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.

So I decided to join to show off my stuff and look at what other people have done. A lot of people I play with compliment my work and because of it I even have a few commissions on my plate. So I figured I would show what I've done and see what you guys think. What can I improve on? What are my weaknesses in my painting? What did you like most?

As of now I only have a few not very good pictures of some stuff I did when I first started, but once I get my hands on my nice camera again I will try to get some really nice pictures.

My current army of Grey Knights:

A squad of Blood Angel Death Company Marines I painted but did not need so I ended up selling them.

and the last pic for now: a not so well taken picture of my Grey knights:"The Sons of Gandalf" : https://sphotos-b-atl.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/1025769_510097129043641_782057491_o.jpg
It's in a link due to the sheer size of that particular picture.

So what do you guys think from these?
There is more to come I just need my camera again and a better setup for pictures.

They look good just very bland. Have you looked into wash to add depth?

They look nice, solid tabletop quality, but those Grey Knights could use some added depth to them. Painting some of the details on them (storm bolter casing, tubes/wires, etc) will help make them stand out as well. The bases kind of let them down too. Add a little variation; static grass is best if used in smaller amounts. Using too much can make the model look like it is standing in AstroTurf.

Keep up the good work though!

To me, I see a good base for improvement. By that, I mean you show a good base for further deeper technique. Not every painter care about such details, you showed you are ready for more complexe technique like start to learn about the lightning, washes and metalic. Avoid at all cost the "famous" dry brush (or maybe keep it for bases).

One good lessons I can give you for Metalic is :

Boltgun Metal (Leadbelcher) + Nuln Oil Wash and Highlight with Mithril Silver (Runefang Steel).
1: Apply Boltgun Metal (Leadbelcher)
2: Apply Nuln Oil *Don't try to much Nuln Oil at the first strike, apply more small layer one over the other. One big layer will just make the paint look gloss.
3: Mix 50/50 Water + Boltgun Metal (Leadbelcher) and Highlight most body part with small layer
4: Repeat 2, if you see massive brush strike on area.
5: Go back to 3:, if necessary
6: Use Mithril Silver (Runefang Steel) on edges or on top area which receive full light. (usually on top of the helmet)

Bonus: in the case of Grey Knight, apply a layer of Nuln Oil and once it's dry apply a small layer of Blue washes into deeper area. The metal will have a small blue reflect in it.

For the black, avoid at all cost the black color. For the main reason that you can't create shadow with black paint. Instead, use a mix of dark gray and black paint. Some kind of ratio 2/1. 2 part of dark gray + 1 part of black paint. Once it's dry, apply a Nuln Oil wash or Devlan Mud. Than, use that dark gray color on very fine edges. Once again, avoid applying a simpe big layer of wash, it just create a gloss effect that usually ruin everything.

Washes are your friend, but you have to treat it with respect. Too much is like not enought. Some people use them (too much) to save time to create shadows by applying too much in one strike. The more small layer you apply, the better the quality will be at the end. It's probably long, but who care about time? When come to quality, it's not time for shortcut!

Otherwise, you showed you can paint really great details. Once you touch the washes with such details, it will definetly improve what you already achieve. You show you are ready for the next step!

 SheSpits wrote:
They look good just very bland. Have you looked into wash to add depth?

I have actually. In some of my more recent models I have used it. I kinda experimented a bit too much on a land raider I got through a trade and overdid it, but if I could find that guy that traded me the land raider I could show a picture of the dark angels I did.
Oh well, hopefully I can find that camera soon.

and thank you Qcbob, I'll see about trying that in some of my next models.

I would add some edge highlights to the Deathcompany. They look great, though!

I would start by taking superior photographs. It's much, much easier to look at details when the models are placed against a uniformed background.

Disclaimer: The following post is *not* meant to sound harsh or belittling. We were all beginners to start with, but criticism can come across as just pure negativity on here without proper context.

I think you're on the right track but as it stands, there's a fair deal that could be improved on if you're planning to do commissions.

1: Photography. If you want to showcase your work then a basic grasp of presentation is required when photographing your work. Right now, they're just on a table in front of a box, you need to change that so the entire attention of the viewer is on the models, not what could be in the background. A plain white background made from a sheet of A4 is a good place to start, and experiment with different camera settings to get the best result. A cell-phone pic in front of the kit's box just isn't good enough.

2: At the moment the painting is *very* basic. While you appear to have good brush control, so far I would never consider paying for painting at this level. The schemes are simple, with no thought to even basic techniques such as washes or highlighting. The G. Knights for example, would benefit greatly from a black wash on the armour, and much better shading on the tabards, same with the Death Company, which aren't even finished yet. If you expect to do commission work, you'll have to finish *every* bit of detail there. Just leaving out bits like vents, grenades etc is more laziness.

3: Going back to my previous point about techniques; looking at the Death Company, the amount of work that appears to have gone into them appears negligible. The armour is just the undercoat with basic layers of red and white. The red needs highlighting and the white needs shading to give it depth, otherwise it looks poorly done. Don't worry about this just yet though, getting perfectly shaded white areas is a pretty hard thing to master, but simple highlights on the black and red areas would improve them a lot.

In short, I personally don't think this is anywhere near commission-level work yet. While this may seem harsh, it's better to realise how you could improve: if no-one criticised each other we would never make any progress out of fear of sounding mean, but I wish you well with your work, and hope to see more of your progress on here.

Everything looks very basic without any gradients in the shading... It's all very solid blocky colors...which has a place, but it's not looking intentional here.

Use washes, and highlight colors more, I see very little of that here.

I say that you have a good table top army from your pictures, I'm not too sure about commission work unless your friends are just extremely lazy or don't like to paint, then it's easy money for you.

 Chris_P wrote:
I say that you have a good table top army from your pictures, I'm not too sure about commission work unless your friends are just extremely lazy or don't like to paint, then it's easy money for you.

Well just as a disclaimer, These which are shown above were NOT commission pieces. I do have commissions right now but the pictures you see right now were donw when I first started painting.

But the funny part is that the people who are having me do the commissions are really, REALLY bad. I mean they buy the cheap paint from walmart and glob it on. But the ones I have done have otten the wash treatment and I've been experimenting with some other stuff.
Now I just wish I could find that blasted camera!

Ok now Here is my finished Black Templar Rhino I've been re-working on for the last 2 days:





I may have to touch up a few things here and there and in the future I will add some stuff, but until further notice this thing is done.

I really appreciate you being up front about being a commission painter, rather than springing it on your audience at the end of the post. Those Grey Knights are awesome!

Really nice paint job

I agree with the previous statements about more work needed etc, but that Rhino (correct me if I'm wrong), is just black primer spray with shaky grey lines around the edges.
I think it is a little unfair to call yourself a commission painter, more somebody who paints his friends miniatures for cash.

I have a sudden compulsion to play Battlezone...

Looks pretty good, Drill the barrels tho...

 ryanroberts wrote:
I agree with the previous statements about more work needed etc, but that Rhino (correct me if I'm wrong), is just black primer spray with shaky grey lines around the edges.
I think it is a little unfair to call yourself a commission painter, more somebody who paints his friends miniatures for cash.

The tank was primed with a cheap flat black a few months ago. I went back and re-worked the entire exterior. You can see the before result here: https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/964109_505736452813042_1044491887_o.jpg
I basicaly painted it over with Abbadon black and painted Skull white in the other sections.
After I did that I put some skull white with abaddon black to start the edges, but the grey didn't really sit right in my eyes so I went and did the edges again in skull white.
Now as you said: The white is shaky at best so I do indeed have to work it some more, but this is not a commission piece. This is for my black Templar army.
Also, my only "commission" I have right now is some legion of the damned you can see here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/551116.page

But yes, I suppose at this time I can't truly be called a commission painter. But I will get there. I promise this.

Cool. I look forward to seeing how you progress and what techniques you learn on the way. Hopefully we all may learn a little along with you.

For the Grey Knights, I really like the job you did on the armor. The eyes are done rather competently as well. However... You used the same color on the weapons. That makes them look poorly painted by blurring the visual. What you need to do is paint the metal elements of the weapons a different color from the armor. Futhermore, you need to paint the boxes of the stormbolters in either red or black. Firstly because it's all but established as canon, secondly because it makes sense visually. Lastly, you need to yellow your whites. Look at the cover of the box, and then back to your models. I don't expect 'Eavy Metal level out of you, but all you need to do is practice how to yellow out your white areas and they'll look more impressive.

here comes a picture dump!



I finished this guy today. I bought it off a friend and he had it commission for him a long time back. The problem was it wasn't finished. The sponson guns were all glued and so was the rear hatch. Even the top section was glued on so I won't be popping that guy open.
So all I really did was take abaddon black and hit it up because it was old and in need of some work. It had glue residue on the top and the turret wasn't even primed all the way.


What was done before I got it:
-the text on the front
-the text on the rear
-the body base paint
-most of the grey highlights on the body (not turret)

what I did:
-the turret
-the rest of the body highlights
-touched up all the black paint
- a little bit of the white that was showing black underneath.

So I will not claim credit for all of this. All I did was spruce it up a bit and get it ready for glorious battle.

now for some updated pics of my paladins.
These were done before I joined the site but It took me forever to get around to taking pics.



custom mordrak:
i did a gloss coat as a test and it isn't what I would use for a mordrak, but I'll stick with it until I feel like doing another.


Custom coteaz:
I dremelled out the original head as I do not like my men marching into battle without proper protection. Also, he kept falling apart so I took a paperclip and a hobby drill and put metal bits between each joint and now he will never fall apart again!


so yeah, now that I have made this thread pic heavy on the first page this is all I got for now. C++ coding and work has kept me busy for the last few weeks.