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I've been playing, painting and modeling off and on for the past three years and I am sad to say...I have almost nothing to show for it. Like so many, I have boxes and boxes of grey models in various states of assembly that have piled up on every flat surface I have in my humble abode. It was too much. After much sturm and draung, I have given myself a clean slate. Old paints that couldn't be saved have been thrown away, models I bought on a whim, often new in box, have been sold. I find myself without much of a paint supply, no decent tools, and many questions.

I have decided that I will paint a decent amount of models even if it kills me. I was able to secure a Blood Angels lot on the cheap, the way cheap, so that is the army my questions will refer to. All of these are moving towards a simple, but bold goal...How can I produce the best painted and modeled miniatures possible?

1. What tools should I use?
-Does dakka prefer air brushes or regular for their models? Files for removing mold lines? What tools produce the best product?

2. What brand of paint should I use?
-Citadel? Vallejo? Which paints are the best for their price point? Which are the best for the colors and shades they produce?

3. What color scheme should I use?
-Are there any articles about color theory I should use? Does one color of one brand of paint look better than another? Does one scheme look particularly pleasing to you?

4. What should I do for the bases?
-Are there kits out for basing? Should I purchase premade bases?

5. What special techniques, if any, should I try to employ?
-Wet blending? Highlighting? Weathering? Source Lighting?

6. How best can I position these models?
-What tools can provide the most dynamic and unique poses? What techniques can be used to achieve a dynamic pose for each model?

7.Is there anything I haven't mentioned here that you find to be vital to the painting and modeling process?
-I'm certain there are obvious things I've missed here, and I am starting from square one as far as I'm concerned. Nothing is too simple to be mentioned.

I understand that a lot of these questions may be subjective, and I am sure I will have more come up as this thread (hopefully) progresses. Any responses and tidbits of advice are appreciated. Picture evidence, brand names, helpful videos are all welcome. Thank you in advance.

1. You can't really paint the entire model with an airbrush It's just another tool, and an excellent one for basecoats, priming, object source lighting, gradients, and varnishing.

Files, sanding blocks, mouldline removers, hobby knife are all good.

2. Aie carumba. There will page pages on this bud. Short version -- it's your personal preference, pick a paint brand with the colors you want to paint. Specifically, for blood angels, Mephiston Red by Games Workshop is an awesome red; Vallejo, despite many great things, has a terrible red.

3. Well, if you want them painted to codex, it will be Mephiston Red (base), Evil Sunz Scarlet (layer), and Fire Dragon Bright (edge) as your "red colors". Agrax earthshade wash in the crevices.

For your basic theme, pretty much, red has to be there since they are "blood" angels

Death company are black, and one of the successor chapters are a darker shade of red, with black pieces. Black is a nice complimentary color without breaking the "death" theme, and cloth is a common theme in BA units. Look at some of the Space Hulk stuff in my gallery to see what I mean.

4. No 32 mm resin bases yet. But there are lots of 25mm and 40mm resin bases; they are about $1 for 25mm and $2 for 40mm. Or you can make your own bases (using the included blanks). Just your preference.

5. Er.... "Yes"? It depends how much time you wish to spend per model, and to what quality you want them, and what look you want.

6. You don't need any tools to pose the models. Everything except snapfits can be posed any way you like. You can use blue-tac to test fit them.

I usually paint the head separately and assemble it when done. The other pieces, it depends on the model; I'll always at least partially assemble, but sometimes I'll paint various pieces separately and other times, I'll preassemble.

Which way you point the head actually makes a huge difference to the pose. The three most popular ways are: looking down the gun sight (aiming), square to the shoulders (at ready/standing guard), and looking the opposite direction as what the gun is pointed (looking behind). Looking the opposite direction looks good on solo-type models or sergeants, less so on troops because you don't want every unit to be looking backwards.

Keep in mind ever MPP troop kit has different lower torso poses; some will look more crouch-y, others will be standing tall, while others leaning forward. Mix them with the arm pairs to get the effect you want!

Pick up the WD from a week or two ago (the Shield of Baal issue), it's got a decent painting guide for Blood Angels using the Citadel line. It should let you get them looking decent and looking like Blood Angels w/o too much fuss.
Alternatively there's the more expensive Sons of Sanguninus painting book for them, but it's got more examples of everything.

With BA, the biggest issue is ensuring you can get a nice solid red. Back in the olden days, this was a total pain, requiring multiple coats which clogged up detail, but GW (and others) now do much better opaque reds, presumably due to advances in paint chemistry. (Yellow used to have exactly the same problem.) Still worth practising on some test figures though - e.g. I wouldn't undercoat in black.

Red can also be difficult to shade, especially with washes. Browns usually are best, rather than black. Highlighting is usually best done with a reddish orange. Again, worth practising before you have to paint a hundred models.

Check out GW's youtube channel, they just released some nice painting vids on Blood Angels.