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.

I'm painting a couple minis for my brother as a gift (I bought these great looking models but do not play Blood Angels)
This is the first of the 3 sanguinary guard model (The only one I'm done painting)
Would love some tips =)
Any comments appreciated !








Thanks all !

Edit : pictures would help I guess =P

Wrong board :S

"Share pictures of your FINISHED models for feedback and praise (painted & based miniatures only please). "

I know =P
Just hit the submit button before uploading the pictures
My bad heh

Are those the ones that usually have wings? Your white looks thick and flat. Try adding a wash on them and highlighting. Also water down the white and put multiple layers on to smooth it out.

White can be very tricky to paint.

Are you using the new paints? or the old ones?

More layers. More THIN layers of everything. More thinned gold, more thinned white. White is really hard to get right without lots of practice and lots of thin coats. I'm working on some Warmachine Menoth right now and I can say it's a huge pain.

Also, a Badab Black (Nuln Oil is the new one?) wash on the gold makes it awesome.

Paint white in a lot of thin layers
What I find works well for painting gold is doing the base layer mixed with some brown, and then highlighting up to regular gold. The brown gives the paint great coverage even in thin layers

If you are looking for a nice red I have two ways of going about it.

1: Black undercoat. Start with your darkest red. (Scab Red for me) Watered down to the consistancy of just a bit thicker then milk, layer it on until you have a nice even coat, leaving the deepest recessess showing a little bit of the undercoat

Once dryed begin on your next color. (Red Gore for me - A slightly lighter tone of red) Begin again with the watering down, build up layers only leaving the tinyest amount of the previous color showing in the recesses.

Once dryed, dust off your brightest red. (Blood red for Moi) Water down and layer to do the final highlighting, (the raised area's of armour, cloaks etc.) once dry finish with a watered down wash of eather Black or red, depending on how well one has layered the paints. Highlight again with a 75% red, 25% white if needed or wanted.

2: White undercoat: Pretty much the same as abaove but you need to darken all the recessess first. Be this with washes, or watered down paints or even the old Ink's. You will find this needs more work Pre-Red colors but gives a better "stand out" Red at the end. This is unfortunatly Quite hard to do so people dont notice that you used a white undercoat.

there are a lot of details that you missed.
try to define specific materials and give those the same color
(metal tubing will be painted boltgun metal, wing will be painted grey with white highlight, armor is painted red, highlighted with orangey red, ribbed tubing (in the joints) will be painted dark grey with a wash) stuff like that... try to give every bit of detail and every material its own definition.

and ofc what the others said... your paint (especially the white) looks a bit chunky... idk what color primer you use but if you use black first paint it grey (astronomicon grey) and then layer on thinned down white in like 4-6 thin layers.
if you prime white or grey first wash directly into the recesses (dont hit the large flat area's with wash) and then layer on some thing layers of white...

your on a good start! but you need some refinement

White = start with a white-grey, thin it to the point it flows nicely, load the brush, wipe most off, paint on, be patient. You'll still need 2-3 coats of a light grey to get coverage.

Edge highlight white

For metal I base glossy black from vallejo model colour and apply vallejo model air metallics over that, they're the best brush-on acrylics I've seen

Try and limit your washes to only the recesses. You'll find it much less work afterwards to clean it up with your basecoat colour.

Keep painting, you really are on a good start

Thanks for all the answers !

Yeah, I realised how tricky white was to use =P
I was wondering why I had such an hard time getting the expected results
Will definitely thin my white much more
I only used 2 layers I think...so...yeah...=P

Also, these are very nice tips for getting a nice red =)
And I tried once thinning gold but it was way too thin I thought. Good point using a brown base =)


Thanks a lot !
As soon as the next one is done, I'll post it so you can tell me if I did better or worse =P

Von Skyfury wrote:Thanks for all the answers !

Yeah, I realised how tricky white was to use =P
I was wondering why I had such an hard time getting the expected results
Will definitely thin my white much more
I only used 2 layers I think...so...yeah...=P

Also, these are very nice tips for getting a nice red =)
And I tried once thinning gold but it was way too thin I thought. Good point using a brown base =)


Thanks a lot !
As soon as the next one is done, I'll post it so you can tell me if I did better or worse =P

White goes well over shadow grey.
I don't really even use just gold anymore. I base the area in bestial brown, the a 50/50 mix of gold and bubonic brown, then high light with bubonic brown. It's not quite NMM but it's smooth and when washed with sepia gets the message across.