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Hello everyone,
This is my first post here and first post anywhere about 40k. I can tell you that I am a bit nervous, but happy to be here.
Below are some photos of my first attempt at painting for 40k. They are about 90% done, I plan to go back and do some touchup before I call it done. I have never tried to paint anything before and I have learned a lot from this first batch. If you would like to give me some tips or even say how much I suck that is very much welcome. I know that I am not anywhere close to the levels most of the painters on Dakka Dakka and You tube are at.

I am going to play Gray Knights so I started with a box of Paladins.
The number one thing I need to learn is how to tell when the paint is to thick vs to thin.
Here is what I have learned so far.
1. Priming with white is not a good idea. (it took soooo many coats to cover it)
2. Sand down rough spots and then do it a second time.
3. What brush to use and when. ( I used 1 brush for most of the painting and am not sure when you use other ones.)
4. Wash your brush a lot and add new paint. ( I keep having paint dry and clump up on the brush because I am not going fast I guess)
5. Build and paint the chest and legs first then paint the arms and then glue them all down. ( its so hard to get to some spots when the arms are in the way.)
6. Use a pin to “tap” holes in guns before you try to drill them out. (I have guns that look more like a pigs snout then a gun)
7. Don’t run back over contrast paints till the first coat is dry. ( it just pushes around “something” and makes it look odd)
8. Learn how people make power weapons look cool. ( I tried to paint white lines and then go over them with contrast blue and it don’t work)
9. This was fun but I have a lot to learn.

Anyway thanks for taking the time to read my post and if you are in the DC, North VA or MD area and looking for someone to talk 40k stuff with let me know.






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Nice. They look like they could do with a light wash of some sort Nuln oil, Army Painter Quickshade Strong or Dark for that little extra depth at hardly any effort.

But they look very nice.

You're off to a great start! If these are your first minis, I am impressed on the:

• Relatively clean paintjob
• Thin enough coats of paint, not obsucring detail
• Clean builds; no mold lines AFAICT

Some suggestions if I may? If you want to do a mostly metal base colour for your model, best to prime with a black primer. I only use white primer for models where I want a really intense bright white, red, orange or yellow base colour. Grey primer is also a good intermediate primer colour to have in the toolbox, for those cases where priming a model black makes you work too hard to get to the base colour shade you need.

About those "pig nose" bolters, they are notoriously hard to get looking good. So don't beat yourself up about it. You can always make a lil conversion job to the guns if you are really OCD about (like I am these days); cut off the gun barrel and remodel the barrels back with two pieces cut from a round polystyrene rod. This rod is sold in most hobby modelling stores (railroad and military modelling, not FLGS).

Size 1 brush is perfect for most painting tasks, only use a bigger/smaller brush when size 1 feels awkward to use.

For the paint drying thing, I suggest you look into either acrylic retarder (sold by Vallejo as well as generic art suppliers) or make a wet pallette for yourself.

Another small tip - never dip your painting brush into a pot of paint directly! You tend to overload the brush with too much paint and run the risk of getting paint on your ferrule (the metal shaft that keeps the brush bristles in place). Getting dry paint inside the ferrule will damage the brush. So use a pipette or a spare old brush for getting paint from the bottle onto some "pallette" of sorts; this can be any plastic lid or a metal jar lid, and then load your painting brush with paint from the pallette. This way you'll have much better control for loading up the brush with just the right amount of paint.

As for paint consistency, its also easier to evaluate this when you have the paint on a pallette. You can also use acrylic thinner instead of water for getting a thin paint which still has decent coverage. Another "cheat" can be to use airbrush acrylic paints instead of normal acrylics; these are already thinner so will require much less thinning. As always, remember to shake the living daylight out of that paint pot before starting to use it!

As for more specific painting things, such as OSL and wet blending techniques for power weapons, dont sweat it. You're already on to a good start, it will all make sense soon enough, just enjoy painting and remember that you can always "practice" new painting techniques on some old, redundant model first. I like to use old monopose plastic miniatures for practicing, like the stuff that comes with older box set editions of 40K. Once you've mastered the new technique sufficently, you can start applying what you have learned onto that cool 50$ centerpiece model you really want to use a technique for

Welcome. Some good advice from the posters above. Personally I would add to those, be mindful of colour choices. You don't have that many colours on your models, but they are quite bright and tend to clash a little. Here I mean the red and blue, and the gold with the grey metallic. For the little power sword generators for example, I would tend to go with black, then if you want to do a coloured power sword you won't get that clashing effect.

Anyways, I hope your journey into painting is fun and you learn a lot! This is a good place to be to see inspiring work and really get into the hobby.

I also noticed that you haven't yet based your miniature? Basing is fun and quite easy as long as you find a colour that you like for the bases.

I still use the good old "apply a coat of PVA glue onto the base and submerge in a pot of sand" method, and its very easy to do and looks good when painted, as long as you remember to make sure that your pot of sand isn't too uniform (ie. make sure it has enough bigger sized chunks such as small rocks and pebbles). If you look at nature outdoors, you quickly realize that while the rocks outside usually consist of only 3-4 discreet colours (grays, browns and reds mainly), the sizes of rocks are nowehere uniform, so remember to mix different size grains of sand and rock to each other. This is where many modellers go wrong IME, they use PVA glue and only single size grain fine sand and are then unsatisfied with the unrealistic looking results.

Thanks for the kind words and tips!!
I have a few questions:
Tauist: What is AFAICT? I have been reading about pallette’s and how to make one. The part I am not so sure about is, how do I know when then paint is to thick or thin?
I was doing some reading and it seems people ( and GW ) want the base painted if you go to an event. This first set was just to learn how to paint and what it “feels” like. But every set after this I will be doing the base as you pointed out. There is a guy on you tube (mid winter mini’s) that had a how to vid using old coffee grounds that I was going to try. My girlfriend drinks a lot of coffee so getting the grounds is going to be easy. I wanted to paint them up with some snow type base. The reason is GK’s are from Titan and its ice covered and it seems like it might be cool. Then as my skills progress I can try and learn how to do some reflected light off the ice on to the lower parts of the mini. But that’s a long time from now.
Queen_annes_revenge: I am 100% with you on the red and blue. After I was done and looking at them from across the room I kept feeling like my eye was drawn to the red/blue and it was a bit much. Looking at the box they used gold and blue so I will try that next. I think they used a darker gold then what I have so I will mix in some black to make my gold darker.

I will keep posting on here as I have updates and hope to hear back from you guys and the DAKKA DAKKA community.

Leo_Deodand wrote:
What is AFAICT?

As Far As I Can Tell.

i.e. He believes you have removed the mould lines and sprue marks given the level of detail available in the photo.

No problem..be careful mixing black onto your paints to darken them. This does not always work. butyou're getting into more complex colour theory like hues, saturation etc, and also paint mixing, which may be a little advanced for you at this stage. If you have a brown or purple you could try using that to darken your golds instead.

Well I cant stop seeing the clashing of the reds and blues. So that is something I will work on the next kit. My girlfriend got me a Dread Knight for a early gift and she told me to hold off on ordering anything till Christmas. I want to work on some smaller things before the Dread Knight. So at this time I just need to wait and watch more videos.

@Fictional thanks for telling me what AFAICT means.

I've never tried coffee grounds myself. Assuming they take acrylic paint and you can make them into different grain sizes, that might indeed work.

But regarding snow effects, I've never tried making any snow onto my bases so can't really give any insight into making snow bases. I'm sure there are plenty of people on this board who can help you with that. I do know that Citadel makes two technical paints intended for snow effects but have never tried them.

Here is the link to the video about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iu1NdEj19A

Not bad I guess, but the results look a bit too even for me eye in terms of grain size. If you'd combine the coffee ground paste with some small rocks, the end result would probably end up looking decent.

that rotting comment in the video makes no sense. Acrylic paint essentially dries to waterproof plastic, anything under it would be completely sealed/entombed unless the paint layer was broken.

With regards to priming white is hard by brush but if you want bright colours then its good place to start. Try a spray can if you want to prime white or use an airbrush eventually. However if your doing grey knights then I guess the best primer is grey. There are plenty of grey primers around.

Can I also check what paint you are using to prime? Because you need actual primer, if you prime with one of your black or white paints then you are basing and not priming. Primer sticks to you model better and all paints will then stick to the primer and subsequent layers better.

Spray cans and airbrushes will allow you to easily get a solid, thin layer Of colour to start with.

Just shake the can lots and don’t over apply as you will fill in detail.

All these things I have done

@mrFickle Thanks for the tips and help. I am using the primer they sell at GW, It's called wraith bone.
I just picked up a new can of lead belcher to try the second set of mini's. My girlfriend went off the rails and got me so many kits (she is a keeper), I will be painting for the next 6 months.
She did not get the right faction, but GW let us swap them out with no problems. So tonight I will be starting on my second kit of paladins. The plan is to paint them up and then compare them to the first set.
I am going to take in all of the things I have learned and try to add in the tips others have given me and see if I improve over the first set.

One of the big things I want to try is to magnetize the mini so I can change out the weapons/war gear as needed
Second thing I want to try is dry brushing/edge highlights. The plan is to paint the GK's with GK steal paint from GW and then edge highlight with storm host silver.


By the time COVID is done and I can go play my first game I think I will have 2k points ready to go.

I haven’t tried wraithbone, I’m surprised it needs multiple layers

Ok so here is my second try at painting GK's. I have tried to use the tips passed on to me by everyone. I plan on still doing the wash with Nuln Oil over the gold spots. The hope is that it will darken up the recces of the gold and make them "pop" more. Then add some "text" to the seals, and black out the eyes of the skulls. The last step is the blue glaze step that GW has on there Youtube site (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exPT5M8_5O8&t=4s) Then I think they will be done. Then the plan is to work on the arms and heads.

I feel like using a cellphone to take the picture makes them look worse then in my hand. Do any of you have that same feeling with your mini's?

Same as before any tips or comments are welcome.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-128504-64161_Gk%27s%20Second%20Attempt..html

Photos always look worse than in real life dude, don't worry. These are looking decent. Should really start to pop once you get a wash on them. You should apply your washes carefully, don't drown the area, try and guide it with your brush a little, then once it's dried, tidy up any 'tide marks' with your base tone.

Should I wash only the gold bits or the whole mini?

Nah you need some shading everywhere to bring out the details..but for places like the armour panels, just be careful to guide the wash into the recesses rather than bathing the entire panel.

Yup, nuln oil on the silver and either agrax earthshade or seraphim sepia on the gold depending on the look your going for,
Will give the whole miniature depth and not fresh and shiny from the factory.

Then subtle edge highlights on the sharpest edges will make it pop

Using washes to shade your model isnt the only way to colour modulate your models.

Personally, I always prefer to build my metallics up by gradual drybrushing instead of applying washes. Using only drybrushing achieves a silghtly different, a dried, more "powdery" look.

Drybrushing is a very rewarding technique to learn for painting metal parts! You can create pretty cool looking results without having to rely on precision work; in drybrushing your only concerns are getting the right colour/shade mixed to the pallette and getting the right amount of paint into the brush.

Use an old or cheap brush, load it with some paint and wipe off the paint until the brush leaves almost no paint on your test paper. I usually like to wipe the brush between two paper layers to get paint off from both sides of the brush. Then just start rubbing the brush across your model gently, concentrating on areas where you want the effect to be more pronounced. Drybrushing will add the paint only to the raised areas of the surface. Best results are achieved by using enough intermediate colour shades when building up the drybrushing, start with the darkest "highlight" shade, and apply that with the heaviest layer of drybrush, then mix the paint a touch lighter and apply a bit lighter drybrush, and so on.. the more shades you have patience to use, the smoother and less "grainy" looking the result will be.

Here's one GK model I have drybrushed almost completely, to give you some idea how that could look. I never did finish it, just bought it because I got it for cheap, but I suppose it could be finished with a lil bit of work.. I'll attach another metal drybrush example too from my archives.

They look very cleanly painted which is always a good start. When I painted Kaldor I washed the gold bits with Nuln Oil and carefully washed / shaded the silver with Drakenhof Nightshade, highlighted the silver with Ironbreaker, but being finecast he is a little rougher

All good tips. Trying the drybrush method is a fairly non technical way to build up depth in your paint scheme, and will get you started on working with transitions between shadow and highlight which will help when you advance a little and decide to start going for layering and blending techniques.

Don’t be afraid to try different things of course, dry brushing can be tricky to get right as you need to get the right amount of paint on the brush and the right amount pressure when you brush.

One fo the things GW do very well is their range of washes. Nuln oil is an absolute classic and a quick wash with nuln like will look great in most instances. Just don’t put it over white, yellow or bone colours.

And don’t let it pool too much, you can always add another layer

The reason why I'm suggesting drybrushing as an alternative to washes is that IMO drybrushing is easier than using washes properly. Using a wash properly requires mastery of wash consistency and incorrect technique can result in tide marks and/or pooling, whereas drybrushing is very hard to mess up, provided that you always wipe the paint from the brush enough before starting the drybrush. If in doubt, always overdo the wiping, as it is easy to repeat the drybrushing as many times as required.

But YMMV as always, so experiment with both washes and drybrushing to find your prefereed technique and visual effect.

Remember over doing a dry brush can cause a chalky texture or streaks if the brush is overloaded.

Thanks for all the help guys, this time I will try the wash. I have some of it to use and i dont have an old brush yet to try the drybrush.

I will post updated photos when I get done. It should be sometime later today.

Something else I will credit GW for is their dry brushes. I use the medium one and I think it’s great. The rest of GW brushes are not worth it IMO.

If you use one be sure to clean it well because it’s a thick brush and it’s easy to leave paint in it.

Ok so today I was able to go back and do some touch up on a few places.
I added the blue glazing effect from GW’s youtube video located at (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exPT5M8_5O8&t=4s). I kind of like the look on the armor but I don’t like the look on the boots and recesses. I am going to sleep on it but I think the plan will be to go back and paint them back to silver.

As a bonus I even tried to do some free hand. My name is Leo and my Girlfriends nickname is Bob ( I know, its odd.) so Because she got me this set for Christmas I wanted to make it stand out, so I Put her name and my name on 2 of the minis and then I got real cheeses and did a L and B on the chest plate book. Truth be told my hands were starting to shake at this point.


and


I did a wash with Nunl oil over the whole model and did a second coat or 3rd coat in the bits with gold lettering. IMHO it really made them “pop”, so I am quite happy with that.
For the seals and bone I added a wash of Rikland Fleshade. One coat on the seals and 2 on the bone to try and make them a bit darker.









So I think I will call the Body’s done and next move on to the arms, shoulder pads, and weapons.

What do you all think? Did I miss something or how could get better?

And a Big thanks to everyone that has been giving me tips and advice along the way.

I'm far from a decent painter but the latest models are looking good, I think you could get a really nice finish on the armor with your base color, nuln, drybrush over with the silver, add your blue wash where you want and finish with a real light drybrush of perhaps a slightly lighter silver? Pretty simple and swift. I find planning your approach to how you paint is quite important, as it's much harder to do the above once you've added other color/detail to the model (as I'm learning myself). Looking good though dude!