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Hey guys,

Well I've just about finished my Blood Ravens; got more than I need... But I wouldn't say I am pleased with my painting; I'm new to the hobby and know next to nothing about techniques; and really I just wanted a playable army; it doesn't look bad... mostly just chaos black undercoat, mechrite red basecoat, red gore overcoat and bleached blone on shoulders or other bits (depends on the model obviously). But then I see people doing these fancy "washes" and blotting on lighting, etc... really makes mine look terrible rather than passable

Anyhoo, my next army's going to be Tau: I'll definitely try do better on these, just paint the T'au Sept with all the GW recommended paints... learn techniques, etc.

But it got me wondering; how common is it for your first army to look like utter crap? Perhaps I'll revisit it; but I only completed it out of a sense of obligation, Space Marines were the army forced on me when I first bought models (when I was about 7 years old) and I only finished the army off to justify the initial investment... whilst Space Marines rock in the fluff, I just don't like them in a wargaming capacity; seem too common, default and noobish (Not that I am not a noob myself... but still, Tau look awesome :&gt.

Anyhoo, how many o' you got crap first armies? How many of you, rummaging through your sheds in your autumn years, came upon a dusty box... smiled upon finding yer crappy minis and then lovingly restored them?

Edit: Pics of my army are now up:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/257667.page

I can honestly hold my hand up and say 'yes my initial army (Black Templars/Ultrasmurfs) was a pile of waste plastic, badly painted and unfit to go on the table'. They now sit wasting in an 8 year old plastic cookie jar. Painting takes practice after all, and now I see what I come out with, and while its still nothing compared to some of the amazing work on this forum its a huge leap from where I began those years ago.

My first ever figures were crap.

My first army was okay because by then I had learned some skillz by painting individual figures.

I don't put as much effort into army figures as some players, because I view them as 'en masse' rather than individual Golden Daemon contenders.

If you mess up and army you can strip the paint and start again.

But don't worry too much, just be getting three colours onto your army you've beaten a lot of players in paint quality!

My first ever figures were really, really bad.......

However, I've recently revisited them and now I'm proud to game with them!

I'll admit I partly lied; I said I got my first figures aged 7; technically that was also my first paint job...

No undercoat... just some red colour SLAP onto the bolter (detail gone) navy blue SLAP onto the figure (detail gone)

HE'S DONE!!111

*edited for spelling*

I learned to thin paints alot later than my first or second army lets just say that

I found a figure i 'apparently' painted 10 years ago...a big skaven rat thing. It was literally just brown...seriously.

But i started again about 2 weeks ago and i can say i have a little more attention to detail now. I read so many sites and lurked for ages till i even bought anything so i got tips such as thinning paints etc. Yet i still havent got it right lol!

But, I'm in your boat...still learning and am willing to practice and hopefully get really good




slappy.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/257537.page

examples from my first army.

Nektel, thin out the paint on your first figure and you get close to the kind of minis I have

Though I will give myself one bit of praise; when I concentrated I did an alright job; my Dreadnought and metal figures being good examples... but otherwise, a lot like your first one :<

I have never finnished an army, I've only painted up some remnants of troops and then moved on! I have got hold up for the moment with re-painting my old Ultramarine army (Well... my "army" is 2 squads of tactical, 1 command, 2 dreadnoughts, a predator and a land rider) But I know it wont be long before I'm getting bored and starts something new, again.

But the first remnants I made was quite poor! I mean VERY poor.

My first army (warriors of Minas Tirith) was painted with silver armour, black skirt and a pink blob for a face.
In other words "Awfully"

My first models ever were just painted in one color. They were mostly Kryomek and random other sci-fi figures. My first proper army was made up of Old Glory Future Wars figures and actually wasn't terrible. Three colors, but they were these Iron Wind Metals paints that were thick as hell, and looked really chalky. I continued to use those paints on my Ultramarines before quickly switching over to GW paints.

My Ultramarines painting process was thus:
- Drybrush Ultramarines Blue over the hand-painted black basecoat

- Paint Sunburst Yellow on the shoulder pad rims and on the helmet crests

- Paint the bolter and eyes in Scab Red

- Paint the metals in Chainmail


All this led to some really unfinished, dark and sloppy Ultramarines. For a brief while I was even undercoating with watered-down black, even on metal models. This led to serious paint chippage.

Thank the Emperor I learned to paint with my Dark Angels.

Well when I first started painting MY first army(Dark Angels) was... lets say a LONG time ago. After I got a playable painted army I decided to expand to a different army, Orks. Lets just say I found that I had fallen into a rut with the space marines and was painting them the same way over and over again. But painting the orks I had to learn a new technique, so I returned to the Dark Angels and expanded my collection. And again I found my painting had stagnated, although my conversions were getting better. So with a little extra cash I started an Imp Guard then an Inquisitorial army. And with what I learned from painting those armies I went back and Turned my mediocre paint jobs from my Dark Angels into a Very sharp and distinct army, several with the same models as I started with but also new additions. SO in my oppinion the best thing to do when You think your paint job is not up to par on your army is to jump to a new army to give you something different to paint, and Look thru the White Dwarf because there are tons of helpful painting techniques.

kamenstien wrote:Well when I first started painting MY first army(Dark Angels) was... lets say a LONG time ago. After I got a playable painted army I decided to expand to a different army, Orks. Lets just say I found that I had fallen into a rut with the space marines and was painting them the same way over and over again. But painting the orks I had to learn a new technique, so I returned to the Dark Angels and expanded my collection. And again I found my painting had stagnated, although my conversions were getting better. So with a little extra cash I started an Imp Guard then an Inquisitorial army. And with what I learned from painting those armies I went back and Turned my mediocre paint jobs from my Dark Angels into a Very sharp and distinct army, several with the same models as I started with but also new additions. SO in my oppinion the best thing to do when You think your paint job is not up to par on your army is to jump to a new army to give you something different to paint, and Look thru the White Dwarf because there are tons of helpful painting techniques.

That's how GW gets you.

i have repainted my first space marines twice now (ultramarines first, then blood angels, now Iron Phoenix DIY chapter) but the starters were just.....bad.

and let's not even TALK about the night lords i got to fight them...

Honestly my first army(Dark Eldar) didn't turn out to bad,but that was due to several factors,not the least of which was I painted them exactly like the codex step by step guide showed,red bodies,silver helms,wepons & spikey bits,red ink wash on the body,black ink wash on the silver..repeat process,all my raiders and ravengers used a variation of this same process,as did my Archon and his Incubi.
The only minis that gave me any real trouble were the Whcyes & the Hamonculis,but a little watered down chestnut ink went a long way in hidding my lack of talent painting skin ... lord I miss chestnut ink.

My first painting (13+ years ago) was actually quite awesome. I know if I posted it, though, no one would believe me. It was a Striking Scorpion (the one with his sword up in the air) and to be honest, I really liked it.

Damn I miss playing Eldar. Sigh.

my original chaos army was so awefully modelled/painted, that when i got all my 40k stuff out after a year or so of not playing i couldn't bare to look at it naturally this made me put most of it away again and hide it away (ooh the shame). one thing led to another and i basically remade the whole army with new pieces just so i didn't have to even consider sorting them out...it was that bad.
so dont feel too bad if you arn't going to be winning any golden demon's yet

My first GKs looked like this:



I plan to repaint them to look like this:

Here's a pic of my Necron army, my first wargaming army that I painted 3-4 years ago I think? Time seems to fly by.



Basic recipe was black primer, heavy boltgun drybrush, red shoulderpads and black cabling on the gun, then gloss over the cable and shouldpads. Elite units were brass and black instead of boltgun and red, and heavier troops were black and red glossed. I guess I really like gloss back then.

No highlighting, no washes, moldlines still there and if you squint at the monolith you can see the wonderful glue smear on the portal plate that sticks out pretty badly.. Maybe if a new codex comes out I'll revamp the paint scheme.

My first army was a monstrosity, it lives in my basement and it shuns the light, i sometimes i shudder at the though of what would happen if they were to break their chains, if they were to escape.... if they were to feed.

I didnt really paint my first army. It was a hodgepodge of word bearers colors/Iron warriors/black primer and some random bits of plastic and metal.
My very first painted mini was HORRIBLE for being a youngin and being a first. Tho, it still looks like I melted crayons on it. I still have the lil guy. A blood angel something or nother lol

My first army was assorted Ral Partha humanoids for Battlesystem, back in the late 80's. No undercoat, no inks or drybrushing. I was in such a hurry to collect a huge army that I could barely get three colors on them fast enough. They are all gone now, thankfully.

BAD:


Bad photos and painting...

Now:


I like to think they're alot better, altho these are some of the worst photos to come out f my new camera... focus was a bit off.

You can see an improvement. But your first was still WAY better then mine was lol

My first models were of "I game with them, but they're obviously crappy"

I started with Macragge, so I had Ultramarines and Red n' Black Tyranids.

I decided that after playing DOW, I wanted some Blood Ravens, and promptly re-painted them.

My Tyranids changed from red n' black to white n' purple.

The Space Marines were changed to Dark Angels.

Nid's have their current horrid Blue n' Green scheme, I only have 1 left.

Marines were converted to Chaos Marines, A Purple/Bone Scheme.

Marines were put in Simple Green.

Marines became DA Again.

Finally, they are now Converted Plague Marines.

Ah my first army, wasn't extremely bad but those were just skeletons. I eventually learned that grey knights don't look good dry brushed and that gloss varnish does not make up for a crappy paint job.

my first army, some now stripped and partially repainted cygnar, weren't all that bad really.
I was 19 or so when i started, and had some background with traditional art through hobby and college. i also browsed a lot of different sites on tips for painting mini's before i ever put paint to figure.

Well jeeze... I suppose I dont have a full say in this since technically my first army (like from 5 years ago) still isnt painted I dont have a single army finished... I think out of all my stuff I have like.... 2 Units I can say are fully painted (but arent fully based... sigh) And some lords, heros, HQs that are done as well as some vehicles and monsters... But yeah... Ive been REALLY lazy.... Gotta get ontop of things soon me thinks.

My first was a stalwart bunch of dwarves... they were so badly painted they all somehow managed to cringe at their own appearance. Sadly (or maybe thankfully) they were mostly lost in a move, with only a few unpainted metal characters surviving... not sure I'll start up again though.

For now, I shall poorly paint my BT and IG!