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Finished my first Astartes. Pretty disappointed with it if I'm honest. I tried watering down my paints, but it still has that stodgy look. In addition, the edge highlighting is pretty clumsy in places, and not blended enough. I initially did it too high contrast, and it looked out of place next to the terminator I'd already done, so I had to go back and re-do it, which I think is partially to blame for the thick paint. And I just cannot get the eye lenses even vaguely decent.

Never mind. Plenty more lined up to improve on...

For your first astartes, that's impressive

A mid toned highlight might soften the edge detail a bit, and the eye looks fine, perhaps a green or blue might make it stand out against the armour a bit more.

For a first try though that's pretty good, I find marine armour very annoying to highlight, legs in particular.

I think you're right regarding the mid-tone. I'll give that a try on the next couple to see if I can get a smoother graduation.

I'd recomend a wet pallet. They keep your paints nice and thin and it's excellent for blending, I always use mine, they're cheap and refills are readily available.

He's not bad for a start, I hate painting power armour too!

I'll give that a try. Any particular brands you'd recommend?

Make one!

All you need is a plastic container / tub, some sponge and some baking parchment (not greaseproof or wax paper, it needs to be water-permeable).

I use the big flat square boxes from Ferrero Rocher, with a cut piece of sponge (dog bed from my local pound shop, the fabric cover is now a photo backsheet). Nice, big square palette for me. And yummy choccies.

I'll give that a try! Thanks.

I think you're being a bit hard on yourself, your comments on paint thickness are fair, but honestly it's not that bad. The second and third ones always turn out better!

I second the comments about choosing a different lens colour for contrast though.

It's not the best pic - the lens is red as opposed to purple. I'll maybe try something else next time though.

There are plenty of good things about these pics, I would love to see the rest of them when you are done.

Green eyelenses would work well, though I would then change the colour of the grenades (to boltgun metal perhaps).

Can you give us some more details on how you do the scheme?

Sure. Black undercoat, then a coat of cote d'arms poison purple. A black wash, then retouch the raised areas with the purple. The highlight is just the purple with a smudge of the old gw titillating pink and a smudge of game colour white.

I think that either the undercoat or the first purple coat is too thick. Do you find that the purple isn't covering the black undercoat properly? It could even be that the brand of paint you are using is too translucent.

You could try a white undercoat (preferrably sprayed on) with the purple watered down or slightly diluted with flow aid. Even if you need to do two coats like this, it may give you a smoother finish in the end. The problem is that when you try and get that level of depth in your scheme, i.e. all the little smudges at the end, you really need your first coats to be as thin (but effective) as possible. Otherwise you are adding more and more thicknesses of paint to an already bumpy surface

Anyway, these are just some tips. Good luck!

I think you're right. The purple doesn't cover the black very well, so I am probably putting it on too thick to avoid doing a second coat. I'm going to try thinning it, and putting on two coats.

I compleetly agree with the above posters. I think you did a great job on your first model. Beyond that, I think you did a great job period. I know players who spend years getting to your level. kudos.

if the thinkness is whats concerning you, try using some acrylic paint medium. I use Liquitex Flow AIde to get a softer thinner paint. its fairly inexpensive and works very well for me. its a 50/50 ratio mix to paint (the mix is 20:1 water/flow aide) so you use VERY little of the flow aide and it goes a very long way.

http://www.liquitex.com/flowaid/

give it a try if you'd like. at the minimum you've added another tool to your arsenal.

Acrylic paint medium is good. I often mix it into my base coat. I think what he needs is some flow aid additive.

 TheLionOfTheForest wrote:
Acrylic paint medium is good. I often mix it into my base coat. I think what he needs is some flow aid additive.

that's what I linked.

But medium CAN be used, just for a different application for a similar end result.

Thanks for the tips folks. Looking forward to experimenting with your advice.

So, originally, I thought that I'd get an army painted up over the last three weeks. What I've actually done is a fair bit of experimentation. I've only painted up about 5 miniatures, but I've figured out exactly what I'm aiming for, and now have a realistic sense of where I'm going!

I also have built the best part of my army, so there is progress of a sort. I have a whole weekend to myself too, so hopefully I'll get my first 10 man tac squad on the way...

First issue I had was eyes. I think I've found a technique I'm happy with. It's miles off par with some of what I've seen on dakka, but I think it's acceptable:


Second issue was paint looked too thick. I've been using a wet palette the last month, and can appreciate how much it thins and regulates my paint. Although this mini was under coated with a brush, the next few will be done by spray can, which will help smooth things even more:


I appreciate that the pics suck, but I'm working with an iPhone here. I promise better pics in due course.

Although it is taking WAY longer than I thought it would to get an army together, I'm loving the hobby like a teenager loves porn, and I'm looking forward to my first fisticuffs....

A brief squizz at the army in progress:


Long live the emperor!

Nice work! It's great to see old-school miniatures in that collection too. I find that it is the experimentation that really carries the hobby; there is always something new to learn. Keep at it, I'm looking forward to seeing what those terminators look like :-)