40k SM painting help (56k, better prepare to die)

[Richardson]

I'm looking for a bit of advice on this guy:






(No, before you say it, I know one of you will, most likely, I am not changing the chapter color scheme for the main armor.)

I've only been painting for... almost a year, about 10 months now, 9 months for marines.

This guy is probably my most advanced attempt yet, and the second time I've tried to do parchment and scrolls hung off of someone (First time is on my dread). He's a seargent for the Anti-personelle squad of Devestators for my Chapter's second company.

The backpack and the boltgun is tinbitz with a drybrushing of boltgun metal over them, with various details painted on. (Aquila, the squad color marking on the upper exaust grill, or whatever the middle top of the backpack is, never have gotten a good explaination for it), and so forth.

The main body has Ice Blue with a blue wash attempt into the recesses as best I can (The aquila on the armor is the same as the weapon and backpack, but came out much better on it), but I feel that's probably one of my greatest failure points. The eyelenses were just given a coat of burnished gold, and the red helmet markings are to denote his seargent status.

The wax seals for his parchment and purity seal were hawk turqouis with Ice blue drybrushed onto their highlights, and the paper is a rather watery kommando kahki that was drybrushed with skull white rather well.

Overall it got a base coat of Fernisian Grey (Which is definately a more blue than grey), and a coat of a storebought primer under that.

Boots were a base of Astromnicon Grey, with a Fortress Grey highlight coat and badab black wash.

Base was a pack of modeling grass matted down with scoarched brown and a coat of that watery kommando kahki over that, with two broken sprue bits to create the two rocks.

Anyone care to help me out with technique advice or points that I might need to change on? (The tinbitz weapon and backpack were a trial of the color, so I may go back to boltgun metal colored packs)

[Feil]

It looks to me like you need to thin your paints in more water and use a smaller brush. You'll probably get much more useful advice and commentary about miniature painting at a site that actually has miniature painters, though. The smallest thing I've ever painted was an 8-inch airplane model, which hardly counts. Relicnews forums has an active community of them, I know. http://forums.relicnews.com/forumdisplay.php?f=110

[Richardson]

I'm not sure how much smaller of a brush I can get, my current one I'm using for detail work is about an 8th of an inch wide. This wasn't my first choice for advice, though, but I'll see if I can figure out a way to do that...

[Azazal]

Like Feil said, thin you paints down. Best to put on 2 or 3 thin coats instead of 1 thick coat, same for the wash, use a couple of thin layers to help enrich the depth and coloring.

I recommend heading over to http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/ for more tips and to see other people's work for inspiration.

[Richardson]

A big problem is at the moment, I have no way of thinning my paints, and it's unlikely to happen for some time, and I don't assemble unpainted models, and this army is my only army which is being worked up to a full chapter +, so you kinda see my problem. That piece of advice is in my 'to try and find a solution' column, though.
I'll try and see about how thin of a coat for each layer I can do, though.

[Feil]

1/8 inch? Are you serious? My smallest brush is a 3/0 (1/64 inch) and I don't even paint miniatures. Trust me, you can get way the hell smaller. 1/8 inch is probably a size 4. Buy yourself a 0, a 3/0, and a 5/0, and put that 4 away for the next time you want to paint a tank mini. Or a small mural .

Your total cost will probably be about 10 to 15 dollars. Since you're burning money by the boxful on those overpriced little guys, I'm going to assume you have enough to spend a little on some brushes that will instantly double your ability to paint them nicely, and be useful for other models or detail work on paintings, as well.

EDIT:

To thin paint:

get a disposable bowl like thing. Yogurt cup, bottle cap, whatever
get some paint
put the paint in the bowl
put some warm water in the bowl
mix

If you don't have a bit of plastic and some water, you seriously need to reconsider the amount of money you are spending on GW models

[Richardson]

Not at the moment, though that's more a lack of time in my current location than anything else. I've got a brush that I could afford to chop up slightly, and I've gotten it down to about, maybe 1/16th inch, maybe it'll provide better results. I know I could pull the chaplain out of his nice little blister, which is something I've considered earlier, when the advice was first offered, but I'm looking for a '16 line, no waiting' solution, which might mean waiting until the 30th to get home to my far more artistically inclined father. He' got a solution for nearly any problem. Actually... *Checks pocket.* Never mind, I know a better solution.... *Knew the vending machine that was nearly sadistically shining it's glow into his room was for a higher purpose*

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Apart from what the others mentioned, I think your biggest problem is just plain lack of practice. Looking at your example, it just looks like you're rough around the edges (literally). You'll get better with time and effort.

I've always been a crap painter, but having been at it for 9 years now I can vomit out something vaguely presentable in a 'pro' 40k circle (basing and flocking aside; I don't bother with that). My advice would be to just keep it simple unless you're really into the painting side of the hobby. The following dudes are a couple years old (and illegal now, thanks GW you're the best, as always) and were some of my better work at the time. Absolutely nothing fancy was done with them: They were primed white, given relatively thick, single coats of paint, and drybrushed various shades of metallics (an extremely easy, ghetto way of giving armor and equipment depth, and these particular dudes a golden hue. Also check out the chest aquila of the standard bearer - it's just painted black and then given very heavy drybrushing with gold for a neat, cheap effect). Haven't touched 'em since.

With practice, you pick up all kinds of stupid tricks. I like to then follow two mottos: "If it's stupid, but works, it isn't stupid," and one I heard in a hobby shop a long time ago when someone asked how really tiny miniatures were painted: "The trick to detailing them is to make them look more detailed than they really are."

[Azazal]

Another trick that can make life easier, go to the local arts and crafts store, if you're in the US there should be a Michaels in the area. The DeltaCeram paints are acrylic base just like GW's, but you get more then twice the amount of paint, for half the cost. They are water based and be thinned with plain old tap water.
Brushes there are also dirt cheap compared to GW, for the same price as a GW brush, you can get one that is much higher quality and will last much longer.

If you want a fast paint style, base you mini with white spray on primer, then use several very thin layers of paint to build up the color, and I do mean thin, the paint should be the consistency of milk when being put on.

You will need a couple of different paints that cover a color range for this. Your first layer will be you darkest color, it will settle in the deep recesses of the figure, most of the white primer will still show through. Once dry, put on a thin layer of the next lightest shade, it will cover more of the white, but bee so thin as to not obscure the darker layer beneath. Keep layering through the lighter shades until you reach your desired color.

The Necron Pariahs here started out with a base coat of a deep rusty brown, then layered up to a blood red:






Once the red was done I picked details as needed

[Richardson]

As stated, this is after only about.... give or take a month, 9 months of practice. I figured that much. Practice, will take time.

Thanks Giaus, by the way. Best advice for my skilllevel yet. I'm already a bit more complex than that, but that helps out a bit.

I've started using a grey primer, though. (compared to not at all).

Trying to water down my foundation coat didn't work too well (Well, it did for my LR doors, then it separated too much. Shrunk the water-down container to a 2 liter cap, to see how that works. Trying to go for half and half paint and water, to see how that works, then step down the water until I get something I like)

[Ziggy Stardust]

As Azazal said, I would recommend hitting up a hobby shop and getting supplies other than the stock Games Workshop ones, which I never found entirely satisfactory.

When I used to paint miniatures (man it has been a while!), I would practice painting fine lines on the plastic sprues that come with the models. I notice that there are a bunch of places where it looks like your hand slipped and you got some color bleeding through to the wrong part of the model. Use the sprues, or the extra plastic bits you aren't planning on using, to practice fine manipulating of the brush.

[Richardson]

Right now, I already said I have already told GW to fuck itself on the issue of brushes, though I've found their paints to be very nice. Plus, with a bit of work I can get free brushes. Not a problem in the long run there.

One of my big problems with detail work is that my hands tremble just that taaad bit. Might be human nature, might mean I have a problem. Dunno. I've noticed that myself, and I've been working on trying to correct the problem.

[Lord Relvenous]

Shaking hands are a very common problem, especially with news players. There are some easy ways to fix this:

-Make sure there is always conteact between your hands. The easiest way to do this is to lean the end of your palms together, or something similar.
-Rest your wrists against a stable object, such as the edge of your painting desk.
-Do some simple finger stretches and excercises before you begin painting. Try doing some doodling on a piece of paper, trying to recreat a pattern, such as swirls or crosshatches. Try to also increase dexterity in your fingers, by working on finger quickness and control.
-Avoid drinking anything sugar or caffiene loaded before you paint. This can very easily cause your hands to shake.

When I was new to painting, I had horrible shaking in my hands. Using these simple tips, I was able to control it, and get to where I could paint details much better, even trying freehand.
One of my latest minis

Freehand work


Don't be discouraged by shaking hands.

[Azazal]

Lord Relvenous, nice looking termie. I could never get the chest eagle feathers to look good on my marines, usually do them in metallics, easier for my to do