hobby! I use Vallejo paints and they're actually not too expensive if you buy them in bulk. I think I spent a little over $100 on a big 'bag o' paint' and it worked out to just over $1 per bottle. That's still $100 though, so really just food for thought.

Good luck with Grad school btw, looking forward to seeing a squad of these guys next!

DoW

I would have said probably Mithril Silver but I really like that bone trim you got goin there. Very nice.

I really like this colour scheme. I think I liked the first marine's faded colours more than the rich solid colours of the helmeted marine though. To me, the first marine looks very pallid and his gear more worn. Things that really do justice to Chaos. I really think you should stick with the faded, pale look

Thanks for the input!

I agree with Metallifan that the duller colors are more chaos-y, but I also liked contrast the garish bone trim gave.

So I tried this out, and I like it.





I kept the darker purple, but highlighted it more than the 1st marine, and put a darker wash over the shoulder bone colored trim (thanks DoW ), but kept the dirty silver trim on the rest. I also played around freehanding how I imagined our chaos warrior here would like his helmet painted, had he a say in the matter . I like how the highlights came out on the skull, but the red eyes got washed out a little.

Looking real good now, I'd keep it up!

Since I finalized the color scheme, I got the previously painted marines up to date.



Simple question since Ive never done this before...if based, would these be tabletop acceptable?

I think they look great! I second the sentiment that the duller, grittier colours really suit Chaos much more since they're supposed have been wearing that armour for thousands of years. A smidge of battle damage here and there would look nice too, if you're feeling adventurous.

Now if you mean "tabletop acceptable" in an official sense then absolutely, the only requirement for most tournaments requiring fully painted models is exactly that - that they are fully painted. You don't have to be Picasso and it would be rather unfair of them to expect that from every player out there.

On the other hand, if you mean that they are painted well enough to look good on a table and stand out then yes as well! There is obviously a huge range of painting skill out there but your models are definitely some of the better ones I've seen. Of course, unless you're one of the top folks on coolminiornot, there is always room for improvement and a true artist is never quite satisfied with his or her work. There is always a little something you feel you could possibly do better next time. But that's what keeps it interesting imo!

Anyways, it's a great start overall and I'm liking both the individuality and attention to detail you add to each model. Keep it up!

DoW

Holy crap, I have a marine in that exact same pose, with the same legs, arms, head, and shoulders. the only difference is he has a knife bayonet on his bolter.

Those are some fething awesome minis

All you need to do now is the bases I reckon. If you want to play it safe you could do an urban grey, but i think a dark red earth colour would complement the colours you have

Btw... are you sure you're new to painting??

Havent worked myself up to throwing any battle damage in yet, maybe on my next marine Ill attempt to throw in a gash or some such.

Skar - I like the dark red for the base, good call. And I painted some model cars and things while I was growing up, but that was mostly painting black, chrome and a body color on with a big fat brush and making my parents say it looked good

This is my first small conversion attempt, I only cut my thumb twice, which I thought was pretty decent. I just figured that even BA Chaos marines need a smoke break every now and then.




Made him lefthanded and upped the knee, I also had to throw some clay (yea, im too cheap for GS) under his armpits to support the wider out arm pose.
He is not as relaxed looking as I was going for, and the left knee and elbow decided they wanted to fuse together when I basecoated them, C'est le Vie.