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Greetings fellow Dakka-ites or whatever we are collectively called

I have for you a collection of pictures of my army, the Grave Diggers (fluff found here http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/640728.page)
Note: massive photo dump incoming (some of the pictures are a bit big and show ALL the detail, which is the worst part imho)

Whole army (idk points, prob 3000+)

Pedro Kantor (my favorite character)

Librarian, Tech Marine, Chaplain

Sergeants, Captains, Chapter Masters

Bikes (soon to be for sale/trade)

Assault squads (first painted by not-me, second painted by me)

Iron Clad Dreadnought

Land Speeder Storm

Scouts (sergeants then regular)

Custom Chapter Master (massive Kit bash and my D+D figure )

All Stars (Space Marines from random chapters, all freehand work)(can you name them all?)

Rhinos (Both, green, black)

Terminators (note the squad markings on the left shins)

Legion of the Damned (my first customized minis)

Awesome epic black guy (not to be racist, I swear, but he is my favorite mini and well, he is an awesome epic black guy)(He is modeled after Sergeant Avery Johnson)


Feedback welcome, and no, I'm not a good painter in any sense. I recognize this but don't really care too much.

Well. its a painted army so that's cool.

"I'm not a good painter but I don't care" is kind of a crappy stance to take, don't you think? Anyone can become a good (or at least passable) painter with a little time and effort, and I'd like to see what you could do with that time and effort. Right now, I hate to be blunt, but your stuff looks bad. Your coats of paint aren't even, and there's not much in the way of brush control. Things just look sloppy.

If I were to give any advice, it would be to just focus on getting neat, simple basecoats down. Prime your models, and then block out the colors on the figures. Thin your paints (or at least don't gloop it on) since right now there's a really thick coat of paint and it's obscuring detail and really uneven.

Just because you're a self professed "bad" painter doesn't mean you can't get better and get something presentable. Don't give up!

Yeah, some of your models aren't even completely painted...

Ok, let's go to painting models 101 :

1. Prime your models. From what I can tell, you didn't even do this first important step. Without primer, your paint can eventually chip off, and make things look rather terrible. With a good primer, you at least give your model a bit of definition.

2. Thin down your paints. As it stands right now, it looks like you're just slopping on thick paint, which completely drowns out all the detail. It is generally accepted that simply using water to thin down the paint to the same consistency of milk is the better way to go. With metallic paints, however, you don't want to use water to think down the paints, since the paint will start to lose its metallic nature. In the end, however, it's better to have several coats of thinned paint rather than one coat of thick paint.

3. Brush control. While this isn't my preferred method, a good way to go is to make one base coat of the main colour of your models, and then work on the details afterwards. That way, your model at least has the advantage of looking consistent, which they don't at the moment. You should try using small brushes too, which can help you control where the paint is being placed.

4. Once you've got all of that down, try investing in some washes (or shades, as they're now called). Even if it's a simple coat of Nuln Oil after you've finished painting up your model, it'll definitely help give the model some depth, thus improving its look significantly.

Sure, maybe you're not the best painter now, but you should see that as a chance to improve and become the painter you can be. When I first started, my models were far from fantastic too. But after putting in the time and effort, my skills have improved dramatically, as can yours.

Most of these models were painted when I was much younger (between the ages of 12-14), when I wasn't aware how just a little bit of patience made all the difference.

I just recently decided to try my hand at it again, only to discover that nearly all of my paints were blobs of rubber 'sigh', more money to spend.

I painted my chaos army more recently than these, it looks much better, but isn't nearly done yet.

Maybe you should post some photos of your new army, so that you can get some more up-to-date advice. As of now, it looks like you really just need to water down your paints and try to get better coverage. I prefer priming the model black first. This is more forgiving if you miss a small portion of the mini as you go over it. Unfortunately, that also means that light colors are harder to apply. Grey primer might be a good place to start. Most importantly, though: *water down your paints*.

 Bluefalcon23 wrote:


Feedback welcome, and no, I'm not a good painter in any sense. I recognize this but don't really care too much.

What exactly did you want feedback on if you don't care about the quality of your painting? Frankly, it's not like there's a whole lot of inspired and original aspects of your modelling for people to comment on.

I can't see too well from the photos, but it does look like you've avoided leaving visible mold lines on the models, so that's a plus.

The advice others have given about improving your painting is great, take it.

I was mainly concerned about army composition like 'my god, you dont have a rifleman dreadnought?' or the concept of my army like 'the colors are not camo enough' or 'space marines would never wear camo'.

That kind of stuff, but the painting is a big part of my army too.

How about that rhino with the fully decorated interior and transparent windshield?

 Bluefalcon23 wrote:
I was mainly concerned about army composition like 'my god, you dont have a rifleman dreadnought?' or the concept of my army like 'the colors are not camo enough' or 'space marines would never wear camo'.

That kind of stuff, but the painting is a big part of my army too.

How about that rhino with the fully decorated interior and transparent windshield?

Wait...wouldn't putting a window that big on a APC defeat the point?
No need to worry about army compisition in P&M though...since it's P&M...and we can't call you out for using camo on marines with the Raven Guard Chapter and their successors running around using that weird "stealth" thing.

Wait...wouldn't putting a window that big on a APC defeat the point?

No, not necessarily, I just really dislike how tiny the windows on the rhino are. I just assume that the 'glass' is a few inches thick of lead lined / bullet proof 'transparent aluminum' (for all the Trekkies out there) or something suitably futuristic.
Also the AV on rhinos doesn't ever seem to be enough, I have really bad luck with the armor penetration rolls, so they must be made of glass or cardboard anyway 'sigh'.