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Hello all. I use to collect Space Marines and Tau maybe 10 years ago. Now I've got the bug again and just started collecting an IG army. I'm going with this blue-grey and black urban camo colour scheme.

So far I've painted almost one squad of guardsmen and a Chimera. I've been reading and watching guides from this site and others and feel like I've picked up a lot. However now I'd like some direct critique.

Here is my latest and I feel, best guardsmen so far. I'd like for everyone and anyone who wants, to give me good honest feedback and suggestions. Be brutal, I can take it.






Thank you.

They look good mate, I like the color scheme. Great start look corward to seeing more units

My only criticisms are that the flock on the base is a bit patchy, and the knife and canteen etc. on his belt could do with being a different colour, they sort of blob into his clothing.

Other than that your highlights are good, the colour is nice and your brushwork is very neat. Keep it up and show us a photo of the whole army one day .

They look good, especially after a long break, so every thing I say is in the spirit of improvement, not criticism.

1 clean sand or flock spillages off the rim of your base as you are applying, so that the end result is smooth.

2 put sand on the base before flock, wash and highlight it (drybrushing works) then do patches of grass. This looks more realistic, and less like AstroTurf.

3 With the blue hazard lines on the gun, they need touching up and neatening. At present you have some that are triangular, and one with a corner. Touching up the lines to straighten then will make a significant improvement.

4 the face. Try experimenting with glazes to add a little more life. Red cheeks or forehead, purple or green beneath the eyes, or a little stubble. Try to get the eyes if you can, I use rhinox and ulthuan as it is much less stark than white and black, but still clearly visible.

Again though, you have done a great job, and your highlights are neat and consistent. Hope that helps

I am a big advocate of washes and/or paints thinned to wash levels of thickness.

While your guy looks pretty good, IG have millions of soldiers so painting all of them with multiple edge highlights and shades will take forever - I would suggest using washes to do 90% of the work for you, leaving you more time to focus in on the details.

Undercoat the model a mid-grey, then spray from above with a white primer to create built in shadowing.

Then use your mid-blue paint thinned down to the thickness of milk to wash over the uniforms. When dry, use an even thinner wash of your dark blue to shade the uniform further.

For the armour, use a reasonably thick black wash (or a couple of normal black washes) and you will get a really nice naturally shaded and highlighted black as the grey/white undercoat influences the final colour.

For the face, wash with mixtures of sepia and whatever the new mud wash is called to get the basic colours. Then add some glazes for tones. To be honest though your face on that guy looks pretty good.

If you want to do stripes, try using artists masking tape to do a single stripe at a time for nice crisp edges - this is something that is worth spending time on as it can actually add a lot to the model. Try sponge weathering the stripes in combination with the masking tape to give some added interest and show the weapon is in regular use.

 JamesY wrote:
They look good, especially after a long break, so every thing I say is in the spirit of improvement, not criticism.

1 clean sand or flock spillages off the rim of your base as you are applying, so that the end result is smooth.

Or deliberately put sand on portions of the side of the base, so that it is easier to pick up. It is better to pick up a mini by the base than by the mini. Whatever one does, they should be consistent.

Looks good but it needs another color. I suggest painting the gun-stock, scabbard, and canteen different shades of brown so they look like leather/wood.

CMDR Crapple wrote:They look good mate, I like the color scheme. Great start look corward to seeing more units

Thank you for the encouragement!

TheManWithNoPlan wrote:My only criticisms are that the flock on the base is a bit patchy, and the knife and canteen etc. on his belt could do with being a different colour, they sort of blob into his clothing.

Other than that your highlights are good, the colour is nice and your brushwork is very neat. Keep it up and show us a photo of the whole army one day .

Ok, I'll look into using more colours and the improving the base. Thank you.

JamesY wrote:They look good, especially after a long break, so every thing I say is in the spirit of improvement, not criticism.

1 clean sand or flock spillages off the rim of your base as you are applying, so that the end result is smooth.

2 put sand on the base before flock, wash and highlight it (drybrushing works) then do patches of grass. This looks more realistic, and less like AstroTurf.

3 With the blue hazard lines on the gun, they need touching up and neatening. At present you have some that are triangular, and one with a corner. Touching up the lines to straighten then will make a significant improvement.

4 the face. Try experimenting with glazes to add a little more life. Red cheeks or forehead, purple or green beneath the eyes, or a little stubble. Try to get the eyes if you can, I use rhinox and ulthuan as it is much less stark than white and black, but still clearly visible.

Again though, you have done a great job, and your highlights are neat and consistent. Hope that helps

I never thought of doing that stuff to the base, I'll be doing that for my next model. That makes sense about the gun stripes. That's a great tip for the face, using other colours that aren't plain skin colours. Plus the eye colours. I'll have to grab those colours to try it out.

SilverMK2 wrote:I am a big advocate of washes and/or paints thinned to wash levels of thickness.

While your guy looks pretty good, IG have millions of soldiers so painting all of them with multiple edge highlights and shades will take forever - I would suggest using washes to do 90% of the work for you, leaving you more time to focus in on the details.

Undercoat the model a mid-grey, then spray from above with a white primer to create built in shadowing.

Then use your mid-blue paint thinned down to the thickness of milk to wash over the uniforms. When dry, use an even thinner wash of your dark blue to shade the uniform further.

For the armour, use a reasonably thick black wash (or a couple of normal black washes) and you will get a really nice naturally shaded and highlighted black as the grey/white undercoat influences the final colour.

For the face, wash with mixtures of sepia and whatever the new mud wash is called to get the basic colours. Then add some glazes for tones. To be honest though your face on that guy looks pretty good.

If you want to do stripes, try using artists masking tape to do a single stripe at a time for nice crisp edges - this is something that is worth spending time on as it can actually add a lot to the model. Try sponge weathering the stripes in combination with the masking tape to give some added interest and show the weapon is in regular use.

While taking a heap of time to paint each guardsmen is something I enjoy as painting is by far my favourite part of the hobby. Using that inbuilt shading and washes is something I've never done so I want to do a few models like that to try it out. I'll watch some tutorials.

I've also never used artist masking tape and sponge weathering, it sounds like I can use them to finish off despite how I do the layers. I'll have to look into getting the stuff for that too.

Red Harvest wrote:

 JamesY wrote:
They look good, especially after a long break, so every thing I say is in the spirit of improvement, not criticism.

1 clean sand or flock spillages off the rim of your base as you are applying, so that the end result is smooth.

Or deliberately put sand on portions of the side of the base, so that it is easier to pick up. It is better to pick up a mini by the base than by the mini. Whatever one does, they should be consistent.

That's a good point. I don't mind mixing it up a little for the 1st few units to find what works for me, as long as I'm consistent within each unit.

Rickfactor wrote:Looks good but it needs another color. I suggest painting the gun-stock, scabbard, and canteen different shades of brown so they look like leather/wood.

I'll figure out a colour or 2 to try out for those details.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions. It'll take me a while to try all these out, but I will as I like experimenting.

The only thing that I could add, is that I'm seeing mold lines on the helmet and left leg.

Honestly, looks fine for me, this is a solid table top quality model, and would honestly be one of the better looking models on a table.

Albit, its a tad plain looking, i think there is a total of....5 colors? but again, if thats your army, then looks fine.

solid effort. not personally a fan of the blue uniform, but it works. could maybe use a little contrast to break it up a bit, and the base needs tidying and could be more interesting, but these are minor points. painting wise just work on your layering and highlights and you'll be sweet.

I'd say clean the rim of the model before painting it next time. I see chunks of stuff in the paint. Other then that it looks good!

If you want to take it another step up do some edge highlights on the blues.

One thing that stands out to me is that his fabric is shiny. You might want to hit it with a bit of matte varnish to bring that down.

Looks good except for chunks on the rim of the base and the eyes look like vacant zombie eyes.

Im a big fan of unconvential colors.. this looks really cool, nice step away from the stereotypical beige/tan of most IG armies!