Ace does a Thing - ETL 2016 - Vow 1 Completed!

[Ace Debonair]

So, after being basically terrified of posting anything for the last however-long I've been here (Three years? Four?) I've decided to take the plunge and actually post a model here.

I blame the incredible ++In Memoriam++ thread for this sudden rush of motivation and bravery.

Now I'm not exactly a great painter. Or modelling genius, for that matter. If mould lines and undrilled bolters ruffle your feathers, you're probably better not looking at the following pics. You have been warned!

-=-=-=-=-=-=

Onto the specifics - this is a model that I threw together to show some fellow forum-goers an example symbol (in super-basic freehand) of an Alt-Heresy Emperor's Children marine. Anyone wanting to know more about the Alt-Heresy stuff can find a ton of info in the Special Projects subforum, but I'll also answer any questions as best I can.

So without further ado, here's Sergeant Caemund of the (alternate) Emperor's Children.



Damn, my brother's camera makes mine look awful.
The weathering effects are a first time ever for me - I'm pretty pleased with the result. I thought it'd be a lot harder than it turned out to be!
Oh, and the weird red tint on his sword was my trying the same weathering effect with red for a sort of blood-splatter, just in case it worked. As you can see, it, uh, didn't. Still, now I know, and that's half the battle.

The crude, child's drawing of a silver spear is my attempt at a legion badge. I tend to be very, very jittery when painting, moreso when doing freehand because of sod's law. Even so, this only took me three attempts, so... huzzah?



I cannot paint eye lenses. At all.
99% of my minis use Chaos Warrior hats with the horns shaved off for exactly this reason.

However, I thought I'd done marvellously on Caemund for a change... before I spotted his yellow eyebrow on this pic!



Really happy with the cloak - much better than the last few I've tried!
The only problem I have with it is that it's covering up the best weathering effects, which were on the back of his legs. Blast!

EDIT:
And of course, any opinions, praise, condemnations, suggestions, mockery, or other thoughts are very much welcome.

[Forté]

Congrats Ace. The master storyteller now getting his brush wet. Looks good too.

 

Main things I'll say at this stage is spend a little more time on prep. Try and get all those mold lines removed. I know it's a chore but the final result is worth it. Also, a little less paint on your brush will give you more control over where it goes.

[Ace Debonair]

Ha, I'm not a master storyteller, by any means. I still have a ways to go, just like my painting.

I've never really been one to notice the mould lines, but that's a crappy excuse.

The only fear I'd have of trimming them from now on is that I haven't done it on the other thirty or so models I've done since rebooting my collection!

Painting those models once was tricky enough, but going back and doing more... that could be slightly awkward.

On the other hand, depending on how easy I find it I might wind up going back and trimming them a bit anyway for completeness sake.

Less paint, you say?

Goes against my 'just blob it on there' philosophy, but I think you're on to something.

Consider your good advice duly noted!

[Dragonlover]

Tip for the eye lenses: Get a fine detail brush. I use an Army Painter one, takes two or three strokes to do a lens and stops you from blobbing an eyebrow on there. It's how I did the Havocs in my log.

 

I'm the same with mould lines, but even I'd take off that one on the backpack.

 

Dragonlover

[Forté]

I'd actually go against the fine detail brush personally. What you need is a brush with a perfect point to the tip. That way the bristles hold more paint to flow through the tip. Like a fountain pen. I hold mine upside down when painting eye lenses too as its easier to direct the paint to the bottom area and leave the top with some shadow.

[MagicMan]

Gotta agree. I never use the fine detail brush, its too flimsy. The point bends too much. Just get a good point on a standard brush, the last thing you want is the tip bending when you're placing a pupil/lense reflection.

 

Anyway, dont be so hard on yourself man! We all improve as we go, and your efforts are far from poor! I like it. :)

[Monstra Sumus]

I echo the above, my log is an absolute battleground of when I first started my army til now and I must say, looking back on it, my painting has improved a heck of a lot. Just keep at it man, don't be put off by the paint extraordinaires we have around here, they all started off like us too. 

 

Keep at it dude, I look forward to seeing more. 

[Forté]

Hell. My first ones were done in enamels as I was used to painting Airfix kits. No shading, highlighting or anything fancy. And you've done the right thing by asking here for tips too.

[zxyogi]

With all the others here!!

I suffer with the shakes at times......dunno why tho!

Just keep at it and you will improve.....practice makes perfection which eventually leads to total corruption...........

[Dragonlover]

Hmm. I may have been using the Army Painter Psycho then. I'll check when I get home.

 

Dragonlover

[deathspectersgt7]

Looks good Ace hell it took 18 years before i did anything to the lense! Is that cloak from Anvil?

[Ace Debonair]

Plenty of good advice here, guys.

To be fair, I do everything with a fine detail brush. I only had the money for one brush when I was out buying my paints last, so I opted to go small on the basis that at least it'd be easier to do the fiddly bits!

The odd thing about the mould lines on Caemund there is that in person the one on his backpack is practically invisible when compared to the one on his head. I can't unsee it now!

This is definitely far from my first model, too. Even since rebooting my collection last year I've painted a whole bunch of bolter guys, for example, plus a sergeant with a mace because I like me some maces.

Oh, and a dreadnought. I've also got another one to do, but I'm leaving it for now since I have a bunch of other marines to paint yet, and can use them to get better first.

But this is a major step forward for me, since it's the first time I've

1) Used a wash on every surface of a model and

2) Tried splatting mud and blood on with a bit of old sponge to give the impression of being knee-deep in a messy mess.

The cloak, legs and shoulderpads are all Anvil Industries stuff. My nephew used a bunch of their stuff to make a really cool looking sniper, and I decided I'd give them a shot. Totally worth it!

As a matter of fact, I've started painting up a whole bunch of legs from Anvil for use on my chaos marines. I might wait and see if there's anything to these rumours of new Chaos Marines in February before taking that any further, though.

I'll have a rummage through my bits box later and see if I can't get anything else lined up to paint tomorrow instead.

EDIT:

Or failing that I'll try tackling them mould lines on my chap up there and fix his blasted eyebrow. I keep forgetting he's not entirely finished!

[Forté]

Well...this is a work in progress thread ;)

 

Do yourself a favour and get at least a standard or size 1 brush. It'll cut your painting time down and painting large areas with a fine detail brush must drive you mental.

[Ace Debonair]

I'll look into it down the road, when I've got more spare funds, perhaps.

To be fair I've only ever used the detail brushes, and that model only took a little over three hours to paint, wash, re-paint, fix mistakes, weather and assemble.

I thought that was a LONG time, but from what I can gather that's nowhere near as long as most of the really incredible painters spend on their models.

A sobering thought, that.

I wouldn't know how to spend ten hours on one model unless it was a tank, in which case my detail brush and I might have finished one side by then.

I'll notch a bit more time up on Caemund, though, since I'm itching to try some of the top tips you guys have given me.

Also, thanks to a recently-developed bit of extra stuff in the Alt-Heresy thread, I really ought to be painting the Templar cross on his pistol black. A retroactive error, you might say!

[Forté]

Lol...I've spent up to four hours on one area.

[Stormborn]

Looks pretty good to me, wait till I find the courage to post my space wolves on the BnC if you want to see badly painted.  I really can't see any mould lines on that figure.

[Ace Debonair]

Lol...I've spent up to four hours on one area.

How big of an area are we talking about here? Half a marine? An arm? An eye lens?

Amongst my many, many problems when painting is my impatience. I hate starting a project only to have to leave it unfinished, so I try and do everything ASAP.

Which brings me to a funny story, really. I planned on doing a brand new marine today, trying weathering and mould-line trimming and all that good stuff on one of my usual brand of, semi-knightly-themed cheat-helmet DIY marines.

Then, since I still own the first mini I ever painted (must be ten or eleven years ago now, I think), I was going to get pics of both and show what a difference practice makes.

I figured It'd be a nice thing to add and let me (and others) look at their recent stuff and go 'well that could have been worse'.

...Only to discover I've only got chaos marine legs left, and a bunch from Anvil Industries that I'd already painted for my chaos faction.

Providence, you heartless fiend.

I did get some chaos stuff painted though. And I trimmed the mould lines and repainted the dodgy eye on Caemund, which again was much easier than it sounded, so huzzah!

I'll get pics up tomorrow with a bit of luck.

Looks pretty good to me, wait till I find the courage to post my space wolves on the BnC if you want to see badly painted. I really can't see any mould lines on that figure.

Post them here if you like; I can almost guarantee I've perpetrated worse crimes against painting in the past.

Once I get my hands on a few extra legs, backpacks and so forth I'll do a brand-new vs first-ever painted marine comparison.

[Forté]

A head ;)

[Ace Debonair]

I have so not got that level of patience.

More power to you and everyone who has, though. The extra time taken totally shows.

[Forté]

I find painting quite therapeutic (when it goes right that is) and find it very easy to lose track of time. Unlike my gaming which is reactionary and often involves low flying dice and lots of cursing.

[geektom]

I echo everything in this thread so far- including the fact that I want to see a lot more from you! We all started somewhere, and your creativity can be just as inspiring as someone else's painting.

 

I also agree completely with the small brush debate- smaller brushes are not better, and often times the paint dries before you can even use it. Pointy with a good "well" (paint holding body) is far more important. I do 99% of my painting with 3 brushes: #0 round, #1 round and #2 flat.

 

Old habit I learned when I started: inside before outside; lighter before darker.

 

Paint the farthest "inside" or recessed areas before painting outside and raised areas, paint waists before chests, paint chests before arms, etc.

 

If areas are roughly equal in vs. out, paint the lighter colors first. For my guys, that means light gray gets priority over yellow, yellow gets priority over purple (you will notice, sneaky guy that I am, even my scheme helps me out, as my lighter colors tend to always be "inside" of a darker color)

 

So, that means for your scheme, paint those yellow eyes FIRST, and then if you over paint a bit, it is much easier to correct with a dark pink on a larger helmet.

 

As mentioned, holding the model upside down, and having an angle to the brush when doing the correcting helps, too.

 

Like this:

 

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n60/geektom/image_zps60e42477.jpg

 

So excited you posted, amigo- I will be following this thread!

[Forté]

Having a way to hold your model easier helps too. I pin or blu tac models or parts to corks so I don't have to touch the actual model too much but still have a good grip to keep it steady.

[Rune_Priest_Rhapsody]

I like the use of the termi legs on your guy there!! Nice idea. I just learned a lot about painting as well from this thread!! Consider me subscribed!!

 

End of Line

[Ace Debonair]

Geektom:

I painted the eyes first, as a matter of fact.

My nephew gave the same advice that you did on colours, and the inside-to-out method is something I do sort of use.

I paint models before assembling them, you see, so what's outside and what's inside isn't always clear until the end.

It's an unorthodox practice but I'm much much happier with the results that way.

Extra brushes are still going to have to wait a while. Maybe as a reward for clearing my backlog of Space Marines? Hmm.

Forte:

You'd be amazed how long it took me to not paint in such a fashion that I'd get 30% of the paint on my fingers. We're talking a couple of years, at the least!

These days I tend to paint no more than 50% of a given part at a time, ensuring I've always got a bit to clamp my grubby fingers on.

Rhapsody:

If you meant the legs on my mini up at the top, those aren't actually termi legs. They're these bad boys:

http://www.anvilindustry.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&path=77_96&product_id=70

I'm not exactly a veteran with resin stuff, but working with these was basically effortless. Give them a quick wash with warm water to get rid of any leftover oil and stuff, and away you go!

Many thanks for the continued advice and comments, guys.

I'm seriously motivated right now - I should have done this years ago!

My next post some time tomorrow morning should have pictures of the improved Sergeant Caemund and a Chaos Marine Aspiring Champion in many pieces, if my brother's camera decides to play nice.

It'll also include an explanation of why that Chaos Marine is in pieces, and not a completed example of my faux-knightly traitor dirtbags.

[Forté]

Looking forward to it Ace.