First timer WIP

[Tolinwiz]

Hi guys,

I hesitate to post a WIP here on coolmini, as I view this place as the mecca in regards to painting skill and don't want to amateur hour it up.

I think however, that without the help of some of the great community here, I may be missing some obvious easy fixes and or tips etc. that could hopefully take my painting to the next level.

I'm creating a "tomb kingsy" themed marine army for my first 40k list/army etc. I like the color scheme of the TK and thought it might make for an interesting take on marines.

Final project will consist of:

9 drop pods
3 ironclads
2 regular dreads
20 tactical marines
10 assault marines
6 assault terminators
Shrike
Master of the Forge

So far I've finished 1 tac squad:

Closeup of Flamer

Closeup of the Sarge

Dreadnought WIP

Thanks for any C&C, I appreciate you all taking the time to have a peak.

 

[Eelco]

Why hesitate to show? Looks pretty good to me. Ik especially like the white and red helmets.
Painting skils looks also good to me, especially for gaming quality.

If you like to get your army to a higher painting level, I think it won't take to much time because the base is excellent.

What I would heve done in your case:
- Highlighting the metal parts and some more shadows.
- Highlight the blue tones a littel bit more.
- The shadows in the white are to strong for me. Try to blend them a little bit more.

At the front of your dreadnought I can see you highlight and shadowed the small red parts (don't know how to call these parts).
That's what I was talking about for the blue tones at the marines.

Keep up the good work and hope to see more of your work.

best regards,

Eelco

 

[Tolinwiz]

Eelco, thanks so much for your kind words mate. I completely agree the metal areas are very flat as well as the blues on the Marines. I find I have a hard time balancing "too much work to the point of getting overwhelmed" while painting an army with "Could spend an extra 20 minutes and increase the quality 100%" (note, not necesarrily 100%, but just, finding the "sweet spot" for time spent to quality outcome".

Thanks so much for the quick comments, I'll make some changes on the next batch, and re-visit these first ones a bit.

In regards to the hesitation to show:

I think sometimes I just prefer to not know if it's nice or not. It's a lot easier to tell yourself something is super awesome, or the effort was worth it, if it's just yourself commenting on the work .

Being able to post on, what is in my opinion, the best community of painters on the net, and get even a passing grade makes all the effort worthwhile. So, I figured it was about time to see if I need to completely re-overhaul my whole painting world, or maybe just work on improving on the foundation I've hopefully created.

So thanks Eelco, means a lot that there's a guy out there that think my painting looks alright.

 

[locutus]

For table top this is fine. However if you want to get better results just have a look at some of the articles on cmon. Also youtube has some video's that can help.
More highlights is the best advice i can give you.

Good luck!

 

[PegaZus]

Hi guys,

I hesitate to post a WIP here on coolmini, as I view this place as the mecca in regards to painting skill and don't want to amateur hour it up.

I haven't laughed that hard in a while. You haven't perused my gallery of amateurish attempts at painting, have you?

Specific critiques:
On the flamer guy, the shoulder pad on the right side seems to be missing some paint on the inside (towards the chest) area. Probably just needed another layer to cover the blue. And his white cloth is shadowed a bit harshly.

Obviously, the dreadnought's base isn't finished and needs to be brought up to speed with the others. And the metallics could do with a bit of shading.

-----------------

Seriously, what you've got is really well painted. Solid 6s, with a scattering of 5s if I'd seen ten marines prior. Nothing to be hesitant about.

And for later, you'll want to polish the photography skills, These are fine for WIPs, of course.

 

[Tolinwiz]

Thanks much for the critiques guys.

Re: Highlighting*

Are you suggesting an overall brighter tone on the "inner" parts of the model? On marines, I have a tough time visualizing the highlights, as I typically just see "Dark line on low point, Light line on raised edge, median shade on the rest of the armor plate". I'm guessing a way to spruce up the marines is to really blend each armor plate up from a dark shade to a lighter one.

Also, any suggestions on highlighting or making the turquoise shades brighter? Adding white to the paint just makes it more sky blue-y. I'm a complete moron when it comes to color theory. I am signed up for a course at the local community college however!

 

[bsop]

Though I dont paint much in the 40k universe, I would tend to lean my advice toward finding a light source. Easiest way would be to have it be directly above the model. Take the areas that are more directly facing said light source, and highlight those. A good example would be your first dread picture. See the curved area on the arm on the right side (his left arm) that is naturally highlighted in the photo? That could use a glazed highlight to give it perspective. You could also apply the same highlight to the flat plates of armor which are facing more perpendicular to the sky/light source. I like where your at though, They look like a very good gaming quality, better than most of the guys at my local shop. Get all the models at that quality, finish the army, and then dive in to more advanced highlights to improve them as a whole.

As far as chaulkyness while highlighting your whites, I'm afraid I cant help you with that at the moment, its been a while since ive painted a blue scheme and im drawing a blank. Possibly try using a different brand of white paint, or use something like bleached bone mixed with the blue instead of the pure white. That may skirt around the issue.

To get a better idea of how to highlight 40k though, dont trust me, trust a gallery search for space marines or dreadnoughts sorted by ratings, decending. See where the best artists of this community put their highlights, drool over the pictures, and learn.

 

[Yves]

An easy way to see where a light source would hit a model is to prime the whole miniature black, then spray a little white primer from the light source's angle. Take a picture of your miniature and paint it up accordingly. It's usually easier to see the highlight points that way opposed to a picture taken from a miniature underneath a lamp. Other than that I don't think I can offer any helpful advice that hasn't been mentioned before.
You got some solid, good looking work done. I like the clear definition of your colors and your clean painting style. Good work, so far!

 

[bsop]

Good idea with the white primer, though I hope he doesn't use it on his already painted models!