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How do!

So I started one on tips and advice for starting out collecting, and I felt the painting side deserved its own thread. So, without further ado? It’s tips time.

First and foremost? Contrast Paints Are Your Friend. The models here are so small, and so detailed, Contrast and Contrast-A-Like Paints are in their element. Especially for anything Astartes, which let’s face it tend toward a single, dominant colour. With a nice, even base coat, and a quick pre-shade drybrush up top? By the time you’ve applied the Contrast Type Paint of your choosing, most of the heavy lifting is done.

Second? Neatness is key. Again, the models here are so dinky (especially infantry) that like Contrast, neatly applied spot colours pay dividends.Some judiciously applied metallics are my preference. They highlight points of interest (exhaust stacks, tracks) and help break up the monotony of the single colour from the first step (again, mostly for Astartes, which is all I’ve painted). I’ll then use a primary colour as a spot colour, again to add visual interest.

Third? Infantry is best off being painted on-sprue. I break the sprue down into manageable strips, and go from there. Exactly how you break it down and how far is of course a matter of taste. The sprue bit itself also gives you something to hold and when drying, stick into some blu-tak or equivalent. Once done, I carefully clip the individuals free and super glue to the painted base. Speaking of bases…

Four? Do not skimp on your bases. You don’t have to get terribly fancy, but consider how it might complement and contrast with your Legion’s colours. Chosen wisely, they really make your infantry, and therefore your army, pop.

Five? If you’ve an existing 32mm Heresy army, and are doing the same Legion in Epic? What’s good for the Goose is good for the Gander, so just translate your existing scheme. Almost certainly somewhat simplified of course. But if your spot colour choice and placement works in 32mm? It’ll work here.

Six? Getting slightly fancier. If certain infantry units look a bit samey from a distance (for example, Plasma Gun Support and Bog Standard Tacticals), painting the rim of the base can add some useful Visual Distinction. I went with Plasma Blue on my Support Marines. So, even from behind my opponent and I can quickly spot who’s who and where they are. It’s by no means necessary to do this of course. My preference is simply my preference.

Anyone else? Particularly tips for painting non-Astartes!

In addition to contrast, dry brushing is super effective. Solar Aux and mechanicum vehicles take a dry brush especially well. Together contrast and dry brushing can make for a quick, easy paint job with plenty of depth.

Also, to point five, I've found that if you are scaling down a 28mm paint scheme it is a good idea to dial the brightness up. It helps with readability on the smaller minis.

Finally, I'll just say that for infantry especially, don't worry about doing too much. Skip some accent colors altogether to save your eyes and sanity. People will not be see it from the table top, I guarantee it.

I admit conrtast paints can work well on LI scale infantry, but on vehicles, I'd personally prefer subtle drybrushing over using contrast paints. I think contrasts paints really shine with rounder, more organic shapes, as the tide marks they generate can sometimes look a bit too much on flat vehicle surfaces.

Secondly, and thats just me, I would never paint the astartes infantry on sprue, unless I wasnt going to neaten those undercuts up a notch with a scalpel. If you're using the models as is, undercuts and all, by all means, paint on the sprue, it'll save a bunch of time.

The suggestion to lighten up your base colours from 28mil model scehemes feels sound to me. This is due to the smaller scale, the end result will feel more realistic overall (I had a link to an military modelling article explaining the technicalities once, but have since lost it)

I've seen some good paint jobs using contrast as a base coat. Even on vehicles the flat spots are all fairly small. There is a ton of detail that breaks these spaces up, at least until you hit knights and titans. The newer contrasts, the more opaque ones, are best I think. And you still need a drybrush imo.

That said, I haven't used contrast for mine, since I run iron warriors. So for me it was metallics and dry brush mostly. But my friend's Imperial Fists were done with Imperial Fist contrast (suprise) and they looks smashing. When I get around to my Blood Angels, I plan to use the Baal Red as the base.