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Hello Dakka. After hearing about Warhammer 40,000 earlier in the year, I decided to buy a paint set and some second hand models on E-Bay. This is the best of my attempts so far.



I keep the figures in the tiled cigar box that you can see in the picture. I have a close up of the rest of the models that have been already primed.



Feedback is welcome, and I'm also looking for suggestions to do with the base.

Not bad at all One thing I would do is touch up any mess ups (finger tips are red ect) and give that white another coat on the shoulder pad. otherwise not a bad start

Did you use a wash at all on these models?

What did you have in mind for a base? Grass, rock, desert, snow?

They look very clean and well done for a first timer. I thinkyoushouldnbrighten them up a bit though, they're very dark. It's possible that it's just the camera though

Overall good job!

Looks great man! And for a while i had a lot of mess ups, actually i still do but i have less now with a 20 ott brush. I find that using it at the very end to hit missed brush strokes (on the wrong part) a lot easier then trying to fool around with my number 3 or 4.

Mind posting a picture of one with the skull on the helmet? I just want to compare a few things that i need to work on personally. As i have come up with an idea.


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For the tiny skulls i am finding that even thinning paints there is hard. my first idea was to paint it and scrape out the details with a sewing needle. this works a little bit but i was having problems half of the times.

So back to the drawing board and i came up with two steps forward and one step back.
Paint the skull and before it dries immediately take a 20 ott and soak up where the details are. Then paint again and use the brush to soak up excess again do this until you are satisfied with the detail and color on the tiny helmet skulls. it also works for the tiny ones on belt buckles. Also hit your brush that you used to soak up the detail on a paper towel to get the paint you absorbed off.

 zammerak wrote:
Not bad at all One thing I would do is touch up any mess ups (finger tips are red ect) and give that white another coat on the shoulder pad. otherwise not a bad start

Did you use a wash at all on these models?

What did you have in mind for a base? Grass, rock, desert, snow?

Thanks. I in fact, used no washes for these. I've been meaning to try them in my next batch of models. The mess ups are caused mostly by the fact that I have only the starter brush, and my hands get shakey when I mess up.

For the base, I was looking for a rocky or grassy design.

I do not know if it is standard at all hobby stores what sizes they carry but a ten and a twenty for royal gold brushes which are still beginner brushes was 4$ even.

You know, they look pretty damn good for a first set of models. I've only been painting myself for a little over the year so I know what it's like still getting into the flow of things!

Only a couple of suggestions:

A) I usually put down a base-coat of Mournfang Brown on the white areas as I find the white has better coverage over that than black - not sure if thats what everyone else does, but works for me, along with about 2 coats of white.

B) For a decent base that's not too time consuming you may want to get yourself a couple of pots of GW's basing compounds (It's got lumpy bits in it to simulate the ground), a matching drybrush compound and possibly some static grass - it's really easy to apply (just like paint) and gives a decent result. If you want a rocky design, for my Salamanders, I usually use Astrogranite as a base. When that's dried I wash it over with Nuln Oil and when that's dry, I simply drybrush over the top of the Astrogranite with Tyrant Skull to highlight it.

C) As a humble suggestion, how about trying to do some highlighting - it'll do wonders to liven up your model and give a bit depth to it.

D)Citadels Brushes are really quite good - Like I say, i'm only starting out and don't have the experience of more long time painters, but they are possibly not as bad as will often be made out.

I hope this helps, and I haven't rambled on too much, but other than that, they are looking really good for your first 40K models! Feel free to ask if there's anything else I can help with as a fellow novice!

 Warpig1815 wrote:
C) As a humble suggestion, how about trying to do some highlighting - it'll do wonders to liven up your model and give a bit depth to it.

D)Citadels Brushes are really quite good - Like I say, i'm only starting out and don't have the experience of more long time painters, but they are possibly not as bad as will often be made out.

Any suggestions on highlighting in particular?

Also, I may be doing something wrong, but my starter brush is actually starting to fray now. Some strands will be off by themselves and it really sucks for when I'm doing the DA logo on the shoulder pads.

Well, I'm a Salamanders painter myself,and again - no expert painter, as highlighting is an area I still have problems with, but I think that you may possibly want to start off by doing an initial highlight of half of you main colour to half of possibly GW's 'Warpstone Glow' (a 50:50 mix)? Then you may want to proceed onto doing a second highlight with 50% Warpstone glow and 50% Moot Green... I really can't suggest colours, but what I found really helpful was to simply Google a load of articles - In your case Dark Angel related ones, and have a look to see how others are doing it.

With regards to WHERE you should highlight - it's really just on the raised edges of armour. If you picture the natural sunlight as hitting the top of the armour and gradually becoming less, the further down the model you go it becomes more shaded - hence less highlights.

Don't know if it helps as I'm not great at highlighting, but like I say - Google is your friend!

As for your brush, if you are serious getting into 40k and painting - invest in Citadel' brush range as they're decent quality and weren't too expensive when I got them. Provided you keep them cleaned in cold water and don't let paint get up into the metal ferrule, you should find your brush lasts a long while.

Thanks, I'll try that out sometime.

Just finished a new one. Took me an hour and thirty.



Note that there's still a couple of touchups it can use, but I'm waiting until I can get a more precise brush, since every time I fix a mess up, I create a new one in it's place.

 IcarusDA wrote:

 zammerak wrote:
Not bad at all One thing I would do is touch up any mess ups (finger tips are red ect) and give that white another coat on the shoulder pad. otherwise not a bad start

Did you use a wash at all on these models?

What did you have in mind for a base? Grass, rock, desert, snow?

Thanks. I in fact, used no washes for these. I've been meaning to try them in my next batch of models. The mess ups are caused mostly by the fact that I have only the starter brush, and my hands get shakey when I mess up.

For the base, I was looking for a rocky or grassy design.

Ha Ha i used to shake alot, it goes away in time, as far as rocky grass what I do is paint "splotches" of watered down pva glue and sprinkle sand over it, then I paint it dark brown followed by a dry brush of tan then washed with a brown wash. after that I pva glue the rest of the areas and sprinkle flock over it.

Use washes! it makes a good paint job go to much better! once i started washing my orks and highlighting the skin it really made them pop!

Also, get a fine detail brush and touch up the "edges" for example the red arrow or the white eagle, getting the edges as best you can makes a crisp model (on the table you will never notice it how you have it now) but if your looking for a "display" model that's what I would reccomend

zammerak wrote:Ha Ha i used to shake alot, it goes away in time, as far as rocky grass what I do is paint "splotches" of watered down pva glue and sprinkle sand over it, then I paint it dark brown followed by a dry brush of tan then washed with a brown wash. after that I pva glue the rest of the areas and sprinkle flock over it.

I think i'll try that out sometime, It'll definitely improve my own models!

@IcarusDA - Again I'll echo zammerak - Your models seem to be very neat, considering the state of your brush, so if anything is going to improve that neatness even more (It's only really noticeable on the shoulder eagle) - it's going to be new brushes.

A couple of things to suggest that really help me as a novice:

- I've just started using Flow-Improver and it really helps, so if you don't use it, you may want to look into thinning paints and using this. I mix it into water at a 9:1 water:Flow-Improver mix, then mix that at 1:1 with your paint. It just keeps your paint flowing smoothly. (Vallejo or Reaper dropper bottles are especially handy for this!)

- Don't know if you already do this, but I usually blu-tack the black base of the marine onto a spare paint-pot to give yourself a bit extra grip - It helps if your hands shake while your concentrating.

I know it sounds really costly to get started, and I won't lie it isn't cheap, but I found that after getting together a decent set of brushes, flow-improver and saving a load of web-articles to my computer in sort of 'mini-library', my painting keeps getting infinitely better. Do stop me, if I ramble on to much and clog up the thread, but it's just because I'm relatively new as well so I'm just passing on everything I've learnt so you can avoid making any mistakes!