Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I finally got to finish painting my first ever miniatures and I wanted to show them to you guys.
For painting I used a medium sized brush I found lying around, Chaos Black Primer and base paints (Leadbelcher, Balthasar gold, Zandri dust, Caledor sky, Mephiston red). Yes, I know that I need more stuff than that, but I wanted to get in the hobby first and then keep buying other paints, so that it will seem cheaper in the future.
I will also make the bases in the future, with some white glue and fake sand (I liked the look of sand bases and they are quite simple to make).

Mistakes I made:
1) I overprimed some parts of the Justicar model, which can be seen by his shield and helmet.
2) I used a Paladin head instead of a Termie one, on the 2 handed spear model (I am slowed).
3) I didn't want to have the same boring shields on every model, so I used some of the more detailed ones in a few of them (these shields are probably for Paladins, but they looked really cool).
4) I used 3 books instead of 1 (I placed books on the Justicar, the Hammer guy and the Psycannon guy, just to be able to tell them apart more easily and because I thought of them as special).
5) I didn't have a hobby knife and drill thingie, which meant that the models have the marks from where I cut them, they have the mold lines and the Storm Bolter ends aren't amazing.

The photos were taken at my balcony, because I couldn't find good lighting elsewhere, using my crappy 8 MP phone that wouldn't focus on the miniatures (it's an Xperia Arc S, that I modded quite a bit).






Questions:
1) Can I use highlights and shades, after a long time has passed, since I last painted the miniatures?
2) Should I secure the painted miniature with something afterwards? So far it seems like the paints are stable, but I don't know if they will start getting messed up in the future.

Those look good for your first miniatures. Seems you know what you need to work on already, from the list you have, need a hobby knife for mold lines and sprue clean up. Watching how you spray the primer.

You can work on thinning the paints a bit, not sure how much you thinned them, that will help out as well.

You can wash and highlight whenever you get the paints to do that. You can also spray them with a protective coat once you feel they are done, to help protect them, but isn't really required if you don't have the money to spend on that at the moment.

 DarkKnights44 wrote:
Those look good for your first miniatures. Seems you know what you need to work on already, from the list you have, need a hobby knife for mold lines and sprue clean up. Watching how you spray the primer.

You can work on thinning the paints a bit, not sure how much you thinned them, that will help out as well.

You can wash and highlight whenever you get the paints to do that. You can also spray them with a protective coat once you feel they are done, to help protect them, but isn't really required if you don't have the money to spend on that at the moment.

Thanks!
About the primer I think I sprayed too close the Justicar, because I didn't want to cover the entire table with paint (made a shoe box as my workstation, althought it wasn't extremely big and it had no top, which would have really helped with paint not spreading out, if it was there). I must have been spraying at 10 cm away, while the paint can said 20-40 cm.

I will get the hobby knife next.

About thinning my paints, I put the brush in the paint containers, got enough paint, placed it on the palette, then dipped just the brush's peak in water and mix the brush with the paint on the palette, in order to thin it out. Sometimes, the paint was too much or too little watered down, but I finally got some consistency as I was progressing more and more.

And it is great that I can buy the highlights later. I was a bit nervous, to be honest. So, I will also be getting the protective coat once I first get the rest of the paints.