Any Warhammer 40k'ers on here?

[CAM]

Big game coming up in East Grinstead in a few weeks....

 

The board is going to be between 144" and 210" long depending how many realm of battle sections we decide to use. I'm begging, stealing and borrowing as many Imperial Guard artillery pieces as I can. And yes, I am bringing the 40k equivalent of an ICBM launcher.

[jthompson]

I thought I'd find a 40k thread on here and drag it up out of the ground.

 

After venturing into my parents' loft, I discovered my box of 40k stuff from when I used to play about 20 years ago. So many unpainted or unfinished models! Naturally, I now have an urge to bring them home, get painting and finally get my money's worth! I suspect I'll need to spend money on new paints, however.

 

I have no idea how much the rules have changed since then. The version of rules that we used to play (2nd edition) had 5 phases per turn (move, shoot, hand-to-hand, psyker and rally, iirc). I remember buying the 3rd edition rulebook that reduced it to three phases which seemed quite cool, but we stopped playing at about the same time (uni happened). I'm guessing they're on version 8 or something now.

 

I can't have been very good. My most vivid memories all seem to be about my favourite tank being blown-up every time (occasionally running over some special character or other as it goes out of control).

 

Anyone on here managed to keep up the hobby since the 90's?

[Leeoakley]

I Kinda have, but mainly painting. i play the odd game, but nothing serious.....some of the new models are fantastic. Im currently painting a fantasy army of ironjawz.

[Garacesh]

I was considering getting into Kill Team sometime after Christmas (when I've actually got money again )

[jthompson]

Well, I managed to get a few mates round the other month to finally have a game of 40k, our first for 20 years. We used the current rules and really enjoyed ourselves. I think I've got them bitten by the bug again, as they've been WhatsApping me pictures of models they've either bought or been repainting. I bet I'm dead popular with their respective OHs.

 

Kill Team looks like fun. The shorter game time appeals to me, but I think we're going to try some classic Necromunda next. I've been lovingly finishing off my original gang. One of my friends is an architect with access to 3D printing, so I'm hoping he'll turn up with some nice Thingverse terrain pieces.

[Lister]

Not played for a little while, last time was 7th Edition. 8th looks interesting. I've had to ban myself from buying new goodies until I've finished painting my imperial guard army, just a few of the buggers to go....

[jthompson]

8th edition is nice for just getting stuck into a game without having to do much reading up. Core rules condensed to a few pages, along with the power levels for units, meant we could just throw some stuff together after having forgotten everything and make a start.

[CAM]

Not played for a little while, last time was 7th Edition. 8th looks interesting. I've had to ban myself from buying new goodies until I've finished painting my imperial guard army, just a few of the buggers to go....

 

You can't stop the grey plastic pile from growing. Believe me, I've tried.

[Garacesh]

Er. So. I done a thing..

 

RIP my wallet.

 

 

Looking at the images I'm sort of just going "Well that's wrong.. That's splodgy.. That could be done better.." but considering I haven't painted anything since 2010, I reckon I've done alright

[jthompson]

They look great. Money well spent! I like your bases, too.

I always have that reaction when looking at photos I've taken of stuff I've been painting. It makes things look splodgier and less neat than they do to the naked eye.

[CAM]

Er. So. I done a thing..

 

RIP my wallet.

 

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Looking at the images I'm sort of just going "Well that's wrong.. That's splodgy.. That could be done better.." but considering I haven't painted anything since 2010, I reckon I've done alright

 

They look good

 

You can use blue ink to tone down the light blue parts and blend them in to the rest of the model. Once you figure out using a drybrush for edge highlights it gets even easier.

[Garacesh]

It makes things look splodgier and less neat than they do to the naked eye.

I have to keep reminding myself that they're supposed to look good at arms-length+, not at three inches.

 

You can use blue ink to tone down the light blue parts and blend them in to the rest of the model. Once you figure out using a drybrush for edge highlights it gets even easier.

I think I'm going to have to do that, tidy the highlights up a little bit.

Not sure about drybrushing the armour though, given how fiddly the DE models can be. I have a few spare bits I can test on though.

[CAM]

The Warhammer Community team has some really good tutorials for painting.

[jthompson]

I love watching those. They make it look rather easy though (I'm a really slow painter).

[CAM]

I have a method that makes it super easy. First things first, three important things to consider before starting:

 

1) Brushes. These need to be in decent order, any job can't be done properly with rubbish tools. You need three at minimum, a small one for detail, a medium one for base coating larger areas and a stiffer brush for drybrushing. You also want an old brush that is past it's usefulness for transferring paint.

 

2) Water your paints. Take your manky old transfer brush and put about 4-6 blobs of paint on an spare wall tile. Mix in one blob of water and your paint will flow more easily. Learning how much paint to thin down is important (and sometimes when not to) and trust me, don't skip it. It makes life so much easier, especially for metallics.

 

3) Colours are important and if you use GW paints they are handily categorised. For each colour you want a Base which spreads easily over primer. Next a Wash to shade in recesses. Finally pick Layers starting with the darkest and working up to the lightest. Sometimes colours may take strange routes, starting with a red base for example and working up to orange. Initially, base paint followed by wash is good enough to begin to tabletop quality and you can do layering as you improve.

 

 

To start with I spray the models with black primer, being careful not to go too heavy and clog up details. I then leave it to dry for a good few hours to dry. Beware, primed models smell bad so leave them somewhere ventilated. Then I will use black base paint to cover any areas that were missed.

 

Next I will apply base colours. Example, a really dark blue. Base paints have good coverage over primer and I generally water these down to make it even easier. But don't go overboard with water or it becomes too thin and just runs everywhere. Once your base colours are applied, tidy up the edges and stray blobs of paint with a detail brush. If the model looks crap at this point don't worry, that's normal.

 

After this it is time to apply a Wash. In this example, I'd go over blue base paint with blue wash, red base with red wash, etc. Be liberal but don't let it gather in pools. I generally take it straight out the pot and on the model but you can wash it down if you like. A brown wash called Agrax Earthshade is considered the magic wand of painting as it seems to work with 99% of colours by just painting the entire model. By this point the model is tabletop ready and the wash phase often makes it look hugely improved. You must let the first wash dry completely before applying the next one as if they mix you will get a mess. And never apply wash over even slightly wet paint.

 

Next up is layering. Take the medium shade of your base colour, water it down and carefully apply it over the base colours with your detail brush. Try to be neater than the first stage so you make less corrections later. Leave recessed areas as they are, try paint raised areas.

 

Want to go further? Take a lighter colour and repeat layering again. Take your time and be even more careful than before. Try to catch the edges of of the model with virtually no pressure and hit raised areas with as little paint on the brush as possible. This is called edge highlighting. You may want to use the stiff brush for this.

 

You really want to go further? Grab a very light grey (Pallid Wych Flesh is great) and edge highlight the very tips of raised areas with almost no paint and no pressure.

 

Now paint your model's base and add basing material if you want. You can use watered down PVA to apply sand or flock. You can also use texture paints then apply wash and highlight the base too.

 

Sounds laborious? Cheat. Welcome to drybrushing. You want to take the stiff brush and dab the end in your paint. Then take some kitchen paper and wipe the paint off in short strokes across it. Keep doing this until you can stroke the brush gently across your hand and leave no paint behind. Now grab the model and flick the brush carefully over the area you want to highlight. This will catch the paint on raised edges leaving recesses the base colour. If you leave a smear you have either got too much paint or applied too much pressure. This takes practice, so try it on a spare model first. Eventually you can flick the brush over the model rapidly to do lots in quick succession. You want it so you apply very little paint on each pass and build up the colour as you keep passing the brush over. Better to apply too little paint and build it up than apply too much at once.

 

For black, drybrushing is essential. I start with a black base and drybrush the model with a super dark blue called Dark Reaper. I then apply a medium grey followed by a final, limited highlight of Pallid Wych Flesh in the most raised areas or prominent edges. For a bluer looking armour, I will use some blue-grey colours called Thunderhawk Blue and Russ Grey over the Dark Reaper layer.

 

If you want to do white....eh. I cant do that colour without it looking terrible. It's a really advanced one for painters as it is hard to get a smooth white over large areas. Same with yellow.

 

Most importantly, have fun doing it. Remember to challenge yourself with different colours to work out the ideal techniques and colour choices so you avoid doing the same thing again and again. And save painting eyes for when you have developed a really steady hand!

[jthompson]

I love using Agrax Earthshade! It never fails to bring a model to life all of a sudden. I tend to do my bases after doing the initial spray coat, before going on the paint the model itself.

 

I've found it difficult to keep Citadel brushes in good condition, but have had much better luck with some Windsor & Newton brushes. The Range has loads of different shapes and sizes. Another revelation for me was using a painting handle. I got a couple of the 'Garfy' ones on eBay.

[Garacesh]

I have a rattlecan of Halfords grey primer which supposedly comes highly rated, but I haven't used it yet as it was raining a lot so I primed the Succubus, Hekatrix, and Venom by hand and I'm painting them up now.

 

Weather's getting better though so I'll likely use the spray on the rest of the Wyches and the Reavers.

[korifugi]

If you're going to paint only lighter colours - it's generally better to have a white undercoat. This won't affect the colours you're going to use as much (and if you need to re-undercoat other sections, it's much easier to get a uniform black over white than the other way round). (Also I swear by Hycote car bumper spray for undercoating!)

 

As for white painting - I always found a light blue (or even purple!) wash to shade the recesses works very well. It'll give the effect of the folds visually without having to use greys - which can often be a little too harsh or can make the white look a little 'dirty'.

 

For mixing for highlights or drybrushing (sometimes simply painting the highlights is best as drybrushing can leave a grainy texture), I almost never use white (until the very end if needed) - instead opting for a bone colour as it give a much more gentle 'pastel' colour progression which becomes a LOT easier to blend.

[Garacesh]

I want to try an airbrush, but there's a significant initial investment that's stopping me for the moment.

 

At the moment I'm using a mix of Vallejo and Citadel paints, made myself a rudimentary wet palette for thinning and stopping them drying out, and have an assortment of different brush sizes (but tbh I could do with a new fine detail brush as the one I've got is a bit naff)

 

Bases are all just 3 layers of drybrushing, and the crystals are just painted then drybrushed.

 

The models themselves are a pain, though. It's mostly just your standard 2 layers, wash, highlight, but Drukhari models have so many fiddly bits, spikes, nooks and crannies. Should've just gone back to 'nids but I love DE for fluff reasons.

[jthompson]

Never played against Tyranids, but I've always wondered what sort of game it'd make for. Scary, probably.

[Lister]

I played against tyranids when the Dark Angels had the "Dakka" Banner for boltguns. It was still scary. Ended up with Rhinos acting as road blocks on a very terrain heavy board.

 

Tyranids and Orks are just entertaining to play against. We had a guy with enough tyranids we would do a horde mode, each dead tyranid would return to the board. Count each dead tyranid and see who survived the longest with the largest number of kills.

[jthompson]

I remember a multiplayer game of Necromunda we had many years ago, where Genestealers could appear at random throughout the game, the objective being to just survive.

[Garacesh]

'Nids were my first army. They were fun to play, had some really nice models too. But then they did the big DE re-release and I really liked the models so I started collecting them.

 

Tyranids are actually a lot more versatile than I initially expected. You can swarm/blob your opponent with 'gaunts and 'gants, or you can spend your points on some really beefy units. Trygon Prime was always a hard-hitter, and Raveners were absolutely brutal as (if you didn't bother given them the shooty chestpieces) you could send them barrelling across a 4 foot board and into combat on Turn 1 with a good Charge roll. And there's always the option of "Give it wings!" to speed everything up and/or add kiting potential thanks to Harpies/Shrikes (basically Warriors), Gargoyle's (basically Termagants), Sky Slashers (basically Rippers), a Winged Hive Tyrant (though you're foregoing Hive Guard if you do) and the Shrike.

[CAM]

I would love a Nid army but I have too much to paint as it is without adding more!

[jthompson]

I've considered just getting one or two Tyranid models just for the interest of painting them.... but I know that that's how it starts. Like just about everyone in this hobby, I have plenty of grey models to be getting on with before buying anything new!