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My first Tactical squad is in the mail! Do any painters/modellers have any tips for painting this first squad?

Loads... far too many to type out
Watch plenty of youtube and read around the subject of paint and modeling a bit. Theres a shed load of information already out there.
Then when somethings confused you or youre stumped by something... DakkaDakka is there for you!

Ahh Marines! Batch painting and extreme highlighting have always been a friend of mine when painting Space Blokes, whether they're of the spikey or loyalist variety. Depending on the colours you're going for and the amount of effort you're looking to put in, I'd say a few thin coats of your base colour leaving black in all the recesses and detailing, they do lend themselves to really dark recesses quite well especially in the shoulder pad and leg detailling.

Thin your paints bro

Painting with an airbrush? Part assemble, I don't even glue legs to torso when I airbrush marines. If you're brushing it, assemble legs and chest but leave arms off, or at least leave the gun off to ease painting of the chest details. If the head is helmet-less, I'd paint that separately too. If the helm or shoulderpads are a different colour, they're easier painted separately, can paint quicker as there's no chance of getting colour in the wrong places.

Decide on your paint scheme. If you can't decide, don't hesitate to try painting test models and then strip them to try again. There are stripping guides here.

If painting by brush, leave on the sprue!

So much easier to do base coating etc :-)

jhe90 wrote:
If painting by brush, leave on the sprue!

So much easier to do base coating etc :-)

No. This is a terrible suggestion. Do NOT do this! Ever!

Always cut out your parts and clean the mold lines off of them and any flash. You will always regret it if you don't do it. Then if you need to paint them piece by piece--something I find absurdly silly but can appreciate why people do it--then pin it to a piece of sprue or some other device you can firmly hold in one hand. There are attachment points (where you will mate the parts together) where you can drill into if it's solid, and paint it that way. Other things like torsos will need to be assembled before pinning the bottom or top.

use less glue, not more. Decide what kind of glue you want to use, because that will determine how easy it is to fix: Plastic cement welds the parts together. Superglue bonds stuff, but can be undone with enough elbow grease and headlight fluid. Super Glue, when set, doesn't give you any time to fiddle with the pose. Plastic cement gives you some of that give so you CAN fiddle with the pose as you're gluing, BUT IT WILL EAT ANY PAINT YOU PUT ON THE MODEL, so there's your warning.

Typically people will go for a partial assembly of the model, paint it, finish assembly, and then tweak it if lighting effects are used for consistency's sake.

With respect to customization or modifying the models, think long and hard. There's a lot of stuff you can do, but it can be taken overboard very quickly. you can take a look at my marines here to see the kinds of things i've done. You can do some interesting things with the snarling helmets, turn them into knight helmets, if you're careful. Terminator helmets can be cut down as well and turned into grey-knigt syle helmets... you can take stuff from fantasy, the bucket helmets, and tweak them up, and pretend it's a mark2/mark3 helmet. Chaos space marine helmets from the champion sprue are also pretty cool, all you need to do is spend about 10 minutes carefully cleaning all of the chaotic parts off the helmet (look for my plasma cannons, Mr. 3-eyes looks pretty spiffy)

there's oodles and oodles of stuff to think about. OODLES!

Personally i like the partial assembly method
so Legs + torso + head
Arms and guns
Shoulder pads and back packs can be separate
all after cleaning mold lines and other issues ofc

Edit: Blue tack is great for figuring out your poses and stuff

Painting wise.
always start with a primer (i pref black)
thin your paints always and paint in multiple coats if possible (lighter colors will be a pain)
after all your hard work id suggest sealing your work with a varnish (satin or matt iirc)

the rest depends on your color scheme and what you want to accomplish

Ah, the Tactical Squad. One of the best kits for beginners and veterans alike. You'll have fun with it for sure. Here's my suggestions:

General tips:
Thin your paint, you want them only slightly thicker than milk. so that they go on nicely without causing the brush to drag or anything.

Don't be afraid to paint multiple layers of the same shade; a few thin layers is better than one thick one.

Make a note of the paint mixes you use; it'll be handy for getting the same scheme on later models, rather than doing it by eye.


Styles- there are two ways I'd suggest for starting off Space Marines:
Line Highlighting: The kind seen on the GW models, you paint a highlight with good contrast to the base colour on the extreme edges of the armour plates. This is arguably the fastest way to get them done.

Layering: With this style, you build up highlights layer by layer, getting brighter each time, and there should be a natural blend rather than the extreme edges you get from line highlighting. It's a little more time-intensive, but personally I prefer it.


Other stuff:

Decide on your scheme first, but don't be afraid to strip and repaint if needed; some schemes just won't work on the model even if they look good on paper. If making your own scheme, have a quick look at basic colour theory to make sure you're using colours that will work well. Ideally, you want two colours that complement each other, and then something with a good contrast for the spot colours. For example with Ultramarines, the blue and gold complement each other, the red and white used for lenses and other details contrasts to add vibrancy.

Hope that helps, and post pics when you're done.