Hello From The Old Man

[Bigyun2K]

Hello all.

 

Just a quick intro.  I am 62 now and my hobby was Radio & Scanners.  I decided last month after 50 years of the hobby, that i needed something new.  A mate suggested Warhammer which i had no clue about until i read a few articles and bought a few mags of eBay.  Well blow me, I really enjoyed building the models and then thought well i suppose i have to paint them now.

 

Oh dear i said to myself after buying some paints.  i forgot i have Parkinsons & the eyes aren't too good either. .  Anyway i managed to do both with the aid of this item https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GTF06PS?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title.  This made things a little easier but i can only paint in short stints due to the shakes.  

 

Anyways i completed my first few Space Marines which although basic i managed to do and really enjoyed what i had done.  I used Citadel Paints and i was a little dissapointed in the end result as the Marines looked very dull.  Well thats the storey so far.  I'll keep my eyes open for some cheap magazines with sprue's but see some people on eBay want to become millionaires with the prices they charge.  Oh one thing I am looking for an excel spreadsheet that has all the collections on if anyone can assist please.

 

Many thanks for taking the time to have a perusal of my little introduction message and to more fun & frolicks in the Warhammer Series.  I am not a gamer just a painter (ish) .

All the best for the holidays.

 

Tony in Rotherham (UK)

[WAR]

Welcome to the B&C @Bigyun2K.

 

Painting takes time and lots of practice.  One major thing when using Citadel paints is to thin your paints and apply 2 thin coats. 

[Rusted Boltgun]

Welcome, Frater!

Good to hear you are enjoying your first forays into the hobby and have found some tools to make it easier (I'm a specs wearer so have had to use a magnifying lamp to assist).

As above, practice helps with painting. Every little helps.

 

A quick look on the internet found Guild of Games in Rotherham which stocks some  Army Painter stuff if you wanted to try something other than Citadel - their Fanatic range seems to have been pretty well received and the paint is typically cheaper than Citadel.

The shop doesn't appear to stock Warhammer though  so don't know if you have any local stores that offer a discount for cheap(er) models.

That said, there are occasional bargains to be had on eBay.

There are also places like Element Games that offer discounts and sell stuff like Biostrip so you can strip the cheaper second hand models you might find on eBay.

 

Can't assist with a magazine collection Excel sheet but there was a thread here listing the old Imperium Magazine 

 

Warhammer Imperium Issue List

And there is a similar thread running for the Current Combat Patrol, if that helps.

 

Have fun!

 

[grailkeeper]

Hi Tony.

 

There are many different aspects to this hobby.

 

The most obvious are painting and modelling, and playing the game.

 

There are also some great (and a lot of terrible) stories and novels set in the universe. You should have a look at this- its by a fan but it might be the best 40k story that exists. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7hgjuFfn3A

[Farva Ramathorn]

Hi Tony. 

 

Magnifying lamp and a decent bottle of red wine works for me.

I've recently come back into the hobby. (49 years young)

 

Amazing tutorials out there and some great YouTube shorts and Facebook reels to give inspiration. 

They make it look so easy. Mine look :cuss:e in comparison so I have to keep reminding myself these content creators are the top 1% out there.. and my coordination is shot...

 

Good luck with ebay, I had the same shell shock after looking myself.  

Managed to get a small random squad of unpainted marines but i also went for the combat patrol magazine subscription. Seemed a reasonable deal to drip feed me models and a few resources, like paint and brushes. Worth checking out.

 

[N1SB]

14 hours ago, Bigyun2K said:

Hello all.

 

Just a quick intro.  I am 62 now and my hobby was Radio & Scanners.  I decided last month after 50 years of the hobby, that i needed something new.  A mate suggested Warhammer which i had no clue about until i read a few articles and bought a few mags of eBay.  Well blow me, I really enjoyed building the models and then thought well i suppose i have to paint them now.

 

Oh dear i said to myself after buying some paints.  i forgot i have Parkinsons & the eyes aren't too good either. .  Anyway i managed to do both with the aid of this item https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01GTF06PS?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title.  This made things a little easier but i can only paint in short stints due to the shakes.  

 

Anyways i completed my first few Space Marines which although basic i managed to do and really enjoyed what i had done.  I used Citadel Paints and i was a little dissapointed in the end result as the Marines looked very dull.

 

Brother Tony, you're getting a lot of good advice, and I don't want to overload you, but I think this will greatly help.  I appreciate your situation with Parkinson's and I really want to mitigate that effect, minimise your effort, for good looking miniatures.

 

Did you buy/use Games Workshop's/Citadel Contrast paints or Shades please?  They're LESS thick, less viscous, than normal paints, more akin to, say, inks.  Games Workshop designs their miniatures in their own way.  Their "secret sauce" for their miniatures is they have high "Readability".  Readability is like the extra details on their models that make it pop.  I used to think that just caused more work when I was a kid, but now I realise it does the opposite, that Readability creates shortcuts when combined with things like Contrast paints or Shades.  The idea is that these thin paints seep into the recesses.

 

(In fact, Contrast paints are so called because they're like an emulsion, a mixture, of paints.  So you have a Contrast paint called Militarum Green.  There's a lighter olive green mixed with a denser, heavier, darker green.  You shake the bottle, then paint it on the model, just cover it...the denser, darker green will naturally flow down and the recesses to create this natural shadow effect.)

 

The final trick is how I use spraypaint cans to basecoat the minis.  It's the fastest, easiest step of the painting process.  Usually, you're told to just use 1 colour to basecoat.  I now use 2, for what's called a Zenithal technique (Brothers here on Bolter & Chainsword taught me).  Expert painters use an airbrush, but I'm a simple man, I just bought 2 spray cans of Matte Black and Matte White, very flat colours, no glossy (only downside is sometimes it can cause a bit of graininess...but it just looks more battle-worn).  Because basecoating is the fastest, easiest step, it's no big deal.  What I do is simply:

 

• I spray the whole miniature Black.  Now it's completely Black.
• THEN I stand the miniature up, spray White from above ONLY.  The paintjob looks like natural lighting.

 

 

 

I do have these under a bright lamp, but hopefully you can tell the top bits are very white, while some black remains in the recesses, and there's these patches of grey.  So after this I apply Contrast paints that, because they are thin, are slightly translucent, so the the grey/black patches still show through for natural shadows:

 

 

The combination of the Zenithal (Black then White) basecoat WITH the Contrast paints gives a lot more depth.  But the main thing is, it's low skill, low effort to create something that looks kinda cool, even if it's imperfect (the Marine on the left is painted with the aforementioned Militarum Green, with some blotches).  I think it's okay because those imperfections make it look more battle-worn.

 

I'll stop myself here, This isn't a guide per se, but I want to show you there are avenues you can pursue.  You might want to ask your friend who recommended Warhammer to you, or perhaps your local Warhammer Store of friendly local gaming store about Contrast paints, Shades and Zenithal basecoating (many people use airbrushes, I just use 2 spray cans).

 

I say all this because this might be a game changer for someone with Parkinson's.  The only other caveat is what I suggested here works best for something more organic looking, like Tyranids or Orks or Daemons, more than the round shapes of Space Marine power armour.

[Bigyun2K]

Good morning to everyone and a HUGE THANK YOU for your encouragement.  Yes i have looked at a few YouTube videos and find them exciting.  I have lots of paint brushes for minature work and i still have a compressor from my short time in model aircraft..  So i still have a couple of Airbrushes to try out although spraying a big model is much easier than trying to spy a minature.

 

On my initial painting of the Space Marines Beginner set i painted 4 base coates watered down and similar to white, black & gold then went over what i could with neat paint.  Looking fine but a little dull.  Someone suggested these which i found a bonus and work really well for those really small parts.  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CPX4Q97M?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title.

 

I also have a small selection of paints including Citadel, Humbrol, Vallejo & The Army Painter paints.  Initially purchased for my model aircraft.  So if anyone can advise as to a beginners set of paints that would be great.  I was going to buy one set but it was for war paint only selection of dark green/brown ish colours.  Someone did mention to me that  one of the better paints is the collection by AK.

 

Big THANKS to @N1SB great description & pictures look stunning.  Yes i have the spray both black & White so will give that a try.

 

Anyway coffee time with gingernuts is calling.

Best regards

Tony

Edited 3 hours ago by Bigyun2K

[Firedrake Cordova]

Welcome to the B&C Tony.  

 

You've been given some great advice by the others already, although feel free to start a thread over in The Forge and upload a picture of what you've got. I would add that if you've got a local GW, you could try asking them - the staff are normally pretty helpful and knowledgeable. 

 

With regards to paints, there's a few manufacturers (GW, Vallejo, Army Painter, Two Thin Coats, Formula P3, Coat D'Arms, Scale 75, AK Interactive) - all should give you good results, and it's more picking the ones you "get on with". I would add that GW's line is a bit more "opinionated" - the paints are very much designed to "their way" of painting (e.g. the Base range is more pigmented, the Layer range is a bit translucent, etc).

 

Unless there's a substantial discount available by buying a set, I'd suggest working out the paints that you are going to use based on the colour scheme you want to follow, and then getting them - that way you don't end up with some paints you probably aren't going to use. Otherwise, perhaps have a look at the paints that are present in the Army Painter or Vallejo Game Colour sets, and use them as a "starter for 10" for the common colours?