PiXeL01`s attempts, Maybe my enemy will be dumbfounded this

[AL-PiXeL01]

First of all I admit I have very little skill in painting figures and I have next to none experience either, so what you might witness in this thread might horrify you.

So tonight I brought home some new paint and figures and decided to give it all a try again and during the more than five hours I sat in front of this single Havok I learned quite a few things.

One was that Hawk Turquise and a black handpainted undercoat doesnt go so well together. The hawk doesnt cover it so a second painted was needed in a few areas.

Also I discovered I still dont have a clue about how to highlight! I guess I need someone to physically show me the best way since my reading comprehension seems to just fail in this area.

so before my HL attempt:



and then after



I guess it ended up being a bad drybrushing instead!

Maybe I should just paint the rest of the squad without attempting anything fancy ... Ah well, no guts, no glory!
Also I need more paints!

[WarpWhisperer]

Well, it's not a bad start I'd experiment with painting an Asurmen Blue wash over all the bule/green and seeing how it looks after that. In general, Citadel washes cover a multitude of sins and help create a very nice tabletop-worthy paintjob. Badab black over silver/boltgun metal is priceless.

The trick to highlighting is to imagine where the light is 'coming from' on the model (normally from above) and paint the areas that would be exposed to the most light.

There's also edge highlighting, which is painting a line over any sharp/pronounced edge on the model - the best way to acheive this is to put a little paint on your brush and then brush it down the edge the want to paint, whilst holding the tip of the brush perpendicular to the edge you're highlighting. Not always possible with some parts of a model, but a general rule nonetheless. Only small amounts of paint aswell, although not always as thinned down as you might use on flatter areas, as it needs to be strong enough to work with little paint on the brush.

What purple/blue did you use on the heavy bolter?

[AL-PiXeL01]

Thanks for the tips I'll try that later today. Maybe I am using the wrong color for highlighting (scorpion green) as well. Been thinking I might get a better result if I watered it down a little.

Also I am surprised by the amount of paint on my brush each time. I barely touch it but it seems to be saturated ah practice and yes I am a novice ^^

Oh, thats Liche(?) purple. The colors used on him are Undercoat Black, Hawk Turquise, Skull White, Mordian Blue, Mechrite red, Chainmail and probably Tallarn Flesh (not home atm,sorry)

[WarpWhisperer]

Well, for 'standard' highlighting, you'd normally use a lighter version of the base colour that you're highlighting. But with AL, green highlighing on blue is one of the exceptions that makes us cooler than the rest

[Excessus]

For skulls and bones I usually go with Bleached bone and wash with devlan mud.

I can only echo the statement that washes are really really good! I use a lot of badab black and devlan mud on my metal components to make them look more 'gritty', and with a layer of asurmen blue my AL:s nuances of blue/turquoise blend together very well!


Remember that Chaos Space Marines are some of the most complicated models to paint in the whole range, with lots of small details and strange decorations. If you can master CSM painting then you can handle anything!

[AL-PiXeL01]

Thanks, really appreciate all your words of wisdom
So I did go down and bought the blue wash and it helped! (not that you would be able to see much of a difference because of my iphone camera though :/ ) Close-ups tend to draw out all the little misses, but from a far he looks better I added some Bleashed bone to the skull as well, that helped a little too.

Uh, and more inks for the paint shopping list.

Also I got back into painting tonight (after a break to read the game rules! Lots of changes after 15 years and when did they remove different movements rates or is that only for fantasy?) and the result turned out like this:

Base:


Highlighted and inked:


Please note these pictures are taken with an iphone (not the best camera) and things do look a little better from a far.

I think the highlighting has become better. I have however been thinking to take one of my marines down to the local store and then ask a clerk to physically show me how (again) and where highlighting should be applied. Having an example I can examing time and time again would be a great help for me. right now I scrutinize pics on the internet and this forum for clues ^^
I did try to do what you guys told (it helped) but with sometimes I just need my hand held :/

Next task - that plasma gun marine I assempled... I really should stop adding their backpack until they HAVE been painted

Thanks again

[ageis]

looks much better with the wash mate. i think if you want a good example of highlighting as a guide for your own stuff you need only look at a few other topics here. some of our guys have some amazing stuff

[WarpWhisperer]

That second guy looks good It's a very good showing on the highlighting; you've picked out most of the right places to do

I'd say the next step of imrpovement would be to buy Badab Black for the metallic parts (and probabaly the purple parts too); though I do feel a little guilty I keep suggestting you go out and spend more money

I should also tell you that Chaos Space Marines can sometimes be quite hard to highlight, as a lot of the natural places to highlight (when compared to a loyalist marine) end up having the armour trim on them instead.

For info: the movement stat went out with 3rd edition; it's all about the troop types now.

[Duskrunner]

You are off to a great start PiXeL. There are quite a bit of resources out on the web (Wasnt so much when I started painting; Ral Partha Painting leaflet anyone?)

First place to start is of course right here. The Legion has an excellent resource on how to paint a couple of different schemes.

If you have not been to Cool Mini or Not I highly recommend doing so. There is a good number of articles (as well as a bunch of other stuff) that can help you out with things you dont even know that you need help with. I still learn alot from there. Keep in mind that if you decide to post an example of your work in the gallery that you will need a thick skin. Anyone can judge your work, and the judges are quite harsh.

Another resource to use is Mini War Gaming. They offer a couple of free tutorials now and again, but most of the good stuff is in the Vault, which is a monthly subscription service to their painting articles. The good part of that however is the articles are mostly videos, so you can watch and see what they are doing.

If you have a little cash to spend I recommend the Hot Lead Series. The guy goes over a good number of techniques, from the supplies you will need to how to paint gems and NMM.

I have not gotten Miniature Painting Secrets DVD bundle - Jennifer Haley and Natalya Melnik as of yet...yet (looks at wife). These ladies are big names in the area of miniature painting, and they go in depth with advance techniques. Might be something to consider down the road.

Also dont forget YouTube.

You are doing better than quite a few armies I have seen as of late. With practice your skill will improve.

[AL-PiXeL01]

Thanks for all the tips and comments. Really appreciate it ^^

The paint job is slowly progressing to the paint where I have six figures assempled and three painted. Each sees some improvement but also exposes more areas I need to look into some more.
Been painting often enough ( or just talked enough) that my girlfriend is willing to give it a try on one of the marines. She is sure she will do it a lot better than I have so far.

Waiting with a new picture until I can show an entire squad ^^

[cunvikted]

Your stuff looks like its coming along nicely, believe me, it's a lot better than when I started


Happy gaming

[AL-PiXeL01]

So I have decided to begin on my "Thousand" squad, which means going pre hesery Thousand Sons colors sans the left shoulder pad for my five man vehicle hunter element of my little band. I have read a few threads here and there about how to paint the things and I went for Mechrite Red + Blood Red for the armor and Dwarf Bronze with Burnished Gold for trims with possible chainmail skulls here and there.

Now my question is do I still undercoat the whole thing black before throwing myself at the red or can I skip that?




PS: The Thousand are Legionnaires that have trained alongside Thousand Sons and combine AL and TS tactics and are very often minor psykers. I plan to have all my librarians running this scheme as well.

[WarpWhisperer]

Yes; black undercoat works much better when painting metallics over the top, and if mechrite red is going to be your base coat, it'll work fine over the black too. Undercoat also helps subsequent layers adhere well

[AL-PiXeL01]

So ... It has been a while since I have updated any progress when my cell and well things has been slow.

Overall progress among my "mighty" CSM looks like this:



First half


Second half


So now I have painted 7 / 10 Chaos Marines, but since they are to make three squads I have completed a single one of those just yet.

[AL-PiXeL01]

So on to the individual marines in cronological order:

First, a plasma gunner - Personally I think the result was good. Still have highlight issues but better this time.
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