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Last week I was given as an early xmas present 2 boxes of death company and Astorath the Grim. So I will be painting them up in the next couple of weeks. heres my first attempt at a guy more to follow. I chose death company to be my returning army simply because I could have a very fun army to play. I love the idea of an all or nothing army like this one. It has expansion options too as I can then make a blood angels army to extend it into something else later down the line.

I have not painted a figure in about 10 years, and even back then I wasn't very good. I'm planning a 1500 pt army which I hope will be a good starting block and give me lots of options to go for in the future.

So without further talkig: Heres an image of my first mini in 10 years i think.... So if there are any tips for painting better please share






I still lack alot but hopefully will get better with time

Looking good, it is nice to get the dust off of those painting skills.

May I ask what colour you under coated this guy?

The reason is if you doing it white then that's really a bad choice for painting death company marines.

If its black and then you are going over parts in white to paint the other colours (I can see white round these parts) then you may want to take a different approach.

I'd say give them a nice even undercoat of black spray primer first, as you're in the UK you will want to do this in a garage this time of year or use paint on primer like Vallejo's Black surface primer its a saviour when its cold and wet outside.

Once you've done that you need to build up your colours via different shades from black. i.e. start with dark browns for the ropes and work up to a lighter colour and grey for the eagle wings up to white, same idea with the red.

Remember to thin you're paint with water and do it gradually. It will take longer but will give you a better effect in the long run.

For the first mini in ten years though you're already off to a good start

I undercoat them all with black. Using army painter black.

When thinning your paint, How much water are you using because this is still something that I don't quite know how to get right as so far i am either too thick or way too thin as far as i can tell.

I am indeed using white on parts that i need to be lighter I was mainly testing this idea on this guy to see how well that worked but it wasn't that great. I have now started on Astorath the grim and Am trying it as you have suggested with darker colours working up to the lighter ones. Found this to work well testing this on his back back insignia got a really nice looking white using several varying layers starting with deneb eventually getting upto skull white. Heres what astorath looks like so far I know I still have a long way to go.

I just use a small amount of water on the end of my paint brush and mix it into about 2 or 3 parts paint, you dont need much.

Astorath is looking very nice, you can see a huge difference compared to your first mini.

keep up the excellent work, looking forward to seeing him finished.

You may want to play around with some washes. A simple coat or two of badab black would probably improve the overall look by a huge amount.

Did a bit of painting today. Got some work done on my dread, was trying to fade from dark to lighter red on the claws. Am fairly happy with it personly so will keep practicing.

you will probs notice the 2 diff shades of black on the shoulders i tried to highlight the edges but it failed and looked horrid, Any advice about this like the best colour to use and tips for painting it to look right.

The dreads looking nice, claws are very cool.

A few suggestions if you have GW washes I'd go over all the red parts including the claws with (Edit: Baal Red) to make the colour look deeper, it will blend the transition on the claws as well.

Now black can be a pain to get right if you're looking at adding highlights. This may seem odd but if I'm going to paint a mini black I never actually paint it totally black.

The Death Company marine that I painted below is a black undercoat and then I painted it with a 75% black 25% mix of Dark Blue. I then highlighted any edges in Charadon Granite and then again after in a Fortress Grey.



Ignore the odd pose he goes in the claw of my chaos dread

The other quicker way is to just highlight the black with Charadon Granite and the give it a black wash. That's what I did for the below weapon you can see the grey on the weapons combat accessory it looks very subtle but gives a good effect.



I don't actually use GW paints but have listed the nearest translation.

Looks like GiraffeX has things under control regarding painting advice (your Dread looks very nice btw) so I'll pass this along before anyone else does, because they will: try drilling the barrels on your guns. It makes a lot more difference overall than one might think.

Will a black wask A.K.A Badab black work for the claws GiraffeX? as right now thats the only wash I own as my paint collection is small.

As for drilling my barrels I will pickup a pin-drill next time I get paid.

EDIT: cheers for the positive words on the dread am happy with it and like seeing that you guys agree.

Na don't use Badab Black on those lovely claws, wait and pick up some Baal Red when you next have a chance.

Black will darken them Red will enhance them, they will look great trust me

Will do gotta order a couple of minis so will get some more washes.

On a side note I found some other warhammer, 2x boar riders and a goblin batallion. So Will be playing around with them too

Edit: My dog went metal last nigh and knocked my desk sending astorath flying his axe is broken now so will be trying to fix that... greenstuff time i think

Poor Astorath, I guess he forgot to use his jump pack.

I hope it was a clean brake.

I'd really recommend pinning it together if its metal, if its finecast you should be ok just super glueing it as it creates a really strong bond with finecast.

Its finecast so should be ok. it is a cleanish break the issue is the axe is a spine so the contact between the vertabrae is tiny going to pin it i think to be sure

Small update sorry no paint in this one hope to get some done in the next day or so as work has been very busy.

ordered a couple more bits for the army today in the form of Lemartes and a sanguinary priest. Also ordered new bases for all the minis but they wont arrive till mid way through jan so going to try finish as much of the men before then

Felt a bit bad I haven't included any pics for a few days so got a small ammount of work done this morning before i went to work. Doing a test mini for a shading and higlighting tip i was given. here it is so far after I did the first few layers on the red detail this morning.

nereme wrote:Felt a bit bad I haven't included any pics for a few days so got a small ammount of work done this morning before i went to work. Doing a test mini for a shading and higlighting tip i was given. here it is so far after I did the first few layers on the red detail this morning.

Looks really well man,

Glad to see you on dakka

Looks really nice nereme

Hes almost done now, just need to paint a head for him and thats about it. Whad do you guys think?

First of all let me say that black armour looks lovely! The Gem is also fantastic!

The red could use some depth though, it looks a little flat. Try washing it with Baal Red and then Badab Black. That's what I do with my Reds, it works a treat.
Also the white and bone areas look a little bit blotchy, try thinning down the paint a bit. I need to practice what I preach as I am a straight from the pot painter. After that a wash will bring out the definition.
I also don't like it when the soft armour isn't painted, but that sometimes comes down to personal taste.
Although he is in the WIP stage, so you were probably going to do that all anyway, right?

I do like him though, and all your Death Company, and that is why I am Subscribing.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work!

The white may look blotchy due to a delvan mud wash i put over it not long before taking the picture, I have some work to do getting the parchment to look right, Also i will be going over certain bits of the armor.

And I do have some baal read wash that i will use but im going to put a few more layers of blood red on first, as I do thin my paints to im doing it in layers to make sure the colour takes properly.

Well i have 3 boxes of marines already and need to paint all except 2 of them, This mornign Lemartes and a Sanguinary priest arrived so will be starting on them too.

^ I like using Dheneb Stone or Bleached Bone for parchments, they look a lot more realistic and less blotchy that white. WIP pics can be deceiving and I can see what you mean by the layering of red to make sure the colour takes properly.
And I too had a whole lot of stuff arrive this morning, it's so exciting opening up a package of hobby goodness especially when you have been waiting for it for over a month.

Well I had a day off yesterday so I got a bit of work done one a new mini. This is still a WIP so keep in mind i still have a few bits to do on him. Also he will have a jump pack I just have to finish that before he gets it.

Sweet job on the marines mate. Keep it up, can't wait for more pics.

The sanguinary priest is now complete and im quite happy with him if im honest.

The helmet and shoulder pads took forever to get white as starting from a black basecoat it need so many layers of paint

Finishing that Priest got me excited to get more painted so heres my current painting team, its the final 7 death company marines before i start on my next 5 which are still in their box.

still the early stage all i have done so far is prime and paint the overall model i started on the red areas yesterday night so all the purity seals, guns, death company markings and the blood gems. Hopefully tonight will work on the parchment, crests and such that needs to be white

Excuse the poses I have resin bases on the way for when they're finished

Well after a while I have got some work done.

Here's a rough picture of Lemartes as he currently is will post more pics of the rest of the guys i completed later.

Wow! the difference in painting from the top of the page to the bottom is astounding!

Keep up the good work it looks great.

Cheers for the kind words.

heres 3 of my finished DC marines on their new bases which i finished yesterday

Its picture time spent yesteday doing some painting so theres lots of pics. Still a long way to go but im getting there







Started painting the white parts inc the helmetless guys head.



Heres what i got upto.

I still cant do eyes to save my life so this guy looks rubbish, am happy with the skin tones and hair colour