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Hey guys, I've done alot of study on painting miniatures, but this is the first time I've really put it into practice, it's taken me a hell of a long time to get this far.

And it's still not finished! I'm just looking for your guys thoughts on this little guy, and maybe some tips as to how I can improve it further

Thanks!

He's looking pretty good! Nice work

Very well done! Those highlights are looking nice and crisp, and the paintjob in general is lovely and smooth. You should be pretty chuffed if that's your first ever miniature

My only piece of criticism is to try and remove any mould lines on the model before you prime and paint it, such as the ones running along the gun barrel and the helmet.

Other than that, keep up the good work! Oh and welcome to DakkaDakka

G.A

Nothing to add here. Keep doing what you're doing as so far it looks great!

Welcome to Dakka, Chaz! The mini looks great, especially the red.

Very nice job on the color blending; the highlight looks very smooth.

My one tip to you is to paint the top of the knee with the same brass as the trim; it's a small nagging detail but it makes it look like the entire thing is brass. Having that red peak out make it seem like the brass on the legs are actually a decal.

I'm with the others-very nice work. Love to see more angles.

Looking very very nice.

My comments would be:
On future models, check your mould-lines carefully. I may be wrong, but I can see some along the gun barrel.
Be careful not to use too many different metals (right now you're pretty ok), as it can start to look a bit muddled and lose the overall effect.

Echoing praise for your work and the (soul crushing) necessity of removing mold lines. Having been working on these ancient kits recently you have my sympathy as they are horrible in this regard.

Thanks for some really great feedback guys!

Unfortunately it's feeling a little late to remove the mould lines on this particular model, but I'll bear that in mind for my new projects!

I've played around with citadel paints before, but I could never even get anything to look reasonable at tabletop standard, so I put it down for a few years.

This time, I came back to it with fierce spirit, and decided to study different techniques for painting and invested in some better brushes.

It seems from the praise you guys have given, they've already paid for themselves!!

I'll get to work on repainting the tops on the knees

Oh! Also, any suggestions on the colour of his helmet? It's currently an old boltgun metal I found, but I really don't know what colour would compliment the piece as a whole

Thanks

Chaz Demon wrote:


Oh! Also, any suggestions on the colour of his helmet? It's currently an old boltgun metal I found, but I really don't know what colour would compliment the piece as a whole

Thanks

Usually the helmet is the same as the armour colour, apart from any little bits of trim, which you'd paint in whatever trim colour you selected.



The helmet you've selected looks like the one on the back Terminator - hope that's a useful reference

Ah brilliant! It didn't even cross my mind to look haha

I've alot to do today, so more progress pictures may be a little later in the day

Nice looking model! I'll be honest, my first model didn't look nearly as good as that...

One thing I'd recommend is highlighting the black on the gun casing, and shading down the metal parts in between the joints. They look a bit bright compared to what's around it. Apart from that, it's looking brilliant mate.

I will start with that being excellent work.
The rest is my very best on how to make it better.
- Either drill holes or paint with matt black, holes in weapons.
- I second making sure mold lines are removed: first thing I saw was the guard helmet on spike.
- The terminator head needs some variety to it, it is a focal point after all: at least paint the eyes something different.
- Metallics always make sloppy looking transitions (see chain on hip) I suggest paint a non-metallic base coat of a similar color before the metallic paint and fill only 3/4 of the space away from edges and then hit it with a wash. Easiest way to detect this: shine a light at the feature, if the crevices shine: it needs covering.
- Gundam pens or technical pens with acrylic "inks" could be used to "line" metallic / non-metallic transitions: General Annoyance's pic of terminators show this extensively.
- The trophy rack looks unfinished, but if it is to be blackened looking due to being burnt, some kind of fire up there is appropriate to model.
- On the armor, mixing in a bit of red-orange or a bit of flesh in with the base paint and doing a slightly wide edge highlight then followed with your pink final sharp edge highlight would look nice.
- It depends on taste but you may want the large areas (inside of left arm, side of skull shoulder pad) to have a color grade across it rather than depending on shade: it starts looking patchy. It may be less pronounced if the brown wash was used.
- The shading can be patchy in spots (see feet) the pen or another wash may be needed to fill better. I would suggest do ALL normal painting first (look like chaos terminator from Hasbro), gloss coat, then hit it with the shade: it runs much more smoothly and controlled and easier to clean excess, then matt clear coat after.

Metallic paint and I have had a love/hate for many years, I gave you the best I could taming that element.
Best last advice I can give is keep the water cup and brush for metallics separate: it sucks when your CSM looks like he is wearing glitter on the NM paint like about to go to the disco, unless they are Slanesh!
All I could think of, very good model easily an excellent tabletop standard.

@Talizvar

Huge thanks for that well detailed reply! I'm likely too far into this model to use all you've suggested, but most of the points I'll try to incorporate into the whole piece

Great feedback guys, hopefully with time and practice, I'll be able to put out some real quality pieces haha

That looks excellent!

The red armour is particularly eyecatching. It's nicely blended, and I love the shiny ruby-red tone you've got on there. Great work!

Good for you for wanting to paint well. I see so many people who consider the painting a chore, something to get out of the way as quickly and painlessly as possible. You've shown what can be achieved even by a beginner if you put in the time and effort, and do some research into techniques. Kudos.

The one thing you need to do is figure out how to create good focal points on miniatures. Usually the face is the primary focal point, so your best bet is to get the helmet looking great, and make sure you do a nice job on the eyes. Do them a good contrasting colour and they'll stand out great. That's why those ones General Annoyance linked further up the page have blue eyes.

Also, look over the whole miniature, and check where the armour plates meet each other, and the gaps inbetween them. There's nothing wrong with doing a bit of black linig to create definition of the armour plates.

The best advice I can give you though is to keep going. You already seem to know what you're doing and have the right attitude - to paint for the sake of creating great-looking miniatures. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished mini!

I said it once I will say it again and a thousand more times.

1: Do you like it?
2: what did you see that you want to make different.

Now the most impetant things

1: if you like it great.
2: you spent your money on it not ours, so what you like is all that matters.
3: people can only give you advice on ways to make it look the way they would like it to look.
4: it is very nice but crap compare to what you will paint in a few years from now, no matter how good it is....trust me lol

The highlights look awesome! Go buy the citadel (or any other) modelling drill and drill out the gun barrels. Takes two seconds, and will vastly improve the mini. :-)

Some progress pictures there, from a couple different angles.

Again any criticism is welcome.

Today I found it really hard to paint :( I couldn't keep my brush steady during this painting session!
I'll also update the first post with these pics.

Wow. Nice job for a new painter. You have a knack for highlights. I shake sometimes too, so I feel your pain. A couple of beers does help ease the hand. Try wresting it on the desk and moving your wrist instead of the fingers.

Thanks again for the replies

i'm hoping in a few models time I begin to improve, especially in speed.

It has taken me hours upon hours to get this model to the quality that it is... and i still look at it and think it could be so much better! haha

all in due course i guess

 Bottle wrote:
The highlights look awesome! Go buy the citadel (or any other) modelling drill and drill out the gun barrels. Takes two seconds, and will vastly improve the mini. :-)

Another suggestion in regards to this:
I use a sharpened nail in a little drill vice and push a dent in the middle first before drilling.
You can make sure then you are dead-center.
Starting off with the drill, it tends to wander a bit before it bites in and you get tragic looking guns.
This is something I learned the hard way.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Munga wrote:
Wow. Nice job for a new painter. You have a knack for highlights. I shake sometimes too, so I feel your pain. A couple of beers does help ease the hand. Try wresting it on the desk and moving your wrist instead of the fingers.

In regards to this I noticed a few things that help.
No (or very little) caffeine before fine detail painting, I noticed after I had a coffee small shakes made it impossible to paint well.
I now rest both my hands on my chest and lean back with swivel lamps to light things up well: saves the back and I can support my hands better.
I am a bit older now and it is a necessity but "cheater glasses" or the jeweler visor does help with seeing a bit better where the brush is going and makes it easier to see if the shakes are bad today and I should move-on to some other process.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Chaz Demon wrote:
Thanks again for the replies
I'm hoping in a few models time I begin to improve, especially in speed.
It has taken me hours upon hours to get this model to the quality that it is... and i still look at it and think it could be so much better! haha
all in due course i guess

The best improvement I saw in my own painting was doing a squad at a time.
By the third squad I wanted to re-do the first.
You would be surprised how just the simple act of painting for a few hours your technique vastly improves.
I think by "assembly line painting" I found that as I tried painting the same feature for the 8th time you find slightly better ways of doing it.

I am more of a fan of assembly but I am "blackmailed" into painting well because it is the only way the models look good.
I hate needing to do touch-up or repair on models so I try to get the strongest joins I can and replace thin weak parts with wire/rod were possible.
I am no expert, but I like to do things well.

I am still in awe/angry how the invention of the shade washes has made shading so easy when I had to paint for hours to blend a colour grade on say a cloak.
I have a couple years using airbrush and some things it destroys the hairy brush and other things it cannot touch what a brush can do.
You find things that work for you over time, I am pretty much committed to black priming forever: it is what I am used to for painting.
For a guy starting out, I expect great things: far better than my "starting out work", I think I have seen some threads of "my painting then" and "my painting now" which make you feel better.

nice work here, now you need to do the lenses of the eyes and the helmet of the tau warrior. I would do these in a color that stands out. I usually go for green on the lenses of the eyes and with the tau head you have an endless choice. But i think a bit of contrast could really bring this model to life ... keep up the good work

I would blue the end of the flamer or! add greenstuff and then go to the next level with some Object Source Lighting.
Wash in VERY select areas with nihilix oxide.
Use a splotchy mix of agarax earthsade and null oil on all your weapons.
Put bronze on the spear tips or Blood for the blood god. There isnt enough pop up above.
Consider the color wheel when picking and painting your bases.