.... I'd owe everyone who has read this blog at least $10 or so. I seriously think I have negative skills. The above is (or, should I say, was) a nice pewter Venerable Dreadnaught. Now I have created... a pile of steaming turdery. If there was an actual Space Marine being kept alive in this thing, he'd probably pull his own plug. It's just that bad.
Perhaps I'll get better, say, on a regular Dreadnaught. Let's look at that one:
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Nope. Not much better. Just a less expensive steaming pile of.....well, you know where this is all going.The really sad thing is I actually like the whole process of putting the models together and painting.
The WH40K community can only hope I actually improve so they're not forced to look at my abominations.
Next picture post I'll show you my Gawd-awful assault, terminator, and tactical squads. It'll be a craptastic buffet of painting fail, for sure!!!
To be honest with you at least they're painted, and I've seen a lot worse – at tournaments!
ReplyDeleteI've fed up of the number of people who will expect to play a game with unpainted, and in some cases half-built models, so fair play to you for taking the time to paint your models.
It appears to me that, aside for neatening up a few bits with a brush, all these models need is lashing of appropriate coloured inks/wash and then a quick highlight on raised edges. Stick a bit of sharp sand on the bases (painted) and you're all done!
Your basic painting is OK with the regular dreadnought (the Forgeworld model really needs a stripping/repaint though) and a very easy way to add detail to it is to use some inks. I see you've gone for a darker blue (Crimson Fists?) so I suggest maybe giving it a wash of GW purple wash (whatever it's called) and see if it brings out the details? They just do a little highlighting with, say, Ultramarines Blue. It will make a world of difference.
ReplyDeleteMethinks you're a little too hard on yourself. The photographs make it hard to discern, but they look halfway decent from where I stand. If the paint is clumpy, you should try to thin them before use.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, your paint jobs look just fine--if a bit basic. Your next step would be to experiment with washes and/or drybrushing to achieve a more complex effect.
Rest assured that your army looks better than many of those in my local gaming group--where people are often too lazy to paint their stuff at all!
Thanks for the comments. I may be a bit hard on myself, but it really does need some work.
ReplyDeleteI think I will strip the Venerable Dread and retry. The blue I'm using is actually a 50/50 mix of Ultramarine Blue and Enchanted Blue. When I laid down Ultramarine Blue with no mix it looked too bright for the Ultramarines as odd as that sounds.
I have monkeyed about with some drybrushing on my Battletech minis, so I know the technique, I'm just not that confident in it enough to do much with my 40K minis. I have zero experience with washes so I was afraid of really messing up my marines if I tried using it. I do have some marines that I got in an ebay lot that were a total mess, so maybe I'll strip a couple down and try some washes out.
Again, thanks for stopping by the blog and commenting.
Definitely too hard on yourself.
ReplyDeleteWashes are really easy. But one thing I learned with them is to give the places on the model you want to wash a light 'water wash' first. This allows the actual wash to flow better into the cracks where it's supposed to go. Basically dip your brush in your water cup and run it over the model before dipping in the wash. ^.^ Good luck, and
Definately too hard on yourself mate, your standard dread particularly looks decent, the missile launcher with picked out missiles clearly shows you can paint. As suggested above washes are the easiest way to add to your models. The only way to get a technique sorted is to test it. Models are pricey so you can always paint up a spare arm on a sprue to test colours/highlights/drybrushing/washes until your happy with a certain colour set you can hit up your whole army with. Best of luck and stay positive!
ReplyDeletehey my first army was worse :P ( yeah i ran out of grey paint so cause the plastic was grey, well the swords wernt too nice.
ReplyDeleteIF you enjoy painting youll bound to get better :D
We all start somewhere! I think its more important to be able to visualize in your mind where everything needs to go and what it will look like. The hand eye co ordination is something that you can build. Muscle memory is an awesome thing.
ReplyDeleteIts a lot harder to teach imagination, and if you are playing 40K then you already have got that down!
Look forward to seeing more work!
My tip is practise on being neat. Don't try any Fancy techniques till you've got the neatness down. Also don't rush, this is suppose to be relaxing so take your time, and lastly use washes. Their a godsend to painting. A neat paint job with a wash looks great.
ReplyDeleteHang in there! It takes a lot of time and practice to get really good, although I don't think your stuff is that bad. Learn some techniques or try the painting Masterclasses in White Dwarf. Also get some washes - Badab Black and Devlan Mud are invaluable for instant shading.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I do when I'm looking for inspiration or technique is go to the Games Workshop site under whatever army I'm building. There are usually a couple of articles on painting troops for that army, with a good two or three step process for each color on the model. They give pretty good results and are generally not that hard to master. Once you build up a good library of basic techniques for one army they are easily transferable to other colors and figures.
ReplyDelete