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Painting is most likly on hold till i can get back to virginia I cant paint when aunts in house and the few times shes out of house i have to work on my homework.

You seem to have a bit of attitude but as most people have said "your painting is crap start again" I don't blame you.

My tips;

Stop stripping any more minis. I don't know how long you have been painting but you will get better with time. Finish your army, the last squad you paint will be infinitely better then the first. Once you have finished your army then go back, strip and repaint the worst squad if you want.

I think you do need to invest in some better paints. Start with black, white and the primary's if money is tight. There is a chart somewhere that shows you how to mix every GW colour excluding the metals with just 5 paints. I can't find it now but if you ask maybe someone has it.

For the figures you have tried to strip, well in the UK we use dettol not simple green. The secret is to scrub them in dettol (not water) after soaking. Maybe a similar approach with SG would work.

Don't give up yet.

Yeh I managed to get more off of the rhino by scrubbing it in the simple green but as the rest of my guys are all ready in the simple green ima wait till wedsday to try and strip them as the store around here is open on thursdays but if all goes right ill be back in virginia b4 then.

Homeworks been keeping me busy but i intend to get at least a little painting done tomarow when familys at pool especially as I want at least 1 or 2 squads done before my first real game with these guys.

The tournament I was intended to do might be out as it still hasnt posted an exact address to quote a hotel or the price to get into tournament but ima go home on tuesday and look like crazy for a job and if i can get in first few weeks I still might be able to make nova as the part Id go to isnt on brothers birthday but 500 dollers for entry fee plus hotel not counting gas to get up there if mom or grandmother drives me up more if they cant and i need a train or plane ticket up there .(note to self work on liscense when I have time)

well I got some thing done today then a tornado watch stopped me as I can only paint outside where I am. So heres a few pics of my first squad in progress with new paints.

All i got done is the silver on everything and the black on objective and part of razorback.


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Sorry bout picture quality dads camera isnt that great.

What am I looking at ? I can sort of make out a razorback.

Yeh I think Im going to hold of on the pictures no matter what i try i cant get a good pic with dads camera.

Has it not got a macro function?

its a cheep I'll look through it latter but I doubt it. if not I'll post my picks on wedsday when I go home.

Got first real battle in with these guys and learned how to counter a lot of what my list has a hard time to do I posted a quick battle rport here http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/378421.page but the pictures are a bit blurry and it was first battle report so a bit jumpy.

Keep up the good work. Really interested in the sidous model, from what i can gather from the pictures it will be pretty cool.

Idea behind him sounds cool just not to great with sculpting so mind not end up so great but the main bodys mostly done on him still need a hood on him going to look through bitz box for a non helmeted head first thow got to touch up his robes so the flow more naturaly and still debating on the lighting witch will prob be more like a whip like thing.

Tried fixing up the camera tell me if these pics are any better.

this is the new paints so far havent finished him yet still need to touch up the white primer, paint eyes red and possible squad markings, and wash then flock after i post and get a decent level out of them.


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dang still blurry but when I do only one you can see the details better so may be taking pics of one or two at a time.

first squad is done wash and all not sure if i like how the was turned out on everything except the guns. but I'll let you tell me what you think about them either way I'm not going to repaint untill entire army is done to some extent.

I hope these pictures are a little better and I used the new paint target sugested so hope you enjoy.

Tank and objective didnt post first time so trying this again.

I think I figured it out. You're using a webcam, aren't you. Or a camcorder?

No a digital camera

Paint looks thinner which is good, but results are going to come down to:

1) How well did you strip them. The purpose of the new paints was to provide color coverage without appearing thick/gloopy and obscuring detail. If you paint over the old paint, you'll largely have the same issues.

2) Are you applying the GW paints in thin coats

3) For the wash, if you're doing it on white, I'd only brush it into the cracks and crevices. Otherwise you'll have a dirty white all over. Where it really shines like you noticed is on metallics, and it does a nice job adding shading in cracks.

At the end of the day, you'll have to tell us if you think they're better/worse than before, because the pictures don't show any detail, so you're the only one who knows. You could try getting further away when taking the photo, since I'm guessing your camera doesn't have a macro function from the look of the photos.

What is the make/model of the camera? I might be able to glance at it online and see if it has a macro function to find.

Its a Vivitar dvr 410 was my dads so its cheep.

Yeah, that's camcorder. It's going to be rough to take detailed photos with that thing, looking at other peoples photos with the same thing even landscape shots are super blurry.

Nothing wrong with a cheap camera, heck, buy a camera now, and if you're still using it in 5 years, it'll probably be considered cheap/junky.

I looked up the manual for it online, in this case, I think the primary purpose of that model was to act as a mobile/small video camera, not primarily for taking pictures. As such it looks like the only setting it has is resolution (higher would be better, but I don't think it'll affect your problem).

I'd try:

Using a higher resolution setting on the camera

Putting it on a stand/tripod, or putting something stable for it to rest on (just don't hold it, your hands shake, everyone's do whether you notice it or not).

Keeping further away, your camera has an lcd monitor, so you can tell whether the picture is going to be good/junk when taking it. If you have the resolution higher and take it form further away, it may be able to do a better job focusing/resolving the model, and you can just crop all the excess around it out.

Just some idea's, I'm not much of a camera guru, but I know enough to get around one.

Ill try it tomarro.

Used aunts camera to get better pictures so here they are

first up are grey hunters and thier ride then the scouts and my objective

Comparing them with your first models, they look a lot better.

They're still super sloppy, though. Take your time when painting. Stay in the lines. Use thinner coats and make sure to have a solid, non splotchy color when you're finished. Also, using the same color for the leather as the flesh on the scouts is a bit disturbing.

To make the white look decent, you'll probably have to do a bit of layering. Get a solid basecoat of a light grey, then go over that with your white, leaving the grey in the recesses.

Yeah thye are still very sloppy and a very poor quality. I reccomend you go out and get yourself a guide on how to piant miniatures, Miniwargaming do a decent one and many other companies also do guides that will improve you painting.

ok im not repainting them so if anyone as any advice on how to make them look better WITHOUT STRIPPING THEM i'm all ears stripping takes over a week and almostt no paint comes off. the flesh and leather thing i can fix by using schorched brown for the leather thats not a big deal the white i thought looked decent for now untill i get full army to at least this standard then ill redo the white to make it cleaner other that that and maybe the eyes on the marienes i dont see anything wrong from my point of view.


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Wow didnt see half of the problems in real life as i ddi with that giant pic of first guys.

Thick painto on them means the only way to make them look better is by strippng them, in short YOU HAVE TO STRIP THEM

I was told that the citedal paints where good right out of the pot and im not stripping them last time i did that they where soaking in simple green for a week and nothing came off except the arms. and as storm troopers dont have any detail on there armor i really dont care if lose detail its actually better for this type of army ive already spent 40 dollers on paint to make them look better im not spending more for a book to learn how to paint thats why i posted them here to learn some new tricks that pertain to my guys the only one that has helped at all so far is target.

Look...if you're happy with them as is, and nobody you play with is complaining, then it doesn't matter how many people on the internet tell you to repaint them. If you want to improve your painting and the paint job on your models, then consider following the advice of the people saying to strip them and such.

imark789 wrote:If you want to improve your painting and the paint job on your models, then consider following the advice of the people saying to strip them and such.

This.

In short? Yes, you have improved. But the issue in the first place was the thickness of the paint - adding more paint on top of that does not improve much. You've shown that with better brushes and paints you can get a lot of the details you'd completely neglected...but you're also showing that you need patience. I'd suggest jarik not shouting at us to give you instant-win techniques. Painting is something you get the hang of and improve over time. Very, very few people are fantastic off the mark. There's no shame in this. My own first attempt is in my gallery and I keep it around for nostalgia.

Patience - I'd recommend the stripping. Be willing to wait. Start on things you have that are not painted while you wait. Metals are easier to strip than plastics - you can strip metals with nail polish remover fairly quickly but Simple Green/Dettol/Pinesol take some time to work and you have to be willing to wait.

We're not out to get you. We just want you to get the most from what you have. If you're happy with what you have then all's well and good. But please don't demand praise. And don't expect people to hand over instant win techniques as there are none.