What Minis Are You Painting?

WOW, they look great for first back into it!!! What guides did you use?

Very nice job, Blatz!

Thanks, guys! I used the Warhammer TV tutorial here as a basis:

I didn't want to dry brush the armor so I highlighted with a layer of Evil Sunz Scarlet instead.

So here's my very first attempt at painting miniatures, ever. This uses the Space Marine + Paint Set kit from GW. A couple of the paints were really garbage, especially the white, which was almost creamy. The primer that came with the set was basically unusable, so I grabbed another pot of Imperial Primer (since that's what they had at the stores I frequent.

The only thing I really am unhappy with (that isn't really visible here) is the white on the shoulders. I also am kind of a messy painter, as you can see from the bases. I just held them myself and painted them, but in future I'm definitely going to stick them on some blue tack and a pill bottle or something. My son was fidgeting with the paints in their tray, and switched around the two washes, so I grabbed the wrong one when washing the blue, and I had used it on all three minis before realizing it. So they look kind of dingy, which is unfortunate.

About halfway through the blue basecoat, I realized that I much preferred using the paints without any water added. Is that pretty common?

But when I look at them, I feel like they worked out pretty well. I'd be just fine with these guys on the table. And a weird thing happened: when I finished up I wished I had more painting to do. So today I went out and bought some supplies for myself. Thanks a lot you guys, now look what you made me do.

This looks very cool, in particular for the first time. Although you have also so strategically taken the picture to make those shoulder-pads less obvious
(mine looked worse and I am still terrified of the ultramarine sign)
But yeah, you bring them on the table with people who don't paint miniatures (like 99.9999% of world population) and they will extremely glad and impressed.

Those Marines look great, man. I had the same feeling after I was done so it's lucky I have a human and skaven team to paint still. Hope my wife loves her alone time.

Having the process demystified is pretty nice. I read up a LOT beforehand, so there was a lot of advice rattling around in my head. I knew to not overload the brush and slop it on there. My one downfall is that I can be kind of shaky-handed sometimes, but I think if I can hold the mini more steady with a stand of some kind that'll help a lot.

Since moving I have yet to establish any kind of reliable gaming time. This is a piece of the hobby that can be solitary, so that's one reason I'm finally doing this. My wife is very crafty, so this is something she kind of understands, even if it's never something she'll be all that into. She is much more on board with buying paints and stuff than she is with buying another game, and I think I'm with her on that. This is a way to enjoy the stuff I already own, and even though it requires buying more, it doesn't pile up in our game room going unplayed.

Blatz has got to be sandbagging- "it's my first time, tee hee!" They look way better than an effective first time should!

Nate, your SMs look really good, that is about on par quality wise for anybody's bulk troops. If you were doing an Ultramarines army, you'd be painting like 50 of these guys so obviously they don't each have to look like Golden Demon figures.

There's a couple of things you could do to bring them to the next level:

- water slide decals- do not freehand the U. Get a $3 sheet of UM transfers. Takes like two minutes and they look perfect.

- Balthasar Gold is really too dark for UMs, IMO- I'd drybrush that with Gehenna's Gold or something.

- Paint the lenses white and put dot of Bloodletter (a glaze) in them. It gives a glassy, glowing effect.

- You would be shocked at how much of a bump in quality a little more basing will give. Glue some rocks on there, put some of the self-adhesive scrub brush that Army Painter makes on there. Rim the base edge with Steel Legion Drab or XV-88- good neutral colors for any terrain type.

- You can smooth out that dinginess with a light wash of Drakenhof Nightshade (Citadel's blue shade).

As for water...if you watch the GW tutorials, they tell you to thin it down with each color. That is good advice if you are doing their Duncan Rhodes house style because you need really thin coats of translucent paint to make that work. For the laymen interested in tabletop quality models, I find that leaving a little water on the brush when you load it usually thins it enough for even, smooth coverage. But it depends on the color too- I put all yellows and oranges on straight from the pot.

Heh, not sandbagging at all but appreciate the compliment. I read a ton of shit and watched a bunch of videos before starting in. So much good advice here it's hard to go wrong!

I'm beggining to see the allure of 40k and AOS. There's something inherently cool about playing a game that looks the way it does because of the effort you put into it.

Yeah, it's much cooler to look at the table and see your own hand-paints figures and terrain out there than it is to do so and see a bunch of miniatures painted by Unknown Worker #231 at Guangxiadong Industrial Factory and Living Quarters or wherever.

I've been into miniatures twice before, but this is the first time post AT, post board gaming. And I've found it all so much more satisfying. You get more involved and invested in the games, you have something to show for your time and effort, and it's actually enriching,

I was thinking the other day that I could probably ditch all but my very favorite board games and focus on the miniatures side of the hobby from now on and be happy.

It is actually really neat to go to a GW store and everyone there is playing and interested in ONE game. There aren't people dragging in Ikea bags of Kickstarter shit destined for their "one and done", there aren't people trying to figure out one game that won't offend the sensibilities of other random players, there isn't some armchair designer soliciting playtesters. Everybody came to play Warhammer, talk Warhammer, and enjoy Warhammer. I will likely never go to a public board gaming event again, but I like playing at GW and I'll probably go to a couple of local events this year.

I started priming the Space Hulk terminators tonight. They use a lot more primer than those Ultramarines did.

This is kind of a way to stay occupied in this fallow period of board gaming. More than that, I'm kind of ready to stop flitting around the board game world too, Michael. Board games are definitely what I like to play most, but chasing new games wears me out bigtime. The idea of finding one game that is my thing is quite appealing to me as well. That was the logic behind getting in D&D, and that's probably a better game for me to actually play. But this is a cool facet of the hobby for me to get into now as well. With the painting I feel like I'm actually learning some kind of skill, whether it's one I ever end up using anywhere else or not.

When I was like 12 my dad bought me a model car kit and began assembling it with me. We bought paints and everything. He used to like to assemble models when he was a kid, but that model roadster was never really very appealing to me. I think we assembled it but never did paint it. If only he had plopped down some space marines in front of me, I could have started this 20 years ago.

I've been making some progress on my Skaven Team. They just came back from an amazing game against the humans last night with a nail biting second half. Down five players I pulled off an improbable TD followed by a defensive stand leaving the humans just a few spaces away from tying the game before the clock expired.





I thin down each coat and work off a palette. But then again I also have a five step process on their skin.

I just love Duncan Rhodes videos. *twist your brush a little bit... *thin the paint with just a little water... *remember two thin coats is always better than a thick coat...

San: Not thinning paint is common for us proletars. But I do thin paint if using GW base coat. Nothing too scientific. Pick a big brush (like... BIG), use a pipet to put a drop or two of water on it, stir, and paint using the same brush .

Lao, that skaven team looks amazing! Love the color scheme. I'm starting my skaven today and if they turn out half as good I'll be fucking ecstatic.

Love the purple capes and pads.