New Painter...

[CubedAssassin]

I've just recently gotten into the actual game warhammer 40k (I mean, I'm well acquainted with the 'universe' since I have a vast collection of the novels and video games, but not the miniatures). I started out by buying up some basic units - couple tactical squads, a dred, a land speeder, an assault squad - and a whole mess of paints and tools.

 

I just finished painting my dred and after about 14 hours this is how it turned out:

 

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs652.snc4/61233_431034175994_607680994_5520222_199668_n.jpg

http://i978.photobucket.com/albums/ae266/CubedAssassin/IMG_2859.jpg?t=1284314639

 

I personally like the result, but I'm looking for outside opinions and some good 'ol constructive criticism. Tips on future painting would also be greatly appreciated.

 

It worked for this unit, because I was going for it looking really battered and combat worn but I don't really want that look for my other units. The mercurite red and the adeptus battlegrey aren't very... smooth (or crisp?) and I don't know how to make it that way...

 

I was going for making them a kind of custom chapter, that I was going to call the Onyxian Reavers, but I didn't really realize their colour scheme of Mercurite Red, Chaos Black, and Adeptus Battlegrey was pretty close to the blood ravens...

 

Anyway, any feedback is much appreciated.

[templarboy]

Your painting looks neat. Your colours are good. Thinning the paint will make it go on smoother. Multiple layers of thinned paint will have a better overall appearance. The GW foundation paints can be thinned a lot.

 

The battle damage is not over-done. When you do the "scratches", it might be better to paint the scratch in black first and then the metallic inside the black. It will help define the "damage" against the overall red.

 

My only real ding on the fig is the mold lines needed to be cleaned up prior to painting. Good job over all. Make sure you give it a good coat of matte sealer. I prefer Testor's Dullcote. I would avoid the garbage GW sells.

[Gavin]

I like how it came out on the whole.

 

Personally, I like the texture of the red which isn't exactly lumpy, but is not smooth. That lends itself well to the battle damage you've put on it. It looks to me like that dread has seen some serious time in the field and had a great many repairs over the years it's been in service.

 

Visually, I'm pretty terrible about picking up mold lines, but where two parts of the model go together (specifically the backs of the arms for this case) the gaps seem to be quite large. They could have been dry fit before assembling to verify that they were tighter fits, or possibly a little bit of green stuff to 'fill' them if it wasn't possible. I suppose I should not say much about that though.. *glances at the gaps in the land raider on the desk* I'm a big culprit of cut n glue assembly. lol.

 

But overall, it does look impressive. I look forward to seeing more.

 

*edit for spelling.

[Xeonic]

Blood Ravens have cream accents, rather than dark ones, should be pretty easy to note at a glance that they're not Blood Ravens. Besides, go with a stand outish chapter symbol!

 

Your paint job looks pretty good(could thin down the pots a little), I take it you're going to add some scripting on the banner on the front armor?

The only other thing I'll suggest is a watered (badab)black or (devlan mud)brown wash over the metallics(grey?) to make it appear more worn and add depth.

 

Gap filling on assembly is fairly easy using plastic glue, just use enough so that the gap is filled, and if you use a little much, trim it off after it dries.