AAAHHHHHH

[Vashiel]

Not bad, definitely better than my first minis. I do think you are probably overloading the brush though. Try to just have a bit of paint on the end of the bristles and nowhere else, this'll definitely help with eyes etc. It's better IMHO to have to go back and get more paint on the brush than to have too much on at once.

 

As a side note for future projects, look towards getting full-sized pots of paint. They seal better and won't dry out. Also consider a couple of brushes based on how you paint (you may want to get a proper Drybrush, for example.)

[Brother Octavianus]

thanks for all the responses and so far through using them my next marine looks a lot better

[Bloodthirster90]

Pretty decent minis, though, as people have said, you need to work on the eyes. And I wouldn't worry too much about basing. I've been doing this for about a year and a half and I still haven't done most of the bases.

[Brother Lysander]

also i chose the harolds of ultramar

 

If only that was the Chapter's actual name :)

 

They are good first attempts, honestly. I didn't try black-lining for years, so you are off to a flyer. All I can say is practice really does make the difference, as does reading around, it amazes me what I pick up just reading guides, forum posts etc. Take a look:

 

One of my first painted Marines

 

Most recent Marine

 

Good luck, and don't worry, you can only ever get better.

 

BL

[Brother Gothard]

Dude .. your marines are 10x better than my first Night Elf model! Seriously!

 

All the links and advice posted are so, so great. Here's my own:

 

Take your time! Nothing ruins a model like rushing. Even if you're as good as Joker or Boltman or all those others.

 

Use the right tools for the right job! Small brushes are always better than big ones. It takes longer, but it will look better (see Take your time! comment).

 

Don't get discouraged! I have such a fear of ruining my uber expensive, well converted minis that I'm looking at a pile of two 1700 point armies that are both under 25% painted. If you're so worried about ruining expensive models, prime your GI Joes or buy some plastic Army men and practice on them. The techniques are the same, and when applied to the beautiful GW sculpts, will look amazing ;)

 

Good luck B)

[InquisitorPalpatine]

If the space marines are going to be your army of choice then I'd use the tyranids that came in the battle for macragge box as practice minis. I started collecting and painting during 2nd edition so I painted 40 gretchen and 10 orks before I every touched the marines. This will allow you to practice all kinds of things and the colors you use on them won't matter, and if you ever decide to collect tyranids then you can strip them and start over.

[Hrimpursar]

Octavianus: I think your first marines doesent look all that bad. I'm fresh into painting too. I was quite satisfied with my first marine when i have painted it, not alltogether, but as a firs model one shouldn't except a golden demon :)

 

My first mini is this:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/133912

 

Then i wasted two in trying out a few techniques i managed to paint this:

http://www.coolminiornot.com/133913

http://img.tar.hu/efti/img/25943514.jpg

 

which is still far from being good, but a lot better imho.

[lhg033]

for your first model thats pretty good.

 

my first model was the chaos knight that came in the painting box set about 10ish years ago - oh dear! and this model has not stopped being abused - i turn to this most times i want to try new things out as it has a nice variety of surfaces to play on.

 

anyway - though this is quite advanced, boltman's Magmatrax tutorial explains some great painting techniques you may want to try out at some time and the hobby hawk site has some other nice bits on too if you browse around it.

 

i wouldn't try some of these things until you've gotten used to painting some of your rank anf file marines but you may want to give some of the methods a go on your heros etc.

 

keep it up and let us see your progress!

 

lhg033

[esinhorn]

You must be some kind of artist such as myself,we are always too critical on our own work.

I don't know if someone already said it but there are two books that helped me a great deal when I began.

How to Paint Citadel Miniatures and How to Paint Space Marines.

You can probally get from amazon or e-bay easy,maybe that dragon place you were talking about can order it.

Always ask for c&c (critques and comments)for your pieces,There are some super talented artists here that are cool as hell and are aways down to help.

 

ps aways thin your paints down ,3 or 4 thin coats are way better than one thicker coat.

[Tribune]

Here's a good guide for Ultras :

 

Ultras

[hyarke]

Ah, those were the days, 6 years ago in two weeks, the joy of finally opening my first Wh40k box, looking in and going, "s***, what now?" But, after pretty much looking at others' jobbies, I took that crappy GW genric set with a whole bunch of colours inconvineint for good starters like UM, but I started with BT, becasue that's what was in the box, just pretty much knowing by spending so much time drooling over WD articles (Sad I know, I was young and naive), that so adn so was Chaos Black, and the shoulders Skull White, the improvising Mithril Silver and carefully drybrushing here and there. And a week later there I had it, quite a signifigant amount of pounds poorer yet millions happier. Now I had to do the Dark Eldar and the Land Speeder...

 

But anyways, you're first marines were a little too heavy on the paint, which makes it all smeary, and the eyes you don't need a steady hand for as much as just going back over the red that goes outside 'em with blue back over them, which is how I do it, just paint over all the mistakes, don't leave it like that, therefore you can't ruin a model. And I think you drybrushed the bolter very nicely, nice even shinyness. Yeah...if i could find a way to post my Raven Guard pictures I would, but they're...seignifigantly better. As six years often does.

[Hasoroth]

Wow. Your models are so much better then my old ones. They were just a blob of white and red with tissue accidentaly stuck onto them.

 

You have the basics down. Its quite probable in a week that youll have reached the 2-foot model stage which I have just attained after 7 years of playing Warhammer.

[Merkava]

Try doing details with a toothpick. For the eyes, I use the GW formula. Over the black basecoat (or what ever is left after painting your blue) use a fine detail brush to layer on Red Gore, then paint halve the eye going towards the front Blood Red. Next paint the very front part of the eye Blazing Orange. Finally take the toothpick and place a very small dot of Skull White at the back of the eye. To get a real glossy look place a drop of Future floor polish one each eye.

 

Now I've only just got into 40k and all my prior experience is with tanks and enamels so I'm still relearning how to use acrylics. My added challenge is learning how to paint lefthanded after losing the use of my right. Practice DOES make perfect. I also recommend saving up your money and getting the full line paint set. It opens the door up to much more detail painting. Oh and did I mention practice?

 

This last part is more of a rant so skip if you want. This is to all those posters who say "Amazing model dude" when someone has pretty much just dunked the paint on. I would much rather have one post critiqueing (sp?) my work than a dozen "Amazing model dude" posts. Notice I say critique and not critizize. Suggest helpful hints. Not everyone is a born 'Eavy Metal painter, so we can all learn something no matter how advanced we think we are.

 

Rant ends........carry on as per.

[NemFX]

feh.. i started in the early 90's and i still suck at painting them. conversions i'm good at, but painting? .. not so much.

[Darzoni]

My first minis are actually my best, but that's because I was coming off of five years of painting Mobile Suits.

 

Ah, as others have pointed out, just paint over your mistakes. As for supplies... Testors has a range of acrylic paints, and paintbrushes to go with it. The best brush I have is a Testors Size 0 brush I bought for like $2 at WalMart. Granted, these days I use a freakin' huge ink-brush for everything for some reason, but that's a good starter brush.

[Brother Octavianus]

here are pictures of the next six space marines

 

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/2384/pics047ds5.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7712/pics087te4.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/3512/pics092wb2.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

once again comments concerns and critisism are appreciated

[Kaan]

If you are using a digital camera, you probably have a "macro" feature (the icon on the screen will look like a flower or a tulip). Switch your camera to that mode, it allows you to take pictures close up and maintain focus.

 

The models (fuzzy) look good though. You might consider

 

1) spicing up the guns a bit, just keep some parts black instead of painting the whole gun boltgun metal.

 

2) Another thing is to black line the model. If you have a Michaels or some other Arts and Crafts store, they probably sell pens that are very fine tipped (0.25 mm). Just draw black lines where blue armor meets. For instance, on the feet, there are "gaps" or overlaps from where the toes go and the midpart of the foot. Just draw a black line on top of the "toe" portion in front of the higher mid foot portion of the boot. There would also be the sole of the boot, where you might imagine the boot meets the bottom. There is a groove there that circle the whole foot. Both bottom and tops of round knee pads. The bracelet on the arms. In between the fingers, etc. Black lining is one of the easiest ways to give your model all sorts of depth and can really improve the overall look of the model.

 

3) For highlighting, look at the "white" spots on the model from the light source. These would be spots where you would paint a light shade of blue to "mimic" light striking the model. You can take your UltraMarines blue and add a small amount of white paint to it (on a palette, not the actual bottles) to lighten up the blue. Then paint on the raised areas of the model (such as the helmet section right above the eyes, top part of the knee pads, top of the feet, top of the backpacks).

 

Honestly though, these models are looking good, I'd love to see them again with a crisper set of photos. Use the macro function.

[SoulDrinker]

Was it really necessary to post that many pics?

Anyway as for advice:

1) Thin your paints: It should take 4-5 layers to get a good solid color.

2) Highlights: I do edge highlighting (not sure if thats the correct term) which is just adding highlights to the edges. While not as realistic, its very common and looks great if done well. What I do is mix a lighter shade with the base color in 4 highlights (3:1, 2:2, then 1:3) Then finish is by glazing the model.

3) Next you should do the details such as eyes, shoulder pad trim, chest eagle, and what not. Shoulder pad is pretty basic, and there are a number of good tutorials on painting eyes, and metallics

4) Another thing is metalics. Yours look flat so look around and try to find a good tutorial for that.

5) Base: really whatever you want, but make sure you don't over do it. Keep it simple.

6) the most important: TAKE YOURE TIME. Seriously if you plan to spend 20 minutes on these you will never get the results I'm assuming you wish to achieve. Expect to spend around an hour per marine or so. Obviously working on more than one at a time will make the process go much faster.

 

Goodluck, and cut down on the number and size of the pics next time

[Curufew]

Take good care of your brush >_>

 

I'm a fellow newbie as well. I bought a new fine detail brush last week. And when I wanted to use it just now, the brush was "spoilt". Oh yeah, I heard that Citadel paint dries up real fast. Is that true?

[Hasoroth]

@ Souldrinker Limit the number of pics and the size of em now? Geeze.

 

Yeah, as for advice take damn good care of your brush. They can spoil easily. From what I can see of your models they are really well painted. Try using a macro setting on your digital camera (should be shaped like a flower) so I can see the details better.

[SoulDrinker]

@ Souldrinker Limit the number of pics and the size of em now? Geeze.

I think for some reason when I looked at this thread the first time I saw about 10 pics, but that was probably due to the fact that this thread slows my computer down to a crawl.

 

Another thing for the thread starter is when trying to improve what I do is paint one mini at a time, trying new techniques and this way I can see the end result before putting time into more. After that one mini is done, stip it and repaint the way I like. Repeat as many times needed.

[Obliterator]

Another thing for the thread starter is when trying to improve what I do is paint one mini at a time, trying new techniques and this way I can see the end result before putting time into more. After that one mini is done, stip it and repaint the way I like. Repeat as many times needed.

Or continue on the next mini. That way you'll paint entire units instead of painting that one mini over and over again. It always motivates me to see entirely painted units on the table, even if the first marines look slightly worse then the last batch. Don't worry about it. You'll have plenty of time to strip and repaint the minis you're not happy about later.

 

Now for some comments on those minis :unsure: : they're not as bad as you think, you know. It's pretty hard to come here and show off your minis while there are also lots of threads by Daemon-winning painters, and it sometimes takes b@lls to post pics of one's minis, but that's about the only way of getting feedback to improve them (well, unless you've got room in your house to accomodate all of us :) ).

 

From the looks of it, you've got the basics covered: every color is nice and even, and the colors are painted on the parts they were meant for. You've got a clean paintjob already, so IMHO you're ready to take the plunge into shading and highlighting.

 

First we'll tackle the bolter. The Boltgun Metal bolters look a bit flat right now, but washing them with some Black Ink will bring out the detail on those babies. Just thin down your Black Ink a bit (I use about 50/50 ink/water) and paint it all over the metal parts. It will collect in the nooks and crannies and will look like a shade. You'll see the metal 'pop' in no time. Remember, it's better to use several washes that are too light then to apply one wash that's too heavy. You can use the same technique on the gold of the chest eagle although I would advice to use Brown ink instead.

[Private Iron]

Wow nice work man thats like 1000000x better than my first marine

 

Ditto, just keep at it!

[Wolffje]

I think you are doing pretty well for a beginner. ;) My first mini's looked like crap en for some reason everyone kept calling them blue blood angels, so I repainted the whole armies with my now improved skills and a new colorscheme.