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Ok, so I'm not a very good painter so I thought I'd post up some of my blood angels as they stand so far for a bit of criticism
So heres a few pics of my Librarian, I still havent gotten around to basing him yet and his face needs some highlights and th staff needs a bit more work

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2010/12/17/164412_md-Blood%20Angels%20Librarian.JPG
Also as you can see here, I haven't added on his Storm Shield


Here he is with come of my Terminators and Sanguinary Priest

Here is my Sanguinary Priest in Terminator Armour conversion. I still need to add on Corbulo's Blood Chalice as the left arm

The rest of my Terminators

These are my other Priests
[img]http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2010/12/17/164420_md-.JPG/img]
and some close ups



And my 3 Assault Squads

I think you need to thin your paint down a pit more especially on your flesh tones. It just looks a little to heavy to have a smooth finish. Good work though.

+1.

If you thinned your paints down, they would all be cracking models!

what kind of criticism are you looking for exactly? I agree with the first couple of posters, the paints are so thick that you are obscuring the fine details of the model. Remember that you dont need to cover the model entirely all in one coat application. depending on the color, sometimes it takes 3-4. It is always better to have thin paint opposed to thick. Next, I dont know what kind of brushes your using, but I would suggest visiting a local art store and picking out some brushes that are small enough to capture details like the eyes, aquilla, etc. This will help you refine your work a little more. best of luck!

Thanks for all the replys! I never actually
have watered down paints before It seems like I should have a go at that for my next models.
Currently the only brush I tend to use is the citadel fine detail brush. I find it's to large to paint the smaller details, despite that being it's purpose lol. The only war-games store I live close to is a GW so I'll have to look into buying better brushes online. Are there any particular brands that people would recommend?

To be honest I don't have a problem with GW brushes but you need to use the bigger ones. When I started painting I found the fine detail brush too big to do detail with because I used it for everything. Now the only non citadel brush I use is a tiny tiny one for doing pupils but I could just as easily use a citadel brush. You must water your paints down use a palette, old plate or a tile and everytime you dip your brush into a paint pot apply the paint straight to the pallette then dip you brush gently in water and mix. Hopefully you will see a dramatic improvement straight away. Try to use the standard brush for everything except really fine detail and you will find when you come to use the fine detail brush your skill has improved.

Ok, so I had an unpainted devilfish and since I refuse to use anythbig that's not finished I decided it was high time to paint it up. I added some water to my pre made mix and applied a few coats of this to the model. I was very surprised at the smooth finish and so I decided to use it
on my crisis battlesuit. Sadly, this proved to be far more troublesome than I had initially hoped as the paint would continually run into the recesses and fill them. It seems like I had to much water in the paint.
What is the general rule for proportions when watering down paints? I still have half my blood angels force begging to be painted so I can actually play a game with my army and would like to know how to water my paints down to a sufficient level before I paint them.
Also, thanks for all the tips guys! I went out and bought several more citadel brushes and hope this will help out with my painting!

if its too watery, just add a blob more paint. tends to be 2:1 paint to water.

depends on the paint, if its been a while since you used that pot, then the ratio will be higher. Certain paints require you to water them down to being right before the really wattery effect you had, and right after that sorta smooth. List up the paints your using and i'll try and assist.

If the paint's running into the recesses, you could be loading too much paint onto the brush rather than having watered down the paint too much.

It's not that I have too much I think as I tend to work with small amounts rather that a tiny bit gets in and it flows through the recess due to cohesion.

look around on youtube or google and imitate the painting prosesses of expieriencd painters.. read a lot or by a 'how to paint space marines' book.. also investing in a good set of brushes is a good thing to do.. take your time to paint =)

Also out of interest what would you guys give them out of ten?

I'm afraid I would only give them about four and that would be generous. However it will not take much to improve them.

thank for the input. I really do need to put more work into them XD

idd four is generous.. but the paintjob isn't hopeless.. so keep trying

What would you guys recommend I improve on with them?

I've just had another good look at them and I don't think you are far off. The armour is ok but I think it just doesn't quite look smooth enough my suggestion for this. Wash all the armour in baal red. Once this has dried mix a nice thin coat of blood red and being careful to leave the baal red in the recesses apply 2-3 coats of blood red over the armour. If you are patient and apply these coats smoothly you should get a nice finish. After this mix a 1:1 mix of blood red and flaming orange and apply a gentle highlight to the raised areas. Post a pic of this stage and I'll see what I can suggest for the detailed bits.

Make sure you have the right brush for the job. The biggest mistake I made when I started painting minis was to use one detail brush for everything. The problem with this is that your brush quickly wears out and leaves you with a poor paint job. Keep one brush in pristine condition for detail work and have several others for the big work.

Also, you may want to experiment with dry brushing and washes.

Thanks for the tips! Trouble is that Flaming Orange is discontinued.... Also I have highlighted the models with blazing orange but the photos seem to dark to properly show this. I will paint the watered down blood red coat right away though!

Look good. I like the termies.

Ok, so I now have finished one marine painted with thinned paint, >30 to go >.>
Any otter tips you guys have for me?

Blacklining or painting a wash in the recesses for more definition. The difference that makes is tremendous. Try leaving a bit of black around each eye lens, especially since green eye lens and yellow helmets don't have a lot of contrast, so that thin black outline will do wonders to differentiate the eye lens from the helmet.

I actually have done that... The helmets weren't washed and layered at that stage. The pictures are actually quite dark and so you can't see that I have actually left the recesses much darker. I'll try to take some better pictures tomorrow as right now I'm half dead after work >.>