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 Hive Fleet Cerberus wrote:
I'd love to see the results!

Currently I'm only just painting right now, but I'm using Yellow which alot of people seem to be going against. I'm just copying a current experimental color scheme, but I don't see what the fuss is about. Why are people saying yellow is so hard to work with?

Edit: jesus, how the hell do you prevent paint from getting inside the inner knee? It's difficult as hell!

It generally needs several coats and a bit of shading in order to work right, without spots of what ever is under it showing up or looking to bright. I've never worked with yellow, though, so I dont know.

I'm looking into using a wet pallete, i've seen non metallic paint being used in one, but can metallic paint be used as ive never heard anyone say you can or can't use metallic paints

I am still new myself but I have picked up a couple tips.

1. Always thin your paints with water.
2. Paint with the side of your brush when highlighting.
3. Always pull down with the brush instead of going side to side, your wrist moves more going side to side which makes for uneven painting.
4. If you don't know how to wash or dry brush properly, watch videos on how to do it. These techs are your friend until you get better at layering/highlighting.
5. Youtube, youtube, youtube.... You should be able to type in how to paint <name of model> and find a ton of how to's on how to do it and what paints to use and how to apply them.
6. Practice, practice, practice. You only get better by doing more. I can already see a difference in the newer models I am painting compared to the old ones and I thought the old ones looked nice, so things usually just keep getting better.

Honestly daggy. your first miniatures are much muuuch mucccch better than my first minis. remember base miniatures either by hand or use a flat or ultra flat spray paint. also if you are doing colors you want to be bright base them white. if you want darker colors or more shadows base black

Lord_Ghazghkull wrote:
Honestly daggy. your first miniatures are much muuuch mucccch better than my first minis. remember base miniatures either by hand or use a flat or ultra flat spray paint. also if you are doing colors you want to be bright base them white. if you want darker colors or more shadows base black

Prime Black, base is what ever base colors you apply over the primer (The basic color of the model, anything from the GW paint Base Paint range.)

If you look at the Gorkanaut painting tutorial on GW's YouTube channel the guy mentions using the following for yellow armour (ok it's for Bad Moonz but it's a nice example)

Primed with Chaos Black
Based with Averland Sunset
Wash of Agrax Earthshade
Drybrush highlight with Hexos Palesun (dry compound paint)
And finally a glaze of Lamenters Yellow.




Tip: for eye lenses use a fine brush and just put a little Ceramite White in there (don't fill in the whole thing). Then with a little bit of Bloodletter Red glaze, just dab a little in and when it dries it looks great. I've found holding your breath a little gives you a fairly steady hand.

My first effort was hardly spectacular- observe lol.

@ angel, i like your eye lens tip! Will definitely try that

Hey Daggy-chan,

I'm relatively new to the hobby too.
Here's a few tips I can give which should hopefully save you some money.

If you need to pin your models before painting (heat up a pin and stab into the foot, neck, arm, under torso etc) don't waste your money on buying actual pins, this adds up when you start prepping 100's of figures and you'll also go through a lot of lighters. Instead buy a big pack of staples and a stapler, a pair of needle nose pliers and a pack of stick candles. Feed however many staples you need through the stapler, straigten each one out, light one of the candles and hold an end of each staple over the flame with the pliers unti hot enough to stab into the plastic. This will save you money and you'll never find yourself short of pins and lighters. I personally draw x10 or how ever many is needed squares onto Styrofoam with a nikko and stab each pinned piece into its appropriate square before spray priming piece by piece and then painting.

As for painting don't expect to be pro off the bat. Paint a few, read and watch tutorials, strip those figures, paint them again and repeat until you are confident you've made enough progress to batch paint a decent looking squad.

Check out some of my pics to see how I progressed along from my first Black Templar marine in all its noob glory to a somewhat decently painted flesh tearers tac squad. Keep at it, you'll pick it up in no time.

Honestly, I think only about 5% of the wargaming community can paint as well as the pictures you posted. My advice is to start slow and not expect to be painting to that standard without a lot of practice.

This might be going against the grain when it comes to what people are suggesting but if your painting yellow don't undercoat in black. Prime the model with white, give a good thick wash with either fuegan orange or cassandra yellow (or equivalents) a Sepia wash will work too in a pinch and leave alot of the recesses VERY shaded. then depending on how deep the yellow you want give it a drybrush of Averland sunset or Yriel yellow (or equivalents) and you can choose to leave it at that. As i paint imperial fists i always finish with \a drybrush of Flash Gitz yellow.

Dont worry too much about making mistakes at a starting level. Im no Pro Painter nor do i have any aspirations to be but my painting has definietly improved over the last few years. Thin paint and good brush are a great way to start. Then when you discover washes and drybrushing it will dramatically change the way you paint again. You will continue to improve as time rolls along. keep putting up pictures of your work and take the critisisms good and bad.

 Mr.Wigglez wrote:
This might be going against the grain when it comes to what people are suggesting but if your painting yellow don't undercoat in black. Prime the model with white, give a good thick wash with either fuegan orange or cassandra yellow (or equivalents) a Sepia wash will work too in a pinch and leave alot of the recesses VERY shaded. then depending on how deep the yellow you want give it a drybrush of Averland sunset or Yriel yellow (or equivalents) and you can choose to leave it at that. As i paint imperial fists i always finish with \a drybrush of Flash Gitz yellow.

Yeah, my IF (5th Company) starts with a white primer. Since the Averland sunset covers decently, I shade with Seraphim sepia after painting Averland sunset.
Priming white (or at least basecoating white) before the bright colors cuts down on the sheer amount of paint you have to go through to get a decent cover.

To each his own. Was just giving the OP a little help was all.

Probably slightly off-topic, but for heavily detailed models or ones which are primarily flesh such as the Dark Elves I tend to prime white as it brings out all the details making it easier to see what I am painting.

Black Primer while providing probably the best coverage also makes it rediculously difficult to see all the small details as the shadows get blended in.

White I find requires more coats however to get a good finish, so I would do your core in Chaos Black to save time, I would also do Large Creatures and Armour in Black as the size of them negates the issues with seeing details.

Everything else has pretty much been covered so I thought I would just throw some Primer tips out there

I would also advise painting your Base first after you have Primed the model, this is because to often after finishing the perfect model I then moved onto doing the base and accidently painting the legs or the inside of the cloak... Which becomes pure hell, much easier to do touch ups on the Model's Base as it requires a lote less Layering than a finely detailed cloak

General tips from a fairly poor painter:

Paint before assembly. Yes, it can make holding the thing a bit fiddly, but it also makes reaching every part of the model (especially the detail) a lot easier.

There is such a thing as too much paint. With too much on the brush, you fill up detail on the model, loose precision, and you get a nasty looking effect. You want the bare minimum for the task at hand, and only on the tip of the brush.

There is such a thing as too little paint. You want to make sure that you have enough to get the job done, or you'll end up making multiple passes at the point and thereby making it looked patched together.

Make sure you have enough water. If you don't have water on the brush, the paint wont work quite right. It's hard to explain, but without the right amount of water the paint will sometimes refuse to spread nicely. As with the amount of paint, the opposite is true, too much water and you end up washing the model.

Pick the smallest brush suitable. Unless you're undercoating, I'd go for the smallest brush you have (unless it's really tiny). Precision matters, as the less you have to touch up later the better your thing will look.

Have a procedure. Personally, I block in all the colours with their basecoat, then wash, then highlight. Use whatever works for you.

Work out what is what before painting. Take a look at the model, go "That's armour, that needs to be red. That's the gun casing, green. That's the gun barrel, silver" then work out what colours you want for it. I find planning everything out first helps me build a mental picture of what I want to achieve.

Practice. If you've got some models you don't care so much about, practice techniques on them.

Have a good light source. Nothing that casts too much shadow, nothing too dim. You need to see the detail as best as possible to paint as best as possible.