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Thanks, all.

Ifalna wrote:These are fantastic for a new painter Foo, continue with what you are doing and you will see improvements come naturally as you progress

3 tips based on your pictures though :

Make sure you are priming the models. On plastic it's possible to get away with no primer, but on metals it becomes a big problem. Your Lilith has a lovely paintjob but the metal is already starting to shine through on some parts where the paint has chipped away, looks like it on the hands of your Urien too, and it's such a pain in the neck to have really nice looking models eventually have their paint chip off.

Get some base details on A nice base can make or break a model, not having the basic black bases on these would make a massive difference, even if you just pva sand on, cover it in black ink, then drybrush on grey.

Keep your paints thinned, it's the bane of painters looking to improve. If you have problems keeping it the right consistency, a wet pallet made with basic household items will cost you nothing and make painting a heck of a lot easier.

Keep up the good work!

I always prime. The Lelith was actually among the first I did and I oversprayed her, sadly, losing some of the finer details. I considered stripping her (*rimshot*!) but figured I'd press on and see what I can do. I need to varnish them once they're done to fight chipping.

I have been resisting bases until I could finish a paintjob to my liking, but it might be time to start now, 'cos I'm not sure I'll ever be absolutely satisfied!

I've been thinning with just water, but recently got some actual Slow-Dri. That should help me out, I think.

Maybe I should change the thread name, but I don't wanna.

My friend and I got some Space Marines cheap, so we're painting them as a backup army. Less than a year playing and I'm already a multiple army dude. D'oh.

Anyway, here's the Captain of our Ghost Bear chapter:





And as you can see by that, I also have dabbled in basing my dudes. Here's some from the Dark Eldar:

Your guys are truly getting better as you keep us posted.

Back on the bases, most of the time, the material (sand or rocks) gets primed black and repainted afterward to a "natural" color, with some drybrushing and washes. That way, it fits with the remainder of the model (same finish ie paint).

Keep on working on the DE, they are nice.


On the SM, I would do more washed on the bolter to get it darker, or start it up with a grey, and only do a slight metal drybrush, followed by washes. It would make the gun more realistic.

I want to see more!!!

Ghost Bears, hmmm? Lots of Dreads in that list

Love the eyes on Lelith - eyes are something I still have a lot of issues with and yours came out amazingly - really adds some nice intensity to the character and draws you into the face.

I'll second (third?) washing the metals on DE. I do it with my army because I really like the feel that their weapons are from ancient times. Plus, it might help you relax a bit with all that glittery gold hanging around (though frankly I think some bling is important for the DE).

Love it - keep up the good work, we need more fully painted DE around here.

They all look awesome
keep it up

Thor665 wrote:Ghost Bears, hmmm? Lots of Dreads in that list

They will use special weaponry, more advanced than the other Clans! Chapters, I mean. Chapters.

Love the eyes on Lelith - eyes are something I still have a lot of issues with and yours came out amazingly - really adds some nice intensity to the character and draws you into the face.

Thanks. It's a tricky business, but I do the technique where you blob white on, draw the coloured part of the eye in, then define the shape of the eye with the flesh colour from the outside.

So much easier than trying to draw little pupils like I was doing before!


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gorium wrote:Your guys are truly getting better as you keep us posted.

Back on the bases, most of the time, the material (sand or rocks) gets primed black and repainted afterward to a "natural" color, with some drybrushing and washes. That way, it fits with the remainder of the model (same finish ie paint).

Yeah, I was going to do that on the Incubi, but then I decided I liked the fresh sand. I might spill some blood on it, though...

Annoyingly, those faces are better than mine

I could never paint eyes.

Well done!

Created a thread to post the finished models. Have a look!

Love the skin shading you do.

Thanks very much. I'm really slow, but I think it turns out well!

Keep your eye out for a painted Talos very soon!

Using the hangers-on for the Raider/Ravager and some spare bits from Warriors and Scourges, I made these fine, Trueborn fellows:





That's four figures, 2 splinter cannon, 1 blaster and 1 blast pistol which I'm calling a blaster. One more and I can fill a Venom!

Those are looking great. I wish my eyes came out that well.

Update: Trueborn are now based!





Also, I started making some webway portals.

Update: My first Wrack!

That's pretty sexy.

I'm gonna steal your paintjob on those wytches.

It's like everything I've tried to do, but better.

Oh, and love this eyes. Gonna steal this too.

Keep on the good work.

I love the color scheme you've selected. It reminds me of the black. red, and gold from the older codex.

Thor665 wrote:That's pretty sexy.

Only disturbed, DE-lovers would call something like that sexy.


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Arkon wrote:I'm gonna steal your paintjob on those wytches.

It's like everything I've tried to do, but better.

Oh, and love this eyes. Gonna steal this too.

Keep on the good work.

It's funny, 'cos I've started repainting my Wyches to look more like my (mostly) finished Trueborn:




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My camera is terrible. Those guys actually have shading on their red parts.

Thats very good for a beginner. Much better then my first ones

Hit everything with a 50/50 wash of brown ink(or devlin mud if you use GW) and distilled water. You will be shocked at how well it pulls everything together. Then dull coat them when they are dry to get rid of any shiny areas and protect the paint from oily/sweaty fingers.

I suggest watering your paint just a little, its always good to paint in thin coats because it doesn't clog up a whole lot of detail.

it could be just me, or your camera, or something else, but in a couple pictures it looks like you have a lot of paint on some models, a little too much paint

and if you ever improve and want to repaint your old models, go buy some simple green, let the models soak for a day, and take an old toothbrush and strip that paint off

They look great for your first army man, keep up the good work.

Muggzy wrote:Hit everything with a 50/50 wash of brown ink(or devlin mud if you use GW) and distilled water. You will be shocked at how well it pulls everything together. Then dull coat them when they are dry to get rid of any shiny areas and protect the paint from oily/sweaty fingers.

Dual Face wrote:I suggest watering your paint just a little, its always good to paint in thin coats because it doesn't clog up a whole lot of detail.

it could be just me, or your camera, or something else, but in a couple pictures it looks like you have a lot of paint on some models, a little too much paint

Are you two talking about the earlier pictures or the latest ones?

I've finally had the time and desire to get back into this and have just about finished my Wracks (minus one I had to get replaced due to Fine(mis)cast shenanigans). I still need to do some little touch-ups, bases, and then seal these with matte varnish and glossy for the blood and vials.

These suckers took forever, even though I painted them assembly-line style after doing one test paint. Enjoy the gore.

Okay, so I actually went and found a website with a blood spatter expert's research and have applied this to my dudes. I do this because I am clearly a perfectionist or something like that.

This first dude has hooked scythes, so he'd be slashing a folks, thus, he's got arterial spray, from a right-to-left slash. Next dude has a cleaver, so he's got some arterial spray, but more impact spatter, 'cos a cleaver will likely go clean through limbs. Yum. The third dude has a big club, so that's high velocity impact spatter. There's a huge splotch on the underside of the club. I should probably add some chunky goop to be brain matter.

The rest are all variations on that. See if you can match the type of wound inflicted on the enemy by the spatter on the Wrack!

Hey, I never posted my Talos or Venom!




The Cult of Tears has a monster!


Here's my (mostly) finished Venom:




I might do something interesting with the base. I haven't decided yet. Also, I think the gems might need a little touch up.

Also, still need to not take terrible photos.

Here are some things I did recently:

Update! Urien Rakarth is finished (at long last).

Giant batch update! Click the small thumbnails to embiggen.

This is a fully-magnetized haemi. All four limbs are interchangeable. I notice this is actually an older pic of him, 'cos I finished up his base and he's got some blood on the bottom of his coat now. Oh well.


Here he is with his twin. The other one was hella crappily cast, so GW sent me a new one. I managed to patch up both to an acceptable level, so thanks, GW! It's hard to tell with the lighting, but I actually shaded the wrinkles and stuff on the coats.


On the right is a Wrack I had unpainted 'cos he needed repairs. He has a converted pair of Hellion arms. On the left, a Wrack that lost his left arm. I had to give him a new one, using one of the spares I had.



I got some Reaver jetbikes from Arkhamjack in a trade from the trade forum here, so I've been building them. (I highly recommend him!) I painted this one with a different metallic shading to try and get a black metal look. I like it a lot.


After the Reaver, I liked the black metal effect so much that I want to redo my entire army that way, but figured I'd start with my Razorwing jet. Here's the pilot and cockpit for the jet:



And here are pics of the whole jet:







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Hmm. I thought this thread was in the blogs section, but it appears not. Can I move it?

Looking good all around. One thing you might want to do, if you're not already, is building up your bases before you prime. Then, paint it with the rest of the figure. the primer coat also helps seal the sand and whatever else.

Otherwise:

Washes are your bestest friend ever (as mentioned). You may want to invest in Secret Weapons Miniatures Soft Body Black wash. It is an amazing product, and very cheap. Given your color scheme, I think this would work well for you.

As for photography, a cheap "light box" setup is the dog's bollocks. The basic idea is that you have a couple of lights pointed at a translucent panel, one on each side of the mini, and a neutral background. You can find pre-made sets for about $20-$40 USD that come with a pair of lights and the box. The neutral background (grey, blue, sometimes black) helps prevent the whiteout issues, and also allows you to avoid having to use the flash on your camera.

Then, you can use Iffy's GIMP tutorial to really make your photos 'pop', or the Dakka Gallery Uploader's "Auto Correct" feature, if you're just looking to toss up WiP (Work in Progress) pics in a hurry.

Soft Body Black: http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=210
A sample light-box: http://www.amazon.com/CowboyStudio-Table-Photo-Studio-Light/dp/B001MYASTG
Iffy's GIMP tutorial: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/467855.page

Oh, and for the sheer awesomeness of your webway portal article... SUBSCRIBED!

--B.

Thanks for the comments, advice and praise, sir!

I have been far too busy working and moving to do any mini painting (and my minis are actually mostly boxed up right now), so I've been keeping busy in other ways:

Digital painting! Practice and learning is slow going, but I'm pretty pleased with the results so far. It's actually interesting how much the two disciplines of mini painting and painting-painting correlate.


A League Apart