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Im trying to paint up a menoth army I bought a while back, and decided to start on the cinerators. But the more I try to paint the worse it looks and I am starting to get anxious.

To make it worse, I think the paints I bought were bad because their thinner than usual and I cant get them to work..

I attached a picture of a cinerator, and it looks pathetic even to me, I cant get lines straight, its blotchy and looks horrible.


What do I do, I cant keep painting because now I know it looks horrible, the only thing i can think of would be to primer over it and try again.

 Dylanj94 wrote:
What do I do, I cant keep painting because now I know it looks horrible, the only thing i can think of would be to primer over it and try again.

Don't prime over it, that will just add more blobs of paint to the existing mess and start to ruin the detail. Toss them in a bucket of paint stripper (see other threads for advice on the best options), take it down to bare plastic/metal, and start over again from the beginning if you want a blank "canvas" to work with.

Break fluid is literally the best stripper I've used, put them in for about an hr see how well it comes off if it still sticky another hour, it will never damage the model (found a dark eldar left in my tin of it that has been there for 5 months and it was fine) just use an old toothbrush, then when its stripped give it a wash in dish soap to get the grease off.

First of don't panic, everything will be alright. I started out the same way and even worse quality. You can't expect to paint as a pro the first time you start although you would love to right?

Here are some tips you can try out:

1) be patient and maybe buy a few test models first to practise on.

2) If you think the paints are to thin or to cheap, buy quality ones like the GW paints.

3) instead of using the white primer you could start of with a black or dark red primer to already make your models have a solide base color to work on. This will automatically give your model a shading tone to start from and things like gold bronse koper metal or silver need a black or dark color tone to work on.

4) So with the thicker paints like the gw ones you need to start out by doing the base colors solid but not to thick so it clogges you're details.

5) Then use washes like nuln oil, artrax shade or sepia something something darkside to give the base tones a smoother shading.

6) then practice adding watered down paints (like 70/30 paint/water) to add lighter colors. If you don't like that you could also skip this and go strait to dry brushing. And I must say there is no right or wrong way of painting a model and there are numerous ways of doing this. Just find out what works best for you.

7) Then finish with edge highlighting and details. This is the hardest part because you need to be more carefully than with all the previous steps.

8) most important one; keep on practicing even though the paint quality might not be what you want it to be at first. And never be affraid to ask for tips and comments to improve your skills.

9) A steady hand CAN be trained so don't worry (some already have it and others will learn it over loads of models) but eventually you will get there.

10) Key is also to start out basic in everything if you're just new to painting. Don't expect to pump out a straight ace army the first time. I myself must have painted litterally over thousands of models over a period of more than 20 years to get where I am right now. And still i'm learning new things and improving my skills every time.

So don't worry, relax, just tryout new tips you get and if you need more guidance just pm me or any other painters, and place your questions in a thread to get tips comments and compliments. There are plenty of high class painters and subject experts that are all willingly to share there knowledge with you.

Good luck with the practice and don't give up!

Some really good starter tips above! I'll just add a few more:

- Buy a brand name hobby paint like Citadel (GW), P3, Reaper, Vallejo, or Army Painter.

- Shake those paint bottles like there's no tomorrow -- especially if they're in dropper bottles (because it's hard to see in them). The pigment and the medium tend to separate over time, and the paint will look just awful otherwise.

- On your earlier work, try to limit the number of colors. Just two main colors on your models, if chosen correctly, will look great (like bone and red, for Menoth). The main reason for this is that it makes your basecoating simpler, since you have less edges to worry about.

- After you paint a couple of nice, contrasty colors, toss on a wash. Just slop it on, using brown or black, and suddenly, your model will look alive. The first time you do this, you'll go, "wow, that looks great!"

- Avoid using white or black on the main part of your model, when you start. White and black are inherently hard to work with, because you can't highlight or shade them (also, if you look at "real life", white objects, like clouds, cats, and porcelain, are actually many shades of other colors).

- Many metallic colors, especially gold, are quite difficult to paint, because they tend to go on thick (and sometimes lumpy), obscuring details on the model. This is because the paints ARE thicker -- they are made shiny by little flakes of mica, which add to the volume. Try to restrict metallic paint to items that really need it, like a gun. In that case, paint black under it, and try to stick to silver when you start (GW Leadbelcher is exceptional).

- Repeat the mantra that many thin coats of paint look better than a single thick coat of paint. In almost every case (certainly when you start out), this will be true, because thick coats of paint mean lumpy brush strokes and loss of detail. I know it's really hard to resist putting down a thick layer of paint to cover the damn metal, but resist the temptation

- When all else fails, paint with "easier" colors. Certain pigments are just stronger, and go on better. Try painting a model a couple of shades of blue (like McCragge and Alaitoc) and dark grey (like Eshin), and use silver (leadbelcherf) for some details, like studs and weapons. You're going to be AMAZED at how much easier that is to paint than Menoth Base/Highlight (the off-white bone-color).

No fear mate, its will get better.
As I looked on photo, I think biggest problem was your priming, its way too thick, sometimes is less more. Try to 2k basecoat, its when you prime black and then you spray white from top, but again, only thin layer, its no problem when you can see some "unprimed" spots.
Reds and brown colors tend to get blotchy and i really cant recomend you to paint red from black or any dark base. Thiner colours arent bad, for base layers i paint 3-5 thin layers to get nice smooth coverage. If you use Vallejo Model Air, exept for metallics, they arent best for brushes.


And maybe this will help too, its really great blog http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.sk

Take heart ... you will get better. Painting is like anything else, the more you do it the better you get. In just the span of a few years I went from this:



to things like this:









These things take time and a little bit of work. The top marine is the very first mini I ever painted and I keep it in my painting area for inspiration to constantly improve.

To me it looks like your problem is that awful mass of white. Youre pretty much doomed from the start with that. I personally never prime with white. The reason for this is that any colour you put over white looks so bright its unnatural, and always looks super thick. Always prime with either black, or grey for lighter paint schemes. And as mentioned above, washes are your friend

I´ve noticed that while minis are still WIP they tend to look crappy. But after some time they really start to shine. Just be patient and don´t frustrated over stuff that´s meant to be fun!

For a first time painter, its honestly not that bad. For future reference though, white is a horrible color to paint, because its very hard not to make it look too thick, as well as the fact that its really tough to get any sort of value from it.
At the beginning stages it may also work well to use washes rather than physically trying to paint shadows, because they go go a long way to make models look waaaay better.
Pretty much though, just keep going at it and youll get better. Keep in mind too, it takes a while to know how you like to paint, so it probably isnt the fact that youre a bad painter. For instance, give it some time and youll eventually figure out what kind of brush size you like best, and how much paint you like to work with. hope this helps!

Try stripping with Simple Green if you don't want to deal with fumes, and always tell yourself you'll only get better. It's the not so secret key to success!!

PS your mini looks totally fine for someone relatively new, you'll get the hang of it.

As others have said, its all down to practice. Thin your paints to a consistency that suits you, then just jump right in. Don't get disheartened if your results aren't perfect straight away, nobodies are. The berserker below was one of my first minis, the standard bearer was painted a year later, and the lord of skulls about 2 months ago. As you can see, practice works wonders.

Well, you've got a lot of good tips thus far (I didn't read through them all). But here is my response to your initial post: Thin paints are not a bad thing. You are better off getting new paints and thinning them yourself, but you gotta start somewhere. Once you get the hang of painting (all the intricacies) thinning your paint is actually a good thing. But it depends on the quality of paint you use. GW's new (as of 2012) are actually a great quality of paint a good paint to learn with. They have enough paints that very little mixing is needed. And thinning is easy to learn (just use distilled water for certain techniques or some sort of painting medium - like Lahmian Medium via GW). I often recommend watching GW's youtube painting tutorial videos to new painters. You can find them here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEaPE4sLDA7s-26V0v6SepDFiznb3y6hx

Some give them flack because they are "GW and inherently evil and only wanting your money", but I find their Tutorials better than any out there for learning the basics of painting. Duncan isn't going to show you how to paint Golden Daemon level models, but he's going to show you the basics of layering, thinning (when to use water and when to use medium), and other basics. Even if you aren't painting any, I think the Blightkings videos are particularly great in showing the wide range of basics you should nail down as a beginner. If your really want to go to town, buy the Nurgle Lord (about $15) and paint him following this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xy7AoKAywHk&index=1&list=PLEaPE4sLDA7s-26V0v6SepDFiznb3y6hx (part 1 of 2). Just following along will go a long way in showing you how to paint the basics.

You have a lot of advice now! Good luck and remember the first rule of painting minis: have a good time!

You get better the more you paint dude, don't fret and if all else fails pick up some cheap minis to practice on like reaper bones or somethin.

Honestly do not despair and keep painting.

Thought I'd add my tuppence to the "this is what I painted then this is what i painted a year later"



to

If you dont want to use something as caustic and dangerous as brake fluid...

-Go to Dollar General
-in the store where they have cleaning supplies, they have something called "LA Totally Awesome"
-They sell it by the gallon for like $3
-Submerge your models in it for maybe 6 hours?
-Old toothbrush it off of there.

Keep heart. My first mini was this one. Roughly a week ago my cat decided to rip off his arm. I keep the now one-armed Flesh tearer AOBR sgt as a reminder to constantly improve.



Psst. This mans blog covers much, read everything he has. http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/p/archives-and-tutorials.html Please. I beg you, check it out. By the way, white is a pain in the arse color. It's either too thin or too thick. You did great!

Oh I should mention. Since that model above, I've painted maybe three. I am painting my first model in two years today. Just like the guys said above, you can always improve. Just believe in yourself.

 Pyeatt wrote:
If you dont want to use something as caustic and dangerous as brake fluid...

-Go to Dollar General
-in the store where they have cleaning supplies, they have something called "LA Totally Awesome"
-They sell it by the gallon for like $3
-Submerge your models in it for maybe 6 hours?
-Old toothbrush it off of there.

This will strip the feth off them, cleansed an entire 2000 point ork army with it, works great.

Jollydevil wrote:

 Pyeatt wrote:
If you dont want to use something as caustic and dangerous as brake fluid...

-Go to Dollar General
-in the store where they have cleaning supplies, they have something called "LA Totally Awesome"
-They sell it by the gallon for like $3
-Submerge your models in it for maybe 6 hours?
-Old toothbrush it off of there.

This will strip the feth off them, cleansed an entire 2000 point ork army with it, works great.

What he said, btw, QFT.

If you cannot find that, get simply clean. It doesn't work as good sadly but, it's better than break fluid. Also! Dawn power dissolver works too.