Easiest Chapter to paint

[Arch69]

Hi

 

Am looking get a quick Primaris force on the tabletop and am wondering the easiest chapter to paint?

 

Ive heard yellow and white are time consuming. 
 

 

[Karhedron]

Yellow and white are indeed pretty time consuming as any imperfections show up so much. Yellow is particularly hard as the paint is very translucent meaning that the undercoat and the top coat both need to be smooth.

 

Red is not as hard but not entirely easy either. The pigment is more opaque than yellow but not as much as blues or greys. Also red needs to be highlighted with care to avoid making it look pink. You will need to mix a small amount of yellow into any white you use.

 

Blue, grey and green are all fairly easy colours to paint. The cover well and highlight easily.

 

Black is probably the single simplest colour to paint. You can spray the whole models black and then just pick out weapon details in metal and any contrasting parts of the armour in red or white. In fact the only difficulty with black is to avoid it looking too dull. Avoid pure white for highlights (use light grey instead) and you should be fine.

 

Silver or Gold are also pretty easy. For silver, spray with Leadbelcher, wash with Nuln Oil Gloss and highlight with Stormhost Silver. For Gold, spray with Retributor armour, wash with either Aggrax Earthshade Gloss or Reikland Fleshade Gloss and hightlight with Liberator Gold.

 

So the easiest Chapters are probably Raven Guard or Iron Hands. The only challenge is to avoid them looking dull.

 

Ultramarines, Salamanders, Dark Angels and Space Wolves are also pretty easy and look a bit more interesting IMHO.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Karhedron

[Karhedron]

I have discovered that Apothocarion White Contrast paint is fairly easy to give a good whit armour effect. I painted my Inquisitor using it and I was pleasantly surprised with the results. Painting a whole army that way might be more time consuming but probably not as bad as I was first thinking.

Contrast paints might work for yellow too but I have no personal experience here.

[Mandragola]

I think the contrast range has really reduced the difference in difficulty between the colours. Previously I'd have agreed that a white or yellow chapter would be seriously difficult. Now you can pretty much slap apothecary white over grey seer and then highlight with white scar - with maybe a layer of ulthuan grey in between. Same for yellow. It's just not that hard any more.

 

The issue I've always found with black is that it's incredibly easy to do, but actually not that easy to do well. The models kind of vanish on the tabletop and it's a fairly difficult colour to highlight. You can easily end up with either grey-looking models or imperceptible highlights.

 

Mid tones like red, blue, green and grey are generally simplest, in my experience. The GW paint app has good info on which colours to use for a huge number of different effects.

[WrathOfTheLion]

Black can be difficult to do right. When I paint HH Dark Angels, I try to use as much silver trim, checkered patterns, heraldry etc. to break up the model instead of highlights. I do some highlighting, but tossing in that iconography is much more fun to paint, and serves as a good mechanic to break it up.

[BadgersinHills]

I think Silver Skulls or Silver Templars or another mostly silver or gold or other metal chapter would easy to paint. Darren Latham has some really nice Silver Skulls which have partly inspired this paint recipe by Stahly from Tale of Painters blog. 

Edited October 16, 2020 by BadgersinHills

[Arch69]

Thanks for all the reply’s I appreciate it.

I did use an airbrush on my test models as Imperial Fists but I didn’t  like the end results. As I had to do touch ups on the yellow armour as am a messy new painter Took along time and it was difficult.

 

So am looking for chapter probably like the Dark Angels or Crimson Fists as I believe the trim is the same colour as the armour overall.

 

Minotaurs look ok but the bronze am not sure if that would be too difficult?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BadgersinHills]

Thanks for all the reply’s I appreciate it.

I did use an airbrush on my test models as Imperial Fists but I didn’t  like the end results. As I had to do touch ups on the yellow armour as am a messy new painter Took along time and it was difficult.

 

So am looking for chapter probably like the Dark Angels or Crimson Fists as I believe the trim is the same colour as the armour overall.

 

Minotaurs look ok but the bronze am not sure if that would be too difficult?

 

This tutorial might be helpful. Verdigris is easier to do now with Nihilakh Oxide around.

[Mandragola]

If you're doing a metallic colour then I'd recommend looking outside of the GW paint range. Vallejo do much more metallic-looking paints. I think they have more of the sparkly stuff in the paint or something and it comes across much more richly.

 

Probably don't bother with the alchohol-based liquid metal paints. Even Vallejo's acrylic-based metallics are way better than GW's - in my opinion

[N1SB]

This is a Raptor. Not counting time to build and spraying the basecoat, it was done in minutes, half an hour, tops. Reason being, this was done during the Contrast paints preview, then I took it home to touch up some details. The process:

1. Build mini, was an Easy-To-Build one
2. Do Zenithal basecoat, so 1st black, then white from above, for a natural lighting effect
3. Paint with Militarum Green Contrast paint, 1 thickish coat
4. Then Black Templar Contrast paint on the gun, and I think the inside arm joint
5. Painted the metal bits in Vallejo gunmetal
6. I think I drybrushed the whole thing a bit with gunmetal
7. Then I slapped a bit of red on a purity seal, just the wax part, I didn't even touch the paper part, the Zenithal basecoat already did that ok

Was super-duper speedpainty, but the real trick was, I picked the Raptors Chapter because they're tacticool and don't go for much in the way of adornments. So it made sense for them to be so minimalist. Saved time.

[Grotsmasha]

My go to is a Dark Angel Successor, The Guardians of the Covenant, silver with black pads and gold details,

[Indefragable]

Hands-down Iron Warriors (insert fluff about why your Primaris' color scheme is similar to them). 

 

Hidden Content

 

1. Leadbelcher (can even do spray can of it)

2. Nuln Oil and/or Agrax Earthshade

3. Black of choice for weapons and shoulders/kneepads + Nuln and/or Agrax (depending on how "greasy" you want it to look)

4. Balthasar Gold for shiny bits, + Nuln and/or Agrax to taste (note the theme here?). Can highlight with a few brushstrokes of Balthasar again or work your way up the GW Gold/Bronze/Brass stack to taste. 

5. Leadbelcher + highlight metal of choice for gunmetal and stabby bits

6. Basing technical (I used Astrogranite Debris, but Stirling Mud, Martian Iron, etc...) + (you guessed it!) Nuln and/or Agrax to taste

7. A dot of lens color of choice. 

 

The only thing easier is Necrons with the green plastic glow rods. And the best part is it's very modular, so you can always go back and add modular levels of highlighting or coloring. I.e. start with just black shoulder pads then go back and add hazard stripes or such. 

 

If you want to win a Golden Demon, go for the legions of artisans (Emperor's Children, Blood Angels, Salamanders). If you want to crank out mass produced soldiers with minimal resources, go with the IV Legion. 

Edited October 16, 2020 by Indefragable

[Debauchery101]

There's no real easiest out there.

To give you real advice i need to know a few things

1. What paints are you using that you like the best?

2. What kind of brushes and/or airbrush do you have

3. What skill level are you or what techniques are you good at? Ie drybrushing, glazing, edge highlighting, OSL, washing and stipple

4. Do you have access to decals ?

 

Like for me im great at freehand, doing rugged weathering and flames. I could give you detailed easy step by step instructions and a list of things you'd need to do a lot of stuff. But it wont help if dont have or can't get the stuff to do it. It also won't help if you dont understand certain terms.

 

But any army regardless of color can be easy. Even yellow or white. You just need a plan.

You also need to choose whether you want to have an army look fresh out the armoury or have they been fighting trench warfare for weeks.

You seem to want what looks good from arms distance. Which can be easily done and is a lot different of a way to paint than to paint pupils, 5 o'clock shadow and detailed radar screens to look realistic when its inches away which doesn't look as striking from arms distance.

 

I would say as a new player coming from a veteran player who buys too much stuff.... Make a custom chapter. Do your own scheme, make up your own story and you can use them for whatever.

Find decals to use and if you got the coin get pre-made bases or a texture roller from greenstuff world.

Basing and decals are key things for having a precise and uniform look across your army. Which takes attention from the paint job. If youre new this is great.

Think of any color scheme you want. Find a logo or decal set you want to use.. hit me up later and I'll find you a video to show you how to do it or I can show/tell you how and what stuff you should get to save time and make it easier

 

Also if you arent somewhat experienced doing washes on models with large flat and contoured parts, dont fall for the Contrast paint trap. Most people who are experienced can't use contrasts well. A lot of the colors act differently. To get the most out of them you need to buy the GW primer paint. I won't listen to anyone who says otherwise. Every award winning painter I follow, know and randomly seen talk about contrast paints say the GW primer makes the biggest difference in outcome. That's from my experience as well.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Debauchery101

[Rik Lightstar]

It really depends on the level you want to go to.

 

For quick and "presentable" I'd go for a Chapter with minimal "trim" so no coloured shoulder pad rims. Then get the appropriate rattle can or airbrush base tone. Add your metals. Then dip in an Army Painter Quickshade. That's about the quickest possible.

 

The next step up from that, I'd say check out Rods.Mods on Instagram here https://instagram.com/rods.mods?igshid=1xaj9rohc518p he's done a LOAD of tutorials on quick and effective ways to do lots of different colours.

 

Rik

[Arch69]

No. Dear god no.

How about a custom chapter who's entire wargear is made out of plastic? Grey plastic.

 

Again everyone thank you so much. I appreciate you all.

Edited October 16, 2020 by Arch69

[Arch69]

There's no real easiest out there.

To give you real advice i need to know a few things

1. What paints are you using that you like the best?

2. What kind of brushes and/or airbrush do you have

3. What skill level are you or what techniques are you good at? Ie drybrushing, glazing, edge highlighting, OSL, washing and stipple

4. Do you have access to decals ?

 

Like for me im great at freehand, doing rugged weathering and flames. I could give you detailed easy step by step instructions and a list of things you'd need to do a lot of stuff. But it wont help if dont have or can't get the stuff to do it. It also won't help if you dont understand certain terms.

 

But any army regardless of color can be easy. Even yellow or white. You just need a plan.

You also need to choose whether you want to have an army look fresh out the armoury or have they been fighting trench warfare for weeks.

You seem to want what looks good from arms distance. Which can be easily done and is a lot different of a way to paint than to paint pupils, 5 o'clock shadow and detailed radar screens to look realistic when its inches away which doesn't look as striking from arms distance.

 

I would say as a new player coming from a veteran player who buys too much stuff.... Make a custom chapter. Do your own scheme, make up your own story and you can use them for whatever.

Find decals to use and if you got the coin get pre-made bases or a texture roller from greenstuff world.

Basing and decals are key things for having a precise and uniform look across your army. Which takes attention from the paint job. If youre new this is great.

Think of any color scheme you want. Find a logo or decal set you want to use.. hit me up later and I'll find you a video to show you how to do it or I can show/tell you how and what stuff you should get to save time and make it easier

 

Also if you arent somewhat experienced doing washes on models with large flat and contoured parts, dont fall for the Contrast paint trap. Most people who are experienced can't use contrasts well. A lot of the colors act differently. To get the most out of them you need to buy the GW primer paint. I won't listen to anyone who says otherwise. Every award winning painter I follow, know and randomly seen talk about contrast paints say the GW primer makes the biggest difference in outcome. That's from my experience as well.

Hi

 

1. All GW paints.

2.  GW and Winsor and Newton. Airbrush is a Iwata Smart Jet Pro.

3.My skills rainy great am new to painting. But am ok with recess washing and dry brushing. Where I struggle is to keep things tidy. An example would be my imperial fists model when am painting the belt or trim I always manage to get the colour on the yellow armour so the tidy up is a pain. 

4.Decals/Transfers I will be getting to finish the look. I do have the 4 main ones that come in the box Dark Angels, Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Ultramarines. 

[solarisqc]

The main reason i choose DA when i start to play 40k was because you have 3 color scheme in the same armies.

 

The Ravenwing in black is by far the easiest to paint, but make it great is another story.

The Greenwing is nice to paint, harder than black but it's a good step to learn the color and pratice before doing robe for your Deahwing.

The Deathwing in Bone is interesting because you can do it in different grade from white to yellow, it can become amazing when you find the color you like and give alot of option for highlight and shade.

[Arch69]

I’ll try and post the picture for my imperial fist later. At the moment I don’t know how to on this website.

[Debauchery101]

 

 

There's no real easiest out there.

To give you real advice i need to know a few things

1. What paints are you using that you like the best?

2. What kind of brushes and/or airbrush do you have

3. What skill level are you or what techniques are you good at? Ie drybrushing, glazing, edge highlighting, OSL, washing and stipple

4. Do you have access to decals ?

 

Like for me im great at freehand, doing rugged weathering and flames. I could give you detailed easy step by step instructions and a list of things you'd need to do a lot of stuff. But it wont help if dont have or can't get the stuff to do it. It also won't help if you dont understand certain terms.

 

But any army regardless of color can be easy. Even yellow or white. You just need a plan.

You also need to choose whether you want to have an army look fresh out the armoury or have they been fighting trench warfare for weeks.

You seem to want what looks good from arms distance. Which can be easily done and is a lot different of a way to paint than to paint pupils, 5 o'clock shadow and detailed radar screens to look realistic when its inches away which doesn't look as striking from arms distance.

 

I would say as a new player coming from a veteran player who buys too much stuff.... Make a custom chapter. Do your own scheme, make up your own story and you can use them for whatever.

Find decals to use and if you got the coin get pre-made bases or a texture roller from greenstuff world.

Basing and decals are key things for having a precise and uniform look across your army. Which takes attention from the paint job. If youre new this is great.

Think of any color scheme you want. Find a logo or decal set you want to use.. hit me up later and I'll find you a video to show you how to do it or I can show/tell you how and what stuff you should get to save time and make it easier

 

Also if you arent somewhat experienced doing washes on models with large flat and contoured parts, dont fall for the Contrast paint trap. Most people who are experienced can't use contrasts well. A lot of the colors act differently. To get the most out of them you need to buy the GW primer paint. I won't listen to anyone who says otherwise. Every award winning painter I follow, know and randomly seen talk about contrast paints say the GW primer makes the biggest difference in outcome. That's from my experience as well.

Hi

 

1. All GW paints.

2. GW and Winsor and Newton. Airbrush is a Iwata Smart Jet Pro.

3.My skills rainy great am new to painting. But am ok with recess washing and dry brushing. Where I struggle is to keep things tidy. An example would be my imperial fists model when am painting the belt or trim I always manage to get the colour on the yellow armour so the tidy up is a pain.

4.Decals/Transfers I will be getting to finish the look. I do have the 4 main ones that come in the box Dark Angels, Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Ultramarines.

Well you seem to be well invested into tools thats good. Do you have oil paints?

This guy is awesome and has helped me a lot. I dont often paint for master pieces I like simple gritty techniques. Weathering often looks and appears like some magical advanced skill. But its pretty simple. It can hide some 'untidy' parts.

Marco has a thick Italian accent but he's great at explaining things.

 

If you dont use oils i like this crazy Cajun always throwing down his painting literally on the very best days!

 

Personally my yellow is limited to Caution Stripes and Space Wolf Shoulder pads so I can't show you any yellow marines ive done. But having as airbrush is great. You can lay down your shade color then zenithal white spray and use thinned down yellow to build transitions. Ive seen reddish brown as well as magenta or pink as the shade.

But a other thing is if youre having trouble on compact tight spots you have some options

1- paint in sub assemblies to allow for better access to trouble areas

2- model the marine so something is basically covering it to a where you dont need to paint it.

3- add a bit of metallic paint into the smudge and turn it into a paint chip

4- small detailed parts i often use contrasts or oils. I prefer oils because you can remove it whenever you want. Contrats are similar but different and require a more immediate correction but being able wipe or wick away paint is so much better than redoing your edge highlighting

 

Here is a squidmar video that's also good that I almost forgot about

Edited October 17, 2020 by Debauchery101

[Debauchery101]

I’ll try and post the picture for my imperial fist later. At the moment I don’t know how to on this website.

make an imgur account. Its pretty easy. Upload a picture. Go into the folder/post you made of the pictures you uploaded.

For each picture you want to link you need to click on it to be the only picture you see. Click on share and copy it. You have to add the brackets+img pre and post paste of the link you copied

 

Edited October 17, 2020 by Debauchery101

[Arch69]

 

 

There's no real easiest out there.

To give you real advice i need to know a few things

1. What paints are you using that you like the best?

2. What kind of brushes and/or airbrush do you have

3. What skill level are you or what techniques are you good at? Ie drybrushing, glazing, edge highlighting, OSL, washing and stipple

4. Do you have access to decals ?

 

Like for me im great at freehand, doing rugged weathering and flames. I could give you detailed easy step by step instructions and a list of things you'd need to do a lot of stuff. But it wont help if dont have or can't get the stuff to do it. It also won't help if you dont understand certain terms.

 

But any army regardless of color can be easy. Even yellow or white. You just need a plan.

You also need to choose whether you want to have an army look fresh out the armoury or have they been fighting trench warfare for weeks.

You seem to want what looks good from arms distance. Which can be easily done and is a lot different of a way to paint than to paint pupils, 5 o'clock shadow and detailed radar screens to look realistic when its inches away which doesn't look as striking from arms distance.

 

I would say as a new player coming from a veteran player who buys too much stuff.... Make a custom chapter. Do your own scheme, make up your own story and you can use them for whatever.

Find decals to use and if you got the coin get pre-made bases or a texture roller from greenstuff world.

Basing and decals are key things for having a precise and uniform look across your army. Which takes attention from the paint job. If youre new this is great.

Think of any color scheme you want. Find a logo or decal set you want to use.. hit me up later and I'll find you a video to show you how to do it or I can show/tell you how and what stuff you should get to save time and make it easier

 

Also if you arent somewhat experienced doing washes on models with large flat and contoured parts, dont fall for the Contrast paint trap. Most people who are experienced can't use contrasts well. A lot of the colors act differently. To get the most out of them you need to buy the GW primer paint. I won't listen to anyone who says otherwise. Every award winning painter I follow, know and randomly seen talk about contrast paints say the GW primer makes the biggest difference in outcome. That's from my experience as well.

Hi

 

1. All GW paints.

2. GW and Winsor and Newton. Airbrush is a Iwata Smart Jet Pro.

3.My skills rainy great am new to painting. But am ok with recess washing and dry brushing. Where I struggle is to keep things tidy. An example would be my imperial fists model when am painting the belt or trim I always manage to get the colour on the yellow armour so the tidy up is a pain.

4.Decals/Transfers I will be getting to finish the look. I do have the 4 main ones that come in the box Dark Angels, Space Wolves, Blood Angels and Ultramarines.

Well you seem to be well invested into tools thats good. Do you have oil paints?

This guy is awesome and has helped me a lot. I dont often paint for master pieces I like simple gritty techniques. Weathering often looks and appears like some magical advanced skill. But its pretty simple. It can hide some 'untidy' parts.

Marco has a thick Italian accent but he's great at explaining things.

 

If you dont use oils i like this crazy Cajun always throwing down his painting literally on the very best days!

 

Personally my yellow is limited to Caution Stripes and Space Wolf Shoulder pads so I can't show you any yellow marines ive done. But having as airbrush is great. You can lay down your shade color then zenithal white spray and use thinned down yellow to build transitions. Ive seen reddish brown as well as magenta or pink as the shade.

But a other thing is if youre having trouble on compact tight spots you have some options

1- paint in sub assemblies to allow for better access to trouble areas

2- model the marine so something is basically covering it to a where you dont need to paint it.

3- add a bit of metallic paint into the smudge and turn it into a paint chip

4- small detailed parts i often use contrasts or oils. I prefer oils because you can remove it whenever you want. Contrats are similar but different and require a more immediate correction but being able wipe or wick away paint is so much better than redoing your edge highlighting

 

Here is a squidmar video that's also good that I almost forgot about

 

Thanks I’ll check out the links.

 

Contrast or oils would be great for the tight parts. 

 

One more thing. I brought airbrush thinner and air flow improver what’s the difference? Am finding my yellow paint came out grainy like sand on some parts. I used the airbrush thinner to thin down the yriel yellow.

 

I’ll try and post the picture for my imperial fist later. At the moment I don’t know how to on this website.

make an imgur account. Its pretty easy. Upload a picture. Go into the folder/post you made of the pictures you uploaded.

For each picture you want to link you need to click on it to be the only picture you see. Click on share and copy it. You have to add the brackets+img pre and post paste of the link you copied

 

Prefect I’ll post it later.

[Debauchery101]

Some thinners don't react well with some paints. Thinner inherently mixes with the medium used to suspend pigments. Too much thinner is likely your problem. Also your distance from nozzle to the mini can can contribute to that as well

 

I run paints in my brush that are pretty thinned down and I run semi low psi

[Arch69]

Some thinners don't react well with some paints. Thinner inherently mixes with the medium used to suspend pigments. Too much thinner is likely your problem. Also your distance from nozzle to the mini can can contribute to that as well

 

I run paints in my brush that are pretty thinned down and I run semi low psi

What psi should I be running at for for the yriel yellow base coat? 

[Rik Lightstar]

 

 

Some thinners don't react well with some paints. Thinner inherently mixes with the medium used to suspend pigments. Too much thinner is likely your problem. Also your distance from nozzle to the mini can can contribute to that as well

 

I run paints in my brush that are pretty thinned down and I run semi low psi

What psi should I be running at for for the yriel yellow base coat?

It's really hard to say because it also depends on the airbrush, my Badger and my H&S behave very differently depending on PSI.

 

I'd say start at either 15 or 25 and dial up or down from there while testing on some glossy card.

 

Rik

[Arch69]

 

 

Some thinners don't react well with some paints. Thinner inherently mixes with the medium used to suspend pigments. Too much thinner is likely your problem. Also your distance from nozzle to the mini can can contribute to that as well

 

I run paints in my brush that are pretty thinned down and I run semi low psi

What psi should I be running at for for the yriel yellow base coat?

It's really hard to say because it also depends on the airbrush, my Badger and my H&S behave very differently depending on PSI.

 

I'd say start at either 15 or 25 and dial up or down from there while testing on some glossy card.

 

Rik

 

Will do thanks.