http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/56.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net I have been collecting Space marines since I was at school ( a long time ago ), I had a few forays into painting and modelling when i was younger but i never really had the patience and was never really happy with my results.
I used to play 40k alot with unpainted figures, I played bloodbowl and quite a few other games, and never really painted any of the models myself.
So here I am many years later with quite a large collection of figures and things have changed, I am still never happy with my finished painted minitures, but i now have the patience and time to get into it.
I dont expect to become awsome, and I admit at the moment i really am not very good at it whatsoever but i would really like to get to the stage where i can be happy with how they look, eventually.
The only thing i think i have improved since i started again a few montsh ago, is that my finished figures seem to be less messsy.
I started collecting during the rogue trader era, I think it was the ten pound box of marines that got me going, and i still have most of them left, although guess what !
Not many of them are painted !
The first squad i painted up were based on this picture, this image was one of the reason i chose the Mantis Warriors chapter, as well as liking the green colour the mantis markings painted on the helmets sealed the deal for me.



Sadly i got quite irratated at how bad they were not long after painting them and decided to strip them down and go for a simpler idea.
This was the only surviving unit i had from my early days of 40k, this was my only ever finished unit and is my starting point for this army.







As you can see they are not too hot and the poses are not much better, Picture is a bit blurry but i think you can see that the captain looked like he had some sort of skin disease and I had to leave the captains eyes out as when i tried to paint them, they always looked freaky and reminded me constantly of this guy.




Which as it happens would not be a bad thing if it were in another context ! You can also probably see that back in the day,
i was still not happy with my chapter markings, so much so, that i actually just painted over them and left them bare.

Well, thats enough reminiscing about how bad a painter i was a long time ago and now onto how bad i am nowadays instead !
I thought that i would start first off with some random marines i have that were already assembled, some quite badly, but that didnt really matter to me as i just wanted to get a general idea of a colourscheme and see if i was even capable of a half decent job.

I started with goblin green, a dark wash and then a mix of goblin green and scorpion green to get the colout i wanted, I did my highlights with scorpion green. The weapons were painted black and drybrushed with boltgun metal and gold in some place, i think this method can definately be improved upon, i dont really like the look of alot of my weapons.
So here they are.



Looking at them now closely with a camera i can see that they are quite messy, but they were the first few i did after a long time out so i thought, lets get going with a couple more.



These two had a few more details on, which proved to be a bit of a problem, I had it all on picking out the details even with my glasses on, so i splashed out on a magnifying glass on a stand and a pair of reading glasses to help me out next time around.
Im also starting to notice now, that the highlights i made are not really that noticable.
Still i plugged away and got myself two more guys painted up, a couple wielding plasma guns.




I started using the reading glasses when i did the detail one these two, it was much easier to pick out the eyes and such. I made a decent job of the loincloth i thought although the plasma effect left alot to be desired.
Next up, i thought it was about time to revisit my old nemesis, skin !
I picked out a captain to paint and although it did not have much flesh showing i was still a little daunted by it.



I did the skin by starting with a dark red, then builing it up gradually up to a paler colour, copying a guide i read somewhere.
I must admit i was not too happy with the results and instead of doing the eyes i opted to just shade the black, scared that if i tried i would end up with the "sloth" look.
This was the first one i had ever painted that i felt marginally happy with the results, i dont know exactly what it is, but i think maybe because it just seems less messy than the rest !
Here is a group shot of the first squad i painted.



With this being my first squad, I am not too bothered by the rough look they have, I wont be playing with them and they were more of a painting refresher then anything else, and with those done, i delt i could break out a box of assaut marines and have a go at those !
I thought it would be a cool idea to magnetize them too so i could change the weapon configurations if i ever needed to.
I did three at a time, they took a little longer then the first ones, there was not a great deal of poses i could get them into but with the magnets in the arms i can move them around anyway to get them looking better if need be.





I think after doing this sqaud that i may be getting somewhere, albeit very slowly, which to be honest was much more then i expected. Yet again, although i was not overly happy with them, i had painted a squad and i didnt feel the urge to strip them down and start again !
So far i have been using the same methods and colours on them all, I start with goblin green over a grey primer, Then a dark green/almost black wash. After that i go over the armour plates with a 50/50 mix of goblin green and scorpion green, and i do my higlights in scorpion green.
I am not too keen on how my highlights look, i think that thinner lines may help and maybe even a lighter colour ?
Maybe a different method all together, someone mentioned to me that i could drybrush them, but so far the only thing i have ever drybrushed are my weapons, I think i will consult a few guides on that one.
Would appreciate some imput too regarding this, my weapons or anything else too.

At the moment i am basing the guys I have already painted, as you can probably tell, I have just put sand on them using PVA glue and washed it with black, i was going to give them another wash then drybrush some greys onto them. I thought i should start simple, i have never even properly based a mini, is this a good idea ?
eventually i would like to get them on some sort of concrete urban setting.
Next up I am taking a break from infantry, well kind of, and i am painting a marine on a Bike, I have never really painted a vehicle so i will have to see how it goes, i would like to use some weathering effects on them but at the moment i am not too sure on what to use and how to use it, nor do i want to push my luck.

Seems its past my bedtime now, so i will bow out, i will try and get a photo of my bike up in the next day or so as it is nearly finshed.
I would really appreciate it if some of you that know much better than I , would have a look over my stuff and let me know what you think and how i could improve it, you can be harsh if you feel you need to,
Afterall am a big boy now, or so my mother tells me !



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