My first mini ever!

[Gilvan Blight]

Any miliput or other sculpting work should be done and completed before your primer coat, not after. It looks like you tried to fill the gap after the mini was primed.

I also suggest assembling this guy a bit more, at least put the legs on the torso so that you have the base to hold onto. Right now I wonder how you hold the parts while painting them.

 

[Witzkatz]

Thanks for the answers you both and thanks for the compliment, mourner!

I removed my mould lines with a micro swiss pocket knife, which has quite a sharp blade, following one of the articles on this site. That was quite a time-consuming work, so I guess I will try out sandpaper as an alternative!

Concerning assembling: Yes, I thought I would find some way of using sticks or something to put the parts on - unfortunately, I found no satisfying way of doing so, so I just held every little part in my left hands fingers while painting (and yes, that was ...not easy ).

About using the milliput after priming and basecoating: Yes, I somehow thought that\'d be a bad idea, but I didn\'t have the heart to try it before starting to paint...however, when I saw that the gap was really visible even with the two or three layers of paint on it, I thought I would give it a try. Will be smarter next time!

For priming I used sprayed chaos black, too, although that was difficult too, because the parts just flew away when hit by the spray - I did not hold them in my hands because that would really have resulted in a fething taint of chaos on me! lol Therefore, assemblying the parts as far as possible and somehow mounting them on something will be steps I\'ll think of when doing the next marine.

I guess I\'ll start painting again when I come home from work, starting with a new layer for the blue servo armour, so I may be able to give an update with pictures in the evening!

Witzkatz

 

[Mourner]

Originally posted by Witzkatz
Concerning assembling: Yes, I thought I would find some way of using sticks or something to put the parts on - unfortunately, I found no satisfying way of doing so, so I just held every little part in my left hands fingers while painting (and yes, that was ...not easy ).

try using superglue to stick them onto a cork or something, just use a brush and some Chaos Black to prime anything the spray didn\'t hit (you won\'t touch those parts anyway)
concerning blowing your models away (and spraiying your hands) you can glue the cork onto a box, or a stick

Originally posted by Witzkatz
About using the milliput after priming and basecoating: Yes, I somehow thought that\'d be a bad idea, but I didn\'t have the heart to try it before starting to paint...however, when I saw that the gap was really visible even with the two or three layers of paint on it, I thought I would give it a try. Will be smarter next time!

you can always sand it smooth, and just prime it again with a brush.

 

[Witzkatz]

Well, I got something done! Fortunately, my next layer, consisting of about 80% Ultramarine Blue and 20% Chaos Black, covered up parts of the gaps in the torso. Again, when looking on the big picture, I am not fully content with the job...but, well, I guess, for starters it will be okay that way.



Now, that four layers of two shades of blue are applied, I\'d like to put the whole marine together to get an idea of where some highlights would be nice..but first I need some advice, because I want to paint the parts that will be difficult to access after assembling now
I planned to do the skull on the torso armor in gold, using shining gold mainly. But I am not sure which paint I should use for the power cables in the abdominal part of the armor. Some mixture of Boltgun metal and Chaos Black maybe?

And, damn, I should start paying attention to the base...I have some stuff lying around here that I bought for doing something about the base, but somehow I am not sure how exactly...and the Bolter needs paint too...

Well, thanks in advance and for reading!
Witzkatz

 

[Talion]

looking good for first mini

When painting marines I tend to paint all the parts seperatly too only the legs glued to the base.
Ok holding the pieces, this means spending a bit more cash, but the tools will be used for every mini. Ok what you need are model drill bits, get a fine one less than 1mm thick, and drill a hole into an area of the part that wont be seen e.g. the bottom of the head, be very careful not to drill right through to the other side. Use a piece of wire or thinned cocktail stick and using a small amount of PVA glue push the stick thing in.

The joints of a Space marine are not metal and are generally painted black and highlighted.

If you have a fine brush, you could add some shading to the mini, in the grooves between the armour plating e.g. the square groove on the top of the left leg, you could bick up a bit of dark blue, water it down and carefully apply it to those deep areas, when doing this don\'t overload the brush.

Cheer

 

[Witzkatz]

Now that you mention it, of course, metallic joints don\'t make that much sense...I guess I\'ll go over them with Chaos Black and hightlight \'em with some 50-50 CB/UltraBlue-mix...

Thanks for the tip with the shading...I have a fine brush...guess I\'ll find out if I have the dexterity to use it properly

Thanks
Witzkatz

 

[Witzkatz]

Update!

Today I did:
1. Paint the armour with a lighter blue at several places to create some highlighty stuff...not fully content with it, but it gets better.
2. Paint the torso and backpack skulls and the should pad rims with shining gold. I like the skulls, but the shoulder pads need obviously another layer later.
3. Paint the abdominal power cables, the respirator grill and the spherical backpack exhausts with a Boltgun Metal/Chaos Black mix. I am really happy about how metally it looks especially on the power cables, in my humble opinion.

But no more talking, here are the photos:


This was the first time I was somehow disappointed by the photos, because in my opinion it looks partially better in reality. Well, my camera is cheap and old...gotta live with it!

At a next step I might mix up some darker blue and do some shading in the corners of the armour. This bright sunlight makes it look quite flat but, as I said, here on the table its not that bad...

I guess somehow soon I\'ll have to paint the eyes...I fear the eyes, the cruel eyes...!!

Thanks for reading,
Witzkatz

 

[Amazon warrior]

I\'ve been idly following this thread, and dropped in to say that I\'m impressed by your progress, especially on a first mini. Don\'t sweat the photo quality too much at this stage - it\'s the bane of almost every painter\'s existance! Those aren\'t bad for quick shots of a wip, although perhaps a close-up of some of the larger bits might be good for us to see more. Unfortunately, cameras do have a habit of \"eating\" all your delicate shading and highlighting (red is reputedly the worst for this). There are ways to counteract it though, such as using a decent photo setup and lots of lights. I recommend a look through the photograph forum and articles - they\'ve got loads of helpful tips that cover pretty much any situation.

As for the eyes, I think youll be fine. Just keep it slow and steady. Another good tip is to brace one hand on the other so if they wobble, they wobble together! Hold the part with the thumb and forefinger of your non-painting hand, palm up. Then rest the heel of your painting hand (with brush!) on the heel of the non-painting hand. This should give you some stability and enough freedom to paint fiddly bits.

 

[JesterzUSMC]

Originally posted by Amazon warrior
I\'ve been idly following this thread, and dropped in to say that I\'m impressed by your progress, especially on a first mini.

Me too! It\'s been awhile since I\'ve seen a space marine being painted as well. Nice to follow along.

Don\'t sweat the photo quality too much at this stage - it\'s the bane of almost every painter\'s existance! Those aren\'t bad for quick shots of a wip, although perhaps a close-up of some of the larger bits might be good for us to see more. Unfortunately, cameras do have a habit of \"eating\" all your delicate shading and highlighting (red is reputedly the worst for this). There are ways to counteract it though, such as using a decent photo setup and lots of lights. I recommend a look through the photograph forum and articles - they\'ve got loads of helpful tips that cover pretty much any situation.

Once you get to a stage that you\'re proud of, you then have to work on your picture set-up in order to showcase it. I still haven\'t mastered this part...lol

As for the eyes, I think you\'ll be fine. Just keep it slow and steady. Another good tip is to brace one hand on the other so if they wobble, they wobble together! Hold the part with the thumb and forefinger of your non-painting hand, palm up. Then rest the heel of your painting hand (with brush!) on the heel of the non-painting hand. This should give you some stability and enough freedom to paint fiddly bits.

YES! I was going to suggest the same thing! I even extend ,y brush-hand pinky finger under the mini.

 

[Talion]

As the guys have said above that\'s a really good technique for keeping steady. Something else I do when painting fine areas, is to do it in short bursts and holding my breath just before I allow the brush to touch the mini.

Are you painting the eyes yellow?

If so start with some dark brown for your shading, then some golden yellow. When you get more confident you can then highlight with a lighter yellow.

As for the photos always the hardest part when showing a mini, I still can\'t get it to look like I see in real life.

P.S. looks much better with the lighter shade applied

 

[Witzkatz]

Thanks for your comments!

I think I instinctively did something like your mentioned anti-wobble-techniques during some painting phases, but I\'ll try and do it more intentional.

I planned to do the eyes red, like on the cover of the marine box - yellow could be nice, too, but I fear it might look too much like the gold on the shoulder rims and skulls...I\'ll start with a Blood Red/Chaos Black mix and carefully work my way up to pure Blood red, maybe even with a bit of White in it.

When I\'ll have got some work done this afternoon, I may be able to provide you with some close-up pictures, too.

Thanks for reading,
Witzkatz

 

[Mourner]

another technique you could use to get some contrast on your mini is to leave a bit of darker color showing when painting lighter parts (if you already did this but the photo doesn\'t show this ignore what follows)

i.e. paint it too dark, then paint it the right color and leave some dark color showing in the \"shadows\", then highlight the brightest parts

this will give you more contrast, and a smoother transition between the colors

when doing the eyes, i recommend using the smallest possible brush you can find, and use the above technique (simply dragging the brush from light to dark, painting shorter lines the lighter the color gets)

and once again, great work, even more so on a first mini. i took me a couple of years to paint that well.

 

[Amazon warrior]

Originally posted by Witzkatz
Thanks for your comments!

I think I instinctively did something like your mentioned anti-wobble-techniques during some painting phases, but I\'ll try and do it more intentional.

I think many people do it without thinking, but some don\'t, so it was worth mentioning.

I planned to do the eyes red, like on the cover of the marine box - yellow could be nice, too, but I fear it might look too much like the gold on the shoulder rims and skulls...I\'ll start with a Blood Red/Chaos Black mix and carefully work my way up to pure Blood red, maybe even with a bit of White in it.

A good way to shade red is to add a little bit of green to it as well as the black (although I\'d use dark blue or purple) - it\'s the complementary colour and helps to deepen the shadows. I wouldn\'t recommend using white to highlight red unless you want him to have pink eyes! Yellow, orange or fleshy beige work better.

When I\'ll have got some work done this afternoon, I may be able to provide you with some close-up pictures, too.

Looking forward to it!

Thanks for reading,
Witzkatz

 

[fiesta0618]

A good palette for red is Red Gore base, then 1:1 Red Gore to Blood Red, then Blood red, then a touch of Blazing Orange highlight. I don\'t recommend adding black, because the warm colors really don\'t seem to like that...

This is one hell of a first mini, by the way! My first ones I was soooo proud of at first, then a year of improvement later I was so disgusted with them that I stripped and redid every single one. I reckon you won\'t have that problem!

 

[Mourner]

something i like to do for red highlights:
work from dar to light and paint the final highlight in Bleached bone (or white) and go over it with a good strong blood red
the light color saves you some layers, while giving a really bright color

just make sure the white does\'nt shine through, or your red will indeed be pink....

 

[Witzkatz]

Soo, little update.

As you all told me mixing Blood Red and Chaos Black would be a bad idea, I hesitated a bit about painting the eyes and thought I\'d do a test before - and paint the purity seal!

I quickly learned that, yup, Red and even just a little bit of Black gives a real dark and gritty red...what was fine for the first layer on the purity seal, as it looks old and ancient, but for the eyes I guess I will buy some Red Gore and Blazing Orange.

Well, here are some promised semi-close-up-pictures...I apologize for the bad light, but north germany is a bit haily and rainy today and I had to use my cheap desk lamp to brighten up the picture. I hope you can make out some details, as for example the darker part of blue above the left (from viewers view) shin guard of the marine as a shadow... I think in these pictures you can see the power cables in the armor a teense bit better...


The purity seal parchment got some thin layers of graveyard earth above the chaos black primer, which looks quite dark right now. But I will try to go for the old and ancient look on that thing anyway, so thats okay for me. Next layer will be Graveyard Earth, brightened with some Skull White I guess.

However, there won\'t be an update for about...three or four days maybe, because I need to go to the hospital for some minor surgery. I hope to be back soon so I can take up painting again!

Thanks for reading, for your compliments and your encouragement, you guys keep me painting!

Witzkatz

 

[Zerak86]

Hope it goes well for you dude, cant wait to see how you progress!

 

[Mourner]

get well soon, and get back to painting that marine

 

[freakinacage]

hope you recover soon, you are doing much better than i did for the first few yrs of painting!

 

[Witzkatz]

Hey guys, I am just back from the hospital!

Unfortunately, I\'m still weaker than I thought I would be and the surgery wasnt so minor I now realize...will stay the most time of the day in bed for the next few days I guess, but I hope to be able to do a bit of painting in between and then there will be more updates!

Greetings to all
Witzkatz