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Thanks Cain, I agree, bad colour choice for the rune.
I'm finding I often rush the last bits of the paint job to get it done, but that can easily spoil the overall effect.

So here's number 4, Undercoated black, basecoated and then black lined with a thin brush.
Must admit the black lining wasn't as tough as i thought and I learned that it can really help other colours to pop and look more defined.



As always, please feel free to critisize.

Getting better every time! I know what you mean about the black lining, it would really make the armour pop out a lot.

wow your blending has reall progressed , and your colour choice is perfect , Jamaican flag red gold and green! i realy like the red what colour is it and what did you wash with! and thanks for the top painting tips brushes and tuts , exactly what i needed!

Hi guys and thanks for the kind words. I'm sure there's a little bit of critisism just waiting to get out.....?

In fact looking at it again, I can see that the basing is rushed so i need to redress that.

As the red, Scab, Gore, Blood, blazing orange - no wash.
I do two or three passes with the orange, but real thin.

Does anyone else get sore elbows from painting?

@Neil Pleasey weasy can I have more comic?
@Cain, that's an impressive gallery you've got there. I feel honoured that you are commenting on my blog.

which is better ... comic or praxian guard , there only one way to find out...... FIGHT!

Due to my kid's fourth birthday, Uni assignments and building work going on in the house i've not been able to put brush to model for a while.
Unlike a lot of you fortunates my "workstation" is a showbox which everything gets packed into when i've finished a painting session.

Plus my elbows really do hurt after painting!

Anyway enough of my moaning here's number 2, this one had a white undercoat then base coat then 2 washes with badab black before highlighting.



and another angle



So far i'm not seeing a noticeable difference between a white undercoat and a black undercoat with respect to the colour armour. The only area it has made an impact is to do with the black lining, which I think looks way better than the black.

I was hoping by now that i'd be feeling comfortable with a particular style - my curse, everytime i think i've got it nailed down I imagine a better way of doing something. Blending better, no layers are better, no blending, perhaps extreme highlighting is best, no blending, nah layers....and so it goes on.

Nice photos mate, the red really seems to glow, can i ask how you highlight? is it a combination of wet blending and dry brushing ? I ask because i am trying to decide wether to drybrush my models, in the past i found the chalky texture very unapealing, but your modle has none of that , just smooth blending. your grey/black edging is very good also.
I think the green and grey mask dont work very well, maybe white would be a better contrast to the green and repeated on the chainsaw blade. or it maybe just that the green isnt as highlighted as the last model, the helmet on the previous one looked perfect. Still much better than i can do , so please continue , i am enjoying learning new tecniques. Happy belated 4th, oh how i remember those days , constant attention was required ! and the energy , my god, where do children get it from!
regards

Nice!

Really like the Gold heiro on the green blade - I do agree with the previous comment that the orange was just a tad too much.

Your shading is great, Most jealous!

I agree about the faceplate and helmet, I was thinking of a light blue face plate for the next one, what do you think, would that be too many colours?

@Neil, I almost never drybrush if I can help it. For this guy I did a weird wet blending technique I've made up. In my palette I had blazing orange in one bit and scab red in the other. Both watered down with a water and Klear. I paint a layer with orange, then working from one side paint red and try to blend it into the orange. That never works first go, so it's back to the orange and start the other side. It goes on like that for quite a while until i'm either happy, bored or too angry to care anymore.

TBH i've gone back to more of a layering technique, which is working for me atm. But no doubt next week I'll change my mind again!

Nice to see you again incurus. When we going to have our first game?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Actually perhaps you can advise me.
This guy isn't finished, apart from his armour.

I used layering to highlight this one and the one above is highlighted with blending, but which one's better, there's only one way to find out FI....ask you guys.

Nice - You have good skills for a new painter. I think a few more washes on some bits which look untidy (example - the sword hilt and hand in one of the photos looks messy - little bit of a dark wash in those deeper parts always helps I find) Maybe a little more highlighted detail around the face. But thats just my two cents

Hey weety, thanks mate, good feedback, sometimes I get lazy cause I just want this model done so I can move onto the next one. A wash or 2 could help tidy up my laziness.

I love the range of backgrounds you use when you take piccies of your minis' another area in which i need to change my ways. Thanks for the inspiration.

Would really appreciate your thoughts on whether you think my blending or layering technique works better.

Thanks

The blending looks better so far. Thanks for your comments on my pics - the backgrounds are really helpful to make them look more real. I have a big book of space science and exploration thats full of lovely star-scapes and the more down to earth backgrounds are from a book on nature. If you have aprinter then its even easier as you can pick from a wide selection of random internet pics

Prefer the blending one myself!

Going to be a bit insane with the new job and all, however i have a box of chaos marines base and undercoated (again!) and sure we can book some time in postwork some point... maybe late next week?

Cool thanks guys, blending it is - yahoooooooooieeee.

Today's been a good day for painting, here's another done (apart from base)
I quite like the armour on this one. Not sure I choose the best colour for face mask and eyes.

I had a go at doing a glow off his targetter. Thoughts? Any good or does it look like I'm juet a messy painter?
Despite telling Neil that I avoid drybrushing, that's pretty much how I did it.



Peace and believe

I'd say that that looks just about right - look even better with a slightly lighter highlight on the very edges near the targeter

I like the red on the scorp, not really sure the green helmet fits but thats just my opinion, nicely painted though

The blue is so much better than the grey mate , really stands out against the green , the grey metals look better also on this model, thanks for the tips!

If those really are you're first painted models, then you are honestly a very skilled professional painter!

Love it! You're blending is very nice, and its great to see what can be acheived by old schoolers like us even if we don't have as much painting practice. The models take me back to my own teenage years!

One question though....are you using the new Citadel Wash stuff? As someone who grew up painting in the days of ink I was utterly amazed at how incredible a product they are.

I really like your Eldar! They're fantastic! I've often heard that red is a hard color to paint but you don't seem to have any problems with it!

One of these days I'm going to have to try and paint some Eldar, yours look good!

Wow. The beginning of this thread in no way foreshadows where it winds up. The improvement in your skill is stunning and impressive. I am showing this thread to my wife (new to painting and better than I am but needs motivation).

I think i have A LOT of catching up to do for saturday!


Looks really good and i love the glow from the targetter and the whole chainsword!

your ultramarines blue is magnificent. Anyone who can paint older models this well should be commended for their skills! Great work!

Oops hadn't checked blog for a while and got flanked by a bunch of comments.

I found an incredible tool to help me with my painting, it's called an "Incurus" just send him an order like, say..."One pot of Baal red" and it arrives on your desk the very next day! Outstanding service! Lol, thanks man I owe you.

So far i've mostly used citadel paints and their washes imo are excellent. i should have bought the baal red earlier, going to try it over a blazing orange base coat on my exarch.

Thank you so much for the comments guys, i was feeling a bit uninspired but you've perked me up (not like that!)

Fisting in the name of...

Hello Dakka, it's been a while.

After painting my SS exarch i've been a bit off painting and into learning rules/army lists/tactics and all that good stuff.
I've been really struggling to find my mojo for painting again, so I decided to return to the good ole space crusade minis for some inspiration.
Now the thing I like about the Space Crusade mini is that they're not so detailed, which gives a lot of space to work on blending - take this guys legs as an example.

So here it is, I'd really welcome any feedback on how to improve my highlighting/blending and creating a cleaner look.
I just don't know how I do it, but I always think my painted mini's come out looking not very well defined, which is why i've not yet experimented with any weathering/wear and tear because then my mini's would just turn into blobs of colour and you wouldn't be able to tell if that's an arm, leg, mandible, snotling....

Anyway, as I say I really really appreciate constructive comments, so please if you think "huh he should've done...." then reply

Thanks all

Hangfire

p.s. thanks Neil for the kick up the

Man, you really are doing fine with these old models! Great job!!!

Hey Everybody your friendly neighberhood Hangfire, is back!
Well First i must say brave choice of miniature , i have these also and i know from experience these minis are difficult to make look good. Well me and the boys have taken a good look and would like to critique , Logan says that he likes its but he thinks it needs more dust and scratch's , i say some nice weathering tutorials , for chipped and rusty paint. make it look more realistic. Rohan and Bailey said that it looks a bit plain , and the bolter blade should be a different colour to the gun it self. i think that it could do with either a darker wash in the recess's especially around the neck and chest area, and give it a great base, maybe a purity seal or two or kill markings to personalise it , make him and individual with a story to tell .

but all that said i still think you have done a great paint job on him , i really like your blending technique and fail to see how you can improve on that , i would say maybe add some black for contrast , maybe where the shells come out of, or on his shoe soles , or dare i say some black gitsplitta style cammo markings ! lol ;-)

Thanks Neil, any better?

Got to admit that looks knarly as feth!
your blending is spot on (v jelous) and the damage looks brilliant, just the right amount of highlights and metal poking through.
Pete

Wow , bloody hell , that looks Ace! So jealous of that chipping , Please tell me how it was done, i have to paint a tank and i could really use some good weathering techniques as i still have not tried any yet , some kill markings on the bolter would be nice , maybe diagonal stripes, and some black dust area near the bolter shell exits and front, , maybe also some blood on the blade and a slighty lighter or darker shade and a cool base would be finish it off nicely i think. although i can still see some white around the area where the pipes join his helmet come to think about it! ;-)

on a different note i just noticed how terrible my grammar was on the previous post :-0 i am suprised you managed to read any of it lol!

again really great job on the weathering mate.