Tips on painting miniatures

[Gilhelmi]

I am getting into Warhammer 40k. I want to learn how to paint the miniatures.

I have a brush set with all the various sizes of brushes
8 colors of paint

I am painting my Space Marines with 2nd company colors (the traditional Ultra Marine Blue)

are there any tips anyone can give me to get started?

 

[Zykon TheLich]

*cough cough*

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.191553.6007454

But anway, I'd spray primer in white while they are still on the sprue, then basecoat with a dark blue foundation paint like necron abyss and all the other bits with their respective colours. Then take off the sprue and touch em up. Then go over that with lighter blue, I think they make ultramarine blue, leaving a little of the other to show through in areas that should be shaded. Then glue them together, then highlight and maybe a blue wash afterwards. Then do all the fiddly detailed bits, or sometimes do them before gluing together, makes it easier. Then varnish.

Or paint ultramarine blue onto white primer, then blue wash and a little highlight. Remember on marines it's generally best to do less highlighting but when you do make it much lighter than the basecoat and only put it on the sharper corners etc, also, it may seem wrong, but don't highlight the shoulder pads except the edges of the trim...or whatever it's called, the ridge round the outside...you know what I mean.

 

[insaneHoshi]

*cough cough*

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.191553.6007454

But anway, I'd spray primer in white while they are still on the sprue, then basecoat with a dark blue foundation paint like necron abyss and all the other bits with their respective colours. Then take off the sprue and touch em up. Then go over that with lighter blue, I think they make ultramarine blue, leaving a little of the other to show through in areas that should be shaded. Then glue them together, then highlight and maybe a blue wash afterwards. Then do all the fiddly detailed bits, or sometimes do them before gluing together, makes it easier. Then varnish.

I agree, I would only assemble the Torso and keep the arms heads and guns on the sprue. Another thing i would invest in is one of these work lights that have a Magnifying glass, great for the details.

And everyone knows its all about the 3rd

 

[Gilhelmi]

*cough cough*

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.191553.6007454

But anway, I'd spray primer in white while they are still on the sprue, then basecoat with a dark blue foundation paint like necron abyss and all the other bits with their respective colours. Then take off the sprue and touch em up. Then go over that with lighter blue, I think they make ultramarine blue, leaving a little of the other to show through in areas that should be shaded. Then glue them together, then highlight and maybe a blue wash afterwards. Then do all the fiddly detailed bits, or sometimes do them before gluing together, makes it easier. Then varnish.

Or paint ultramarine blue onto white primer, then blue wash and a little highlight. Remember on marines it's generally best to do less highlighting but when you do make it much lighter than the basecoat and only put it on the sharper corners etc, also, it may seem wrong, but don't highlight the shoulder pads except the edges of the trim...or whatever it's called, the ridge round the outside...you know what I mean.

OK, let us say that I already assembled the army. Is there a second best way or tip?

(In my defense, wanted to start fighting right away.)

 

[Zykon TheLich]

OK, let us say that I already assembled the army. Is there a second best way or tip?

(In my defense, wanted to start fighting right away.)

Primer them in black or white, try each a couple of times till you see which you prefer, but pretty much as above, it'll be trickier but doable. Remember, try highlighting with a mix of the original and a lighter version of the same colour rather than just adding white, stops it turning chalky.

 

[Ekonk]

Don't forget to use a small brush!

Yes, my advice on these matters is useless.

 

[xzenopredator]

i've been collecting a good few years now and i always painted the models after putting them together,its easier to know where to shade and highlight.but if your fairly new and doing an army id recomend a pretty basic painting guide
-spray paint them black (black because any little bits you miss wont stand out as much on the model)
-paint all the little metal parts on the model bolt gun metal eg. parts of the guns,joints of the armour,the backpack
-paint their armour mordian blue
-edges of shoulder pads yellow
-paint eyes,carefully,youll get better at that as you go along (i recomend green or red)
-wash the model with a devlan mud wash (or as i call it,the miracle wash)
-wait till it dries,then highlight the colours with the original colour used

i think thats it,any questions,feel free to ask and as for varnish,its not essential on plastic models,at all,but if you do,make sure its a mat varnish,shiny marines sounds nice..but looks bad

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Ok, since that one didn't post, just spray primer it black or white dependng on preferrence, then go over with ultramarine blue then wash with asurmen blue if you used white, or necron abyss or similar if you used black etc, basically what I said before, it's just a bit more fiddly.

 

[Gilhelmi]

-wash the model with a devlan mud wash (or as i call it,the miracle wash)

What is that?

 

[crotalidian]

As someone who made some serious painting mistakes. here are my absolute noob tip:

Less is more: Dont have a huge amount of paint on your brush. Ultramarines are a pretty solid deep blue so you should be alright but painting Space Wolves with a paint heavy brush did not go well for me.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

-wash the model with a devlan mud wash (or as i call it,the miracle wash)

What is that?

A wash, special type of paint that GW make.

It has it's uses but I think it is overused. A lot of models I've seen on display at GW's use excess of brown washes and it gives all the models a similar look. Not that they look bad, it's great for obscuring joins and tiny mistakes and the final effects make great dirty looking models (nurgle followers for example) but it's not necessarily useful for every model.

 

[xzenopredator]

-wash the model with a devlan mud wash (or as i call it,the miracle wash)

What is that?

its like a slightly watered down ink,and when it dries its not shiny,very handy for shading whole armies and not breaking your fingers doing it

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

No, not more Smurfs! Don't we have enough of them?

Personal prefrences aside, I'm not the best painter in the world, so I don't have that much good advice to give ya. But I'll give you what little tips I can.

1. Priming the models before doing the actual painting helps to keep the paint on when done and also gives the model a nice base color to start off with (white for brighter models, black for darker ones)
2. The foundation paints that GW has out are good to help put on a base for a "trickier" color. Red and yellow both tend to not give a nice solid color and usually require more than one layer to get the right effect. Foundation paints help to give you a nice base of red or yellow that you can put your particular shade over.
3. Don't glob the paint on. It can run all over and end up being more work. Plus you can always add more paint on, but you can't take it away.
4. Work within your skill level. If you don't want your entire army to be highly detailed, don't bother with it. Save the details for "center-piece" models like characters and vehicles. Since you're playing as Da Marines this shouldn't be as big as a problem, but as an Ork player (WAAAAAAAAAGH! and all that) painting 60+ ork boyz can get really boring. So most of them ended up with a really basic paint job.
5. Paint how you want to. Its your army paint it however you want. The great thing about GW models is that even if the paint job isn't the best, you can at least say "But I painted it!"

 

[Gilhelmi]

No, not more Smurfs! Don't we have enough of them?

Personal prefrences aside, I'm not the best painter in the world, so I don't have that much good advice to give ya. But I'll give you what little tips I can.

1. Priming the models before doing the actual painting helps to keep the paint on when done and also gives the model a nice base color to start off with (white for brighter models, black for darker ones)
2. The foundation paints that GW has out are good to help put on a base for a "trickier" color. Red and yellow both tend to not give a nice solid color and usually require more than one layer to get the right effect. Foundation paints help to give you a nice base of red or yellow that you can put your particular shade over.
3. Don't glob the paint on. It can run all over and end up being more work. Plus you can always add more paint on, but you can't take it away.
4. Work within your skill level. If you don't want your entire army to be highly detailed, don't bother with it. Save the details for "center-piece" models like characters and vehicles. Since you're playing as Da Marines this shouldn't be as big as a problem, but as an Ork player (WAAAAAAAAAGH! and all that) painting 60+ ork boyz can get really boring. So most of them ended up with a really basic paint job.
5. Paint how you want to. Its your army paint it however you want. The great thing about GW models is that even if the paint job isn't the best, you can at least say "But I painted it!"

I did have a neat Idea for a new chapter called 'Bravo Foxtrot: Serra Hotel' (Military slang for 'Buddy F****r: S*** Hole'). They are the ones with a discipline problem, they spoke out of turn, they contradicted their sergeants, they ran like coward. Now they are cannon fodder, Striped of Impirum seals and blessings of the Emperor. All they have left is their armor and weapons. The Chapter Master is a man named (To be determined) Who spoke out of turn to the Emperor himself. Instead of having him killed on the spot the Emperor showed a small grace and instead placed him in charge of the 'BF:SH' Chapter as punishment. After years of service and winning many battles that most leaders would have lost (To be determined) was granted a pardon and told he could be restored as a Chapter Master of a 'real' Chapter. Humbly, (To be determined) asked the Emperor if he could stay at 'BF:SH' in order to restore discipline to these men and serve the Emperor as Warden. Agreeing to this, the Emperor restored all rights and titles to (To be determined) alone saying that "it is necessary to keep the traitors under control, and you may be they best for the job".

The banner is very bland with only a X where the crest should be, and where the motto was says, 'The Traitors'. I have not worked out a color pattern yet for the Marines. I would appreciate any ideas on that.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

*cough cough*

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/18.191553.6007454

But anway, I'd spray primer in white while they are still on the sprue, then basecoat with a dark blue foundation paint like necron abyss and all the other bits with their respective colours. Then take off the sprue and touch em up. Then go over that with lighter blue, I think they make ultramarine blue, leaving a little of the other to show through in areas that should be shaded. Then glue them together, then highlight and maybe a blue wash afterwards. Then do all the fiddly detailed bits, or sometimes do them before gluing together, makes it easier. Then varnish.

Or paint ultramarine blue onto white primer, then blue wash and a little highlight. Remember on marines it's generally best to do less highlighting but when you do make it much lighter than the basecoat and only put it on the sharper corners etc, also, it may seem wrong, but don't highlight the shoulder pads except the edges of the trim...or whatever it's called, the ridge round the outside...you know what I mean.

OK, let us say that I already assembled the army. Is there a second best way or tip?

(In my defense, wanted to start fighting right away.)

Never ever do that again. Take it from someone who has done this with normal Warhammer and had to try paint around shields. As for what to do now try get a small brush and be careful with it. Also don't be surprise if your first attempt is not great looking especially given the hurdle of painting assembled units. Do not glob paint on and when you are using spray if you do make sure to keep it a fair distant away from units as to keep nice detail on models.