Tim's Paint Log

[Skilgannan]

I think I should start with a little background about myself and how and when I got into the hobby.
My name is Tim I am 30 years young and am currently getting married this August. I got into the hobby about 16 weeks ago when my fiancée’s brother told me that he started collecting Ultramarines. I searched what it was about and thought that I might like it. So I ordered the Dark Vengeance set. I researched the two different armies in the set and choose Dark Angels. I liked the look of the Deathwing and Ravenwing together and I also liked the story behind the fallen. Afetr a while I wanted a WFB army. I looked around at what was there and when I came across Vampire Counts I knew that is the army for me. The reason being is I simply love undead lore. I've always loved vampire stories. So I brought the vampire counts battalion box and army book.

Anyway to the actual paint log:

So this is my first unit I have ever painted with the help from Ben from Guildford’s Games Workshop store.




Although nowhere near as good as almost every other model I have seen painted I am quite pleased with the result as a first attempt.

I moved on to my Deathwing Termies. I done them very slightly different to the norm. AS you will probably know Deathwing normally get’s undercoated white. I undercoated them black used Rakarth Flesh as a base (that I think is normal) I used a very heavy wash of Seraphim Serpia to make a dessert storm look to them.




After my Deathwing I decided to start my Ravenwing. Although these models are yet to be completed as I still need to put highlights onto them. I also need to do the head lights.








After half completing my Ravenwing I decided to paint my Company Master. I am not that pleased with the results. It was my first ever attempt at highlighting. I highlighted the cloak but as you will see not to a very high standard.







That's it for this post I will post more when I have the time.

Any comments and criticism is always welcome.

Thanks

Tim

 

[Ustrello]

Need some better lighting man, otherwise looks good

 

[Skilgannan]

Yep, just waiting til payday and can get a bulb for my lamp.

And Thank you

 

[Minty]

am currently getting married this August.

You should probably rephrase that lest the current prospective Mrs. Skilgannan sees it. Just saying...


Anyhoo, Ustrello is right, the quality of advice we can give you is proportional to the quality of the photos we can see.

However, I can offer you some advice, try washing those green marines with a little Baal Red. It'll really make the green armour fly. Use Asurman Blue wash on the red boltguns.

Once you've done that, drybrush* some brown on the ends of the plasma guns, and some black right at the very tip so they look scorched.

Try on a test model first to get your technique right, though.

Actually, that's some top advice, have a test model or two. Spare models, broken ones, whatever. Metal models are good since you can strip and repaint them endlessly.

What else?

Well, you probably should not have painted your Company Master.

Everyone gets a little bit better with every model he paints. That's a good thing, and it's especially true when we just start out. Because of that, though, it's usually wise to leave characters, sergeants and centerpeice models until after you've painted the rank and file.

 

[Skilgannan]

Thank you for the advice. I will try the tips on one of my models when I get the paints.

 

[The Sun King]

Hey Tim - gratz on the marriage!

If I were to give you some advice I would say: thin your paints. I don't know if it's just the pictures lack of lighting but it looks as though your paint is a bit too thick.

 

[Count Vorri Von Rapt]

I suppose what are the chances.. Guildford is my local store as well!

 

[Skilgannan]

@ sun king, yea more watering down the paints, my painting is a bit better now and I'll post some stuff up here soon.

@ Von, I rarely go into the Guildford store now as I have found a club in redhill where I live. But I did play my first fantasy game there ages ago I borrowed Ben's orcs and goblins and played against vampire counts, so could well of been you.

 

[Skilgannan]

So here are some of my mini's that I have painted since I postered my Dark Angels. I have not had much cash so I dug my old Dark Elves from the loft at my parents house and painted some of them.

Here are 10 4th/5th Edition Witch Elves.



this is a wip of my dreadlord on a black dragon that my wife surprised me with one day, (I was very surprised as she has no interest in the hobby and knows nothing about it).



Here's my Black Guard.



In comments and criticisms are very much welcomed

Thanks

Tim

 

[Mannerheim27]

The DE look great so far! My only recommendation would be to add a wash or two to the weapons to capture the detail on them. Other than that, great job bud!

All the best,

Jake

 

[Skilgannan]

Thanks Red.

The witch Elves blades have the new technical paint effect on them so prob won't put any more washes on them. However what would you suggest for the Black Guard and Dreadlord? I wanted them a bit shiny as I'd think that they would keep there weapons clean and sharp.

Many Thanks for the reply.

Tim

 

[Minty]

The Sun King is right, you need to thin your paints more. Yes, that's the most common, basic and chliche painting advice ever, but it's true.

The fleshtones on your Blackguards and Witches seem like your paint was far too thick, and too thickly applied.

Sepia wash on the flesh would help a lot, however.

Your highlighting needs a little work, too. there's more to highlighting than painting a line of lighter colour at the edge of each section. It needs to be blended - a smooth transition from dark to light.

Drybrushing is often the best way to achieve that. Wet-blending if you're feeling fancy. That said, wet-blending is a pain and I can only be bothered to do it for characters and one-off models m'self.

You ask about shiny metal. Consider buying some Vallejo Metal Medium. It's simply acrylic resin with mica and titanium dioxide suspended in it. Extremely bright metallic shine with no actual colour. It can add shine to almost anything.

For example, I used it to highlight the silver accents on this vampire's armour - it gives it a real shine.

I stand by what I said once before, though - it's hard to give criticism from your photographs. Your dragon especially - the photo proves you own a dragon, but in terms of showing off the paintjob, it's not at all useful.

 

[soccergopher]

If you don't mind me saying - as other people have said, the paints may be a little too thick when applied. However, I find it hard to tell myself with the lighting (far too dim maybe? so the color may be a little distorted)

Some tips that you may find useful - don't be afraid to take highlights and shadows to what may seem waaaaaay too far, trust me, extreme contrasts is probably one of the better ways to make a mini "pop" at table distance.

You can play with the contrasts with any mini, though the way I started getting comfortable was grabbing a metal mini and trying/testing throwing paint on the mini (not literally) and if I ever felt like I missed the mini up I would strip it and try again (this happened to me SOOOO MANY times, still does now after 7 years of painting all sort of stuff)

As far as getting the paint thickness right (again, there is no 1 way to do it) I make sure that my paintbrush is well loaded with water before I dip it into the paint. Once I get paint on the brush I make sure that the paint and water in the brush gets mixed and THEN get rid of most of it on a white piece of paper so that even if the paint/water mix is runny it doesn't just puddle up on the mini and can be controlled.

Same as above - just keep playing with it until you feel you got it down and hang in there.

Another tip that may help is applying the primer, as having a very thick primer coat can set you up for a HARD time painting. BTW, what color do you use? Personally I like to prime black and then zenithal white - though it always varies from mini to mini and what effect I am looking for.
White is probably the faster one to paint on, black being the most forgiving (the big downside of black being that it can "provoke" using thick coats as it takes more layers to get a solid color)

Last thing I can say, look for tuts (I am sure you already do). Personally I find painters like Angel Giraldez and Jeremy Bohamant to be GREAT a source of inspiration. Jeremy Bohamant's DVD is probably the single most awesome painting guide ever made, the guy talks about EVERYTHING in the painting process.

Hope this helps you out man!