Space Hulk: the Downward Spiral

KingPut wrote:

I didn't paint the bottoms underside. After ready Skelly's comments #5, I'm thinking I should go back at paint the bottom underside.

I don't prime the bottom of the bases (though often they will get primed by 'accident') however I find that if I don't lie the figure down and give it another spray I end up with bare armpits and crotches and stuff.

Also just to clarify for shellhead - a 'spray' is one press of the nozzel - finger isn't even on there for a second. That's all it needs, otherwise the fig will end up a dripping mess.

I do what Skelly does. If you line them up diagonally across the box you can spray the fronts, backs, and sides without having to move them (if you line them up straight, the sides are a little harder to get to). Also, instead of a box, I use a piece of plywood, then I don't have to knock them over to get the underside (usually).

Great tips, thanks guys. I lucked out and discovered that one of the guys in my Call of Cthulhu group is into Warhammer 40k, so he wants me to bring my figures over to his painting room, so I don't have to worry about weather conditions for the priming. It will be a few days, though, I've got a couple of long days at work at the start of this week.

Setting up the figures diagonally for the priming sounds smart. It took me a while to find out that the proper spraying difference was about 12 inches away. And while I knew it was important to apply light coats, I'm sure that I would have overkilled it with my early efforts if Skeletor hadn't told me how light a spray is involved.

The next big step after priming will be my first efforts at painting. Again, I plan to practice on some zombies first, then sprues for the proper texture. This step will have a big impact on the rest of this project, because if I suck at painting the bigger stuff, that will cut down a lot on the detail work that I try to do.

Just don't discouraged if your models aren't of 'Eavy Metal quality (GW's paint team) or at the level of stronger painters you might know locally.

Just do your best and paint something you can be proud of. I find the completed product of a painted miniature to be extremely satisfying.

I've only been painting minis for around 1.5 years now, but I can see a definite improvement in my earliest minis compared to my newest stuff. Patience, attention to detail, and practice, practice, practice.

I'm also a batch painter as well. I usually work on minis in groups of 5-10 or so at a time.

Lagduf wrote:

Just don't discouraged if your models aren't of 'Eavy Metal quality (GW's paint team) or at the level of stronger painters you might know locally.

Hah, good point! I did buy the recent Space Hulk issue of White Dwarf for additional photo references on how to paint these figures. There was a very specific article on how to paint Sergeant Lorenzo that called for the use of 32 different Citadel colors, including 2 washes and 5 foundations.

For example, 'Eavy Metal's artist did the armor in eight stages, using various mixes of Blood Red, Dark Flesh, Chaos Black, Blazing Orange, Vomit Brown, and Baal Red, for a base coat, high-lighting, a wash, and more high-lighting.

I bought the nine-color starter kit, plus the specific color of purple that matches Gene-Stealer skin, and I am hoping to get by with just those ten colors, plus maybe some tints and shades that I can create by mixing colors. Maybe I will break down and buy a couple more colors, like Mechrite Red for the armor, and some kind of flesh tone for some faces. Probably just the Mechrite Red, because my friend offered to let me use his paints, too.

A thought. If you can afford it - or have any older models lying around - you might want to do some practice figures first. Those are detailed and complex models to be attempting for a first stab at painting.

Oh, absolutely. I've got hundreds of plastic zombies to work with, though I probably won't be painting the ones that glow in the dark. I will definitely be using them for target practice for spray primer, and then later for practice with dry brushing and dipping. And since I realize that the zombies aren't the same texture as these Space Hulk figures, I kept the Space Hulk sprues for additional painting practice.

This is a downward spiral indeed! And it one spiral I'm actively trying to resist. With all the miniature games I buy and then look at the pictures of painted mini's I get the crazy idea to go and paint myself. Then after tallying up how much this is gonna cost me and the fact that I do have some artistic talent but I'm not gonna paint nearly as well that it will satisfy me always has gotten the upperhand. But I feel with the release of Space Hulk 3e this resistance has been crumbling. BAH!

Shellhead wrote:

Oh, absolutely. I've got hundreds of plastic zombies to work with, though I probably won't be painting the ones that glow in the dark. I will definitely be using them for target practice for spray primer, and then later for practice with dry brushing and dipping. And since I realize that the zombies aren't the same texture as these Space Hulk figures, I kept the Space Hulk sprues for additional painting practice.

It's definitely nice to have some crap to practice on...This is why I still have my old Battle Masters set. Just be aware that the zombies (I assume from Zombies!) are probably much less detailed.

I totally caved and bought a copy on Friday during my lunch hour. But I've resigned myself to having unpainted minis. Looking at some of the pics online of people's paint jobs...I don't think any amount of practice could get me there. I don't have the patience or skill to pull it off.

JoelCFC25 wrote:

I totally caved and bought a copy on Friday during my lunch hour. But I've resigned myself to having unpainted minis. Looking at some of the pics online of people's paint jobs...I don't think any amount of practice could get me there. I don't have the patience or skill to pull it off.

I've got a sprue cutter and exacto knife you can borrow for your unpainted assembly work, though the exacto knife blade probably needs replacing after I used it to apply putty yesterday.

Heh, my wife is a kindergarten teacher, so I have all kinds of supplies laying around the house. I put them together this weekend. The only mishap was breaking a peg off Brother Leon, which required gluing on the arm carrying his big cannon thing. Otherwise I had no problems with fitment of arms onto bodies.

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but one thing I like for priming is getting a bunch of stir sticks from the paint department at a hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes. They're about an inch and a half wide and about a foot long. Take a good amount of sticky tack or some other suitable material (I suppose chewing gum would work as well), put a glob down onto the stick and then plop the model down onto it. Since you have plastic models, they sticky-tack should hold it onto the stick allowing you to turn and rotate the model to make sure the primer gets into all the hard to reach places. It also prevents the primer from getting mucked up if you put the model on its side to get the underside.

EDIT: Just to clarify, the stir sticks I'm talking about are typically free, made of wood and used to stir 1 gallon or 5 gallon buckets of paint.

LordVonTush wrote:

Sorry if this has been mentioned, but one thing I like for priming is getting a bunch of stir sticks from the paint department at a hardware store like Home Depot or Lowes. They're about an inch and a half wide and about a foot long. Take a good amount of sticky tack or some other suitable material (I suppose chewing gum would work as well), put a glob down onto the stick and then plop the model down onto it. Since you have plastic models, they sticky-tack should hold it onto the stick allowing you to turn and rotate the model to make sure the primer gets into all the hard to reach places. It also prevents the primer from getting mucked up if you put the model on its side to get the underside.

EDIT: Just to clarify, the stir sticks I'm talking about are typically free, made of wood and used to stir 1 gallon or 5 gallon buckets of paint.

Good advice. I use "small" stir sticks and double-sided tape, and it works really well.

I've finished all my descent/runebound figs (I only painted 1 set of heroes and just swap them in between the games) so I was debating what game to do next.
Space Hulk lost, ended up undercoating chaos in the old world.