Help me with my 1st mini project? (W40K IG)

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Dissonance

New member
Hi people,
I recently gathered the courage to pop the paint can and wet the brushes, and started working on my very first Imperial Guard troop.

Currently, I\'m working on a squad of Guardsmen, and would like to make them more \"realistic\" before I put the finishing touches on them.

Here\'s what I got so far - I got the fatigues coloured, I got the Flak Armor in progress, and I got some basics on the faces. The equipment, the guns, the Aquila signs are all unpainted.
Some images:

Comms Guardsman:
S6302646.jpg

S6302652.jpg

S6302653.jpg


Sargeant:
S6302655.jpg

S6302665.jpg


9-unit troop:
S6302667.jpg


The objective is to create Guardsmen with something approaching \"universal\" and \"realistic\" camouflage. The fatigues are meant to be sage green/pale gray and the flak armour is meant to be dark gray. Once I\'m happy with the above, I will put brown camo stripes on fatigues, flak armor, guns and large equipment eg. flamer prometheum tanks.

For specifics, I started with a black prime, layered grey/olive green with increased amounts of water to create the grey/green look. The armour started off as solid gray, followed by liberal application of loose-bristled dry brush for some basic texturing, followed with a light grey wash to return to intended colour.

While that worked out as intended, it just doesn\'t look \"real\" enough to me. They might be lowly guardsmen, and they may be my first project, but I don\'t want them to *look* plastic.

Help me out here? I like the bullet-bitten and weather-worn effects I see on others\' mini\'s, but I don\'t know how to do them.

I\'m also a complete newcomer to painting and acrylic paints, so make it simple for me please!

Much appreciated.
 
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Dissonance

New member
Guess my old, old email webhosting doesn\'t cut it it anymore. I created a Photobucket account, have a look at \'em now guys and gals.
 
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Dissonance

New member
Originally posted by Shawn R. L.
Work for me. Good colors and neat paintjob. File the mold lines off.
Click to expand...

I... can\'t believe I missed some flash molding. That\'s what I get for not preparing my own minis...

Thanks
 
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Shadzar

Guest
:mad: Cadians?! I hate Cadians!!!!! :possessed:

They just look like swat units to me, so prefer my Catachans.

The colors are all looking good, and with GW paints, you wil have that plastic look for a while. That will go away when you use some Testor\'s Dullcote, if you can find it where you are; to seal them and give them a flat protective finish to remove the glossiness of the paint. The flat finish goes on last since it is sprayed on.

If you want more protection that the flat, just before you are ready to use your available flat finish, you can get some Future Floor Finish and paint the entire mini first for extra protection. Then use your flat \"dullcote\" after to reduce the shine and gloss.

If you need some shine back for any area, you can then just paint the FFF directly onto the areas you want shiny, and it will do the trick...Of course waiting for each layer to dry before applying the next.

If you cannot find the spray Testor\'s Dullcote Lacquer, then someone around here will likely have an alternative in your area off the world to suggest for you.


All in all you got yourself a good little start on those little Cadians.
 
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Dissonance

New member
I actually quite like the swat look, I like my \"veteran killing unit\" idea.

Appreciate the kind comments, and no, I\'m not using GW paint - too expensive :)

I guess my real question is, how can I make the flak armor look more worn and dirty?
Also, I\'ve seen some minis have bullet holes in their armor - how would I achieve that effect?
 
Benihana

Benihana

New member
I\'m new to all this as well, but looking for some answers helps me learn so I don\'t mind. :D First of all, only two of your photos are working now (for me anyway), I\'m not sure if you meant to fix all of them. They look like they were taken in natural light, which is making it hard to see the colors, shading and shadows.

Anyway I think your problem may have been the wash you used. It sounds like you are picking colors very near the main color of whatever you\'re painting. For example, you might color the armor light gray, drybrush a shade lighter, ink wash a shade darker. If you were a bit more adventurous with your colors you might find better results. Use a much darker wash and somewhat lighter drybrush. Try using colors of other shades instead of just lighter or darker. Use some reference photos to pick colors (and cover all but the color you want, so you have a more objective idea of what color it actually is).

http://www.how-to-paint-miniatures.com/miniature_painting_drybrushing.html


As for the bulletholes, well I\'m not sure having holes in your flak armor is a very good thing :/ but here are a few links to check out. I especially like the dreadnought but that might not work for a soldier.

http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1976
http://www.coolminiornot.com/article/aid/405
Dreadnoughts (bottom right)

Edit: all photos working now
 
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Dissonance

New member
Originally posted by Benihana
I\'m new to all this as well, but looking for some answers helps me learn so I don\'t mind. :D First of all, only two of your photos are working now (for me anyway), I\'m not sure if you meant to fix all of them. They look like they were taken in natural light, which is making it hard to see the colors, shading and shadows.

Anyway I think your problem may have been the wash you used. It sounds like you are picking colors very near the main color of whatever you\'re painting. For example, you might color the armor light gray, drybrush a shade lighter, ink wash a shade darker. If you were a bit more adventurous with your colors you might find better results. Use a much darker wash and somewhat lighter drybrush. Try using colors of other shades instead of just lighter or darker. Use some reference photos to pick colors (and cover all but the color you want, so you have a more objective idea of what color it actually is).

http://www.how-to-paint-miniatures.com/miniature_painting_drybrushing.html


As for the bulletholes, well I\'m not sure having holes in your flak armor is a very good thing :/ but here are a few links to check out. I especially like the dreadnought but that might not work for a soldier.

http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1976
http://www.coolminiornot.com/article/aid/405
Dreadnoughts (bottom right)

Edit: all photos working now
Click to expand...

Much appreciate it... so much to learn!
Looks like I need some stipling on my minis, which I\'ve been trying already. Onwards and upwards!
I\'ll post completed versions when I got them.

However, what do you mean by using other colours? If I have grey armour, would I wash it with, say, very dark greens or blues or somesuch?
 
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Shadzar

Guest
You probably want to check the articles here on CMoN for washing technique. Or you might prefer to dip them depending on what look you are going for.

Also for the grime/dirt look on the flak armor, it really depends on where you want them to have gotten it from.

Armageddon style and city-fight style worlds, would be more dark colored washes to show the city dust and dirt sticking to the armor, and open terrain could be brown or green for dirts and grasses stuck to the armor, or even red for high iron content soil.

Since they aren\'t half-nekked jungle fighters wearing wife-beaters, like catachans; you could even do them up with some snow.

Again, all these types of things are in articles here on CMoN.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/article
 
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