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Rediscovered painting again a few weeks ago and have been proper sucked back in! looking for criticisms and tips as I'm always looking to improve
This is my third model, assembled from a job lot of bits and bobs off ebay, I might buy a proper left shoulder pad but not decided yet.
I'm still waiting on a load of new paints so making do at the moment with what I've got.

Are you just painting, or playing the game? I only ask because I don't know if that load-out is game legal.

I'd suggest lightening your reds with oranges or yellows instead of white, as you've got some "pink" sneaking into your highlighted areas. beyond that, looks good.

@Elbows - Thanks, I'm only painting so not worried about the rules, I will attempt to de-pink the highlights

yup, I use a flesh tone or a beige to highlight red depending on the effect I want to achieve.

This is a hell of a first effort. You've nailed the very basic principles of painting in the lines, and getting smooth layers. keep working this to make it muscle memory. work on layering up colour transitions. Red is a great colour to do this with. try working from black, through dark red to your flesh/ orange highlight, all with a smooth transition. if you can nail this things like power armour and cloak folds become a doddle.

the you can look to expand your skills and make your models look more realistic. work on finding light points to make your highlights more realistic, whilst simultaneously deepening your shadows, which will increase contrast. Then you can look into things like glazing, tinting, filters and weathering further down the line.

look into colour theory, and try to apply this to your schemes to make something that is visually pleasing.

most importantly, consume as much media on painting as you can, and have fun!

Oh and make him a proper base!

Looking good. I would have shaded the panel lines with a little watered down dark red (or red/blue mix if you want a different effect) before highlighting. What you have is basecoat then highlights on top but most people add a shading stage to give way more contrast. Literally like a wash of dark red but you're just putting it in the cracks.

Looks like you have some talent though!

@ queen_annes_revenge - Thanks alot for the info, I spent many hours watching youtube vids on colour theory and learned a ton! I've taken the light point a bit literally just for practise and used one, then did the all the shading and highlighting with just red, blue and yellow (how have I never heard of complimentary colours before!), deliberately not using white and black for now.

@ The Regulator - Thanks for the tips I will start playing with washes when they finally arrive

Quick update, started playing around with a second contrasting light source and practised some blending, still very rough but fun!
New paints arrived today so will have a stack of new stuff to try

maxwin wrote:
Quick update, started playing around with a second contrasting light source and practised some blending, still very rough but fun!
New paints arrived today so will have a stack of new stuff to try

...

Holy dang! That's a hype-looking model! How long have you been painting for?

Cheers! Been painting about 3 weeks for the first time in over 20 years, seems to be like riding a bike though, easy to get back into.

Done a bit more today and had a go at throwing a base together, 2 part filler and sand seems to have done the trick just need to decide how to paint it.
New paints are nice, the washes are like painting crack! Lord Kaldor Draigo arrived too and will be the next project so been practising freehand patterns for his cloak on a spare banner. All the brushes I have seem to splay as i use them unless i use Vasaline to hold them together, not great for detail work, I've ordered a Windsor Newton Series 7 and hope its everything I'm dreaming of
Also discovered the secrets of a wet pallet, couldn't work without it now!

I've never had a finecast model before, I've read some bad reviews about them, but holy sheet! it took me about 3 hours to de-spru the Kaldor model, so many tiny bits that had to be cut away with a modified super narrow scalpel ... nightmare! Some parts were also badly warped, but nothing a mug of boiling water didnt fix. Though it is worth noting that the detail level is great
Having that tedium out of the way I had a crack at making a bespoke base for him, went with an ancient cathedral floor theme, not sure if I should add a bit more detail or not, moss, rubble or something.

Made a start painting Kaldor today, great model to do with crazy amounts of detail, though i'm finding quite a few annoying bubbles as I go. Still have quite a way to go but my new series 7 brush is extremely helpful, might invest in the 000 one as well.

Spent a few hours today detailing the shield arm, I'm finding it easier to do the really fine lines with acrylic inks.

Getting there, still some highlighting and detailing to do...

maxwin wrote:
Getting there, still some highlighting and detailing to do...

There's MORE?

Dang, that is looking awesome just as-is right now!

What a gorgeous, intricate and detailed paintjob!

@ JNAProductions - Thanks a lot, as they say it takes 50% of the time to do 90% of the work and the other 50% to do the last 10%

@ Gwyn chan'r Gwyll - Cheers, you're too kind

I'm going to call it done.

Progress so far on this months painting challenge, Primaris Apothecary.
Almost finished the base (added a bit of additional rubble) and started block colouring the model bits, hopefully start some shading tomorrow.

Looking great so far! Crisp and clean, as a Marine should be. Is he going to be an ultra, like the fella he's casually standing on?

@MangoChutney - Yes, he is an Ultramarine in the act of pulling his fallen brothers gene seed out ... nice

Coming along nicely, another few hours of detailing and tidying up to do.

Apothecary done!



Next project is Abaddon the Despoiler!! quite looking forward to this one, have some ideas i want to try out.

So far about 2 hours in from unpacking, been playing with the red light inside his suit and liking the results so far

One day in, had a nightmare with the cloak but sorted now, slapped on some blue to mark the sword glow highlights on the armour and pretty much finished the head area.

Day 2 and a bit
Still miles to go but fun none the less, cloak pretty much done, sword almost done, most of the gold work done.
Not sure about the blue highlight on the armour, may scrap it.

Bulked up the base a bit and started the tedious detailing on the armour

Glad you decided to stick with the blue OSL from the sword. Looks quite good now. The lighting on the face is superb.

Thanks a lot, the blue osl is becoming more and more subtle as its consumed by the outlining. I've been messing about with some osl on the base which looks better from certain angles.
Probably 90% done now so only another week to go lol!

Great painting. Will you be skipping the top-knot?

Abaddon, now with 100% more top knot!

Finished this one now and pretty pleased with the result on now to Roboute!!

Magnificent work, all the OSL effects are superb and the head is just otherworldly!