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Ok, so my Chaplain, 'The Obsidian Angel', didn't attract so much attention (I was hoping for some hints on where I can improve), so apologies for spamming the forum, but I've also got some Terminators that I'm hoping people will give me a bit feedback on and tell me where I can improve.

As always C&C is always welcome, so... enjoy.










Sorry for the size of the pictures...

Awesome! Liking the freehand.

Nice characterful models, and some really nice freehand.

Thanks guys, I'm particularly fond of freehanding so it's good to hear others like it too.

Those are just great, and yeah the freehand as well.

DAMN fine painting, and awesome freehanding! Now I feel like my own sallie termies are too bare. Still, great job! The black helmet is an interesting choice, and I think it works very well.

Im liking your highlights and the freehand as well. I think they are some really good looking models. I like the black helmet choice, it breaks up the green and adds some contrast.

Excellent mix between the green and the gold, each fig has a nice balance to it in terms of color, and the painting style is very juicy, these are very satisfying to look at!

vry nice

I can't find a single serious fault in the painting. I find the understated white freehand in particular comes across very well and gives them character.

Just a modelling pet peeve of mine (and you may very well have a different opinion), but pauldrons like the one on the first th/ss terminators right arm always look wrong to me. I can't help, but think the pauldrons should be attached to the rump armor, rather than the arm, so should be in a completely different place when the bearer raises his arm so far up. Of course, that would reguire a fair bit of modelling. And it doesn't help that GW itself seems to go back and forth on how pauldrons actually attach in moddeling and artwork.

Very cool Sallies, warpig!
I especially like the freehands on the first Terminator; that's what I like to do with mine, too. Although it gets a littler harder when one paints Ultramarines; there seems to be little that sets them aside from the plastic miniatures they start out as

The scripture on your parchments is as great as it is necessary for a Space Marine; people seem to rarely write ANYTHING on these.

There's only two things I'm not too happy with: the gold, which looks similar to the gold on your chaplain (which I commented on in its respective thread) and the poses. However, the latter is a matter of taste and highly dependant on the sculpting of the miniatures. Personally, I dislike most of the options offered in the box, so don't take that as criticism on your painting/modelling skills

the poses are very boring, OP. You've painted some awesome models, but they aren't characterful.

I don't know what to tell you. I found it difficult to bring myself to convert assault terminators, but posing them's not that difficult.

I'll agree that I can't really see anything here to improve. Certainly I'd be very happy with these.

If you want to improve further, you could make the bases more detailed, and look at blending/wet-blending if you really want to get technical. However, blending techniques are usually best reserved for fancy stuff since it takes a long time to do.

I love the hammer/anvil on the shinguard. Good work.

Definitely great freehand, excellent shading and highlighting, these models are looking great, my only suggestion would be to potentially add some washes to your golds, just to really bring out the line work and give them a nice shading like you have on the backs of their legs etc.

Yeah nevermind, I'm pretty dumb and it was just a couple of the pictures, looking at all of them the details on the golds do stand out!

Thanks for all the feedback people, I'm glad you liked them.

@Jimsolo and Rezyn - I like the black helmets too. I have heard that Sallies have gold helmets for veterans, but I reckon they would be way to glam to be practical. So it's black for my Sallies.

@Idle Hands - I can see what you mean, as I was unhappy with the way I splashed out for Forgeworld pads, only to find that when I raised the arms to have them in a sort of striking position - the purity seals were all wrong as if gravity didn't affect them! However, I would say that if you ever look at how a medieval Knight's armour interlocks, the pauldrons are attached to the shoulder, not the torso, so I can't complain about GW's method there IMHO.

@Rogan - you know the story on my gold - it's accepted to be hideous. :( However, I am going to look into doing gold like Nerdfest 09 has on his blog - it's very good and looks to be very easy to replicate. Gold is a pet hate of mine, and I've tried many methods, but it still comes out like gold paste. :(

@Rogan and Scipio Africanus - I'm curious to know why you don't like the poses? The weapons in the box aren't exactly conducive to giving the Terminators 'heroic' or attacking poses - they seem to be just standing or walking poses available, so I'd be interested to know how you would have done them.

@Super Ready - Bases are next on the agenda. I've got a Sergeant and one more Terminator to finish the squad, but since these are only my 8th and 9th 40K models I've ever done, i'm not too good with basing yet. Hence, my rather plain, GW texture, bases. Fear not though, I intend to get some Galeforce 9 stuff to improve my bases.

@Hoernakex - Cheers, I wanted to do something a bit different.

Thanks to all posters. I have a question myself - how can I get my details to stand out, rather than just using straight white?

Man I really these guys, great work....... god i want to steal your black helmet idea sooooo bad

As someone who paints salamanders as well, the best/easiest way to paint gold i found is, and this might just be blasphemy but, I use a Gundam Gold marker, the gold paint that's in it, is hands down the most amazing I used. Single coat covers just about any color, it's very bright so it shades really well. What I do is drop 1 or 2 drops of it from the pen, and then use a brush to paint it. It is alcohol based, so that might be part of the reason it works so well.

jb1981 wrote:Man I really these guys

So i'll just presume you like them then?

Thanks jb - nice to have a bit feedback from another Salamanders player - how are yours coming on? I'll take a look at that gold idea soon. Oh and feel free to nick the black helmets idea

Nice looking Firedrakes, Vulkan would be pleased. I too did black helmets on my latest Terminators and white helmets for my PA Honour Guard, I like to mix it up a bit from the norm.

Ahh, you see I was going to do something similar on my Salamanders - black helmets for veterans, but possibly white helmets for the sergeants - depending on how good it looks. Thanks for the compliment - much appreciated.

They look great. Also nice to see salamanders that aren't on lava bases for once.

Usually when I see a title like feedback wanted I come in to see what they could do different. With yours I actually think the feel of the vibrant green works well with the blacker helmets. I'm also loving the shield work and the scaled stuff it looks like you Gstuffed?

Nice clean crisp work that is vibrant and pleasing to the eye.

@Chancetragedy - Thanks for the compliment, I just ask for feedback because I know I can always improve, but often miss things myself that others point out, which is what's great about Dakka. The hide on the shield is indeed green-stuffed, just a small piece, but when I get round to painting him, there's going to be a sergeant with a full length scale mantle. I didn't want absolutely all my Salamanders to have scale cloaks because of two reasons:

A: I don't think that in a titanic battle between a space marine and a 10ft long, fire-breathing Firedrake there's going to be a pristine hide left at the end of it. I reckon most of the hide would be too battle damaged to be used as a cloak - hence the small scraps over his shield.

B: I think only the most skilled of warriors would be able to kill a Firedrake in the first place, and kill it so cleanly that they could make a cloak from it - i.e. only sergeants, captains and champions - and obviously Tu'shan!

@ThatEdGuy - Yeah, I'm on the same wavelength as you. I love Lava bases, but they seem a bit too cliche - almost like every single world the Salamanders fight on has to be lava, which is utter rubbish. Having said that, I am going to do lava bases for my Terminator Sergeant, and for my command squad, just to mark them out a little.

Regarding the poses, I agree south those who complained they are uninspiring considering how nicely these guys are painted. Unfortunately GW's SM sculpts are often very static, and considering these guys are supposed to be in the thick of it, swinging round titanic electrified hammers, it doesn't fit. I would suggest looking at the termies from the space hulk set for inspiration. You would need to do some cutting at the joints, and green-stuff work, but looking at your painting I'm sure you're up to the task

You see, I did wonder just how my poses in particular are uninspiring. I thought that having one raising his hammer to smash in something's skull was pretty interesting, considering that the box depicts them just walking, but apparently it's rather dull! I'm more curious than anything because I'm just a beginner at 40k (Hence I didn't think of altering the poses), but how would you have done terminators straight from the box?