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Back a while when a started painting Warhammer 40k miniatures, I always avoided faces because they seemed very complicated to make to a high standard so I kept avoiding them and just did conversions to put helmets on my marines. I've gotten a bit bored recently so I've decided to try take painting faces as I think I'm ready to take on the challenge.

Can somebody give me some suggestions on what paints, techniques & etc. that I should apply and use?

Cheers

Aside from that tutorial, there are a billion tutorials out there on painting faces of different standards, from tabletop to really really high quality. You just have to google and look for them.

Base color
Brown wash
Light drybrush of base.

Eyes. This is the hard part. I do a white base, paint the color in the center, and then trim it back it the base flesh color.

For teeth/open mouths, a touch of white and a drop of red ink into the mouth.

This gets you a reasonable tabletop, with minimal work.

What color do you guys suggest I should use for the face base color?

I'd say Bugmans Glow Highlighted with Cadian Fleshtone and Kislev Flesh.

Here is a pretty easy one that only takes a couple colors: http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-to-paint-rich-skin-tones-and-their.html

Here is a really good tutorial, albeit a little more complicated than the first one I listed: http://thebrushbrothers.blogspot.com/2011/03/painting-face.html

Here is video with another technique:

Base layer
Wash
Drybrush highlights
Wash
Apply highlights
Glaze

I use a nonstandard color combo though....green for organics with ice blue eyes and white pupils.

You don't necessarily have to paint the eyes. you can leave them dark from the wash and it gives a brooding look.

It's not a space marine, but it's the same idea in blue.

I prefer dark unpainted eyes. I find white with a blob of black for eyes often looks cartoonish. For my pale chaos faces i base rakarth flesh, shade with reikland fleshshade, then shade the eyes specifically with agrax earthshade. This makes them look dark and angry. To Highlight, i layer up from pure rakarth, then add increasing amounts of pallid wych flesh, til you get to pure pallid which is a line highlight on the tip of nose, chin and eyebrows. You can transfer this to your flesh tones. Use your skin base tone, and pallid wych flesh, or white.

I use bugmans glow a base. Then I mix a little bit of screaming skull with bugmans glow (about 30/70), an broadly highlight the high points of the face (leaving just bugmans glow in the low points for shadowing). Finally, I take a 50/50 mix of bugmans glow and screaming skull on a fine detail brush, and trace the very edges of the high points of the face (ridge of the nose, ridges of the skull, cheek bones, etc.). Note, I do this for my SW, and it results in a fairly pale skintone. If you want a little darker skintone, just use a little less screaming skull and a little more bugman.

Thank you to all the people with the tips.

Cheers

If you can acquire a copy of White Dwarf #349 (February 2009), the 'Eavy Metal Masterclass column tackles faces.

DarkSoldier wrote:
If you can acquire a copy of White Dwarf #349 (February 2009), the 'Eavy Metal Masterclass column tackles faces.

Is it this one?

http://elmonte.de/painting_guides/PaintingFacesMasterclass.pdf

It used to be on the GW site before it was updated.

Yes, that's the one.

Seeing as you've been avoiding the helmetless heads for a while you must have a bit of a stockpile?
I'd suggest gluing a row of them to a scrap of sprue and trying a few of the options above out before committing to a model.
It's possible to get passable table top standards with a few layers of well placed washes over a white basecoat or go balls out for GD standards.
If you find something that you're happy with its easy to cut the head from the sprue and drop it onto a model.
Remember to write down your recipes as you go along for consistency's sake. There's nothing more frustrating than getting an effect that you're happy with and not being able to replicate it.

DarkSoldier wrote:
If you can acquire a copy of White Dwarf #349 (February 2009), the 'Eavy Metal Masterclass column tackles faces.

Just looked through 349, UK edition. It's from Jan 2009 and doesn't have the said article sadly.

Ah, the old UK US wd numbering trick, gets em every time.
It'll one issue either side in the UK, can't remember which.