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I've been looking through these monthly challenges and I am at once encouraged to participate by the challenge itself, and incredibly daunted by the skill displayed that is many times my own. I feel like I'd look a child playing with dads toys. xD

Join in! And don’t worry, about 60% of us are in the same boat...

SergentSilver wrote:I've been looking through these monthly challenges and I am at once encouraged to participate by the challenge itself, and incredibly daunted by the skill displayed that is many times my own. I feel like I'd look a child playing with dads toys. xD

Jadenim wrote:Join in! And don’t worry, about 60% of us are in the same boat...

Yup. I think the highest I’ve done in the votes was barely making the top third of the pack. Mostly I just aim for “not last”

It’s an open competition, we accept everyone from the very best to the very worst. And by doing so hope that some of that experience rubs off. And it does.

Don’t look at the top dogs as competition, but inspiration. And mentors. Everyone is willing to share tips and secrets with others. Paints to use, techniques to try, Dark entities from beyond the pale willing to engage is fell pacts for painting skills. Useful tidbits.

 Nevelon wrote:
Dark entities from beyond the pale willing to engage is fell pacts for painting skills. Useful tidbits.

Ah yes, just small tips like how to sell your soul for painting skills.

 SergentSilver wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Dark entities from beyond the pale willing to engage is fell pacts for painting skills. Useful tidbits.

Ah yes, just small tips like how to sell your soul for painting skills.

It’s either that or practice, patience, and hard work.

And let’s be honest; you’ve seen what shows up on the podium here, you know what’s going on behind the scenes...

 Nevelon wrote:

 SergentSilver wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Dark entities from beyond the pale willing to engage is fell pacts for painting skills. Useful tidbits.

Ah yes, just small tips like how to sell your soul for painting skills.

It’s either that or practice, patience, and hard work.

And let’s be honest; you’ve seen what shows up on the podium here, you know what’s going on behind the scenes...

To be fair, I'd consider selling for the ability to point a finger at something and have it instantly painted exactly the way I want.

 SergentSilver wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:

 SergentSilver wrote:

 Nevelon wrote:
Dark entities from beyond the pale willing to engage is fell pacts for painting skills. Useful tidbits.

Ah yes, just small tips like how to sell your soul for painting skills.

It’s either that or practice, patience, and hard work.

And let’s be honest; you’ve seen what shows up on the podium here, you know what’s going on behind the scenes...

To be fair, I'd consider selling for the ability to point a finger at something and have it instantly painted exactly the way I want.

Nah, that'd take the fun out of it, at least for me. I like being able to succeed- or fail- under my own power. That's why I rarely buy anything already painted, and I would never pay a commission painter to paint my stuff (probably wouldn't let them do it for free either TBH- I'm that zealous about wanting to do it myself).

I'm with Zergsmasher on that one, though would consider a pact for the ability to focus more.
This month I'll be struggling to focus on this guy

 ZergSmasher wrote:

Nah, that'd take the fun out of it, at least for me. I like being able to succeed- or fail- under my own power. That's why I rarely buy anything already painted, and I would never pay a commission painter to paint my stuff (probably wouldn't let them do it for free either TBH- I'm that zealous about wanting to do it myself).

I get that. It's really satisfying finishing a model and then a whole squad. At least until you open up the case 5-10 years later and blind yourself out of shear horror...

I do like to buy nicely painted models, but I won't pay extra for the paintjob. It gives a bit more variety to my army, might give new ideas for ways to paint certain things, I can measure my skill against them with my own eyes (as opposed to looking at 2D images of a 3D object online), and I can strip and repaint them when I feel they no longer meet my standards. Again, I will not pay extra for a paintjob, unless it's ~$1 extra for a pro-painted character that would be a centerpiece for my collection. Even then, I might repaint them when I feel I can do better. I think the only thing I'd be willing to pay someone else to do is remove from sprue and clean mold lines and flash. I absolutely hate the tedium of that part. I want to build and paint!

Back on topic, I'm thinking about throwing in an attempt at painting a recently acquired Officer of the Fleet that I'm currently stripping of some kind of glossy opaque tan paint/primer thing that was obscuring some of the finer details. That or finally building and painting a spare tank commander from my old Leman Russ and making him either an artillery officer for a squad of Basilisk or a custom Master of Ordinance. I have extra Cadian vox packs and could throw one on him for either position or leave him without. Not sure.

My main problem is that all my old hex pot paints are no longer in a usable state and I'm not sure the slightly newer pots are usable either, though they still have liquid in them. A couple look like all the pigment collected into balls while the rest stayed liquid. I did get GWs 40k base paint set, but I'm not sure it's enough for something worthy of this competition. I should be able to paint the Officer of the Fleet in GWs color scheme though, even if not my own. Does anyone know if there's a color difference between Ceramite White base paint and White Scar layer paint?

You have a ceramite white that is actually liquid!!!???

 Chris56 wrote:
You have a ceramite white that is actually liquid!!!???

My thought as well.
It starts pre curdled. If you shake the heck out of it you can get it liquid enough to use. Sometimes.

Trying an impressionist paint scheme for the skin tones here. Genius or folly?

Chris56 wrote:You have a ceramite white that is actually liquid!!!???

Nevelon wrote:

 Chris56 wrote:
You have a ceramite white that is actually liquid!!!???

My thought as well.
It starts pre curdled. If you shake the heck out of it you can get it liquid enough to use. Sometimes.

I mean, it makes a liquid sloshing noise like any other when I shake it for a sec or two... It's brand new unopened from that starter paint set. Though the bottom of the bottle says 2011, same as my old White Scar. Both still make liquid sounds and have unbroken seals. I think I still have a hex pot of white that was working when I bought the White Scar so I never opened it.

To answer your original question, yes there is probably a colour difference; Ceramite white is much cooler, with almost a blueish tint. Not Used White Scar per se, but the old skull white and the Vallejo white are both warmer “pure” white.

Oh and with chunky Ceramite, I use the old trick from my misguided enamel using days; get a bit of sprue and churn it like butter!

Guys, just buy Vallejo white. You'll never look back. Same with black.

Chris56 wrote:

That's the same Rogue Trader I want to use for my warband, Viterbi!
I love that model as well, though she won't be part of my entry this month. I love your squat also - the old-school RT stuff where everyone was basically the same race in 40,000 years time...space men, space elves, space dwarves, halflings, orcs.....awesome.
I look forward to seeing what colours you choose!

I use mostly purple/pink and green/blue for my imperial models, these three will be no exception
And one down, two to go, the squat is done.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Guys, just buy Vallejo white. You'll never look back. Same with black.

I plan to try Vallejo paints. When I next buy paints, they'll be it. I heard of them a few days after I ordered the starter kit from GW, but I'm not disappointed. I needed new glue, a new brush, and a proper replacement for the old beak nose wire cutters I was using to cut pieces from sprues. It would so often shoot smaller pieces 10ft that I had to start using my other hand as a shield for fear of losing parts.

I dont use Vallejo for everything, but I swear by their black and white. you can can a black/white set which contains both, and a range of greys and off whites in between.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
I dont use Vallejo for everything, but I swear by their black and white. you can can a black/white set which contains both, and a range of greys and off whites in between.

Sounds good to me. I did plan on trying a few different paint line, but I didn't plan on buying any more GW paints except maybe contrasts to ease the time requirements of the rank and file in an IG army.

Progress. Not sure about the red round the skull. Might readjust later

I would have gone with a clean base of blue. But I’m just a lap-dog of the corpse-emperor, so what do I know?

Looking pretty good!

@Viterbi - Loving the platted beard!

@queen_annes_revenge - Looks really nice!

Thought I had finished but when I looked at the pictures the knee decal looks poor, so will work on that tomorrow ...

 Nevelon wrote:
I would have gone with a clean base of blue. But I’m just a lap-dog of the corpse-emperor, so what do I know?

Looking pretty good!

That's what I had initially, but I didn't feel it looked night lord enough. I tried incorporating red bat wings but they just looked goofy. I wanted it to tie in with the scary pink lightning he's got. Right now I'm thinking maybe just darkening the red on the underside as it looks too bright, but I'll contemplate on it for a few days. see how I feel.

Nice apothecary^ very smooth. I like the bloody hand.

Superbly clean work, Maxwin! Really captures an 'Eavy Metal vibe. you could tell me it was box art and I'd not doubt it!

And QAR, that's just looking incredible. To my mind, one of the greatest tricks a painter can pull is convincing you that you must be looking at a model far larger than it actually is, and this is really giving me that vibe. The lighting, the subtlety. and especially the face, it's a stunner all round before you're even calling him done.

Thanks man! I'm trying to push new techniques. Not just things like non metallic metal, but following the master miniature painters online, and also reading up on the techniques of the renaissance masters. The knowledge really does transfer.

QAR - thanks, there is alway room for more blood

Paradigm - thanks a lot, you are way too kind!

These guys feel like they are done. I'm going to hold off on final photos, just in case inspiration strikes.

Some of the paintwork in this thread is amazing.

My entry is getting there. Going to try to paint the helmet a decent white rather than just painting it with one coat of white paint

Gonna try something different with this guy

Finished as he'll ever be. For your consideration - Aeno Scarre, Mandalorian Mercenary.

The 3D sculpt turned out to be a touch worse than anticipated, with some fuzzy details, so I'm not totally sold on the theory that your average gamer will be able to compete with larger manufacturers any time soon. Nonetheless, I had fun sculpting some of the extras, like the kama, and I'm reasonably happy with my airbrushing (The OSL leaves much to be desired however).





I'm loving the entrys so far - queen_annes_revenge and maxwin, both of you have produced some stunning articles!

Edit: Better pics... hopefully.