Any Warhammer 40k'ers on here?

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I've done a little every evening recently.

 

What would've been PC game time has become painting and music / footie time.

It's been very theraputic.

[Slarty66]

 

Work in progress....

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Nice job!

[Slarty66]

Still trying to get my painting technique up to scratch! Getting there!

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Still trying to get my painting technique up to scratch! Getting there!

It mostly comes from practice, but there's more help these days than when i started.

 

The Citadel Colour app is useful for giving colour guides and video tutorials.

Youtube is also tremendous for individual tutorials.

 

Its far easier to learn now than it used to be when you'd try and pick up guides in the 'Eavy Metal section of a White Dwarf Mag.

[Garacesh]

Still trying to get my painting technique up to scratch! Getting there!

 

A steady hand, 3 good brushes (basecoat, drybrush, detail), and some patience are all you need to get a tabletop-ready standard. Base coat a few bits of sprue or components you aren't using and use them to get your technique/thinning ratios/layers sorted - nobody wants to be stripping models! There's a great YouTube channel called Midwinter Minis that covers a lot of beginner-friendly tips that'll get your models ready in no time.

 

Personally I've found some good results with contrast paints if you're looking to save a bit of time. I wouldn't recommend doing a full model with them, because of their transparency you'd need to be super precise, but applying a thin base coat of somewhere between grey and white and then putting contrast on top gets some good effects. Don't believe GW that you have to use Wraithbone, you absolutely don't. I'm just using standard Hycote grey plastic primer. So far I've used Pallid Wych Flesh + Skeleton Horde for bones, Pallid Wych Flesh + Aethermatic Blue + Pallid Wych Flesh again for ghostly-blue skin, and I'm using straight Flesh Tearer's Red for my under-armour (or Flesh Tearer's Red drybrushed with Pallid Wych Flesh for the Wracks and other such flesh abominations)

 

For brushes, I personally swear by Army Painter's 'Wargamer' range of brushes, but they can get expensive! I only have the Detail brush at the moment but I do plan on picking up a few more.

Aside from that, for the love of Get-Random("Gork","Mork","Slaanesh","Khorne","Tzeentch","Nurgle","Ynnead") do not buy nylon brushes! The ends will always end up curled and you'll have to throw them away. Buy sable/horse hair brushes. At the moment I'm using these and they're doing me well.

 

I hope at least some of that is helpful

Edited November 13, 2020 by Garacesh

[Slarty66]

A steady hand, 3 good brushes (basecoat, drybrush, detail), and some patience are all you need to get a tabletop-ready standard. Base coat a few bits of sprue or components you aren't using and use them to get your technique/thinning ratios/layers sorted - nobody wants to be stripping models! There's a great YouTube channel called Midwinter Minis that covers a lot of beginner-friendly tips that'll get your models ready in no time.

 

Personally I've found some good results with contrast paints if you're looking to save a bit of time. I wouldn't recommend doing a full model with them, because of their transparency you'd need to be super precise, but applying a thin base coat of somewhere between grey and white and then putting contrast on top gets some good effects. Don't believe GW that you have to use Wraithbone, you absolutely don't. I'm just using standard Hycote grey plastic primer. So far I've used Pallid Wych Flesh + Skeleton Horde for bones, Pallid Wych Flesh + Aethermatic Blue + Pallid Wych Flesh again for ghostly-blue skin, and I'm using straight Flesh Tearer's Red for my under-armour (or Flesh Tearer's Red drybrushed with Pallid Wych Flesh for the Wracks and other such flesh abominations)

 

For brushes, I personally swear by Army Painter's 'Wargamer' range of brushes, but they can get expensive! I only have the Detail brush at the moment but I do plan on picking up a few more.

Aside from that, for the love of Get-Random("Gork","Mork","Slaanesh","Khorne","Tzeentch","Nurgle","Ynnead") do not buy nylon brushes! The ends will always end up curled and you'll have to throw them away. Buy sable/horse hair brushes. At the moment I'm using these and they're doing me well.

 

I hope at least some of that is helpful

Excellent tips, thank you.

[jthompson]

Lahmian medium is my latest revelation. I use that in place of water when thinning layer paints now. I get much better control when doing details.

[Garacesh]

Lahmian medium is my latest revelation. I use that in place of water when thinning layer paints now. I get much better control when doing details.

 

I've been meaning to pick up some of that, but I've heard people say the difference isn't really noticeable unless you're airbrushing.

[jthompson]

I find it allows me to get a more translucent layer of colour without going watery.

[Duranis]

Best tips I can give are:

 

Use a wet pallete and thin your paints. A wet pallete is easy to make, get a plate or shallow container, put some kitchen roll on it and pour on water so its slightly flooded, put some grease proof paper on top. I have a small take away container I use and with the lid on I have had paints stay usable for days. It also aids thinning paints.

 

You can thin you paints with water, acrylic medium or a mix of both. There is no right answer and what works best can depend on what you are looking to do.

Using water will give very thin coats that dry super quick. This is good for glazing techniques. I tend to use this a lot more as I tend to use glazing instead of wet blending.

Using acrylic medium will give slightly thicker coats that takes longer to dry. This is good for wet blending techniques.

 

You don't need tiny brushes. You need ones with good tips. A larger brush can work out better as it holds more paint and will give a better flow.

 

Look on ebay for a bunch of cheap models. Use these only for testing paint schemes and practicing. I got a box of goblins (probably about 40 of them) for a couple of quid and they work great. Enough detail to be useful for testing different things but small/simple enough that I can finish them off quickly. Works great to see how different colours work against each other or to try out something new. Because they are cheap and I have no other use for them I never have the worry of "I don't want to try that because I might mess it up". That's also the reason I love Gaslands, toy cars can be bought for pennies and any mistakes are easy to "fix" with "battle damage".

 

Washes are amazing. They don't have to just be chucked on right out the pot all over the model (though sometimes that can work too). Dilute them down to use for shading or changing tones, use with a detail brush to pick out panel lines, use them after your first base coat to help show where to put shadows. A good use of washes can make an OK looking model look outstanding.

 

If you struggle to figure out where you should be shading and highlighting do a two part primer. Prime the whole model in black or grey, wait for it to dry then do a VERY light coat of white primer from directly above. This pre shades/highlights the model for you. It is possible from this point to just use glazes to finish the model and all your shading is already done as the glazes will allow the shade/highlight spots to show through. Even if you don't use that technique take a couple of photos and you have a guide for where to highlight/shade that specific model.

 

Get a decent light and set your workspace up so your hands are supported by a solid surface. I have seen so many people trying to paint tiny details while hold both the model and their painting hand in the air. Both hands are moving around and shaking and you will never get clean results. Attach your model to something you can grip properly (I use a small spice jar with blutack on top), rest both hands on your work surface.

 

Get a book and write down what colours/mixes and techniques you used for a particular style/model. You might remember exactly how you did it now but in 3 months time when you get another model to add to that unit you wont remember. Particularly good if your like me and sometimes goes a year or more between painting anything. Over time you build up quite a nice "recipe book" of colours and techniques which is a brilliant resource.

[jthompson]

Best tips I can give are:

Get a book and write down what colours/mixes and techniques you used for a particular style/model. You might remember exactly how you did it now but in 3 months time when you get another model to add to that unit you wont remember. Particularly good if your like me and sometimes goes a year or more between painting anything. Over time you build up quite a nice "recipe book" of colours and techniques which is a brilliant resource.

 

Great tips, thanks. I totally second this one, though. Since every different detail on the mini will need at least a few different stages of colour, writing them down means you can paint more units at a later date and be confident of hitting the exact same look.

[Garacesh]

Use a wet pallete and thin your paints. A wet pallete is easy to make, get a plate or shallow container, put some kitchen roll on it and pour on water so its slightly flooded, put some grease proof paper on top. I have a small take away container I use and with the lid on I have had paints stay usable for days. It also aids thinning paints.

Absolutely A+ - I should've mentioned that!

I did eventually end up buying one of these which is absolutely fantastic and holds its water for way longer, but some kitchen roll and baking parchment will absolutely set you right for a long while.

 

I do have a .txt document of 'recipes' on my PC though. Nothing worse than trying to figure out how you did something 6 months ago!

Edited November 16, 2020 by Garacesh

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Not found time for any serious painting lately but I did manage to finish off my Wolf Guard Battle Leader.

 

Tried a few new things on his so he's a bit of an experiment. I am chuffed with the glowing runes on the shield, however.

 

[Duranis]

Nice. Those runes do look really great! Good idea using it as a spot colour for the panel lines too. Brings it all together but helps break up the armor sections and show up the details.

[jthompson]

I've managed to spend quite a bit of time painting my little plastic spacemen lately. Most recently completed is this pair of Armigers, which tie in nicely with my little plastic robot men from Mars.

 

One of the things I find rewarding about this hobby is that I feel like I generally learn something about technique with each unit that I do. In this instance, I learned that painting white is hard!

 

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I've managed to spend quite a bit of time painting my little plastic spacemen lately. Most recently completed is this pair of Armigers, which tie in nicely with my little plastic robot men from Mars.

 

One of the things I find rewarding about this hobby is that I feel like I generally learn something about technique with each unit that I do. In this instance, I learned that painting white is hard!

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]61265[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]61266[/ATTACH]

 

Those are superb! I agree about learning something new each time. I've picked up so much in the last year or so.

I keep meaning to learn how to do the effect that you've done so well on the meltas

[jthompson]

Thank you.

 

Yeah, the 'heat bloom' effect was quite easy and fun to do. Lahmian Medium is required, along with regular yellow, red and blue paints.

 

Start off with the muzzle painted in quite a bright metallic (Ironbreaker, I think I used), then use plenty of medium with 5 stages of colour (yellow, yellow+red, red, red+blue, blue), with each stage getting progressively shorter until the blue is really just on the very end only. The medium gives it a sheen, so I used some Matt varnish just on the blue end to dull it right down.

[Garacesh]

I really need to get me some thinner and practice layering.

 

 

This is my latest, but I know if I practised some layering, the Agoniser, cloth and hair could be so much better.

 

Edit: stupid sideways photo bug.

Edited March 23, 2021 by Garacesh

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Thank you.

 

Yeah, the 'heat bloom' effect was quite easy and fun to do. Lahmian Medium is required, along with regular yellow, red and blue paints.

 

Start off with the muzzle painted in quite a bright metallic (Ironbreaker, I think I used), then use plenty of medium with 5 stages of colour (yellow, yellow+red, red, red+blue, blue), with each stage getting progressively shorter until the blue is really just on the very end only. The medium gives it a sheen, so I used some Matt varnish just on the blue end to dull it right down.[ATTACH]61273[/ATTACH]

 

Thanks for that!

 

I'll be ordering some medium and giving this a go shortly!

[soapyfish]

I have been collecting Deathguard since just before lockdown, but still to get a game in due to lockdown, perhaps I will get the whole force painted before the 1st game!

 

 

[Garacesh]

They look gross! Those yellow pussy strands from the first model genuinely got a bit of an "eww" reaction from me even though I knew it was just a model.

 

You did good!

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Those look absolutely awful (in a good way)!

 

Grandfather Nurgle would be proud.

[ICTDirect_Dave]

I picked up a full 10-marine pack of lead 1992 Space Wolves Blood Claws on ebay a few weeks ago.

Neither painted nor assembled and they only cost £10 which is a streal for the older miniatures.

 

I've built them up using arms from the modern plastic space wolves sprues and a mixture of new and old shoulder pads.

 

Nearly painted them all, but I finished the Sarge last night. Here he is in all his ginger glory!

 

[ICTDirect_Dave]

Following on from the last post. Here's the full squad all finished

 

 

 

I'm chuffed with these. Still deciding if I want to add transfers or paint a design on the knee and shoulder pads though.