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My friends and I have each started up an army recently and after taking a look at some of the fine work the members of dakka have done I thought I'd share some of our own and see what others thought.


My firewarrior colorscheme







Various profile shots of my first Hammerhead.





My stealth team that came with the battleforce, I decided I liked the look of the crisis BC's more then the stealths attempt at sleeker housing so I swapped those out.

One of the Ork players in our playgroup is working on these guys









Ghaz.

our necron player's army






Thats most of the decent quality shots I have so far. I would love to hear any feedback you more experienced painters and modelers might have. Recently ive begun looking into the best way to go about basing our armies. So far im thinking of going to the local quarry and buying some sorted gravel to glue onto bases and then paint.

anywho thanks in advance!

the Tau are looking good, In my opinion it is really hard to get a uniform white.
The tutorials section of this site has some great tutorials definitly worth a look.
Would recomend looking at some shading techniques, would give your models more depth and bring them to life in a whole new way.

they are definitly better than some of my early work

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/435992.page

Im trying to go for a very clean and crisp macross look with my tau army. Im hesitant to use shaders on them however since the only colors I see in are grey and the shader ink ive used so far makes it hard for me to distinguish the contrasts. I'll definitely read everything I can however id really like to improve more.

My army so far





Much like I did with my stealth team I picked out my broadside in a darker colorscheme to try to make it stand out more from the rest of the army while still feeling like it belongs. Aside from a few of the spots I missed before sealing I think it turned out pretty well.



My crisis suit turned out a little rougher then I would have liked, i started to get impatient and kind of rushed through the last few bits. I think for my next one I'll maintain my patience. I really think I could have done a better job.



My kroot.

Looking good so far, maybe try some highlighting and washing?

Difficult to highlight white.

A black&white colour scheme can be highlighted by painting it with greys. In other words you paint black and pale grey, then highlight with dark grey and white.

You could paint over the white using very pale grey and leaving edges. Or go for a white/grey barcode kind of look, using the Tau numerals and letters in pale grey to add a bit of detail to the plain white.

That barcode idea is great!

Very coherent and clean. Looks great together as a force.

the person doing the orks needs a little more detail he/she's also all over the place with the colors, pick an army from the orks codex an paint to that profile. granted i wasn't the best when i started either but I've improved thanks to some people here. keep at it would love to see some of your later works of art.

Tau is looking great, I agree with how clean the paint job is. I would like to see more pics of the crons though, paint scheme seems interesting but couldn't see that well

Get some paint called gouache. Its a opaque paint that is water based, when your doing the lining on the tau. When doing lining, it does not matter how clean it is, go back over the areas with a "damp" q-tip and clean it up. Makes life so much easier to do. They come in kits and have all the colors you can imagine.

We actually have two ork players, that might account for their paint schemes. I cant really tell myself.

We now also have an IG player





Hes quite a bit more experienced at painting and modeling then we are but his stuff is pretty cool I'll upload higher res photos of alot of our stuff in the next week or so.




Close up of Zmans Ork army including the looted Tau tank he got from me after our last battle.

i think it is Zman, but he seems to go all one colour,don't forget, the orks are all over the place and have quite a few details. mind you don't have like 38 differen't colours, Zman work on your highlighting on the skin the way i did mine is really simple, paint everything for your models black, then go over the skin with Catachan green, and then highlight it with snot green. it comes out really, nice unfortunately i don't know if those names have been changed or if they are the same. add some bolt-gun metal and tin bitz for scratches and rust do some holes in your models, not big ones just small ones the size you imagine a slugga fires for bullet holes, do the bolts on your models, if you haven't already choose a clan from the orks codex,evil sunz are good for red, do some clothing different colors, their clothes are a miss match of colors but their Armour is generally one color. hope this helps, it will take some time to get good i've been playing since i was 12 i'm now 16. so hope fully you stay with it. if you do you'll improve greatly i believe in you

Xzerios's necrons now in HD! Should provide those of you who wanted a better look at the color scheme a much better view.






Eric's greyknights are taking shape finally.




Zmans army topdown.



Zacs Ork army.









Im currently working on my commander farsight model but am having trouble picking out an alternate colorscheme to fit him in with my army. Here are a few group shots, so far I think im going with a body of his suit scab red with the backpack black like these other suits and the panel lining also a black.

Any advice on painting/ assembling would be appreciated. Ivve already had to grind out the sword arm heavily in the socket area to get it to fit and trim the ball section on the suit so i can get the proper angle. Im trying to duplicate the pose in the codex where he is charging some orks.

Thanks for the updated photos with the necron army. I like all the new creative schemes for necrons instead of just boltgun metal armies

The color scheme is merely a copy an paste of the Death Knight t10 heroic armor set from Wrath in WoW.


I love the color scheme that much. >X3

Big Al's IG are turning out quite nicely!





Better shots of my infantry.



Nice highres shot of Xzerios Necrons.





Our Greyknight players army taking shape.

Heres a reupload of the Canoptek Spyder model Ive been working on. These are from the DSi so the quality isnt that great. More HD photos will be coming down the pipeline with it completely finished. Without adeu...


Some of the legs here.


The upper half of the Scarab Hive, inked all the details in the scarabs. It was pretty fun to watch them all pop out when the paint set in.


The lower half and the body in work.


The lower half again, on the underside this time.


Both parts together.


All together now, bar the optional wargear.


Back view nearly finished.


And the belly finished, without the optional wargear attatched.

IMO the coolest model to come from the second wave. Next up though, are the Wraiths. >:3

The FWs are looking pretty sharp. Suits aren't bad, either, but could use some highlighting, just to make 'em pop that much more. Personally, I am not a big fan of "Tron Tau," i.e. filling in the armor lines with bright colors, but if that is what you like, by no means let anybody else's opinion stop you! Like I said, hit the suits with some highlights, and they'll look pretty schweet! As for the Kroot...I love the war paint on their faces!

The Orks are just all over the place, even by their standards! Not to mention that they just look a little flat. Again, highlight, highlight, highlight!

'Crons aren't bad...paint's a little too glossy for me, I'd hit it up with a matte or satin varnish to cut the shine a bit. Also, I'd weather them a bit...they're supposed to be millenia old, make 'em look a little worn!

The IG aren't bad, just some of them look a little flat. I think a good wash with some Devlan Mud or similar wash would help the infantry pop a little more. Only one thing is really, really bothering me with them, though, and that's the pose the Sentinel is in...just looks unnatural. For it having that left leg propped up like that, it just looks too stable. I dunno...just bothers me a bit.

Lastly, the GK are in desperate need of highlighting or a wash. They just look terribly flat. To me, they look like somebody just painted in some details of white metal models and put them on the table. I know that's not the case, but the color is just really, really flat. Hit it up with a wash of something like Badab Black, and that might help.

The armies definitely aren't bad. I would say they are all at a minimum of basic tabletop quality. I would definitely say the Tau are the best looking of the bunch, and that white is definitely hard to pull off (I'm learning that quickly with my new IG army that's being done up in an Arctic warfare theme). Hope my criticism was constructive, and happy painting!

Edit: Grammar Fix

Thanks for the feedback! I'll see what I can do about highlighting but I worry that edging the white suits in particular will take away from the macross feel i was going for. Ill finish my commander and then post up some pics using your advice.

Everything is looking nice, still liking the paint scheme on those crons. What exactly did you use for the basing on the IG and your tau? just curious

a couple of things.
clean up your models. I'm seeing mold lines on all the armies so far, and a little time cleaning them up adds so much to the paint job.
drill out your barrels

a couple of layers of thinned base coat instead of one thick coat when painting vehicles. this should help with the coverage and eliminate brush stokes from showing (the stormhawk and battlewagon)

orks look to need a wash on the both the vehicles and the troops as well as a highlight on the skin of the troops. this will help break the cans and dreds into panels and shapes and less blob.

tau, digging the colors keep it up.

necrons, love the colors, the glow works for me, but there is just something off? maybe a highlight on the skulls or more definition of the glow itself? not sure

ig, digging the camo on the chimera and the tank, I'd run the brown up the turret. the question that i have for you is did you put down an undercoat? i see what looks to be bare plastic. so i guess what i'm trying to say is be a work on your coverage when painting (can or brush). that way you don't have it wearing out/ chipping when you pick it up and move it about.

grey knights the blue on the swords love it (you've got a spot of red on the tip of one) a couple of spot that you missed painting. paint some of the details, say the rubber joints, and some of the wiring on the weapons and packs . i'd trying painting the purity ribbons, not the seals but the paper bits hanging from them like parchment, the red is a little overpowering.
the best advice that i can give to all, is to keep painting.
as always this is just my two cents.

Regarding those Tau, I hope you won't be offended but when I saw the colour scheme this was the first thought that popped into my head:






They look great, it's just they look like Stormtroopers. Too bad the Tau don't have an assault oriented HQ that you can convert to look like Darth Vader.

They are looking good! I have a tip for the tau suits you may find useful; if you want nice crisp black lines between your white panels grab yourself a 0.5mm tip fine line black marker pen, they work really well in recessed areas like on those suits, take next to no time to apply and look fantastic.

Keep up the good work :-)

What exactly did you use for the basing on the IG and your tau? just curious

The IG player is using fine grit train modeling sand and some spakel in the case of the pit on the heavy weapons team along with some flock for shrubs. My Tau are using grey rocks medium grade i believe, ive just finished adding snow to the top of most of my bases as well to finish them off. I've been going for a winter urban camo type look and I think its turned out pretty well.




My commander is nearly complete and aside from painting the supporting rod I'm using for a mount and a plasma rifle hes done





I tried to use the silver edging to act as a highlight of sorts while also giving Farsights suit more of a "worn" look to the paintjob.

@ Mud duck
What do you mean by drilling out the barrels? All of the infantry just some of the weapons on the suits, both?

also, the IG are painted with grey primer before the player airbrushes them in his camo theme.

Now as far as shading goes our Greyknight player has started just that I've uploaded some pics of his efforts thus far.



The IG player has likewise shaded his entire army with some stuff made by army painter. A dip hes painting on that seems to be working quite well. As soon as we can I'll upload some new photos of it.

@ Daedricbob

I'll look into that, thanks a for the tip!

I was thinking anything larger then a lasgun, the ork shootas heavy bolters, the storm bolters on the grey knghts, and the heavy weapons on the tanks.

ok, thought that I saw bare plastic on the parts of the tanks.

those grey knights are looking sharp, keep it up guys.

Is the purpose of drilling out lending the models a better sense of realism or is there another purpose?

More so realism I think. It just adds a nice touch to make them look not so modely

Not bad you are doing really well. I'd use delvan mud washes for the orks. Also on the tau. They look great but I would repair the metal with a grey. I'm not. Fan of metal on tau or eldar.

Get some washes on those orks, they should look more dirty.
I like the white Tau. Not easy to get them that clean looking.