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Hello every body.

I am just getting fully reintroduced to the hobby. I play 40K space marines and I do not have any painted models, I know nothing about painting, I know nothing about paint. What do I need to know to get my models table top ready?

Read lots of tutorials online, goto the article section. Otherwise, go to Youtube and watch one of the hundreds of painting tutorials on there.

My advice is don't cheap out,

1. Clean out assemble and glue models
2. Prime them (using Grey autoprimer/ Black or white)
3. Paint using thinned acrylic paints (using water)

I would recommend getting some extra cheap disposable models and practice.

DiRTWaL wrote:Hello every body.

I am just getting fully reintroduced to the hobby. I play 40K space marines and I do not have any painted models, I know nothing about painting, I know nothing about paint. What do I need to know to get my models table top ready?

Paint model black.
Dry brush colors you want, as the color used goes lighter, so should your brush pressure.
This will simulate highlight, and you'll start to see it works like a topography map.
Use the appropriate shade of wash.

And you are done, oo and flock + clean up the base.

its really easy, just relax and give it a try.

And if you have a GW store near you, make staff earn their pay xD

If you're reasonably lazy, you can get spray paints in most colours (either Army Paint sprays (or similar), or most car/art spray paint lines) to quickly and easily do all your base colour for you.

Add in an appropriately coloured wash over the top for some shading and the paint on the details and you should be able to quickly knock out some tabletop standard minis.

Alternatively, you could paint using directional shading priming - you prime the model grey, then use a white and black spray to give directional highlights and shadows - ie lightly spraying the white can from above and the black can from below. Then using thinned (thinner than milk - milk is the thickness you should try to thin your paints to normally) paints of the colour appropriate to your army, or using washes, you can then wash your models so that te highlight and shading comes through and gives you instant definition to your model. Definitely try this one out but use a test model that you don't mind about messing up, or even glue some sprue together into a man shape to try it out on.

Ah this all seems to help.

One thing I don't understand is what is a wash and how to mix anything I literally do not know a thing

DiRTWaL wrote:Ah this all seems to help.

One thing I don't understand is what is a wash and how to mix anything I literally do not know a thing

Models are really tiny and dont really catch light too well.

To create a depth , you have your high lights ( brighter ) and you have your shadows ( washes )
they are basically very watery and transparent liquid thats into the cracks and crevices to simulate shadow.

check the second link in my signature, its a huge collection of painting and modelling advice.

is there a good place to go and read a general overview of painting

haha I ninjad you

as well as a good starter brand

GW's paint range is generally pretty good, and they have a couple of good washes (devlen mud, sepia, blue and black are my personal favorites).

If you are just starting out, there are a couple of colours that you will probably be using for most models you will paint:

Bleached bone (in combination with the mud or sepia washes is really good for bone)

Some kind of metallic silver (boltgun or chainmail)

Skull white (excellent for doing lenses in combination with a wash - paint white, wash your chosen colour (eg green, purple, etc), then a little dot of white in the corner and you have lenses which look fantastic in literally a few minutes.

Some kind of earthy brown (graveyard earth for example) to do the bases. combined with the mud wash mentioned above give quick and easy bases if you paint over sand/grit PVA'd to the base).

The other colours you would need will depend on what colourscheme you would want to paint your marines in.



If you want to buy alternative ranges, Vallejo, P3 and Tamiya all have acrylic (ie the same kind of paint as GW) paint ranges, and have colour charts online so you can see if they have the colours you want.

I got a free P3 wash with an order I placed a while ago and it is pretty good - though it is a little bit grainer and heavier than the GW washes. I use Vallejo model air with my airbrush and they are pretty good, though I have not tried their regular model range. Some of their colour ranges are more "realistic colour" than GW's, so you may struggle to get an exact match.

If you arnt sucked into GW paint by GW staff sales, consider yourself lucky.
You get to be in a fresh new state without already "invested" into GW.
Which means you get to spend your money wisely on the best quality product.

For paints and washes, Vallejo is the best.
P3 also have decent results from gamers.