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Hey, long time lurker, first time painter and poster.

I've loved the lore of the universe and lurked for years and finally dipped my toes (well, paintbrush) into painting. I managed to find some paints and models for cheap for sale locally so I took up the challenge to finally do it. After reading tutorials and guides online I know I need to:

1) Thin paints
2) Highlight
3) Base it
4) Curb my Badab Black fetish (It smells really bloody funky).
5) Drill my barrels / Remove Mould lines.

I don't want to be an award winning painter or do commissions but I do want to try my best. Swung by my LGS for some advice and all I got was "That isn't even table standards" from one customer, the guy in charge was more helpful. Not decided on an army/colour scheme yet and I'll just paint whatever I've got. I didn't realise how bad they looked as they were blown up on my iPad. Oh well, the only way is up.




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So in between painting walls and doing other housework, managed to get one marine mostly finished and two cultists finished. Really happy with the cultists, they were fun to paint. I might have to buy a box of them and maybe have them run under a single god,





Had my first accident today too and it involved the cat knocking over my wash, had to mop up as much as I could and throw it on this chaos model I was working on, isn't shaping up too badly and I think he's salvageable.

Welcome to Dakka, and welcome to painting!

Don't let douche canoes like that customer at your FLGS put you off. Everyone starts somewhere. See my P&M blog (in my sig) to see just how bad my first minis were. I'm not the greatest painter, there are plenty of better painters on here to give you advice, but happy to point in the right direction to try to help!

Firstly, those basics you've got are a great start. Also, the models you've done so far look good. Great first models!

Some advice - this is a great video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enUqWuU-Nns - if you haven't seen him before, this is Duncan from GW and he's done a load of good tutorials. This one is Imperial Guard, but it's more about showing the basics of thinning, washing, layering, highlighting, than about the models. If you want to find a video for a specific model or colours I'm sure you can, but this is a great intro on the basics of painting.

The second piece of advice I have is to look at entering the Dakka monthly painting competition. It forces you to focus on getting something finished (a problem I sometimes have), but also the guys on there are great - a real range of styles and abilities, and they'll really help with advice and motivation. I think next month is Space Marines - not sure if that'll cover Chaos Marines, but probably will.

If you have any specific questions about a colour, technique etc, post it on the Painting & Modelling forum.

Oh, and don't look too closely at the photos you take. I have the same thing - they show up every little problem and mistake and just make me feel bad!

MSirrell91,

The camera exposes all, especially because the images are often much larger than the models themselves. Do not give up and keep at it, every model you paint will help with the next one.

Good luck,

CB

I agree that Duncan's videos are great, for many reasons, but mostly because Duncan always has his order of operations planned out.

That is to say, he paints things in an order that makes it easiest to go from start to finish. His Thousand Sons video is a great example; he primes the entire model in gold so he doesn't have to paint all the fiddly gold bits over blue. Many, many people don't think about these sorts of things and make painting far more difficult for themselves as a result.

My initial recommendation to you would be to lighten up on the washes a bit. You're getting a lot of surface pooling. Consider just applying the wash to the crevices (rather than 'washing' the whole model), which takes a bit more time but not tremendous amounts. Only do a full 'wash' over clothing or flesh, which shows off the curves well.

With armor plates, a bit of edge highlighting makes all the difference IMO. It keeps the model from looking flat.

What these guys said. Especially the part about not being discouraged by a socially inept customer at your store. Keep it up. Welcome to dakka and the hobby.