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Any suggestions on how to paint eyes on heads, e.g. unhelmeted Space Marines? Sometimes they look good on the models I do, and other times not so much.

Try painting the eyes before you do the skin paint it black then add the two white dots . Then paint the eyelids and then the test of the face .

Yeah put down a primer if its not already primed. then go from darker to lighter colors. lighter being father away from the center of face and the darker colors should be closer to the center of the face. add a white dot at the end in the corner to make it look like there is reflection.

Do NOT paint the eyes white and then try to paint the iris. It'll look bug-eyed. It really makes my skin crawl when I see people do a gorgeous paint job and then frak it up with the 80's noob-style Marty Feldman eyes.

I used to know a guy who bragged about pulling out his own hairs to paint the irises on his figs. I pointed out it still looked crappy. He retorted with something to the effect of "well you don't even paint yours!"

Well, I do to. I either paint them black and/or I just double up on the wash in that area. I only ever bother any "eyes" on special models.

Why? I'm glad you asked. A great man named George Washington once said "Don't shoot till you see the whites of their eyes!" Ok, so if that figure was a real guy as far away as the mini is small, you wouldn't be able to see the whites of his eyes. You wouldn't even be able to tell what color his irises were.

But if you must....then follow Curnow's advice after the wash step. You can paint around finished eyes, but it's really hard not to get your wash in them...assuming you use that technique on faces.

I usually do exactly what everyone said not to do, and get a really dumb look. Like I said, sometimes they turn out alright but I often have to paint and repaint them 10x over, and they still look terrible. Thanks for the tips, I'll hopefully be able to try them out in the near future.