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Hello everyone.

After roughly 20 years of not collecting, playing or painting WH miniatures, I've decided to dip my toe back in the water. I've decided on Ultramarines (shock), with the intention of building a specific company within the chapter (yet to decide). To start off, and to be sure I'd enjoy it still, I purchased an easy build paint set, that includes 3 x Primaris Space Marines, 6 x Paint/Shade/Texture, and a paintbrush.

I've completed these miniatures in accordance with the instructions/paints provided and also after watching a few tutorials. I could have achieved a better finish given a much better paint selection and also brushes, as I struggled with the start brush on some smaller parts.

What I am looking for here is some pointers on things that I am doing glaringly wrong, perhaps an obvious bad habit or technique that may need to be culled early on. I have thick skin, these are the first 3 miniatures I've painted in a couple of decades and I wasn't very good back then either. Thanks for your time!



If you have any questions on anything I did such as colours used, please ask!

At a glance, looks great. Better than 80% of the stuff you'll see on GW tables (and obviously better than all of the non-painted stuff).

Great start.

man I wish my first minis where that good.

Excellent start, brother!!

I would say, learn to use a wet palette and go from there. It's a game changer. Painting is a journey and you've definitely started on the right foot.

Fundamentally a good start. clean with basically no over spills.

actual critique: its a bit on the flat side. it could use some edge highlights to pop out some details.

Flock is a bit over done. Try spreading the pvc glue thinner and sprinkle the flock instead of immersing it like you'd do with sand.

Also, from what we can see, it looks like the aggrax used on the gold trim was spilled over onto the blue - while for other color schemes it may work, but because yellow hues & blue hues are fundamentally contrasting colors so it's having an effect of popping out like a mistake - I'd go over once more on the blue side with a nuln to tie it all up together.

I would consider a different colour for your base. It may be the photos but it looks very yellow which blends with the gold on the minis. I think I lightish grey would help them pop.

Very good first effort. Just consume as much painting related media as you can, and try and soak it all in.

I second the point about the bases. Looks like they're walking across custard, and it matches too closely with their shoulder trim. I'd go for a darker base, maybe some grey rubble.

Okay!
First off, I would say these three are quite well done and as stated, would be quite welcome on the tabletop and better than most!

What I love is that any very slight errors I see are the same darn things I usually did.
Everything below is added "help" and only a few items missed or the right idea but could be helped a bit.

I am sorry for the wall of text...

Sgt.

Head
- Mold line across top of head, sanding this a bit more prior to paint would work but something to help mask this...
- "Stipple" the guy's hair a bit for spikey hair OR make a variety of dark grey lines down the side of his head for longer hair... his hair looks literally molded on.
- Top view I can see a gap between the two halves of the torso, I bet you wanted to pose the head in a different direction, is this one of the "easy to assemble" marines? I bet that diamond shaped bit at the bottom is interfering: you could have cut that off and left the round neck stub to glue with.
- Reasonably clean edges between hair, skin and the metal bits at the back of the head.
- I find the neck guards a pain in the rear to paint around, I would strongly suggest assembly and painting with the heads separate.

Backpack
- Be really careful when trimming off the sprue to be clear of the spherical vents and to carefully sand off the mold lines on the top of those with a curved or flexible sanding pad to keep those round and no flat spots. I reserve a curved headed toenail clipper to get at these:- The top middle of the backpack is a pain to get that parting line off AND avoid the dent in the middle.
- I would suggest getting a dark blue "shade" - Drakenhof Nightshade for the panel lines and general shadows on the blue, the black shade is patchy and is a tiny bit too dark to blend in well with the blue. I assume you used "Nuln oil"?

Gun
- I would suggest getting some silver and paint the barrel with that, the clip and the middle bit of the scope and it will give it that tiny bit of detail, keep the Aquila bit the gold, it looks good.
- I would suggest drilling OR paint a black dot for the middle of the barrel.
- I would suggest using Corvus Black (is that what was used or Abaddon black?), you want a dark grey so you can see detail and then the Nuln Oil shade can be seen: you cannot go darker than light-sucking black.

Added Bits
- Would suggest for contrast the reliquary (dangley thing with the key in it) have the outer border and chain painted silver and the chain for the marksman bullet.
- Don't forget to paint the seal part of the purity seal red or an alternate green as you see fit.
- You may want to add tiny lines simulating text on the parchment parts of the purity seals (0.2mm Fineliner pens work ace for this).
- I assume the guy is a Sgt, typically for Ultramarines they have their helmet painted red:
Pauldrons / Shoulder-pads"
- It is SO easy to go out of the lines on the trim, you have the same issue with metallics as I did: the edge or coverage is not sharp and opaque enough. Metallics are largely transparent (so the alumina flakes can be seen) I strongly suggest painting a non-metallic coat the same shade FIRST then just lightly swipe a run of the metallic over it and not worry about getting completely to the edges. It will look so much better. I had a HECK of a time with this in the past.
- Same issue with the black shade, getting the blue will help with this, try to target more into the corner rather than smear it on as some suggest. Some people do ALL their painting first, hit the model with a hard clearcoat THEN use the washes and then they are easily cleaned up.
- NOTE GW does the painting quite different with these: They draw a brighter blue line next to the shoulder trim, take a look: - A "cheat" I am trying out is using water colour pencils for edge highlight (Note: it make a very tiny highlight however, side of a brush is still preferable in most instances) and to draw that outline around the shoulder. Only do this last before a clear-coat: it is easy to wipe off which is also awesome for fixing goof-ups.

General Notes:
- Mold lines are evil, head, backpack and along the outside of the legs are the bane of space marine painting. Look hard before you put on that primer.
- I find most details on these guys should be a steel metallic and stick to the gold for the chest eagle and various winged bits on the marine.
- If you do not want to fuss too much on the edge highlight details, at least target all the most raised areas: side edges on crest of helmet, top edge of ear covers, neck guard rim, gun arm elbow (vambrace) , both wrist cuffs, left hand finger tips and edges, top of knee guards (greaves) and the curve of the boot toe and plates covering the top of the feet (sabatons).
- I glue in "fender washers" into the base to keep these guys fairly heavy and "nice" to move around, I find Lepages 100% repair glue (red tube) works better than anything.
- I know the eyes are tiny, getting some red inside that recess and then cleaning up with blue around it (carefully) I honestly think you could do well.
- You may want to look at the bending bits behind the knees (noticed a fair bit of blue on the left leg on the sgt) ,inner elbow and inner thigh. I find the contrast paint "black templar" works great for this (ideal of uneven surfaces, not so good on large smooth ones).

Any questions at all, send me a PM, I am working on a full force of Primaris Ultramarines as well at the moment.
How much you decide to do I think is largely dependent on how quickly you want to be up and playing.
I have set too high a "standard" for my normal marines to paint so it is taking me FOREVER, start simple and you can always add detail later.

Have fun!

Thank you for the feedback guys, I really appreciate it.

After I uploaded the pictures and viewed them up close, I was mortified! I will certainly take your points on board. At this point in time, I'm going to invest in some different brushes and perhaps something better to get rid of the mould lines (suggestions, other than the GW tool?). I would like to blame some of the issues pointed out on the kit I got (see picture), but like you guys have pointed out, I have made quite a few mistakes on it. Having said that, the feedback has encouraged me to invest in more tools and paints so I can get a good job. I don't imagine I will be doing much gaming, so at the moment I'm just looking to do a UM Company (4th perhaps) by the book and try to get them to a really good standard. I was daunted at first by the cost of the paints recommended by the citadel app, but the video tutorials seem to use far fewer different colours and seem to have a good finish. I will probably continue to tidy these three up until I get around to making my purchases. I was annoyed that this little kit didn't come with any silver/white/red, but it was cheap I guess.

If anyone is curious about how I achieved the custard base finish, it was the armegeddon dust texture paint, and I added agrax earthshade to try and give it more depth. Clearly didn't work

Thanks again guys!

That's strange, armageddon dust usually isn't that yellow. And a brown wash shouldn't make it yellow either?

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
That's strange, armageddon dust usually isn't that yellow. And a brown wash shouldn't make it yellow either?

It's really not that extreme in reality, it's much more tan with darker tones in it.

For cleaning mold lines I use xacto knife 45 degree blades mostly, 60 degree blades for hard to reach areas, and jewelry files(hobby lobby).

Decals works wonders, right now the models looks a bit plain, even though it’s done to a fairly good standard; you want to get a pot of testor decal softener(hobby lobby).

I also would suggest you paint the base rim, leaving it black look unfinished.

Suggestion for the bases--like others have said, the yellow is a bit overpowering. I'd suggest making most of the base a more neutral dirt or sand shade, with smaller puddles of sulphur yellow here and there.

As long as you enjoyed painting it who cares what we think, good start.

Army painter strong tone, or possibly mid tone, or GW equivalents to the base might help tone told the gold some and give some color distance from the trim, but I'll n+1 the "looking pretty darn good as is"

Marxist artist wrote:
As long as you enjoyed painting it who cares what we think, good start.

One who wants to improve?

limakilo wrote:
Thank you for the feedback guys, I really appreciate it.

After I uploaded the pictures and viewed them up close, I was mortified! I will certainly take your points on board. At this point in time, I'm going to invest in some different brushes and perhaps something better to get rid of the mould lines (suggestions, other than the GW tool?). I would like to blame some of the issues pointed out on the kit I got (see picture), but like you guys have pointed out, I have made quite a few mistakes on it. Having said that, the feedback has encouraged me to invest in more tools and paints so I can get a good job. I don't imagine I will be doing much gaming, so at the moment I'm just looking to do a UM Company (4th perhaps) by the book and try to get them to a really good standard. I was daunted at first by the cost of the paints recommended by the citadel app, but the video tutorials seem to use far fewer different colours and seem to have a good finish. I will probably continue to tidy these three up until I get around to making my purchases. I was annoyed that this little kit didn't come with any silver/white/red, but it was cheap I guess.

If anyone is curious about how I achieved the custard base finish, it was the armegeddon dust texture paint, and I added agrax earthshade to try and give it more depth. Clearly didn't work

Thanks again guys!

Be careful. you can easily over do buying equipment more than painting/playing or modeling...iv done that

something i noticed. you can see the slot and base on one of the marines. make sure the slot is in flush. alternatively sand or scrap it down so it sits a little under then back fill with a putty.

Yeah don't buy all the gw paints. Get a good set of basic colours, blue red, yellow, green, black, white, brown, a couple of metallics, a couple of washes, and maybe a tan and a flesh tone, and learn to mix your own colours.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Yeah don't buy all the gw paints. Get a good set of basic colours, blue red, yellow, green, black, white, brown, a couple of metallics, a couple of washes, and maybe a tan and a flesh tone, and learn to mix your own colours.

Yeah dont do this unless you are a god at keeping records and accurate recipes.

the second you mess up and forget how you got a specific color you will spend hours or days trying to recreate it. some times you end up stripping it all to redo.

that seems a little drastic..its not hard to remix a colour by eye. but then if youre happy being a slave to GWs paint system, then by all means scaremonger folks into not mixing colours.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
that seems a little drastic..its not hard to remix a colour by eye. but then if youre happy being a slave to GWs paint system, then by all means scaremonger folks into not mixing colours.

You certainly dont need to paint with only GW paints. there are a ton of different paint companies out there.

but you cant tell me telling some one starting out or even moderately new to miniature painting not to go out and hand mix their paints is scare mongering

fact of the matter is hand mixing paints from 3 primary colors while possible leads to a LOT of variate and can change just because you had a little bit of extra one color to a mix. matching it by eye is also not "easy" as not only colors change when they are wet vs dry but also between different light sources (if for whatever reason you change out bulbs or move locations (not everyone has a dedicated painting zone))

Mind you it really doesn't matter that much when say edge highlight and you mix a bit of white of off white to a mid range. nor does it matter for one offs like DND models but it certainly does when trying to do a consistent paint job through an entire army.

it also matters less for certain types of armies like skaven, gobos, historical type miniatures where variation in paint jobs/weathering and general hogpodgeiness is a thing.

edit: in the context of this thread about this guys ultrasmurfs its not a good idea, outside of skintone variations, hair and maybe the gribbles and detail bits.

Space marines are kinda known for being consistent unlike say military tanks where OD green can be 20 different types of greens that are very very slightly off.

My intention was to get some white/black/red paints from elsewhere for cost reasons. As for equipment, I really do mean the basics. The only thing I got in this kit was a starter brush. No glue, snippers, or anything like that. I used a Gerber multitool to snip and file, which was not ideal. I think I will stick to the GW colours though, purely for consistency and speed. I would be upset to have painted even a few of my miniatures the slightly wrong shade of blue. It would be catastrophic if it was more.

Does anybody see any potential benefit in diluting the paint with water, perhaps even 1:1 for an extremely thin mixture? Would many thin layers allow more detail to show through? Or would the benefits be unnoticeable?

limakilo wrote:
My intention was to get some white/black/red paints from elsewhere for cost reasons. As for equipment, I really do mean the basics. The only thing I got in this kit was a starter brush. No glue, snippers, or anything like that. I used a Gerber multitool to snip and file, which was not ideal. I think I will stick to the GW colours though, purely for consistency and speed. I would be upset to have painted even a few of my miniatures the slightly wrong shade of blue. It would be catastrophic if it was more.

Does anybody see any potential benefit in diluting the paint with water, perhaps even 1:1 for an extremely thin mixture? Would many thin layers allow more detail to show through? Or would the benefits be unnoticeable?

If you are having cost issues and need to use craft level white blacks and reds its possible. there are some youtube vids about that and its possible to get good results.

lots of people can do very good work with basic and cheap brushes. i think DR faust on YT does.
imho.
Glue: Tamya extra thin cement is fantastic stuff for styreine plastics. glues strong when used properly, and can be used to burnish scraped lines when used sparingly. (but it smells really strong if you are sensitive to that sort of thing)
for snips i cant comment. i some cheap electrical flush cutters from Wish forever ago and they are fantastic.
same with the diamond files.

diluting paint with water makes for smoother coats and less chances at brush strokes. its also used in glazing techniques. though different paints and brands will react differently with how much water you use as diluting them can separate out the pigments. best to try on a test model. ususally i add water with a brush onto a wet pallet to get the consistency i like for thinning.

Ah, I see you are going all-in on this, I will give what helpful information I can based on things I have learned usually the hard way.

- I must say I was shocked how good that mold line removal tool is from GW, equally shocking about the price. YES scraping with a exacto blade does work but it tends to wiggle/hang/chatter along the part, a thicker hunk of steel or metal in general prevents it from chattering.
I was thinking of trying out some ceramic deburr tools, they meet the criteria: I find triangular metal deburr tools also are less likely to take a chunk out of a model.

- Paint brushes... start with cheap ones that are a bit thicker (bigger resevoir) and go to a fine tip. Invest in the pink (Mono Lisa pink soap) and/or the puck (masters brush soap). Get used to cleaning these guys well after every session, no mashing them in the bottom of a cup.
http://www.winsornewton.com/na/discover/tips-and-techniques/other-tips-and-techniques/care-and-cleaning-of-brushes-us If you can manage to keep a few choice ones alive for a few months you can go to the expensive stuff... I hate to say there is a difference, but you will cry if you cannot get care habits down. I have the Series 7 watercolour brushes and they are the best I have ever used, I was VERY lucky and got them on sale. I suggest looking at the Raphael Series brushes, I am liking them and find they behave similar at a much lower price. I had a "garbage" brush that I was used to and used for over 10 years and wore the enamel off the handle, find those brushes that feel good to hold and seem to behave in a way you find agreeable.

- If you get the airbrush bug, research alot, I was very frustrated when I first started. Too thick paint can ruin your day. Badger 105 Patriot is one of my more forgiving tools... it owes me nothing, it has been abused... NEVER let a full load of paint dry in the thing. My poor brush almost did not recover.

- For alternative paint that can handle ANYTHING look at Liquitex. At the very least their "Matt Medium" is used to save your paints from drying out. https://www.liquitex.com/row/ I would really like to see if anyone could claim better paint. I suggest the "soft body" acrylic. Their new bottles are also a welcome improvement. I also get Cadmium free paint from them for airbrush. NOTE: You can use their inks with some flo-aid and a bit of matt-medium for "shade" or a ton of mat-medium and slo-dry to simulate the high contrast paints.

- A special tool for curved surfaces for sanding is helpful, especially with marines. You can do the DIY method like Dr Faust did: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAoh1ikUIPw or buy one of these things:


- You want REALLY nice cutting tools but not spend the coin on "godhands"? I liked the Lee-Valley "Mini-snips", much less cost (Lee-Valley?!?!?!), the before mentioned toe-nail clippers cut nice and flat and work great and you can get in the dollar store... BTW...

- Get super cheap sponge applicators for makeup. Good for sponging up mistakes or cleaning washes that went a bit insane here of there... Good for weathering applications as well... you know, designed for makeup in powder form.

- Glue, hands-down Tamiya glue (for styrene "weld"): White cap for big surfaces, Dark green cap to wick it into joins and works for thinning down / correcting the white. The light green cap stuff I am almost positive is MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) it WILL "weld" most of the difficult types of plastic but wear gloves, ventilate and wear a charcoal filter mask and maybe a face shield.... you have been warned.

- For mixed materials, the Gorilla glue (gel crazy glue copy) is durable not as brittle, I like the Lepages repair 100% glue because it is scary sticky and a royal pain for me to remove off my fingers.

- For getting dust off of models when you were away too long: Big blush applicator, I am doing that way too much lately.

- For protecting those big models, I shove them in these:

Sometimes the dollar store or order a bunch online. About 1.5x2x1.5" each pocket.
Easy on the model, easy on the paint-job and you can always add a square of foam to get them to rattle around less.

- For my kit going on the road for model building I use this thing:

Most of my gadgets and tools fit in those little cases, I label the exposed edges so I can find stuff.

Anyway, the Sgt is looking much better!

Almost forgot! Wet pallet helps keep acrylic from drying out like it wants to do.
Really fast and dirty DIY one here: http://www.fullborerminiatures.com/articles/wetpalette.html
I have one of these things: https://www.currys.com/catalogpc.htm?CATEGORY=STA_WET_PALETTES

If you are planning on doing any drybrushing I highly recommend cheap Poundland make up brushes. Cheap and cheerful and can rag them to hell..

Its taken me a while to learn this and I regret not switching to these sooner and ever spending money on miniatures dry brushes..

Yeah definitely get the makeup brushes. They're good for stippling textures onto surfaces too.

Keeping track of paint.

Worse than organizing my music collection.
Each army or single model could be a "mixed tape / playlist".

If you want to take basic colours and mix them, the "best" repeatable method is to get them into dropper-bottles and record the number of drops in a mix.
A bit painful but can be done, seen a few people record their methods of transfer or just stick to Vallejo paints.

I find the only good way to record a painting method is to type the darn thing out in any text editor and use bullet points.
BUT keep in mind "there is an app for that", I just do not want to be stuck to a set platform and have the "golden handcuffs" with them since they typically like a regular fee.
There is also GW's standardized methods in their app.
I am a big fan of MS Excel so I tend to use it like a database to search and arrange.

- Prime paint colour(s) used. Some will do a zenithal prime of Black, light dusting of grey prime, then a single burst of white.

- Feature(s) painted by a common method / colour type to keep the list organized.

- Manufacturer, Type of paint (Oil/Acrylic/Enamel, base [opaque]/layer/shade/ink), Name/colour/number for the shade of paint, Technique used.

I list the paints in order from what I first applied to my ending edge highlight and then shade.

I found over time I have a "greatest hits" method for certain colours and I copy/paste. Keeps me from forgetting that a certain method worked out VERY well and i can reproduce it.
My wife wishes I would be that organized with recopies when I am cooking... some of my experiments (for the better) were not reproducible.

In your case they would be grouped by:

Shoulder Trim/Aquilla (Gold), Power Armour (Blue), Gun (Black), Flesh (Brown/pink), Base (Yellow/Tan),...

I store the "recipe" in with my hobby stuff and print out a sheet and drop it in with any kit or bin I am working on these guys.

I also tend to prime a horde of Popsicle sticks (I upgraded to plastic playing cards), white prime them, and then smear on paint from a given pot and write down what it is.
The playing cards have the added benefit that I can put a sleeve on them in case all that shuffling starts rubbing the paint.
I keep a "deck" and arrange them so I can compare.
REALLY handy for me to bring to a paint store and get the "chip" scanned and get a small can made up for large table or terrain projects.

BTW: "Meager equipment?!?!" pretty fancy that thing you are working on.
If I use a "dry pallet" nothing simpler than a plain white ceramic (glazed?) bathroom tile.
I prefer the uneven surface ones.
Cheap and does not steal moisture from your paint.

I like the GW handles for painting with, the 5-pack is not bad.
Blue-tac on a paint pot is a good standard.
The BEST thing is you can unscrew the top part and it uses the same screw as a camera mount so a swivel tripod is possible for use.

limakilo: Just wanted to throw in here that your models are pretty clean already, there's no major paint clumping.

Regarding paints: You can paint with whatever type fits your budget. Just be aware that cheaper craft paints have coarser pigments and lower pigment percentage, meaning that it will take more coats to get solid coverage. The medium used to keep the paints workable can also be different.

I started may moons ago with artist acrylics. The dry time was very unforgiving despite having high pigment count and great brightness.

Regarding paint consistency: If you are layering / blending, the rule of thumb is to get the paint down to the consistency of milk. For basecoating, I will often cheat and use paint out of the pot for better initial coverage. If you find the paint clumping up straight from the bottle - add water until the clumps go away.

What kind of target finish are you looking for? I think that for tabletop use, there's not too much that can be critiqued other than the aforementioned mold lines.

If you post a picture of something that you want to achieve, it might be easier for people to give advice on how to get there.

 keezus wrote:
limakilo: Just wanted to throw in here that your models are pretty clean already, there's no major paint clumping.

Regarding paints: You can paint with whatever type fits your budget. Just be aware that cheaper craft paints have coarser pigments and lower pigment percentage, meaning that it will take more coats to get solid coverage. The medium used to keep the paints workable can also be different.

I started may moons ago with artist acrylics. The dry time was very unforgiving despite having high pigment count and great brightness.

Regarding paint consistency: If you are layering / blending, the rule of thumb is to get the paint down to the consistency of milk. For basecoating, I will often cheat and use paint out of the pot for better initial coverage. If you find the paint clumping up straight from the bottle - add water until the clumps go away.

What kind of target finish are you looking for? I think that for tabletop use, there's not too much that can be critiqued other than the aforementioned mold lines.

If you post a picture of something that you want to achieve, it might be easier for people to give advice on how to get there.

I would be looking for this type of standard below. The major difference would be the shoulder trim colour, as I would like it to be Company-specific. All ranks within the company would have full squad and role markings also. I guess, what you see on the box. minus the gold shoulder trim. Obviously these models I have painted have got gold trims (2nd Company?), but that is just because they came with that paint. These three guys here will probably be used to test methods of making the model unique despite the canon-style pattern. For example, I'm interested in making the eyes insanely real and glow rather than looking glassy. As I grow my company, I want each model to have that hero finish. They are most likely for display rather than play purposes.