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I just recently just started playing 40k, and I painted some of my miniatures. I was wondering if anyone could give me constructive feedback or suggestions to improve my painting, I've attached a picture of my first four Dark Angels (from the Dark Vengeance kit).

What do you guys think?

Definitely not bad for a first attempt. Add basing and some highlights to the armour and guns, and you're pretty much set. The white on some of the shoulder pads looks a bit thick, but apart from that there's not much that I can fault a first-time painter for.

Thanks, I tried doing some highlights before and it ended badly... I ended up painting back over it with more caliban green because I read somewhere that DA looks better without much highlights. I'd base it too, but I don't have materials for that yet. Expensive, it is.

Actually basing doesn't need to be expensive. White glue, sand (or some grit), a wash & a container of static grass. That's really all you need. Everything after that is nice but not necessary.

Very nice start but I think you need to crank up the contrast a bit. If you don't want to add highlights, how about deepening the shadows? You can take either a thin brush with a black wash, or a black illustrators pen (Micron .05... costs about $6) and darken everywhere there is a seam on the armor... for example where the border of the shoulder pad meets the face of the shoulder pad. That will give you some nice contrast and de-facto highlights without actually having to do the highlights.

You can also highlight the non-green areas... the red for example. Make a thin light red/pinkish color and put it on a fine brush. Not too much! Then with the side of the brush, gently rub the edges you want to put the highlights on... the corners of the red parts of the bolters for example. This will make things pop a bit and once you get the hang of it, you can add very thin, delicate highlights in no time at all.

Best of luck!

An easy way to enhance any paint scheme and add depth to to your models is to use washes or shades. I generally paint in three stages; the first is where you paint your model using base paints for example your models are at this stage, painted dark green, red bolters with some white details(chest crest, etc). The second stage would be to wash or shade the model. This could be as simple as just giving each of your models a complete coating of Nuln Oil. The trick here is to not be shy and really get a good coverage as you can use your paint brush to drain off excess ink/shade to get the level of shading you want. This simple step will instantly bring out the details of your models and give them greater depth, and it also has the added bonus of covering up any minor mistakes if your not great at keeping within the lines during the first stage.

Check out my gallery and let me know if you have anymore questions.

Hey if you need too i found using this works well for a chep texture paint susbitute.
http://www.joann.com/martha-stewart-white-texture-effect-paint-4-ounces/zprd_11386588a/

an exaple on one of my wolves

http://www.dickblick.com/products/golden-pumice-gel-mediums/

This is what I use for basing, similar to the one linked above. Coarse Pumice Gel plus a little torn up cork board, base coat dark gray and dry brushed light, then watered down brown pigment of some sort and you get this:



Snow was PVA glue mixed with ordinary baking soda, so that was super cheap. Easy too, minimal effort and you can get some pretty decent results.

Nice to see a fellow newbie

Those are looking good. I don't know if you've been thinning your paints or not, but you might want to try that to give your minis a smoother finish. And I'll echo what others have said above - washes work wonders for bringing out small details and giving depth.

As for basing, I use glue, sand, wire, some plastic plants I bought for a few dollars at a variety store and a little bit of green stuff (two-part air drying putty). Basing doesn't have to be expensive if you're creative about it.

Use some shades/washes, and base them. They'll look better as soon as they're dry. But if you want these guys just for games, then they're fine.

I've used Nuln Oil for the gun and Agrax Earthshade for the armor to add a bit of wear and tear, I guess my picture didn't really capture that fact or perhaps I didn't use enough of it (although I did apply it rather liberally).

As far as watering down my paints, no I've been using them straight from the vial. It's really a problem with the white I've found though, the Dark Angels emblem usually turns out like ass and takes me an hour or so of reapplying white and then green to get it to look the way it does now. How big of a difference does it make?

In my experience, at least, thinning the pain makes a huge difference to how smooth things turn out and how many small details you can preserve.

Alrighty then, thanks for all the replies everyone. I guess I'll try to use more strategic use of washes and thin out my paint a little before applying it. :-D

Always thin your paints! Not doing it will do your models no justice. The coats will be smoother, and the colours will pop.