Painting tips/paint colors

[Brother Brys]

Hello

I'm new to painting Warhammer and newer to the Dark Angels.

Does anyone have any tips and/or paint combos to help me get better and have better results? 

Thanks 

[Grotsmasha]

The biggest gains I made as a painter came from learning how to correctly thin my paints, and being ....brave enough?.... to mix paints.

Another thing I do is keep a note in my phone for each of my schemes, updated as each evolves.

For brushes, a cheap brush as your Base Coat / Layer Brush , I really only spend extra for detail brushes, predominently GW's M and S Layer brushes.

 

Many people recommend Contrast type paints for beginners, and so do I. They can be used in their "one coat and done" type of painting, or they can be a great base to begin your paint work from, and I personally use contrast in most of my paint jobs.

 

Here is my current scheme for Dark Angels;

 

Spoiler

1- Zenithal Spray prime: Black (all over) => Grey (45 degree) => Wraithbone (75 degree) => White (directly above)

2- Dry Brushing: Wraithbone (all over) => White (heads, shoulders, top of powerpacks, upward facing parts of arms and legs. Then hands, knees, feet, Then anywhere I want to really stand out.

3- Base: Dark Angels Green Contrast on all armour panels. Black Legion Contrast on all metallic areas and soft armour (ribbing between armour panels). Flesh Tearers Red Contrast on weapon casings.

For Black Leather - Eshin Grey on all Leather areas (belt, pouches etc).

For Brown Leather - Wildwood Contrast paint on all Leather areas (belt, pouches etc).

White on chest emblems and chapter symbol (if using moulded pads). Do not worry about perfect coats, most of these coats will be covered later, give 1hr for the contrasts to dry.

4- Layer: Leadbelcher all metallic areas on weapons, grenades, and power packs.

5- Shade: All over Nuln Oil. Allow to dry, 45-60mins.

6- Edge highlight / Tidy the Whites on the chest emblem and sholderpad, paint in the eye lenses.

7- Layers

- Retributor Gold, washed with Reikland Fleshshade for any trinkits or bullets.

- Stormhost Silver onto any lense or scope glass other than the Eye Lenses.

- Green Armour: 50/50 mix of Caliban Green and Kabalite Green, paint this onto any area we drybrushed in White.

- Red Weapon Casings: Mephiston Red, paint onto the top 50% of upwards facing panels.

- Metallics: Leadbelcher, repaint the barrels and magazines, and any chainsword teeth.

8- Edge Highlights

- Green Armour: Moot Green, any area you've painted the 50/50 layer

- Red Weapon Casings: Wild Rider Red

- Black Leather: Mechanicus Standard Grey

- Brown Leather: Skrag Brown

- Gold: Liberator Gold

Tidy / cut back any "fat" highlights with the Layer colours

9- Talassar Blue Contrast into eye lenses

10- Bases - GW boxart style

1- Armageddon Dunes texture paint

2- Reikland Fleshshade wash 

3- Tyrant Skull or Bleached Bone or Wraithbone drybrush

4- Base Rim in Steel Legion Drab

11- For gaming pieces I recommend varnishing, and personally I use GW Munitorum Varnish Spray (it has a Satin Finish)

 

 

Spoiler

 

[Firedrake Cordova]

Not specific to Dark Angels, but my advice would be to try painting a base coat on a squad before trying to pick out the fine details and/or add highlights. This gives you some time to get used to the brush/paint on the larger, more forgiving areas before attempting the smaller, more annoying bits. From a feeling of progress point of view, getting the basic colours onto the grey plastic creates a larger visual difference than adding highlights to an already base-coated model.

 

If you have a GW store near you, they may well do free painting lessons.

 

Also ... isopropyl alcohol (or BioStrip 20) is very good at removing acrylic paint from plastic (not resin) models, so don't be afraid to make mistakes.  

[sbarnby71]

Not a Dark Angels painter, but have been painting for almost 37 years (but I'm no expert).  For me contrast has upped my game, but maybe not in the way GW state it should be used.  

 

I paint Space Wolves in the baby-blue lots of people don't like.  I give my models a base of Grey Seer, then Fenrisian Grey, then Gloss Varnish, then I use a very diluted Drakenhof Nightshade with Contrast Medium (1:3) and work into the armour lines and recesses and keep a puddle of Contrast Medium handy to further dilute if the flat panels are getting stained.  This works for me as Contrast Paints don't work well for lighter colours on flat surfaces.

 

Now as you're doing Dark Angels, their armour is darker and how dark you go with that green is up to you.  Grotsmasha has quite a light green scheme, some folks go to a point where they look almost black.  Contrast can help with those darker stages (add an extra layer).  Contrast used well can mean not going back to highlight.  I don't highlight my armour at all as the baby-blue is bright enough, I use my shades to create the contrast.  If you go down the Contrast route, watch some YouTube vids on how to use and dilute it as it can be hasty if you go back and touch it after it's reached a point in the drying process.

 

Another thing is are you painting up 100s of troops to play or like me only a few for display.  That can also factor in your painting technique.  If you want 100s of troops, then a very technique heavy approach might get too boring/time consuming and you run the risk of just giving up.  If it's bulk items, then find a quick process and then you can also go back to add extra detail and/or lavish more time on your main characters.

[Helias_Tancred]

1. I'm not a fan of contrast styled paints on space marine models as the main paint method. Too much flat-ish broad open space for the paint to pool or streak. I use several GW Contrast paints for technical uses, and several Army Painter Speedpaints 2.0 for a power armor easy "slap chop" method that is one shot and done in terms of edging, shadows, etc.. I use GW Aethermatic Blue and Frostheart (both are EXCELLENT) for two different plasma coil looks. A thinned Giuilliman Flesh Wash makes a superior one coat solution. I also still use old no longer made GW Glaze paints for helmet lenses, or gun mechanic lenses (over a white), but several of the GW contrast paints are a good replacement for the old glaze paints for that technique. A slap chop method is like this: Base the miniature in its core base color, for Dark Angels its Caliban Green. Then  a heavy dry brush of two layers of much much lighter colors on the model. I use Skarsnik Green, followed by Corax White. Then I use an Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0, Absolution Green, and go over the whole model and when it dries you have an edge/shadow look all done. It's not a 10/10 solution but it looks good and works for my units. I don't tend to use that technique on my characters. It is not a hard technique to use which saves a lot of time and effort. The only catch is know how to apply Contrast/Speedpaint types of paint. Try hard to use just one brush stroke that applies it, and avoid going back over it a second time. I will attach a pic of one of my Dark Angel intercessors that I just did since getting back into the faction. Again you can see the technique in his green power armor. Offhand I have three very solid Slap Chop recipes for Black, Dark Green, and Ultramarine blue down pat if you are interested in them just message me. 

 

2. Deathwing can be done many different ways. I prefer to base it in GW Wraithbone, then used a 50/50 thinned down Army Painter speed paint 2.0 Pallid Bone to give it a slightly bone color with some shading in the corners (then I do a fine edge highlight of Wraithbone over some parts of it). Again, gotta focus on one brush stroke and avoid going back over it. There is a recent GW video on YouTube on how to paint a Deathwing terminator  and they use the base in Wraithbone then use a 50/50 thinned down version of their Skeleton Horde Contrast paint to achieve the effect. I prefer Army Painterr's Speedpaints for this stuff because it's thinner and I find it easier to work with vs Contrast. The latter has more "pooling" and "streaking" tendencies in my experience and requires me to sit and babysit it as it dries, breaking top and pushing around pools and streaks of the paint. It is heavier than its competitors but some people like that physical trait of it, that's cool, but I don't. 

 

3. Several years back GW changed their vendor for their aerosol spray paints in cans. They used to be THE best solution in the hobby. However when they changed vendors they lost that. It's not nearly as good and the new nozzles are crap (red nozzles). Chaos Black and Standard Mechanicus Grey are still solid but I wouldn't use any others of their spray line. I would try and go Pro Acryl or Vallejo for spray cans. Why use spray cans, because it's a fast and thorough method for priming and basing a lot of models. I've been doing this for 13 years, and I try to base with a brush and out of a paint pot these days more than I prefer using aerosol sprays. But sometimes it's just a clear no-brainer, for example larger vehicles.

 

4. Get a wet palette. Use a wet palette for your standard acrylic paints.  Multiple solid choices are out there; Red Grass Games, Army Painter, etc. I wish I knew to start using a wet palette from the day I got into this hobby.

 

5. Brushes. Use good brushes. Doesn't have to be Ferrari level expensive brushes but good brushes can make painting easier. Personally I use Army Painter Wargamer series with the triangular handles. GW makes several brushes that are very good too such as the Medium Shade brush, Small and Medium dry brush, and Large and Extra Large base brushes, but overall I avoid their other brushes. Other brands out there make good brushes, better brushes, etc. Just gotta find which ones meet your requirements of cost, availability, feel, etc. Also use Brush Cleaner regularly. The Masters is a good one. 

 

6. I haven't used a paint brand that I didn't like. We are blessed with a variety of solid choices for model paints. My main three are GW, Army Painter, and Vallejo. Others like Monument Hobby's Pro Acryl line are good too. For me it's usually finding a color or certain paint I don't like within a range I like lol. I think for new hobbyists the wide variety of Army Painter Fanatic set offerings across Amazon, etc is really hard to beat for getting your hands on a good assortment of acrylic paints to start off with.

 

7. File your models before you paint them to remove the mold lines, and other blemishes like from cutting them off from the sprue and the little plastic tag it leaves. I prefer packs of disposable file sticks versus a set metal file set. 

 

I'm running out of things to say lol. 

 

attached- DA intercessor with slap chop power armor technique. Mind the close up shot but ditto for a blue armor version for my librarian. 

 

 

Edited March 27 by Helias_Tancred

[caprock_carbomb]

I got a 50.00 airbrush to do the base coat of Citadel Caliban Green for the whole model before highlighting and filling in the details. It's one of the best investments I have made for getting into the hobby as it saves hours and looks much, much better than painting the base coat by hand.

[Helias_Tancred]

I've contemplated that solution. How hard is it to properly vent for it? I've got a nice rather large basement with a basement door, and several very small windows that open up.