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Ok, so just a quick preface. I started mini painting about 6 months ago and got my Dark Imperium starter set just about a month ago. So try to make criticism constructive here, I know I'm not great but I'm still learning, watching and reading to try to figure this out. I still have no idea how to wet blend, etc etc. However, any tips or comments are welcome.

So, I decided to go with the Salamander's Chapter of Space marines. I really dig their lore and back story, I like that they are still very human at their core. My painting is super slow, I paint in what I believe is called 'Subassembly' format, then after painting the pieces I then assemble and base the models. So after a month, I have 8 Intercessors so far of a 10 man unit. But they're complete and I'm really happy with them at this point. My local gaming shop from what I've seen has a lot of people who don't even paint their mini's, they just assemble and show up. Compared to them I'm feeling pretty good about tabling these guys when I finally (some day in the far future at this point) get them all finished. After these intercessors, I have the rest of the Primaris from Dark Imperium to paint, so a Captain, 5 Hellblasters, 2 Lieutenants, 1 Ancient and 3 Interceptors. Eesh. Then for my add-ons I'll have 6 Aggressors, I'm thinking 3 Centurion Devastators, 5 Assault Terminators with Hammer/Shields, 2 Predators, a Redemptor Dreadnaught, a Iron Clad and a Devastator Squad of normal Space marines and possibly a Repulsor tank for my Primaris. That's just to try to round my army up to 2000 pts. I want to add a handful of various flame based units as well, more than just the Aggressors-all of which I intend to give Flame Gauntlets to. At this rate, i'll be updating this thread for about 6 years. I'm aware my Salamander dragons look like they take the short bus and my flames on my shoulders don't match. Hand painting those is super hard for me! Any tricks on how to make a stencil for either would be AWESOME if anyone knows any. Otherwise I'm just going to have to practice over and over.

6 months, eh? Well, they look great to me. Paint is in the right places, you are highlighting, free handing, adding battle damage, and have cool bases. Awesome start. Can't imagine what you will be doing in another 6 months.

Exactly what I thought! For only 6 months of painting you're doing a great job! Those bases look fantastic!

I just got back into the hobby myself and I know how you feel when it seems to be taking forever to finish a unit, but if you're happy with the end result...well then that's all you need!

Freehand is a pain in the arse but eventually you'll have it down like the back of your hand, just practice. Your highlights are in the right places too so you're off to a flying start.

Thanks folks! I'm trying super hard, the sub assembly method makes a huge difference for me. Not having to worry about painting other parts really let's me focus on what I'm trying to do. I'm currently working on getting an air brush and learning wet blending, thanks for the kind words. Any and all comments welcome!

So I finally finished my first squad. Geez. Here's some shots of my squad and close ups of my favorite ones.

I put a lot of time researching how to do Salamander black skin and highlighting for black. I'm happy with the outcome, though i wish I could have brought more depth and detail to the hair. In hindsight I wish I could have managed a fresh cut on his cheek to enhance the bullet hole through the neck collar. Painting the inside of the bullet scoring was easier than I thought it was going to be. The hair drove me nuts though. I wanted a solid contrast, something that screamed to a degree, white with blue undertones was all I could come up with other than reds and such 'hot' colors, i thought that would be too demanding for the eye glowing effect which for my first time doing OSL ever, I'm not total horrified at the outcome.

I tried doing some cuts and gashes in the armor on a few models, they don't have as much visual punch to me as a good bullet hole or ricochet mark. The basing was a lot more labor intensive than I expected. It all came out pretty decent though. I gotta say for my first squad of space marines I'm pretty pleased. What do you folks think?

I think that they're great! Salamanders are still some of my favorites, and you've done really well with them.

The bullet marks look pretty good too, the only thing i would say is the one bullet hole in the last picture on guy on the right looks a bit unfinished. That could be the lighting, though.