Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello, I just joined here. I'm just getting into the hobby of 40k. Although, I have been a fan of Dawn of War and Gaunt's Ghosts for quite a while though.

I am not interested in playing the wargame for 40k. However, I have always enjoyed making models, and the minis are wonderful, so I've decided to start making a few. Because I'm not making a whole army, I can spend as much time as I want on each one. So far I have made two: A crisis suit, and a Sentinel. I just finished the sentinel today.

The crisis suit was a practice run really, but the sentinel I worked very hard on. I read a lot of tutorials and tried a lot of techniques that are new to me. I'd really appreciate advice for future models! I was planning on doing a gundam next (A Master Grade ZakuII) but I enjoyed the sentinel so much, I might do another warhammer one first.

The paint I used is a generic brand of acrylic (Apple Barrel is the name), except the wet mud, which is colored in Dark Mud from valejo Panzer Ace. I used official Game's Workshop black primer and Green Stuff. Krylon spray matte varnish, and painted High Gloss where appropriate. The mud is made of stuff I found at Micheal's called "Paintable Texture". In the gallery is some close-up detail shots.

Actually I had so much fun working on it my girlfriend bought a Wraithlord and she's getting into it now, too!

very well done,and welcome.

I really like this, you did a great job. The thing that really stands on to me is the subtle things, like the "toes" that are angled downwards on the raised foot.

Great looking sentinel! I love the sentinel model a lot, and you have it an interesting pose.

Welcome to Dakka!

This is great! I really like the mud, it looks exactly like it, even down to the sentinels foot sinking into it, the 'toes flopping as it walks just adds to the overall effect, great job

I really like the base. It's very simple but looks excellent.

I too really like the mud, especially how you have it sticking to the raised foot. Your weathering is painted well also, not to over done!

good job!

Very nicely done, the mud effect on the foot is AMAZING! Just give it that much more character.

Nice! The only thing I can think of that doesn't look quite right is the bullet holes in the back, they look very bright and I doubt that the metal (after all that mud) has that colour.

Other than bright metal, awesome sent!

The paintjob's solid but i like how it looks like it' running.

This is a very well painted model. Commission standard IMHO. Anyway great job Maybe post a tutorial on the mud?

Well, thanks for all the praise! And the suggestions, specifically darkening the cannon shell metal, I'll try it on my next model.

For the mud, there, its actually very simple. Its this product called "Paintable Texture" I got at micheal's, a chain arts&crafts store that are common where I live. It was like $5. It comes in a couple different types, the one I used is called "Ultra Fine". Even without a tutorial of any kind for me to look at, after you have the product in your hands its very straightforward to use.

My first attempt I tried mixing paint directly into the Paintable Texture (this product is white) but no matter how much paint I mixed in, it only turned pink, not brown. So I gave up that idea.

So I just gooped it on the base, then smoothed it out. To make the "hill" I just gooped on another layer, then a third layer. To make the wet areas, I painted it dark brown and put a coat of high-gloss varnish over it. To get the dried out bank area, I layered three colors of brown, pretty randomly. I can't give you actual colors because I use a generic paint brand (Although, the wet mud, the main color there, that is "Panzer Ace Dark Mud").

To get the foot looking like it was dug into the mud, I just stuck the model on when the Paintable Texture was still fresh. I slid the model forward and dug it in so the mud looks like it piled up in the front of his foot.

To get the mud looking like it was caked on his other foot, I got a little clump of it on the end of my plastic knife and smooshed it up on there. When I painted it, I did one layer of brown, then I mixed some grass flock into the paint and dabbed it on. Then I used a crappy brush I have and painted some glue onto it, to make it stick.

Looks great! I can definitely see your modeling skills. And your pictures are actually in focus! Nice!

I too don't play Warhammer, but I do build a lot of war-gaming miniatures. And, I build Gundam too.

very good and dynamic

Nicely done.
I too really like the base - the different tones on the mud bring it to life.
Like the weathering too.
Only issue is the lighting in the photos - you need more light IMO

I can FEEL the movment!

AWESOME! lots of movement

It's nicely modelled and painted, but from the photos the movement is rather exaggerated, it looks like it's been caught in the act of falling over.

I really like it, especially the pose, but the grey area's seem unpainted, which is quite noticable from the back.

Nice wrk man.. mine didnt look that good after 6months of painting nice dynamic pose too..!

I wasn't expecting more replies

On the pose- From my friends I've showed it to I mostly got positive reactions as well and, to be honest, it was the whole reason I chose to do a sentinel. I wanted to do a model where I specifically had a lot of options in terms of posing and, being new to 40k, the sentinel jumped out to me for that. I had a lot of trouble with it. I'm glad that most people like it. As for being exaggerated... you should see the first attempted with temporary glue. After showing the idea to some of my friends let's say, I went through several stages of "toning it back" so to speak. I'm really proud of the pose, but I really want to keep doing challenging poses to get better.

However I'm glad that, at least in the majority, it came out well. I think if I wanted to get better and better at one thing, it'd be posing.

Looks like the sentinel is either sprinting or falling, I cant tell which one. I would imagine though that converting it into that pose took a little time and effort and for that, I love it! Great work for your first!

It is obvious that you don't plan on gaming with the model: your magnifisent pose will cause it to break during transport
On the other hand i really like it. Only critisism i can offer is to darken the metalic painted parts and then doing extreme highlights on them. Citadel wash badab black is what i use for it but i imagine any black ink could work.

Great model. Good pose - seriously great feeling of move and proper balance of the center of gravity.

From the constructive criticism department.
1) Highlights on your lights. You've done a good job w/ the "gem" effect but you can translate that to the larger light behind the metal and the spot light as well. Brining it up to a sharp highlight will give the fell of glass acrylic construction.
2) Decals. You've got some great chipping going on but the decals make it look like he's straight out of the factory. Try sponge painting some of you base green on top of the decals to give the effect that they numbers have worn off. you can go even further and put a dot or two of metallic inside your green to show wear all the way down.
3) Mud: Try mixing the acrylic mud color w some Gloss varnish. It will establish a more "wet" look
4) Hydrolics: Look very flat. Consider putting some grease/oil on the joints of the metal. I love a product called "smoke" from Tamiya.
5) color saturation: The overall drab (desaturated) look of the figure is expected since you are doing a camo/military scheme. On a miniature you need to bring some Pop to certain areas/colors to bring the small figure to life. While this is in juxtaposition to IRL painting when you are at such a small scale the increased saturation. I'm looking at the blues you use on the light. Going from the dull blues in use (probably a country blue or civil war type blue/grey) moving to GW - "Ultramarine blue/Magic Blue) base might give you some "spot colors" which will give your figure some needed life.
6) Aquila - painted black? Might consider going to white highlighted up or something to add pop and say "this is a 40K model".
7) Rust on the engine: Great work. Consider bringing it up in spots to a higher rust value. More orange to Yellow. Again. Rust builds to a center point (look at some references). http://www.freefoto.com/images/904/09/904_09_1793---Rust-Texture_web.jpg

I don't mean to bump my own thread further, didn't expect it to last so long already, but I just want to say thank you for the suggestions! Dakka has been great so far.

My next model, I'm thinking, will be Killa Kan(s? they come in 3 it seems). I love the robots. And with ork stuff, it really looks like you can go pretty crazy with them, and it seems like a lot of fun. Only problem is doing orks, I'd love to have a lot of extra scrap to throw on, but I don't have a large collection of spare parts yet- just leftovers from my Sentinel and the Crisis Suit before it. Anyway Killa Kan, with all the exposed metal and machinery, looks like it'll be a great place to get experience with a lot of the feed back from this thread.

I'm a really poor college student at the moment though, so, between the models and the extra supplies I want (Like grease/oil effects and powdered pigments for weathering) it might be a minute.