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Hi all this is my first post, I recently started up 40k modelling and painting after like 15 years. Here's a few of my first completed miniatures of my slowly growing Waaaagh!! Started with plain boyz, next up is runtherd with gretchins and I have Ghazghkull still to paint as well. Would love feedback and suggestions. These be my first attempts

It's a very nice start! i think you're doing well with the orks skin, but the yellows are a bit flat.

Thanks for feedback. Any suggestions for improvement? I went with basic paints, Averland sunset shaded with seraphim sepia and layered with yriel then flash gitz yellow. Also would you have any suggestions for colouring the tongues?

Your photography destroys any shading you have done. Look into making a light box or something similar. Then you might get some better feedback. Your painting looks clean though.

Thanks, a lightbox is a good idea. I'm not used to photographing small models like this so just couldn't get the lighting correct.

Not bad at all- certainly a damn sight better than my first go. Maybe try just a piece of white paper curved behind the model as a backing to better show the details?

Ha! Good to see another getting back into 40k, I feel this is an excellent time.

I agree the photos are not showing your shading in their best "light".
I assume you were using flash?
One thing that helps both for hobby bench and pictures is get a couple swivel lamps and get some good bright lights. (Used to be 100 Watt bulbs... will have to look at "lumins" rating) I think the phrase was "make the model squint" from how bright they are.
Turn off the flash on your camera and try the pictures again.
Games Workshop appears to want to get good pictures of photos from their customers so they published this: https://www.warhammer-community.com/2016/11/13/the-model-photo-how-to-photograph-models-for-display/

As to modelling, is it ok to be "happy" to see similar things I used to do?

- Be careful about removing parting lines on models, especially in areas you plan to paint metallic: they are particularly brutal at highlighting raised areas.
- Metallics can be rather transparent (they are meant to be so you see the glitter of the aluminum flakes suspended in the paint) so you really need to paint the non-metallic similar colour first, then hit it with a metallic over top (good thing is you can be messy and no-one would notice).
I found that cleans up the rather blobby edges / colour change I would get, they do not transition well.
- Look close where you used your wash. Make sure the crease you are trying to shade-in is done completely, I see a few gaps in that shading.
Sometimes the wash can benefit from a drop of flow-aid to get in there better.
I have seen those far better than me fully paint everything where they are happy, then gloss-coat, then shade so it flows well and is easy to clean-up.

But the real kicker is yellow.
Pain in the rear for some to paint well.
Some options here if you wish to fuss with the look any further:



This video I think is awesome for what you are doing:



As your models stand now, I would be happy to seem them across the table from me.
They are all the more impressive in the big mobs they tend to come in.

Thanks for showing us your work and I hope anything I said here is worth considering.

Hey guys, yes this is all really helpful as I do want to get better at the modelling and painting. It seems that good photography is going to be key, so I'll invest in getting some better lighting equipment for the future. The yellows were damn hard, by the far most tedious process and certainly an aspect I need to get better with. Funnily enough I watched Duncan Rhodes on painting yellow over black, but practicing it proved a bit more difficult than I thought. The other parts I thought could use improvement were some of the finer details, like colouring the tongues and giving more flavour to the weapons. I think I need to get more creative and adventurous with colour usage but I didn't want to "mess up" my first finishes. What I really enjoyed was the basing. It's amazing what a bit of PVA glue, some sand out of my kid's play sandbox, and a few pebbles from my back yard footpath can do!

 shootstompshootstomp wrote:
Hey guys, yes this is all really helpful as I do want to get better at the modelling and painting. It seems that good photography is going to be key, so I'll invest in getting some better lighting equipment for the future.

Nothing too crazy, cheap swivel lamps are useful as heck and cheap:

The yellows were damn hard, by the far most tedious process and certainly an aspect I need to get better with. Funnily enough I watched Duncan Rhodes on painting yellow over black, but practicing it proved a bit more difficult than I thought.

BTW. Found a really good post from our Dakka own from a while back:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/374651.page
My preference is to start from black prime and work my way up.
The "secret" I find is to get a high pigment paint (GW would label them as a "base" paint) and pick a colour that looks half-way from black to it.
So I would base in a light brown first.
NOTE: Orks have a more "organic" or gritty look to them so brown works really well, for marines or a more "pretty" surface I would suggest trying a light grey first.

The other parts I thought could use improvement were some of the finer details, like colouring the tongues and giving more flavour to the weapons.

A dark red to the mouth (great contrast with green) a bit of edge highlighting and then a red based shade.

I think I need to get more creative and adventurous with colour usage but I didn't want to "mess up" my first finishes.

Some suggestions that work for me that my classically trained artist cousin pointed out:
- The colour wheel is your friend.Gets into contrasting colours and ways to group them.- "The Golden Ratio" is an interesting way of splitting up a distance that is considered pleasing to the eye (about 0.62% of a distance).
http://www.creativebloq.com/design/designers-guide-golden-ratio-12121546
I look at it as going slightly more than 1/3rd the distance away from an edge when doing say a 3 part edge highlight or looking at it from the shading side.
Something to keep in mind when trying to figure out where to break-up a surface.
- I have taken to writing the "recipe" of what I used for each element painting a squad and putting it in the box with them. It is very irritating trying to match up again what was used a month later or so.

What I really enjoyed was the basing. It's amazing what a bit of PVA glue, some sand out of my kid's play sandbox, and a few pebbles from my back yard footpath can do!

Some hobby shops carry brass rod and some very tiny brass tube.
I like cutting them off with a dremel tool and glue them to the base as spent casings.
No painting needed, unless it is rod and I paint a black dot in the middle.
I really like the various technical paints or additives to make textures like dried cracked earth.
I usually sand the base surface real coarse (like 60 sand paper) so the glue has more "tooth" to grab, especially those clear flying bases: It really sucks when the glued on base peels off neatly like the cheese off a pizza.
I use really fine model train ballast sand (when on sale) as a base and sometimes put little patches on top of the painted base and leave it unpainted (they come in many colours). Things like kitty litter or reasonable found sand in the area is all good, I found I needed to screen some of it to keep the bigger bits out.
For the sci-fi setting I tend to avoid using things like static grass, I tend to support playing on a "scorched earth".

Have fun, it is utterly insane how much helpful stuff there is out there, the trick is finding the stuff that works the best for you.