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Spoiler Warning: This is my first real army, so you're gonna have to bear with the eye strain.

So, I have decided to jump on the Imperium Train with 8th ed. looming and pick up some Spess Muhreens. Only previous painting experience is some minor Dark Eldar, Necrons, and CSM painting, and that's the very basics. As such, Necrons were too much for my ability to paint a clean white without an airbrush (for the scheme I wanted to go with at least), Dark Eldar required a lot more line work than I could do and make them look half-way decent, and the Chaos Marines were a friend of mine's (and in Black Legion which is pretty easy to do, to be fair). Bought a few kits here and there and could just never get them to look the way I wanted.

Bitz-o-Background

I wanted to play Black Templars when I first got into 40K but the swap to 6th edition kinda borked that but good(what with their codex going the way of the dodo), and the Carcharadons have been described as Heresy-era World Eaters with all the gubbinz of the modern Space Marines, which suits me quite proper. Bought myself some Maximus Pattern Marines (I like the helmets and Space Sharks should be sporting older-pattern gear), some greyscale paints, and here we are.

The Plan
Mostly plan for this to just be a progress journal, but feel free to drop some pointers or suggestions. As I said, I'm a near-total newbie, have watched a -lot- of painting tutorials and stuff on youtube, but in actual practice I've got all but no experience. Originally, I liked the Black Templars for being a very assault-heavy army, and for having a hilariously easy painting scheme. Their Accept the Challenge rule was awesome and really captured how I wanted to play, and how I play practically any video game. Most people playing an Elder Scrolls game? How most often it's a bow-wielding sneaky dude? Nah, I'm always the lunatic charging the dragon with heavy armor and a melee weapon. I have a rather aggressive playstyle, and while I like the Dark Eldar's pension for speed and loading for bear and going on safari, or the Space Wolves or Blood Angel's raw raging melee ability, not too big a fan of either of their fluff. The Carcharodons Astra, however, seem to be much more of a cold, calculated, and surgically applied brutality type army. Plus, who can go wrong with Polynesian Warriors in power armor with a shark theme? I dig it. And I like that they can be good in both melee and shooting, so that's a bonus.

Now, the actual painting/modeling portion of this is gonna be pretty sporadic, I bet. I'm enthusiastic, but bad at maintaining motivation and/or besting distractions. I'm hoping that having an update schedule will fix that, work permitting. Hoping for once every couple of weeks, but we'll see how that goes. My phone is my camera, so it's not super good, my light is a lamp with an LED bulb, and I'm doing this entirely by hand (unless I get ambitious enough to pick up an Airbrush in the future[hopefully will by the time I have vehicles, cause that's a lot of surface to cover with a brush and keep it even ]) Also, I ramble a lot, if you haven't noticed. Hoping to put in both some still and video processes, showing what and how I operate so that if anyone can spot something obviously wrong with what I'm doing I can correct it.

For what painting I've done, I seem to be shredding my brushes, and can't figure out why. Most likely a grievous error on my end, which is why I'm doing this in the first place. I want more experienced painters to tell me where I'm messing up. I want to learn. I want to improve. This is an awesome hobby and I want to contribute something amazing to it if at all possible. I know it's not gonna happen right off the bat, but that's what I'm here for. Learning.

Anyway, opening rant over, I've got assembly and priming to do, and it looks like it might start raining soon.

Pictures! I demand pictures!

As demanded.

And naturally, pictures came out sideways.

Termie in the back has been re-painted no less than twice(still very un-finished), and the backpack on the MkIV Marine is basecoated, nothing further, still working on deciding if I wanna brown-leather the bolt pistol or something more esoteric.

Nice. You can rotate your pictures with an editor. Even something as simple as the windows default editing program will work.

Thanks. And yeah, just forgot to rotate them before I posted. xD

I feel it's a little odd how they've designed the Combat Knives(?), damn thing's the size of a chainsword nearly, to settle against the vents on the backpack on the left (if you're looking from the back), makes having the torso turned to be in a natural-ish firing stance a little tricky, but nowhere else seems to even be half-way functional.



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So, painting process has pretty well boiled down to Priming with P3's White spray primer, followed by a coat of Mechanicus Standard Grey on all but the face-plate. From there, a coat of Dawnstone all over the Mechanicus Grey, then a shade of Nuln Oil, and another coat of Dawnstone to bring it back up from being that dark. After that, a drybrush and edge highlight (where the drybrushing doesn't hit well enough or can't be done) of Administratum Grey, then focusing on the faceplate, it's a base coat of Celestra Grey (for the cool grey instead of the warm grey highlight) shading with Nuln oil, a couple of layers into the eye lenses and face vents to make sure they're good and dark. Leadbelcher > Ironbreaker > Runefang Steel for all of the silver bits, like the Bolter, Backpack Vents, Combat Knives, the like. Non-trimmedPauldrons are straight Mechanicus Grey with an edge highlight of Dawnstone. Pauldrons with just a small rim trim, like the one pictured above, trimmed in Abbadon Black. Full trimmed Pauldrons get a Gold trim in Retributor Armor, shaded with Agrax Earthshade, highlighted in Auric Armor, and second highlight in Liberator Gold if I feel ambisious or it's a Character. Same for each of the "Heresy" era studs, on the shoulders, knees, and helms. All done in the same gold.

That's the plan at least, we'll see how it comes out and if it needs any adjustment. The Carcharadons are supposed to eschew any heavy ornamentation so far as I remember, but we'll see how that goes.

UPDATE
Welp, since the internet's been out, finally get to post a bit of the work I've managed to make time for.

Now, considering 8th edition's impending drop, Haven't the foggiest what loadouts, configurations, and general options I'll be setting up my Marines for. Especially the Sergeants/Characters. As such, I wanted options and not having to re-buy half my kits just to get more optimized/effective loadouts. Did a bit of research, and while I am not an expert, I think I did fairly well. Magnetization is about the only effective option and doesn't really require a lot of extra work. I build and pain in assemblies anyway, so it's just an extra step or two to make it happen.

Here's what I have so far.




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And I swear, the shots are all correctly horizontal when I'm posting them, I have no idea why they keep showing up sideways.

Right, bit of an update, as I have a bit of time off work:

Got one Tactical Marine pretty well complete, at least to the tabletop standard I want, I think. We'll see if I don't try and go a little further later with them.

These are really cool, nice start to the project.

1 small peice of advice - If your looking to progress to a decent sized army quickly, and you paint glacially slow (like I do ), then drop your highlights for now.

It will speed your process up no end, and you can always go back and add them in when you have a decent force on the go.

Looking good!

The only thing I can point at are the mold lines in the models. We can really notice them on the last picture you posted (look on the right leg's greave and the flat side of the combat blade)

They are really easy to shave off and will make the model look even better!

I love that they're basically just two shades of grey. You took an extremely simple color scheme and still managed to make it interesting. I like the blood on the knife. It's a nice and evocative touch.

 Lithlandis Stormcrow wrote:
Looking good!

The only thing I can point at are the mold lines in the models. We can really notice them on the last picture you posted (look on the right leg's greave and the flat side of the combat blade)

They are really easy to shave off and will make the model look even better!

Definitely, I'm usually better about that, just eager to get at least one done so I can have an example to work from. Also just picked up a better light, makes it -way- easier to spot those.

Do appreciate the pointer, will have to be more diligent in the future.


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 Warboss_Waaazag wrote:
I love that they're basically just two shades of grey. You took an extremely simple color scheme and still managed to make it interesting. I like the blood on the knife. It's a nice and evocative touch.

Thanks man. Seen a -lot- of amazing tribally painted Carcharadons out there, really diving into the Polynesian theme, and always kinda worry I'm not painting up to that standard. But, as far as I've read, a lot of ostentatious embellishing would be counter-productive to getting to grips with the enemies of the Imperium. Or super-gory, which i definitely do not have enough Blood for the Blood God for that (not to mention skill with a brush ^^; ). As such, I went for simple, but as defined as I can manage. A little gore, a little gold when warranted, hope it comes out well. ^_^


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 Furiyen wrote:
These are really cool, nice start to the project.

1 small peice of advice - If your looking to progress to a decent sized army quickly, and you paint glacially slow (like I do ), then drop your highlights for now.

It will speed your process up no end, and you can always go back and add them in when you have a decent force on the go.

That and I need to learn to thin my paints to a decent consistency, as well as how to better use the brushes themselves. I do most of my work with the XS Artificer brush and my Small Layer Brush, probably doesn't help my pace at all. xD

Alvixion wrote:

 Lithlandis Stormcrow wrote:




1 small peice of advice - If your looking to progress to a decent sized army quickly, and you paint glacially slow (like I do ), then drop your highlights for now.

It will speed your process up no end, and you can always go back and add them in when you have a decent force on the go.

That and I need to learn to thin my paints to a decent consistency, as well as how to better use the brushes themselves. I do most of my work with the XS Artificer brush and my Small Layer Brush, probably doesn't help my pace at all. xD

Dont worry about using artificer brushes, I once painted a skaven screaming bell with one (well, I also had a S dry brush, and a L base one, but it was mostly XS). If you don't mind slight inconsistency, you could start dry brushing your marines, it goes faster and gives them a weathered look, perfect for Carcharadons.

Hope that helps and Im definitely subscribing

Ember

Cool scheme. The grey armour looks really good and a very smooth application. Subbed.

EDC

 EmberlordofFire8 wrote:

Alvixion wrote:

 Lithlandis Stormcrow wrote:




1 small peice of advice - If your looking to progress to a decent sized army quickly, and you paint glacially slow (like I do ), then drop your highlights for now.

It will speed your process up no end, and you can always go back and add them in when you have a decent force on the go.

That and I need to learn to thin my paints to a decent consistency, as well as how to better use the brushes themselves. I do most of my work with the XS Artificer brush and my Small Layer Brush, probably doesn't help my pace at all. xD

Dont worry about using artificer brushes, I once painted a skaven screaming bell with one (well, I also had a S dry brush, and a L base one, but it was mostly XS). If you don't mind slight inconsistency, you could start dry brushing your marines, it goes faster and gives them a weathered look, perfect for Carcharadons.

Hope that helps and Im definitely subscribing

Ember

Much appreciated. Did some drybrushing on that one (albeit after line highlighting so it's kinda hard to tell ^^; ) but I do plan to do my highlighting with Drybrushing going forward. It's just so much easier to get the effect I want and the weathered look the Carcharadons should have, I feel. Millenia without direct resupply and re-arming does not a crisp, clean highlight make. Also picked up a S Drybrush, and have decided to forgo putting them on bases so it's easier to get to the edges near the feet with it, so that should make life way easier. Just gotta master the technique and I should be moving through models much faster.

Also picked up the Betrayal at Calth set earlier(for glorious MkIV Marine goodness), and am really trying to convince myself to -not- start on the Contemptor in the set. Hopefully by the time I'm done with them all I'll have the drybrushing technique down.


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 evildrcheese wrote:
Cool scheme. The grey armour looks really good and a very smooth application. Subbed.

EDC

Thanks man, always appreciated.

Which, failed. Started with the damn Contemptor.

Looking forward to seeing that guy up.

I am currently patiently waiting for FW DA-specific Contemptors so I can splurge all over a trio.

Since your very new, I have a few simple pieces of advice for you. Feel free to totally ignore me if you want too - everyone's journey is different!

1. Use a wet palette. Nothing helps you paint more consistently with thin layers than using a simple wet palette. It does exaclty what it says on the tin - its keeps your paint thin and wet. Don't buy one, make one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miWLJU-wYAs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96mjmqWTPfM

2. Don't 'overpaint' your initial coat of any paint straight away. Always allow some drying time between coats, disturbing a part-dry coat of paint is the fastest way of ruining a smooth paint job outside of using a dry palette and half-dried paint from it.

3. Don't 'overpaint' your initial coat of any paint straight away. No, seriously

Some paints in GW are notoriously poor on the first coat, but paint up great after 2-3 nicely applied layers. I found this with Naggaroth Night purple that GW make, despite it being a base paint. Some other paint ranges often have better covering paints, but with different consistencies, but you can explore as you grow in the hobby.

4. Don't be afraid to use larger brushes. They hold more paint, allowing you to get more brush strokes on the model before needing a 'resupply' when basecoating. For large flat areas, they'll speed up your painting considerably.

5. Don't keep attempting to correct mistakes as you go. Details that get Armor coloured paint on them can be cleaned up when you go to paint the details, after the base armour is done.

6. Don't be afraid to try different undercoat colours. I've migrated from painting every over black to using "White and a Wash" as a starting point, and my Wraithguard are my extension of this right now going directly to the bone colour from the spray can.

There's a thousand and one Do's and Don'ts with miniature painting, but those are the ones I wish I knew when I started out



Re: Motivation

1. Just Start. Seriously. Don't think about the million and one models for a full army, just pick up a model and start painting it.

In this day and age of instant gratification monkeys causing us procrastination madness, its so easy to say "Nahh, I'll play some Eternal Crusade instead". Don't do it. Put something inspiring on your computer screen (See below) instead and just "Pick up the brush and start".

2. That model you pick up and start painting? Make it one of your initial 2 Troops choices or your first HQ. Preferably do your troops first, then reward yourself with some time spent on painting a nice HQ. Boom, start of an army right there. 2x 5 man tactical squads + a Captain will get you started.

3. Now paint your most wanted model for the army. Something that your REALLY want in there. An Elites or Heavy Support choice is always a good idea.

4. Put something inspiring on your PC Monitor.

Warhammer TV Tip of the Day videos is what got me started back into 40k in the first place 6 months ago. Duncan's big paint job projects (Lord of Tzeentch, Sylvaneth Alarielle) are great background while you paint your own miniatures.

Warhammer Community outpuring of 8th Edition info has me positively giddy with frothing enthusiasm.

There are loads of great Battle Report YouTubers out there. Type in 40K BatRep in Youtube and enjoy

Failing all that, put some music!

5. Limit the number of models you buy at once. Seriously, I can't think of anything more disheartning than looking at 200 models of gray plastic and thinking 'This will take forever'. My initial Eldar army is just 15x Wraithguard as three Troops choices, a Farseer as Spiritseer stand in, and a Wraithlord. And I'm positively excited about getting my Wraithguard nearly 'Game Ready' and moving on to my Farseer model.

6. "The grass is not greener over there". Simple advice, but it means stick with what you've chosen, don't be tempted by the latest cool mini to come out or someone elses all-conquering army choice.

7. Play some games. Getting destroyed and planning revenge with some new super-secret project to add an Elite/Fast Attack/Heavy Support choice to your army is a great way to keep working on your army and keep it growing too!

Hope that all helps!

I've found that using the aerosol cans to basecoat massively speeds up painting unit.
Batch paint, paint five models one colour, then do something else, either do another colour, or choose something else to paint.
If you can handle painting more than five, go for it.