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I don't have an army of my own yet but I am planning to assemble one soon and I have so many questions to you guys - hope you don't mind.

First of all I would like to know how can I obtain logos of a chapter of my choosing for my models. To be precise, what I have in mind is the logo of the chapter that is displayed on the banners and on the shoulder pads, as you can see in the below links:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QmUvBi85QD8/UFcSzPbA_sI/AAAAAAAAA-w/1n2iCr-MCfY/s1600/blood+ravens.JPG
http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3210/2685691471_5c444ef34f_o.jpg

As I understand, two types of models are sold - while some are already meant to represent certain chapter (as an example, Marneus and the Honor Guard that are obviously meant only for an Ultramarine army), other lack any logos and can be painted in such a way that they fit army of any chapter (for example, an ordinary tactical squad). So how can I obtain such detailed, small images for the latter.

Are these logos imprinted somehow, are they stickers or are they simply painted (it is hard for me to believe that someone could actually paint something like this in such a small scale unless he is a professional painter...)

My second question is: I heard from a friend that there are countless sorts of painting techniques that allow you to get amazing results such as adding scars to the helmet, or even creating a glow effect for eyes or a weapon. Could you recommend any good painting guides that explain very basics of these techniques.

That is all for now, thank you in advance for your understanding and for your help. :c Any other tips for an utter beginner are very much welcome. Once again, thanks!

Most Warhammer 40k model kits come with a decal sheet. This is just like the sheets supplied with regular modelling kits.


You cut out the bit you want, use water to remove it from the backing board and slap it on the part where you want it. That should already be painted. Typically you will need to put on some varish over the decal to protect it. There are entire guides out there on how to do this. I would recommend that you keep this in mind in your assembly and paint job, but defer doing this to your actual models until you are certain what you want and practiced it a bunch of times with decals you don't want to use on surfaces that dont matter (such as whatever non-model plastic you have laying around).

Note that there are also blank transfer sheets for use in ink or laser printers sold. Those come in translucent or white and require sealing with varnish before application to avoid ink being lifted by water. That is a way to get your own minuscule designs on to your models as decals. Alternatively, you can go so far as to go for 3d decals. To do that, you sculpt what you want, then make a cast of it and duplicate it using green stuff.
http://masteroftheforge.com/2011/07/04/blu-stuff-iconography-molds/

There is a metric ton of tutorials for anything you could imagine. There are many tutorials here on this forum as well. A site with a really huge selection is here:
http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.de/2009/10/tutorial-overview.html

 Stephanius wrote:
Most Warhammer 40k model kits come with a decal sheet. This is just like the sheets supplied with regular modelling kits.


You cut out the bit you want, use water to remove it from the backing board and slap it on the part where you want it. That should already be painted. Typically you will need to put on some varish over the decal to protect it. There are entire guides out there on how to do this. I would recommend that you keep this in mind in your assembly and paint job, but defer doing this to your actual models until you are certain what you want and practiced it a bunch of times with decals you don't want to use on surfaces that dont matter (such as whatever non-model plastic you have laying around).

Note that there are also blank transfer sheets for use in ink or laser printers sold. Those come in translucent or white and require sealing with varnish before application to avoid ink being lifted by water. That is a way to get your own minuscule designs on to your models as decals. Alternatively, you can go so far as to go for 3d decals. To do that, you sculpt what you want, then make a cast of it and duplicate it using green stuff.
http://masteroftheforge.com/2011/07/04/blu-stuff-iconography-molds/

There is a metric ton of tutorials for anything you could imagine. There are many tutorials here on this forum as well. A site with a really huge selection is here:
http://massivevoodoo.blogspot.de/2009/10/tutorial-overview.html

Thank you so much for clearing that up for me!

http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Space_Marines/SPACE_MARINE_TRANSFER_SHEETS/BLOOD-RAVENS-TRANSFER-SHEET.html

The transfer for the image you want is Blood Ravens, you can get them from forge world, I wasn't a fan of their transfer though as I found them smaller than normal.

ids1984 wrote:
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Space_Marines/SPACE_MARINE_TRANSFER_SHEETS/BLOOD-RAVENS-TRANSFER-SHEET.html

The transfer for the image you want is Blood Ravens, you can get them from forge world, I wasn't a fan of their transfer though as I found them smaller than normal.

Thanks, though I presented Blood Ravens in my first post only as an example. As I understood from Stephanius' post, such a transfer sheet with images of most common chapters is included in the actual sets (Ultramarines for example)?

Since not everyone use these sheets - and if they do only part of them - there will be no shortage of those once you buy a few boxes or find some people in your area to play and swap bits with.
Typically these sheets tend to stack up. Even GW shops may hand them out for free if you ask nicely.

 Stephanius wrote:
Since not everyone use these sheets - and if they do only part of them - there will be no shortage of those once you buy a few boxes or find some people in your area to play and swap bits with.
Typically these sheets tend to stack up. Even GW shops may hand them out for free if you ask nicely.

Wait, I am confused - so are these sheets included in the actual sets or not? Lets assume that I buy a brand new, packed terminator squad. What will I find in the box? Just the models themselves or sheets as well?

The boxes come with transfer sheets as well

Kevv6 wrote:
The boxes come with transfer sheets as well

All right, thanks.

Apoligies for the confusion, the sheet Stephanius but up comes in the box. Forgeworld do other sheets you can buy

As for the painting techniques: Have a look at youtube or google techniques you heart about and want to use.
Some of the usual ones are: drybrushing, washing, shading, highlighting, layering. Just search for these. I usually get a lot of inspiration from looking at how other people paint their models.
A tip before you start collecting an army: Have a look at all the armies: What are they good/bad at? Do you like the models? Do you like their general tactics (i.e. close combat or shooting orientated army)? Then choose from there. When you have chosen your army, buy a codex first and see what models you actually want/ need for your armies. It is very tempting to just start buying models, but this usually ends in wasting money. Of course this shouldn't stop you from getting some models and build and paint them to see if you like them.
Hope this helps.

 FlamestormA wrote:
As for the painting techniques: Have a look at youtube or google techniques you heart about and want to use.
Some of the usual ones are: drybrushing, washing, shading, highlighting, layering. Just search for these. I usually get a lot of inspiration from looking at how other people paint their models.

These are the names that I was looking for, thanks mate!

No problem. Always happy to help . I updated my previous post, so have a look at that.

 FlamestormA wrote:
A tip before you start collecting an army: Have a look at all the armies: What are they good/bad at? Do you like the models? Do you like their general tactics (i.e. close combat or shooting orientated army)? Then choose from there. When you have chosen your army, buy a codex first and see what models you actually want/ need for your armies. It is very tempting to just start buying models, but this usually ends in wasting money. Of course this shouldn't stop you from getting some models and build and paint them to see if you like them.
Hope this helps.

Most definitely an extremely good piece of advice right there but you see, I am not new to the warhammer 40k franchise. I believe I know exactly what I want and as I have stated in my original post, I own two codices already.

 Devizz wrote:

 FlamestormA wrote:
A tip before you start collecting an army: Have a look at all the armies: What are they good/bad at? Do you like the models? Do you like their general tactics (i.e. close combat or shooting orientated army)? Then choose from there. When you have chosen your army, buy a codex first and see what models you actually want/ need for your armies. It is very tempting to just start buying models, but this usually ends in wasting money. Of course this shouldn't stop you from getting some models and build and paint them to see if you like them.
Hope this helps.

Most definitely an extremely good piece of advice right there but you see, I am not new to the warhammer 40k franchise. I believe I know exactly what I want and as I have stated in my original post, I own two codices already.

Oh . So you are going for SM then?
Anyway, one more tip for painting techniques: GW sells this book called 'How to paint Citadel miniatures'. It includes a dvd where they explain some painting techniques and give examples for when to use which technique. It is a great book, but it costs £30/39€ (I got mine for my birthday, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it). If you are willing to pay this much, I can tell you that it is a good source for painting techniques. However, you might as well search youtube for painting vids and thats free...

I have another question to you guys:

I did some research and found that different shops in my country have a great price variety when it comes to the exact same kits. I wonder why is that.

I heard from a friend that there are different types of models: plastic and metal. And for example, take the Marneus Calgar and the Honor Guard - while there are releases made purely out of metal, there are also a plastic ones. How am I to know which one I am buying?

There is a shop that sells assault termies for about 10 euros while other shops sells them for about 25 euros. The former are supposedly from the Assault on the Black Reach, so anyone mind telling me what is the difference?

 Devizz wrote:
I have another question to you guys:

I did some research and found that different shops in my country have a great price variety when it comes to the exact same kits. I wonder why is that.

I heard from a friend that there are different types of models: plastic and metal. And for example, take the Marneus Calgar and the Honor Guard - while there are releases made purely out of metal, there are also a plastic ones. How am I to know which one I am buying?

There is a shop that sells assault termies for about 10 euros while other shops sells them for about 25 euros. The former are supposedly from the Assault on the Black Reach, so anyone mind telling me what is the difference?

For the start I would only buy plastic models (if possible) because metal and GW finecast (which is resin) need superglue to be assembled. Resin also has to be cleaned and sometimes the resin models have air bubbles on them which are difficult to fix. The 'plastic' Marneus Calgar and Houner Guard set is finecast.
The difference between the two terminator kits is that one (the first one) only comes with termies in one pose and they are models especially for beginners. This means that there are no weapons options for them: They come with storm bolters and power fists (The sergeant has a Power Sword). In fact, these aren't Assault Terminators but 'normal' ones. The Assault termiator box (the more expensive one) comes with 5 terminators which you can pose and they have weapon options. They can either take Lightning Claws or Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields.

Ok, this may be an apple, orange and rotten apple situation.

You cannot directly compare regular 40k boxes produced today with either starter box content or out of production previous versions.
Starter boxes are great if you have a use for the models and understand the limitations. Starter box models are not necessarily worse looking, just easier to assemble but not posable. That means if you get a bunch of starter box termies, you can easily see that they are all perfect copies of five individual termies. Think formation dancing.
Metal minis have been mostly phased out, some mail order stuff is still metal. Most of what used to be metal is now replaced by resin models (finecast). Most high volume moving kits are plastic. My preference (from a ease of work, not price perspective is Plastic > Metal > Finecast. If the Metal is out of production, just go with the Finecast and read the tips on working with it carefully.

You certainly cannot compare regular 40k boxes with pirated recasts made in Russia.
Russia is notorious for counterfeit miniatures. Recasts are being sold and passed off as genuine GW products. Recast means someone takes the original GW stuff, makes a mold of it and then makes copies. Ignoring for a moment all legal complications and GW's interest - it means worse quality. Don't buy recast junk.

Now. - what does that mean?
Don't compare apples with oranges. Different articles have different prices. Some out of production articles might be sold for a lower price (to clear stock) or higher price (people still trying to get them). It depends. For current prodcution boxes, variations of less than 30% may be down to dealers using some of the difference between the suggested retail price and the wholesale price to attract customers with discounts. As long as you get the same box, that's good for you of course. =]

Don't compare apples with rotten apples. Stay clear of fake products provided by Mother Russia.

Thank you for clearing that up guys.

NEVER BUY THE FINECAST MODEL. NEVER BUY THE FINECAST MODEL. NEVER BUY THE FINECAST MODEL! There's oodles of locked threads over in the discussions section ranting about how bad the finecast is, and how some people went through multiple replacements of the same kit before it became acceptable. GW's resin casting process is inherently flawed, and terrible. NEVER buy finecast. If you can't find it then go online and go buy them second hand in metal if you can't get them brand new.

The alternative is to convert your models. It might take some know-how and since you are new, it may take a while till you get the skill, but if there are no appealing metal models, and only resin, it would be worth converting them over from plastic.

There are out-of production and broken up kits, which might get you cheaper terminators. For instance the dark vengeance terminators might actually be cheaper than a boxed set of terminators, but you don't have any choice for what equipment you give them. AOBR terminators are the worst offenders. They are the most basic terminators of all.
There is nothing wrong with that, but they offer you no options for how you want to build them. Just like the DV CSM Chosen, they are very very good looking, but painfully limited in their poses.

I will tell you now though, buy a set of files, and buy all of your tools (glue, knives, cutters, sculpting media, brushes etc) from anyone and everyone that IS NOT GW. GW overprices their tools and guts you badly. You can get 2-3x as much glue by going to an FLGS or Hobby store and not paying for GW's tools. The files are essential for gently scraping down all of the mold lines. Getting rid of the mold lines makes all of the difference in the world when it comes to painting, and also helps clean up all the places you cut the models away from the sprue. Most people say to just use knives. Knives can slip and cause you to bleed over everything, or snap sending chunks of blade flying into your eyebrows, or slip and dig a divot out of the model...

Right, that is good to know but how am I know whether the miniatures that I am buying are made out of finecast or not. What I mean is I can't look into the box before buying it.

 Devizz wrote:
Right, that is good to know but how am I know whether the miniatures that I am buying are made out of finecast or not. What I mean is I can't look into the box before buying it.

I says on the box (yellow stripe at the bottom of the box with writing saying 'Citadel Finecast'. Another option is to go on the GW website and search for the model there. If it's a finecast model it says 'Citadel Finecast' right above the price and on the picture.

Some people like fine cast, some do not. In the early days there were a lot of quality control issues with them, but that is another topic (reading between the lines: lets not turn this into another finecast thread please?).

I say welcome to the hobby, and I hope you find it as rewarding and fun as many others have!

One important point is not to judge your early models too harshly as your skills increase. Watch tons of videos and talk to anyone you know about painting ideas and advice.

One of the most important things is just to practice painting - if you see a technique you think might be interesting, try it.

Best case find some friends who have models you like the look of, and see how they did it.

have fun!!!

Ignoring a lot of historic discussion, some concrete information on finecast may help.

On the production side, it is cheaper to make a mold for casting (finecast) resin than to make a mold for casting plastic. The reason for that is that plastic is cast under high pressure and temperature, while the resin can be cast at room temperature and without higher pressure. On the hobby side, working with the resin it's quite useful to know a few things:

Due to the casting process, it is possible that models are not ok, although that is mostly a problem of early production runs from years ago. Before doing anything else with a finecast kit, carefully look at each piece. You are looking for missing sections and also for bad displacement. If there is a small bit missing in an otherwise solid piece, you can fill it with green stuff, milliput or liquid green stuff. That takes care of an air bubble somewhere in a surface. Now, if there is a weapon tip or key detail missing, that's a showstopper. Regarding alignment, if the two halves of a mold were not lined up properly, the two halves of a cast can be shifted relative to each other. Depending on where the shift is and how big it is, it's a total mess. If parts are missing or messed up, return the kit to the store and have it exchanged.
Note: if something is warped, by which I mean a spear, sword or gun that should be straight being curved, do not despair. Holding the piece under warm water makes it soft, you can then pull or bend it straight and either wait for it's temperature to drop back to room temperature of use some cold water to speed this up.

The resin has release agent stuck to it. This stuff helps with removing the cast from the mold, but als makes paint and glue slide off the cast. You have to get this stuff off. A worn (softened), clean toothbrush in combination with warm water and dishwashing detergent should do the job. Be careful removing the parts from the spure, you'll have more and thicker connections than with a plastic piece. Think about where you push parts when cutting and strategically cut the parts free.

Finally, and this is a point that you cannot work around by inspecting or preparing the parts properly, Finecast is brittle. It isn't as strong as metal or plastic. That means that small protuding parts may snap off or the figure may break apart when you drop it from the table. Handle your Finecast minis with greater care as they can take less punishment.

Note: Forgeworld products are also mostly Resin, but it's different material with different precautions being required. If you buy a Forgeworld model, throughoutly study the couple of pages of really helpful instructions they provide on their website on how to work with their resin models.

I can only offer you one additional suggestion.

When it comes to assembling your marines, when picking all of the special weapons or characters, It might be an idea to magnetize everything. You might be aware there is an update in the pipes, and given the amount of information available, it might be coming out pretty quick here.