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Hey, (This is a re-post, because I'm dumb and posted it in the wrong forum, I deleted it from there though shortly after I posted it)

Just wanted to share my first paint job. I did play WH40k when I was 11, but lets be honest an 11 year old has no clue what they are doing I'm pretty sure I just dipped the models in paint and played. I'm 27 now, so I actually care now! I found the edge highlighting to be very difficult, and I made a lot of mistakes this first go around, I watched a ton of tutorials and stuff before I started.

This probably took me 10+ hours to paint, as I had to go back and fix stuff constantly. Looking for comments/criticisms!

Also, any tips on how to make the decal not look so glossy? I just used water to apply it, and Its pretty solid, I made the cut in it so I could prevent wrinkles, but it still looks glossy...

I like the direction that you are going and for table top standard it is doable. One little suggestion is to ink and highlight the copper/ bronze parts and also the silver parts. To me they loom quite flat. To remove the shine from decals you may add a couple of matt varnish on it.
My 2 cents

You should thin your paints down so you don't see brush strokes and big thick streaks where it's unevenly applied the way you see now.

Just buy an eyedropper, and when you go to put paint on the palette (if you paint straight from the paint pot, stop this now), a couple drops mixed into the paint you smear onto the palette will help a lot. Obviously figuring out consistency takes a few tries, but I guarantee it'll do wonders for the smoothness, you'll notice it right away!

Have fun.

 PrehistoricUFO wrote:
You should thin your paints down so you don't see brush strokes and big thick streaks where it's unevenly applied the way you see now.

Just buy an eyedropper, and when you go to put paint on the palette (if you paint straight from the paint pot, stop this now), a couple drops mixed into the paint you smear onto the palette will help a lot. Obviously figuring out consistency takes a few tries, but I guarantee it'll do wonders for the smoothness, you'll notice it right away!

Have fun.

Yeah, I didn't figure out a good ratio until the final coats, I think i'm going to pick up some matte medium in a few days hopefully that helps a bit. An eye dropper is a great idea, that will give me the same consistency every time, thanks for the tip!

Looks great! Optional but I would suggest drilling the gun barrel or painting the barrel hole. Inking small details like spikes and bolts to give them a dark outline will bring out more detail.

Nice job! I'd suggest to get more courageous in your choice of colour shades, e.g. use a darker or washed red where a lining or recess comes up and use a brighter shade of red or orange in the mid of the armor piece. But for a first paint job really nice.

SoulRebel9 wrote:Looks great! Optional but I would suggest drilling the gun barrel or painting the barrel hole. Inking small details like spikes and bolts to give them a dark outline will bring out more detail.

Good call! My pin vise and drill bits actually just came in the mail, and I've started magnetizing the remaining marines I did ink the spikes and bolts, I didn't highlight them though like I did the rest of the model.

Murenius wrote:Nice job! I'd suggest to get more courageous in your choice of colour shades, e.g. use a darker or washed red where a lining or recess comes up and use a brighter shade of red or orange in the mid of the armor piece. But for a first paint job really nice.

Thanks for the comment, it may be hard to tell in the pictures but its pretty noticeable in person where the inks set. I may try some different colors with other marines, but I want to keep it pretty uniform.

Looks really good man! I love seeing nice bright colours, even on chaos, it really makes them stand out!

I won't repeat the good advice given to you by others but I'll add in my own constructive criticism.

Prior to painting, spend a little more time preparing the model. There are mould lines showing all over the finished product and it detracts from the wonderful paint job you have given this.

Great job overall and would love to see more!!

 Joyous_Oblivion wrote:
Looks really good man! I love seeing nice bright colours, even on chaos, it really makes them stand out!

I won't repeat the good advice given to you by others but I'll add in my own constructive criticism.

Prior to painting, spend a little more time preparing the model. There are mould lines showing all over the finished product and it detracts from the wonderful paint job you have given this.

Great job overall and would love to see more!!

A great tip! So this was actually the first model I assembled in the box of space marines, and I got antsy and primed him right when I finished modelling him and it was only after I realized I didn't even deal with mould lines or any other issues. I've assembled 8 of the other marines now and I've taken great care with mould lines on all the other ones.

Great looking marine! I especially like where you choose to have red. It's nice and even too - red can be tricky. You will get faster as you do more, but good result on this one!

Definitely drill out the barrel or put a black dot on the bolter. That's the only useful cc I can think of. It's amazing how much that one thing will do.

Not sure there is much to do about glossy transfer - I think the paper is just shiny. If it REALLY bothers you maybe an extra layer of nuln oil wash on the shoulders can make the whole pad shiny. I'd do it prior to the transfer on future models for ease though.

Looking forward to seeing more

 zgort wrote:
Great looking marine! I especially like where you choose to have red. It's nice and even too - red can be tricky. You will get faster as you do more, but good result on this one!

Definitely drill out the barrel or put a black dot on the bolter. That's the only useful cc I can think of. It's amazing how much that one thing will do.

Not sure there is much to do about glossy transfer - I think the paper is just shiny. If it REALLY bothers you maybe an extra layer of nuln oil wash on the shoulders can make the whole pad shiny. I'd do it prior to the transfer on future models for ease though.

Looking forward to seeing more

Thanks for the comment! Yeah I just got a pin vise in the mail, so I'll be doing that on the rest of my models, I've heard that a few times now and I agree it would be a good touch. do you have any idea what size drill bit I should use? I have a 1/16, but a 1/32 may be better for it.

As for the glossy transfer, I took another users advice on this thread and picked up some Matte Varnish from liquitex, and applied that to the model, and it definitely worked to remove the sheen! Looks like it belongs there now! It can be tricky to apply though haha. I also got some matte medium so hopefully the paint looks even more smooth going forward.

You can always try the 1/32, and if it is too small use the same hole.

I would start small - I forget what size mine is, it is loose in the box now XD

Great to hear matte varnish did the trick for you. I'll be doing some transfers - I'll put that stuff on my shopping list.

Thanks for sharing

The models painted to a higher standard than the majority of 40k players. Trick is applying that to an entire army.

It looks fantastic.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
also moldlines

Aijec wrote:The models painted to a higher standard than the majority of 40k players. Trick is applying that to an entire army.

It looks fantastic.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
also moldlines

Thanks! yeah, my whole goal is to do at least that or higher quality, I'm in absolutely no rush to get these things finished, I haven't even played a single game yet and I probably won't for months and months.

zgort wrote:You can always try the 1/32, and if it is too small use the same hole.

I would start small - I forget what size mine is, it is loose in the box now XD

Great to hear matte varnish did the trick for you. I'll be doing some transfers - I'll put that stuff on my shopping list.

Thanks for sharing

I tried the 1/16, its definitely too big, a 1/32 should do the trick nicely. And for the matte varnish, get the liquitex stuff, apply it thin, don't let it blot, and put on a couple coats.

TO ALL:

I just changed the balthazar gold to gehennas gold and it pops quite a bit better, and I highlighted with runic armor gold, and it looks great. Thanks for the tips!

I like the scheme, but I'd just be sure that you file and cut those mold lines. It' can be a huge distraction from an otherwise great scheme.

Its a great color scheme with a good balance of contrast. The base is also nice with the tan rim.

The mold line running up the side of the leg, helmet, and backpack stand out though.

Darth Bob wrote:I like the scheme, but I'd just be sure that you file and cut those mold lines. It' can be a huge distraction from an otherwise great scheme.

Rickfactor wrote:Its a great color scheme with a good balance of contrast. The base is also nice with the tan rim.

The mold line running up the side of the leg, helmet, and backpack stand out though.

Got it, mold lines will be removed for all the others thanks!