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.

hey everyone

so I been playing grey armies from year anyway i have started to get in to painting and i have found that I enjoying it.
but because i have been playing only grey armies, i have very little painting skill so my model look like they were painted by 10 year old.

so any tips on painting to improve my painting skill to a high level.

- ironhandstraken

edit: are the gamesworkshop / forge world painting books any good?

edit: by the way this is about my standard of painting

First of all:could you post up some pics of your models so that we could give some feedback?

And no, I do not recommend the GW/FW books. Most of the info you can get directly from the GW website and there are plenty of better guides online, like in this forum here.

If you want to improve your painting skill to a high level, I suggest you look at some advanced painting techniques such as gradient highlighting. On my blog, I did a tutorial on this technique:http://greenfarseer.blogspot.com/2011/10/highlights-with-blending.html#comments

edit:you should check out some Golden Daemon pieces as well as this website which has loads of awesome paintjobs that could serve as an inspiration to you:http://www.coolminiornot.com/

Practice makes perfect :-).

Just set yourself small goals for each figure. Maybe using only 3 colors on the first one, keeping the paintjob clean for the second one, etc. Just keep raising your goals as you keep painting and you'll start to see some real improvements.

A pic of your current standard would help giving you advice.

Cheers,


IK-Painter

My advice is to take your time and go slow.

I suck at painting.... but my models generally look pretty good (check gallery for examples).

I just take a TON of time on every model... takes like maybe 5-6 hours per infantry guy. Just decide what you want to do, and do it very slowly. The time you put in really shows. Some people can rush painting and get good results... I'm not one of them.

I'll echo some of this thread, practice makes perfect.

Don't seek perfection straight away but to challenge yourself and to be proud of your work. Eventually you will improve if you keep at it. Keep it simple to start with and each time you paint a new unit, try a new technique.

The GW books aren't so great as you can just get most of the information from tutorials on the net, I've heard the FW ones are apparently good though but there are likely better alternatives.

Easiest tips you can get for starting out is washing your models in case of release agent, priming them so the paint adheres better with a more even coat, taking your time and not to slop on too much paint at one but to be careful and use less.

One question about posting pics

i have put it in the dakka gallery what now?

Grab the text in the field marked forums and chuck it into a post.

Heres some pic of the model in my army that i think is painted to the highest standard









- ironhandstraken

I think the sling is a nice touch I think you have a good base that will let you work with more advanced techniques. That is a tabletop quality miniature and is done quite nicely. However, I recommend you use lighter shades of colour to highlight your model. This will make your mini pop, more realistic, and brings out details in the mini.

I don't really see what the problem is, mostly clean lines, what looks like at least two layers of color on each area. He face looks good. Paint 100 of these and come back.

one thing i know for sure is: your painting skill does not get added up, but multiplied. so I first had many awful models, then a handful of acceptable minis, then a few good ones and my latest nob looks 10 times a good a the models i admired in the beginning. It grows exponentially. So jut keep working, watch tutorials and make up your own painting technices; a friend of mine invented the carpet-method. It involves putting a big layer of thinned down color on a mini and then dropping it on a carpet. Youll get a unique look on your model if you do it right

Skin tone is kind of good, for the blue and brown maybe highlights and the green perhaps highlights or start from a darker colour leaving some in the recesses so it doesn't look flat. Other than that looks decent enough. :thumsbup:

Thank everyone for advise. By the way what site for painting tip would you recommend.

- ironhandstraken

Theres loads of great tutorial vids out there! I really enjoy the ones from Awesomepaintjob. Theres a few people here on dakka that make really great how to videos aswell. What i would recommend doing is just sitting down and painting. Nothing beats doing the actual thing. It might not look great but you will see an improvement with your standard of painting quite quickly. Once you start using a few different painting techniques I find that the your painting skills skyrocket. Like everything else in life it just takes some patience and alot of pratice

I think you need to branch out into highlighting.

What I usually do when I want to increase my skill in a certain area is a will go find a model that will challenge that particular skill. For example, I have always struggled with skin tones, so I went out and bought a couple of different mini's that had good muscle structure, large areas of exposed skin and different genders...I have been focusing on developing these "skin tone" skills by focusing my attention on a specific area of the model.

Ashton

I've just been looking at your model again and i can give you some advice: your coat of color does not fully cover the model, so consider painting a econd coat over the first. Also, you might like washes, as they make your model look good in a very short time