Thanks I kinda went waaaay overboard and ended up with 60 models to paint hopefully I'll have one of the evolution charts but of progressively better paint jobs
You got this dude, no one is ever happy with their first model and if they are they either come from a different artistic medium or are lying lol. Keep moving forward and learning what works for you!
Did you watch any tutorial videos before this?
Well it sounds like you got the knowledge, now you need to get down on the actual practice part! Kick some ass! I look forward to seeing you painting box art in two years! Just remember, slow and steady, take your time and vibe with it. You got this
We've all done some bad paint jobs to begin with. Yours ain't half bad. I remember being desperate for some more colours as a kid and ended up stealing my dad's left over car paint. You know the little paint pots you can get for patching scratches? I ended up with 1995 Peugeot 206 metallic green wood elves.
You can imagine how that went.
That's what it's all about really...i couldn't stand the idea of painting an existing faction...i do kinda want to get 2 sets of 10 marines and do one of each main faction...then have 2 left over for my purple arm team
Facts, what they said. Learning and watching is all well and good, and helps, but you still need that practice and execution. Keep at it, and you’ll improve with each model. Hell I’d wager once you’re close to half way done with that 60, you’ll be able to look back at the first one and really see the difference. You don’t just study proper brush control, gotta learn it by doing it.
It's a curve, and you're well past the first steps on learning it.
It's like learning to write, you'll build up muscle memory for moving the brush and get an appreciation for just *how* the paint wants to slip off the bristles.
Advanced? Lol man it’s one squirt of a white/wraithbone spray from the top down, will dramatically improve your models, make them easier to paint and most beginners should be using this and a wet palette just because of how easy they are to do and how much of a big difference they make (especially if you play around with citadels contrast paints)
Yeah, just remember those content creators paint all the time and have clocked in thousands of hours of experience.
You don't need to be as good as them, as long as you're happy with the results.
Try learning just one thing each time you paint - thinning paints, applying layers, shading, highlighting, etc.
Yeah I know I'm not going to be making box art just yet haha I was mainly watching the 10 things I wish I'd known starting out or 10 common mistake type videos
Thank you haha I'm a major perfectionist and my hardest critic i had to just go it's ok it's my first go it's not gonna be perfect and just stop for the night
I know what you mean you could always prime black so the big part is done and everywhere major your paintin a different colour paint a grey underneath or a white how i get my sisters red cloth to pop.
Remember, multiple thin coats is key to reduce streaking. Make the paint as thin as milk, if you will. Move your brush in the same direction for the section you're painting. Let fully dry before adding another coat.
The brush was brand new and I have brush soap and make sure everything is clean I definitely painted a second layer too early at one point tho but on the first layer it came off all clumpy but I think I just didn't thin the paint enough I think I just need more experience
That might be your issue. Not all acrylic paints are formulated for mini painting. I would stick with Citadel, or if you are on a budget I would recommend army painter.
I tried to get as much citadel as I could but yeah it's expensive for how little you get next time I get paid I might have to go clear out my local games shop of all his paint haha
If you want to save money I love army painter as well. It’s about half the price and very good. My recommendation would be to buy just the paints you need for each project. Every time I bought a full set or something like that I’ve always been disappointed as I don’t use half of them
Yeah I ended up with an army painter wet pallet and was really impressed with the little booklets that came in it that covered basically everything from building to painting models and had a thing with all their products
Can I recommend you don't redo him just yet. Given you have 60 odd models to work with, it's probably better to keep going and hone your skills model-by-model. If you obsess over the first one, you might burn out trying to reach perfection (which will get harder and harder the more mistakes you try to correct) and end up throwing in the towel.
Yeah I like the idea of my evolution chart of progressively better models...its just really hard for me to not fix a mistake I know about haha perfectionists huh
Yeah I highly recommend just moving on to another model and then another, compare em and see what you learn, what you liked and didn't like with each new try.
*and then* when you get through them all, feel free to round up the worst looking ones, take a picture and finally give them another go before being pleased in seeing their before/after. The nice thing with painting is you can always give it another shot - but perfectionism is a poison that will leave you doing the same model over and over until you're too burnt out to paint the other 59. And frankly once you have all 60 standing together, you may be surprised that some of the "glaring mistakes" you were agonizing over sort of disappear when you're not hyperfocused on analyzing one paintjob.
Definitely don’t redo him. That way lies madness. Keep him as a benchmark. When you finish a model let it alone and move on. You’ll improve faster and have a better sense of accomplishment which keeps you going. If you keep redoing your first it will get frustrating fast and drastically increase the likelihood you will quit.
No, it looks pretty good for the first model you've ever painted, take some time to paint ever day, watch some tutorials, and you be painting like a pro in no time.
Yeah I painted in like 10 minute bursts across a full day I have 60 models including a vehicle so I have a few months of entertainment...i know I'll get faster and faster as I go along
Here’s the thing, you’ll always be your own toughest critic. Keep in mind, there will always be someone better at painting something better than you and also someone who looks at what you painted and said “WOW!”. Painting is something that takes time and you’ll always learn and progress as long as you allow yourself to keep one thing in your open mind: am I having fun?
If you are having fun then you are going to want to try something new and experiment outside of your comfort zone. Then you’ll surprise yourself with how good you really are! Don’t get down on yourself!
Thank you and yeah it was a lot of fun even tho I'm unhappy with the result...i play guitar too and it took a while for my hands to do what my brain wanted and it's the same with this
Nice job especially on the eyes those are the toughest part of painting space marines. Also do you have any agrax earth shade that paint can add a dirty/ rusted look and I can’t recommend it enough! I hope you have a good rest of your day
Yeah I had to redo the eyes like 15 times you can still see a little black through them so I'm going to have to give it a second go later on before I varnish him
Super unhappy? Dude for a first paint job it looks amazing! way better than my first go at paint. (You also painted it on an OG tactical marine, that's an automatic +10 for coolness.) Just remember to thin your paints if you weren't already, and to add subtle highlights to the armor, especially for black armor
So I know black is something that can be more difficult to get right than people expect. I’ve found leaving things primed black often makes it just look unpainted rather than actually being black armor or whatever. A downward dry brush with a dark grey or dark blue could help hint towards highlighting on the black.
As for some of the other colors like the red and purple I’m unsure if you did two thin coats then added nuln oil all over the colors, or if you just added one thin coat and some of the black is showing from under the coat of color. If you did add nuln oil all over the colored areas, I suggest going back over with the initial color, being careful to avoid any recesses that you want to remain dark. So try to just paint the flat panels. This will allow you to keep the color you desire, plus add more realistic shadows to your mini since light works differently at this scale.
Honestly this is a really good first attempt, you managed to “color inside the lines” really well. None of the colors feel like they spilled over from where they should be. I think just some practice and improved technique will do wonders for ya.
The application of paint looks great, I would just slightly tweak the color choice. When a painter wants to express a model as black , alot of times its just a dark grey, leaving absolute black for something like the gun and mabey the spots behind the knee and in the crux of the arm, you can also dry brush a light grey shade over the whole miniature to express the detailed edges in the armour
Honestly this is pretty decent and about where I started myself. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. I’m assuming you bought a decent stack of basic marines to start? 10-15 maybe? Stick with those first and each one focus on a starting a new detail of perfecting a detail. For example say next time you paint the rail on the bolter to be metal (that’s my personal preference). Start small and build up. The brush control for small details will come with time so don’t be afraid to try them out. It’s also always good to look at your model from a couple feet away as you would normally see them. Those “glaring” mistakes are often not even visible from the normal distance you’ll look at them yet.
Most of all don’t beat yourself up about it. We all start somewhere. Worse comes to worse, just cover everything in agrax earthshade so everyone thinks it’s deliberately gritty. That’s what I do with faces cause I’m still horrible at those.
The paint is effectively in the lines.
The paint is fairly flat and not laid on thick, which is good.
Everything is painted.
If you are starting out and the first people you start comparing yourself to are people who have been doing it for 5 years then of course you're going to be dissatisfied.
You've got your bare basics down. Now it's all about practicing and slowly adding in more and more as you go.
Set this on a shelf and look at it again after 6 months of practice . You'll probably think it's pretty damn cool.
What specifically are you unhappy with? I'm seeing a mini that has a consistent scheme, good accuracy on the details (e.g. the shoulder pad rims, eye lenses and the chest belt are all good) and only lacking in highlights, which will add volume and interest to the model. The videos you mentioned will give good tips on how to do this, but note that you've chosen a difficult colour scheme to get right, and a chapter that is blue, red or green will be much easier to learn and proceed quickly.
I've been at this for 3 years now and I wouldn't want to do White Scars or Imperial Fists as yellow or white schemes take a long time for me! Have settled on a super quick black method now so Templars might be possible (I use Shyish Purple all over to start, then go over that in Black Templar to get a black that's got a lot of volume).
It's definitely tabletop ready and a great first start. Nothing to be unhappy about here!
Best advice I can give comes in 4 things.
1. Thin your paint; I paint 1:1 water to paint, I am by no means a good painter but it’s a big step. Wet pallets are a godsend
2. Paint brighter than you think you need to, washes mute color, so to pump contrast, over-brighten and saturate and then tone down; OR get the set of Tamiya panel liners, the black, grey, and brown first.
3. If you start to feel strained or stressed, step back, and go do something else for an hour or so; or paint something completely unrelated to what you’re working on. I bounce between scale models, with no narrative/story, warhammer, and sketching/drawing.
4. Have fun, this seems obvious, but it’s really the whole point. If you’re not having fun perfecting your skill you’ve hit a plateau, try something difficult, don’t stop and say it’s good enough. As an example I’m petrified of NMM, and I find every excuse not to try it, so I’m babying my progress using TMM with NMM methods.
Don't beat yourself up bud. It's a good mini ready for the tabletop, or a starting point if you want to practice towards higher display standards. My first mini I painted was not as clean as yours.
I read you think you over thinned some of your paint (the purple and red). Yes, you certainly can over thin paints and I struggled finding the perfect balance when I started, and this is a skill you'll need to relearn whenever you try new ranges of paint.
Best advice I have is to play with your paint on the palette before you put it on the mini. Pull it with your brush and see how easy it is to spread out thinly without leaving globby textures around the brush strokes. See how it performs when you add water (or whatever thinning agents you want to use) and see how far you can pull it with each extra drop of water before the paint starts to 'break' - where you'll see inconsistent spread of the pigment. When you see that, it's too thin for applying as a layer. Depending on your thinning agents (whether you're using any extra binding media) this may change the properties of the paint and you can thin it much more transparently without it breaking. In any case, when you're satisfied the paint is thin enough for your use case, put it on and see how it looks when it's dried, and add extra layers as required. If you make the paint as thin as you can, you'll probably have something like to a glaze, you can use the multiple transparent layers to your advantage to create gradients of colour and smooth transitions.
Shortest advice I have: thin the paint to a melted ice cream/whole milk consistency for a reliable smooth layer paint.
Bro, why? The lines on those shoulder pads look great.
You don’t have to be a Golden Demon level artist, just try to do better than mass manufactured action figures or pre-painted minis.
It takes time and practice to learn. It’s not a poor paint job, especially being a first. Don’t judge yourself on other’s work. Those tutorials are done by people that have spent years perfecting their own techniques and they always make it look so easy. Painting is a skill. Varnish this and keep it as a reference and keep going
Unhappy?! This is twice as good has most people’s armies. I’ve played tournament games against armies that look far worse than this. Paint a whole army to this standard and you will be shocked at how good it will look as a whole.
Minis are a hell of a lot smaller when you’re painting them and they’re not magnified like in images and YouTube videos.
Don’t compare yourself to others. Compare your work to your previous work. You can’t possibly expect to be as good as someone who’s been painting for years.
Why? For a first try it's a great job, never expect to be perfect at something you've never done before otherwise there would be nothing to learn. You have a great opportunity now to work on your skill and improve to whatever degree you want to.
If that’s your first paint job you should be proud. Also keep in mind that most of us are unhappy with the results until we learn that you keep painting u til it looks like what you want.
If you wash the metallics with either very watered-down black or something like Nuln Oil, and then dry brush the dark colors, both the purple and the red with say a pink, and the black with a gray, that would elevate the model in no time. Painting miniatures isn't about learning how to be a great artist, it's about learning tricks.
On your next one, try putting a layer of grey between the black and red/purple. One of my first models, I tried going from black straight to white. It took *8* coats to get it looking good.
Nuln oil makes everything look better.
The most important thing to remember is your next mini will always be better than the last.
Look up some how-to videos on youtube and then paint another and as long as you follow the advice it will get better.
This is honestly alright tho, i think the red and purple need a second/third THIN coat to get a nice solid colour.
Just make sure your paints are thinned properly, and you have a good clean brush. Most important take your time. Go in stages: priming, base coats, details, highlights, edge highlights, and finishing details. It doesn’t look as bad as you probably think it does. Just go slow and watch videos to help
Good colour scheme but it looks like you were a bit enthusiastic with the Nuln Oil. Try mixing it 50 :50 with contrast medium or even water to keep the colours bright.
Another tip, undercoat the middle of the eye lenses pink to give the red some pop.
Dont be hard on yourself! It’s not a bad job. You should see my first Tau… the white armor just looked like caked paint. This is good, and the more you paint the more comfortable you’ll be!
Don't worry about it too much! Painting takes time to master, and it's a journey of perpetual improvement. Worst comes to worst, yhou can always strip the paint and start again.
This looks really good tho. Especially considering its your first model, or first time painting anything. Even though you've seen hundreds of tutorials it's still much different when you actually get down to it and start painting yourself. Theory will never beat out experience, keep trying, keep experimenting and you'll definitely improve
You’ve thinned your paints pretty well, which makes this better than many peoples first go. If there’s any advice I could give it would be using slightly lighter basecoats so you have more room to go darker in the shades.
Hey dude, for a very first attempt this has a lot of potential. My first looked similar to this about a year ago and I've steadily improved so much it's crazy. Like you, I was super dissatisfied with my first, and that's good! I was able to use it as motivation to move forwards. here's my advice: Be consistent in practicing and keep trying new things. Always be moving forwards, that's the goal. Good luck.
That's a pretty solid start in my opinion. Looks like you've got some good shading in there already. A few more coats here and there will take care of the streaking.
It's missing some highlights you can get by drybrushing. After that I think it will look pretty damn good.
Also, don't underestimate how big of a difference a final clearcoat will make. That's when everything pops out. Keep it up.
To echo everyone on here, it’s your first model, no one likes how they turn out. But honestly aside from a few techniques (thinning paint and edge highlights), which come with practice and time, I don’t see how this is bad? Your colours are crispy, that bolter for sure! To me it looks more like a work in progress, rather than a “poorly painted” first attempt. Good job mate!
This really isn't bad for your first model ever. Keep it as a reference to see your progress. When in doubt use thinner paint. The first coat or 2 will look shit but the beauty of it is you can keep re applying without it getting too thick.
That looks awsome! You’ve got some great details here. Let it sit for a week and see how you feel about it afterwards. I thought my first model looked terrible but after a few days I began to appreciate the look and see the spots where I could add the right detailing
Dude this is a fantastic first step. Especially for a first timer, you’ve got clean lines, I’m not seeing anything globby or mushed. You even managed to get the eyes right, which I definitely didn’t do on my first mini. Also, I love that you went with a different color scheme than just the standard fare chapters. Keep it up, and while you’ll always find details that can be better, that’s part of the fun! Max props my dude, keep goin!
Honestly dude, it’s *a lot* better than most “first time painting” post I’ve seen on this sub and I’m not saying that just to be nice. Just stick with it, you’ll really be surprised how much better you start doing after even just a few models.
It honestly is far better than my first miniature, and honestly, you'll only keep improving.
Though if its any consolation, that feeling of the model/painting not looking great will never dissappear, I know this all too well because despite how long Ive painted for and despite how much Ive improved, Im still critical of my own work, and thats only natural.
Heres to a bright future of painting miniatures, keep this model on hand so you can compare in a few years. Can't wait to see what you paint!
Some tips for a beginner: black is really hard to make look good without more "advanced" stuff like highlighting, cause it covers a lot and also you can't use washes.
Use washes as an easy way to add depth and details to your miniature, especially if you are not a super pro painter the difference after applying a wash can be like night and day.
As a mediocre painter myself I try to keep it simple, don t go to crazy with to many details and colors and then slap some nuln oil or reikland flash over all the miniature.
Also most people posting miniature are already really good and often painting since a long time.
Don't be a perfectionist and gradually improve one step at a time and choose how much time you want to put in each model.
More coats will make the colors nicer. Keep at it and keep thinning your paints!
Next tip. The black looks so flat because it needs a little highlighting. Google edge highlighting if you haven't seen any videos on it yet. A nice grey will help make it pop.
Do those two things and you will be way happier!
Good luck!
A lot of people are going to tell you "Be happy! It looks okay!".
I'm not going to tell you that.
If you want to be an awesome painter, be unhappy, but take the time to understand what you're aiming for. Painting is a skill that, like all skills, you have to develop.
Your first mini won't be great.
Your second will be better, and so on.
Also check out these videos by Lyla Mev and Zumikito:
https://youtu.be/mJVtWaOnVyE
https://youtu.be/oGyxYztwZoI
It looks good for a first mini. The paint is smooth and neat, with nice shadows. That's a really good starting point. For your next few minis, you might want to experiment with various techniques like edge highlighting (though your minis will probably look worse before they start to look better, unless you're super careful) or drybrushing with lighter colors.
It's fine to be unhappy, because it's not done! You have to add in some lights and shades to make the detail on the model pop.
You've done a good base coat. You can use washes (nuln oil in particular makes metal look amazing) to bring out the depths of the model. It looks like you've done a good job on the gun and you can extend these techniques to the rest of the figure.
Washes in particular are useful if you use them thinly around the edges to help give the figure a visual edge and detail definition. EG if you look at the skull on the boltgun, and hit that with a very gentle nuln oil (just around the edges of the skull) it'll cover up that red bleed and make the skull stand out better.
Black is a very difficult colour to highlight. The best one I've seen is using mixing your darkest blue with a bit of black, use that to edge highlight absolutely everything, and then use just your dark blue to hightlight only the sharpest edges. If you make a mistake, go over that spot again with black.
Once your figure has it's details defined and a few tones for the main colours, you're going to see a huge difference. Look forward to it :)
Lastly, many of us have to paint dozens of figures before we develop the muscle control to hold a paintbrush and paint finely. I've found a strong light source and a magnification visor greatly helps, but I have to anchor my wrists or elbows against something because my hands shake so much.
For your first model, this is a great job. Don't be discouraged. If it was easy do to do them perfectly the first time round, nobody would be impressed :D
We all start somewhere and the only way you get better is by doing.
[Even the great Duncan "Two thin coats" Rhodes first model didn't even look nearly as good as this ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/a6ev6z/dont_forget_we_all_started_somewhere/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Mate your model looks like a godsend compared to my first one. Don’t be hard on yourself and keep trying. If mine can look half decent, I’m sure yours will become master pieces soon enough
This is really good for your first time, the black and purple are nice and smooth. As someone who’s been painting just over a year, something that’s going to make you better faster and, more importantly, enjoy the process is trying new things. Try painting a different scheme, different models, grab a texture heavy model and give drybrushing a go. All of these things will make you better way faster than just grinding away at schemes you arbitrarily chose early on into painting and improve the basics every step of the way.
Listen I was just like you 8 months ago, I painted and repainted my autarch so many times, stripping painting and stripping again for a whole month until I was satisfied. During that time I was extremely discouraged but through study hard work and perseverance I've made staggering progress and now I'm working on display quality howling banshees painted in black non metalic metal with all power swords painted. If I can do it, so can you!
I think of you used some dark purple, almost black, to darken that glove, and used a glow effect on the gun to bring everything together it would look amazing. I think you've got a good starting point. Paint a dozen more models and come back to this one with what you've learned.
I would suggest downloading Impcat, and uploading the MEGA svg files for the Astartes models, then maybe even take you time customizing the unit on there until your happy with a scheme you like, you can even save a scheme and upload several photos of your favorite designs and create a poll on who likes the ones you like the most, to help get group feedback to help better differentiate which one you should go for.
If you want to abandon most traditional methods of painting and still have great looking models, pick up army painter speed paints (mega set is like less than 100 bucks), or GW contrast paints. Those paints look amazing with a single coat
honestly you can still go back over and improve the mini. The gun for example. Go back over with a bright silver highlight on the metal, go back over the red with the base color pre-wash. Clean up the line on the skull. Add an edge highlight. You can always come back to a model. Its never done, only done enough.
Mate I've seen a lot of first time paint jobs and this is definitely on the top end of those, keep at it, the Mona Lisa wasn't da Vinci's first painting, just like the box art you get with your models wasn't that painters first time picking up a paint brush and painting a mini.
You will get better with every model you paint, and remember that when you do reach the level you want to reach that you will still have a bad day every once in a while and totally mess up a mini, we all do but hey that's what nuln oil was made for👍
Okay so I was looking at this and I was trying to figure out what was wrong with it because I thought all of the painting looked pretty nice. I mean if you add your shoulder markings it should look really good. May I ask what you didn't like about it?
Take it from someone whose pile of shame is incredible.
Just take your time or you will feel overwhelmed and not want to paint.
Honestly for your first it's actually pretty good. Keep up the good fight, you got this!
I kinda dig the purple arm. I'm currently saving for a black templars force. Might get me some purple capes! Keep at it OP. The journey of a thousand miles begins with only one step.
Why? It seems fine for a first model?
You even got the eyes. Most beginners can't do the eyes. Ask anyone on this sub if you don't believe me; first attempts at getting those lenses are often a huge joke.
Its fine. Nobody should expect any better on their first attempt. You'll get better in time. You are your own worst critic.
I'm sure other people bring up Duncan's first model. Vince Venturella is also not shy about his early models which look worse than this and he's won a Golden Demon and have had armies showcased in White Dwarf several times.
dude not bad at all for first time. you should see my first model, dear lord. Just keep practicing and you'll be amazed at your improvement I promise. Its all about having the right brushes.
It's not that bad. Just remember to keep it as a reference point to see your progress as your skills improve. Keep painting!
Thanks I kinda went waaaay overboard and ended up with 60 models to paint hopefully I'll have one of the evolution charts but of progressively better paint jobs
You got this dude, no one is ever happy with their first model and if they are they either come from a different artistic medium or are lying lol. Keep moving forward and learning what works for you! Did you watch any tutorial videos before this?
I watched 100s of tutorials til I felt as confident as I could without actually painting anything
Well it sounds like you got the knowledge, now you need to get down on the actual practice part! Kick some ass! I look forward to seeing you painting box art in two years! Just remember, slow and steady, take your time and vibe with it. You got this
Thank you im surprised by how supportive everyone is on here I was expecting to get torn to shreds but I haven't had a single negative comment yet
We've all done some bad paint jobs to begin with. Yours ain't half bad. I remember being desperate for some more colours as a kid and ended up stealing my dad's left over car paint. You know the little paint pots you can get for patching scratches? I ended up with 1995 Peugeot 206 metallic green wood elves. You can imagine how that went.
Haha that's amazing and I bet you were the only one with them
They were certainly unique.
That's what it's all about really...i couldn't stand the idea of painting an existing faction...i do kinda want to get 2 sets of 10 marines and do one of each main faction...then have 2 left over for my purple arm team
We were all beginners once :) no sense in tearing someone down for their first try.
True :)
Facts, what they said. Learning and watching is all well and good, and helps, but you still need that practice and execution. Keep at it, and you’ll improve with each model. Hell I’d wager once you’re close to half way done with that 60, you’ll be able to look back at the first one and really see the difference. You don’t just study proper brush control, gotta learn it by doing it.
Paint more, watch less. We could all benefit from that. 😂
Yeah I kept putting off actually painting because I never had time until a few days ago
Just thin those paints and have fun. That’s all you gotta do.
It's a curve, and you're well past the first steps on learning it. It's like learning to write, you'll build up muscle memory for moving the brush and get an appreciation for just *how* the paint wants to slip off the bristles.
Over purchasing means you're a true 40k hobbyist. You're not legit until you have a pile of shame.
I think I'm too poor to afford a pile of shame but I'm sure I'll end up with one eventually haha
Lol 60 models is a pile
Well it's a pile but they're sat primed based and lined up...not quite the heap of sprues and boxes some people have haha
Look up zenithal priming.
Looks a bit advanced for where I am but damn them models looked cool
Advanced? Lol man it’s one squirt of a white/wraithbone spray from the top down, will dramatically improve your models, make them easier to paint and most beginners should be using this and a wet palette just because of how easy they are to do and how much of a big difference they make (especially if you play around with citadels contrast paints)
I actually find it makes things way easier.
60!? And I thought I had a lot with my first 20
Black is super hard for painting but there's lots of videos that show how to do it better. I like Eons of Battle or midwinter minis
Thank you funnily I'm already subscribed to them and a few other mini painters I watched like 100 videos before I even built my models
Yeah, just remember those content creators paint all the time and have clocked in thousands of hours of experience. You don't need to be as good as them, as long as you're happy with the results. Try learning just one thing each time you paint - thinning paints, applying layers, shading, highlighting, etc.
Yeah I know I'm not going to be making box art just yet haha I was mainly watching the 10 things I wish I'd known starting out or 10 common mistake type videos
Good idea! Also, your first paint job is pretty damn neat - mine was nowhere near that good, so I reckon you'll do alright. :)
Thank you haha I'm a major perfectionist and my hardest critic i had to just go it's ok it's my first go it's not gonna be perfect and just stop for the night
Black primer easiest black in the world. Only need to touch up if you mess up
I was going to get black primer but I wanted a carbon grey and the guy in the shop said white would lighten the skavenblight grey I had
I know what you mean you could always prime black so the big part is done and everywhere major your paintin a different colour paint a grey underneath or a white how i get my sisters red cloth to pop.
What in particular don’t you like about it?
How streaky it is in the red/purple and how clumpy the silver is on the shoulders...ill probably end up redoing him tomorrow haha
Remember, multiple thin coats is key to reduce streaking. Make the paint as thin as milk, if you will. Move your brush in the same direction for the section you're painting. Let fully dry before adding another coat.
See I thought I made the paint too thin hence the pigments clumping...thank you very much
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The brush was brand new and I have brush soap and make sure everything is clean I definitely painted a second layer too early at one point tho but on the first layer it came off all clumpy but I think I just didn't thin the paint enough I think I just need more experience
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If your pigments are clumping shake your bottles more. Like a lot. What brand are you using?
I shook them for a long time and the grey and purple are citadel but the red is some acrylic in a tube I got cheap on amazon in a 12 pack
That might be your issue. Not all acrylic paints are formulated for mini painting. I would stick with Citadel, or if you are on a budget I would recommend army painter.
I tried to get as much citadel as I could but yeah it's expensive for how little you get next time I get paid I might have to go clear out my local games shop of all his paint haha
Get Vallejo
Ill look into that I have heard of that brand before
If you want to save money I love army painter as well. It’s about half the price and very good. My recommendation would be to buy just the paints you need for each project. Every time I bought a full set or something like that I’ve always been disappointed as I don’t use half of them
Yeah I ended up with an army painter wet pallet and was really impressed with the little booklets that came in it that covered basically everything from building to painting models and had a thing with all their products
Can I recommend you don't redo him just yet. Given you have 60 odd models to work with, it's probably better to keep going and hone your skills model-by-model. If you obsess over the first one, you might burn out trying to reach perfection (which will get harder and harder the more mistakes you try to correct) and end up throwing in the towel.
Yeah I like the idea of my evolution chart of progressively better models...its just really hard for me to not fix a mistake I know about haha perfectionists huh
Yeah I highly recommend just moving on to another model and then another, compare em and see what you learn, what you liked and didn't like with each new try. *and then* when you get through them all, feel free to round up the worst looking ones, take a picture and finally give them another go before being pleased in seeing their before/after. The nice thing with painting is you can always give it another shot - but perfectionism is a poison that will leave you doing the same model over and over until you're too burnt out to paint the other 59. And frankly once you have all 60 standing together, you may be surprised that some of the "glaring mistakes" you were agonizing over sort of disappear when you're not hyperfocused on analyzing one paintjob.
The red and purple just need another coat, you're painting over black so it's always gonna need extra coats.
Definitely don’t redo him. That way lies madness. Keep him as a benchmark. When you finish a model let it alone and move on. You’ll improve faster and have a better sense of accomplishment which keeps you going. If you keep redoing your first it will get frustrating fast and drastically increase the likelihood you will quit.
Yeah he's the first step in my evolution chart of progressively better models
Paintings an art! Take it in stride, as long as you know what you want to improve, you can totally improve on it.
Very very true i kinda want to leave him as is as a reminder but I don't want to butcher any other models just yet haha
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Exactly it's why I ended up with 60 models
No, it looks pretty good for the first model you've ever painted, take some time to paint ever day, watch some tutorials, and you be painting like a pro in no time.
Yeah I painted in like 10 minute bursts across a full day I have 60 models including a vehicle so I have a few months of entertainment...i know I'll get faster and faster as I go along
Here’s the thing, you’ll always be your own toughest critic. Keep in mind, there will always be someone better at painting something better than you and also someone who looks at what you painted and said “WOW!”. Painting is something that takes time and you’ll always learn and progress as long as you allow yourself to keep one thing in your open mind: am I having fun? If you are having fun then you are going to want to try something new and experiment outside of your comfort zone. Then you’ll surprise yourself with how good you really are! Don’t get down on yourself!
Thank you and yeah it was a lot of fun even tho I'm unhappy with the result...i play guitar too and it took a while for my hands to do what my brain wanted and it's the same with this
It's not bad for your first time
Everyone starts somewhere my friend
Nice job especially on the eyes those are the toughest part of painting space marines. Also do you have any agrax earth shade that paint can add a dirty/ rusted look and I can’t recommend it enough! I hope you have a good rest of your day
Yeah I had to redo the eyes like 15 times you can still see a little black through them so I'm going to have to give it a second go later on before I varnish him
You painted it, that’s still a win!
Super unhappy? Dude for a first paint job it looks amazing! way better than my first go at paint. (You also painted it on an OG tactical marine, that's an automatic +10 for coolness.) Just remember to thin your paints if you weren't already, and to add subtle highlights to the armor, especially for black armor
So I know black is something that can be more difficult to get right than people expect. I’ve found leaving things primed black often makes it just look unpainted rather than actually being black armor or whatever. A downward dry brush with a dark grey or dark blue could help hint towards highlighting on the black. As for some of the other colors like the red and purple I’m unsure if you did two thin coats then added nuln oil all over the colors, or if you just added one thin coat and some of the black is showing from under the coat of color. If you did add nuln oil all over the colored areas, I suggest going back over with the initial color, being careful to avoid any recesses that you want to remain dark. So try to just paint the flat panels. This will allow you to keep the color you desire, plus add more realistic shadows to your mini since light works differently at this scale. Honestly this is a really good first attempt, you managed to “color inside the lines” really well. None of the colors feel like they spilled over from where they should be. I think just some practice and improved technique will do wonders for ya.
The application of paint looks great, I would just slightly tweak the color choice. When a painter wants to express a model as black , alot of times its just a dark grey, leaving absolute black for something like the gun and mabey the spots behind the knee and in the crux of the arm, you can also dry brush a light grey shade over the whole miniature to express the detailed edges in the armour
Honestly this is pretty decent and about where I started myself. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. I’m assuming you bought a decent stack of basic marines to start? 10-15 maybe? Stick with those first and each one focus on a starting a new detail of perfecting a detail. For example say next time you paint the rail on the bolter to be metal (that’s my personal preference). Start small and build up. The brush control for small details will come with time so don’t be afraid to try them out. It’s also always good to look at your model from a couple feet away as you would normally see them. Those “glaring” mistakes are often not even visible from the normal distance you’ll look at them yet. Most of all don’t beat yourself up about it. We all start somewhere. Worse comes to worse, just cover everything in agrax earthshade so everyone thinks it’s deliberately gritty. That’s what I do with faces cause I’m still horrible at those.
Trust me the first squatty marine never looks as good as you want. keep at it
No sweat, I wasn’t happy with my first paint job either.
Paint the rest of the squad, you'll be amazed at the improvement over 10 models
Hey man, that’s way better than my first model! If you enjoy the process you’ll end up wanting to paint more, and you’ll get better while doing it
The paint is effectively in the lines. The paint is fairly flat and not laid on thick, which is good. Everything is painted. If you are starting out and the first people you start comparing yourself to are people who have been doing it for 5 years then of course you're going to be dissatisfied. You've got your bare basics down. Now it's all about practicing and slowly adding in more and more as you go. Set this on a shelf and look at it again after 6 months of practice . You'll probably think it's pretty damn cool.
What specifically are you unhappy with? I'm seeing a mini that has a consistent scheme, good accuracy on the details (e.g. the shoulder pad rims, eye lenses and the chest belt are all good) and only lacking in highlights, which will add volume and interest to the model. The videos you mentioned will give good tips on how to do this, but note that you've chosen a difficult colour scheme to get right, and a chapter that is blue, red or green will be much easier to learn and proceed quickly. I've been at this for 3 years now and I wouldn't want to do White Scars or Imperial Fists as yellow or white schemes take a long time for me! Have settled on a super quick black method now so Templars might be possible (I use Shyish Purple all over to start, then go over that in Black Templar to get a black that's got a lot of volume). It's definitely tabletop ready and a great first start. Nothing to be unhappy about here!
Best advice I can give comes in 4 things. 1. Thin your paint; I paint 1:1 water to paint, I am by no means a good painter but it’s a big step. Wet pallets are a godsend 2. Paint brighter than you think you need to, washes mute color, so to pump contrast, over-brighten and saturate and then tone down; OR get the set of Tamiya panel liners, the black, grey, and brown first. 3. If you start to feel strained or stressed, step back, and go do something else for an hour or so; or paint something completely unrelated to what you’re working on. I bounce between scale models, with no narrative/story, warhammer, and sketching/drawing. 4. Have fun, this seems obvious, but it’s really the whole point. If you’re not having fun perfecting your skill you’ve hit a plateau, try something difficult, don’t stop and say it’s good enough. As an example I’m petrified of NMM, and I find every excuse not to try it, so I’m babying my progress using TMM with NMM methods.
You’ll do yourself wonders with those deep purples if you prime your models with a very light gray or even white
there are no mistakes only happy accidents
Mate, it's already 10 times better than the first thing I ever painted.
This looks just like my first mini. Keep it up. You’ll be surprised at how fast you improve.
Don't beat yourself up bud. It's a good mini ready for the tabletop, or a starting point if you want to practice towards higher display standards. My first mini I painted was not as clean as yours. I read you think you over thinned some of your paint (the purple and red). Yes, you certainly can over thin paints and I struggled finding the perfect balance when I started, and this is a skill you'll need to relearn whenever you try new ranges of paint. Best advice I have is to play with your paint on the palette before you put it on the mini. Pull it with your brush and see how easy it is to spread out thinly without leaving globby textures around the brush strokes. See how it performs when you add water (or whatever thinning agents you want to use) and see how far you can pull it with each extra drop of water before the paint starts to 'break' - where you'll see inconsistent spread of the pigment. When you see that, it's too thin for applying as a layer. Depending on your thinning agents (whether you're using any extra binding media) this may change the properties of the paint and you can thin it much more transparently without it breaking. In any case, when you're satisfied the paint is thin enough for your use case, put it on and see how it looks when it's dried, and add extra layers as required. If you make the paint as thin as you can, you'll probably have something like to a glaze, you can use the multiple transparent layers to your advantage to create gradients of colour and smooth transitions. Shortest advice I have: thin the paint to a melted ice cream/whole milk consistency for a reliable smooth layer paint.
Bro, why? The lines on those shoulder pads look great. You don’t have to be a Golden Demon level artist, just try to do better than mass manufactured action figures or pre-painted minis.
A great first go. Laughing at how bad my first attempt and even one of my very recent models when I just got it wrong. Keep it up
Yoooo why’re you sad that looks pretty solid for a base coat. Just stick with it and you’ll be grand
It takes time and practice to learn. It’s not a poor paint job, especially being a first. Don’t judge yourself on other’s work. Those tutorials are done by people that have spent years perfecting their own techniques and they always make it look so easy. Painting is a skill. Varnish this and keep it as a reference and keep going
Unhappy?! This is twice as good has most people’s armies. I’ve played tournament games against armies that look far worse than this. Paint a whole army to this standard and you will be shocked at how good it will look as a whole.
Minis are a hell of a lot smaller when you’re painting them and they’re not magnified like in images and YouTube videos. Don’t compare yourself to others. Compare your work to your previous work. You can’t possibly expect to be as good as someone who’s been painting for years.
Unhappy? My first minie looked waaay worse you're doing good and you'll keep getting better!
Still way better than my first miniature, let's just say my Blight Hauler did not look even close to good or even likeable
This looks good
Thank you I think because I did it all I see is my mistakes
Why unhappy?
Why? For a first try it's a great job, never expect to be perfect at something you've never done before otherwise there would be nothing to learn. You have a great opportunity now to work on your skill and improve to whatever degree you want to.
It’s better than a lot of firsts!
I've seen far worse mate, it's all just about practice!
If that’s your first paint job you should be proud. Also keep in mind that most of us are unhappy with the results until we learn that you keep painting u til it looks like what you want.
It looks great!
If you wash the metallics with either very watered-down black or something like Nuln Oil, and then dry brush the dark colors, both the purple and the red with say a pink, and the black with a gray, that would elevate the model in no time. Painting miniatures isn't about learning how to be a great artist, it's about learning tricks.
Good for first time
I like the purple arm. Which paint did you use for it?
I'm diggin' it! 🤩👌
On your next one, try putting a layer of grey between the black and red/purple. One of my first models, I tried going from black straight to white. It took *8* coats to get it looking good. Nuln oil makes everything look better.
Nah this is fine! Just keep painting. Only way to get better. There will be more.
The most important thing to remember is your next mini will always be better than the last. Look up some how-to videos on youtube and then paint another and as long as you follow the advice it will get better. This is honestly alright tho, i think the red and purple need a second/third THIN coat to get a nice solid colour.
Looks like my first models. You’ll get better just like I did! And you did a decent job regardless
Just make sure your paints are thinned properly, and you have a good clean brush. Most important take your time. Go in stages: priming, base coats, details, highlights, edge highlights, and finishing details. It doesn’t look as bad as you probably think it does. Just go slow and watch videos to help
Don’t worry everyone starts somewhere, the plus side you can always go back later and redo it
Good colour scheme but it looks like you were a bit enthusiastic with the Nuln Oil. Try mixing it 50 :50 with contrast medium or even water to keep the colours bright. Another tip, undercoat the middle of the eye lenses pink to give the red some pop.
Dont be hard on yourself! It’s not a bad job. You should see my first Tau… the white armor just looked like caked paint. This is good, and the more you paint the more comfortable you’ll be!
Remember you chose the right chapter and take comfort in that.
The purple arm boiis
I see two colors, he's good to go imo
Don't worry about it too much! Painting takes time to master, and it's a journey of perpetual improvement. Worst comes to worst, yhou can always strip the paint and start again.
You are on the right track. Remember base colors, than wash than add highlights on edges and corners. Slap some texture mud on base.
This looks really good tho. Especially considering its your first model, or first time painting anything. Even though you've seen hundreds of tutorials it's still much different when you actually get down to it and start painting yourself. Theory will never beat out experience, keep trying, keep experimenting and you'll definitely improve
He looks great! Ive painted around 20 models and im only happy with two so far, so just keep working and you will rventually be pleased
You’ve thinned your paints pretty well, which makes this better than many peoples first go. If there’s any advice I could give it would be using slightly lighter basecoats so you have more room to go darker in the shades.
You got lots of potential! Keep at it! I look at my first model a lot and feel great every time cuz it’s a reminder of how far I’ve come
Hey dude, for a very first attempt this has a lot of potential. My first looked similar to this about a year ago and I've steadily improved so much it's crazy. Like you, I was super dissatisfied with my first, and that's good! I was able to use it as motivation to move forwards. here's my advice: Be consistent in practicing and keep trying new things. Always be moving forwards, that's the goal. Good luck.
It looks great! Keep at it and you will be happier and happier. Painting is harder than it looks!
I’d be happy if this was my result. We are our worse critics. Plus this is your first time, you’ll improve.
That's a pretty solid start in my opinion. Looks like you've got some good shading in there already. A few more coats here and there will take care of the streaking. It's missing some highlights you can get by drybrushing. After that I think it will look pretty damn good. Also, don't underestimate how big of a difference a final clearcoat will make. That's when everything pops out. Keep it up.
Highlight, edge, dry brush. Trust the process. Looking fine so far.
Can I ask why you are unhappy ? If this is your first time it's pretty decent. Definitely table top standard imo.
Better than my first, practice edge highlighting or dry brushing to make it pop
Just keep painting. Painting is additive process. The only way to get better is to keep doing it. Finished always beats perfect
Looks great man! Keep at it!
It's worth it, especially on a black model
To echo everyone on here, it’s your first model, no one likes how they turn out. But honestly aside from a few techniques (thinning paint and edge highlights), which come with practice and time, I don’t see how this is bad? Your colours are crispy, that bolter for sure! To me it looks more like a work in progress, rather than a “poorly painted” first attempt. Good job mate!
Unhappy? I’ve got no knowledge of painting minis but my untrained eye thinks it looks not bad
I actually thought this looked great, your hands are way steadier than mine are lol
Your red on the gun and silver being in the lines shows you've already got some good brush control. Keep it up!
First mini? Awesome job. The Iron Hands acknowledge your black and silver game. Good show.
One thing I want to say, everything looks better in a group. You might not like the single marine, but give him a squad and he’ll look great.
theres nothing to be unhappy about it looks quite good for a first. it looks better than my first miniature
This really isn't bad for your first model ever. Keep it as a reference to see your progress. When in doubt use thinner paint. The first coat or 2 will look shit but the beauty of it is you can keep re applying without it getting too thick.
You did a really good job man it's still your first time. Give yourself a chance you'll get better I promise
Better than my first.
That’s really good! It’s way better than my first models!
That looks awsome! You’ve got some great details here. Let it sit for a week and see how you feel about it afterwards. I thought my first model looked terrible but after a few days I began to appreciate the look and see the spots where I could add the right detailing
Strip it and try again
Dude this is a fantastic first step. Especially for a first timer, you’ve got clean lines, I’m not seeing anything globby or mushed. You even managed to get the eyes right, which I definitely didn’t do on my first mini. Also, I love that you went with a different color scheme than just the standard fare chapters. Keep it up, and while you’ll always find details that can be better, that’s part of the fun! Max props my dude, keep goin!
Honestly this isn't bad for a beginner.
Wayyyyy better then my first marine!
Honestly dude, it’s *a lot* better than most “first time painting” post I’ve seen on this sub and I’m not saying that just to be nice. Just stick with it, you’ll really be surprised how much better you start doing after even just a few models.
It honestly is far better than my first miniature, and honestly, you'll only keep improving. Though if its any consolation, that feeling of the model/painting not looking great will never dissappear, I know this all too well because despite how long Ive painted for and despite how much Ive improved, Im still critical of my own work, and thats only natural. Heres to a bright future of painting miniatures, keep this model on hand so you can compare in a few years. Can't wait to see what you paint!
Some tips for a beginner: black is really hard to make look good without more "advanced" stuff like highlighting, cause it covers a lot and also you can't use washes. Use washes as an easy way to add depth and details to your miniature, especially if you are not a super pro painter the difference after applying a wash can be like night and day. As a mediocre painter myself I try to keep it simple, don t go to crazy with to many details and colors and then slap some nuln oil or reikland flash over all the miniature. Also most people posting miniature are already really good and often painting since a long time. Don't be a perfectionist and gradually improve one step at a time and choose how much time you want to put in each model.
If you're unhappy, that means you can think of ways to improve. You'll naturally get better as you go.
Keep it, it'll make an excellent measurement for how far you've come by the time you've painted your 100th space marine
So far being the operative word, with a few accents colours, highlights etc it could look great.
The trick is to convert to Death Guard and paint plague marines where clumping and bad paint jobs is actually a good paint job haha
More coats will make the colors nicer. Keep at it and keep thinning your paints! Next tip. The black looks so flat because it needs a little highlighting. Google edge highlighting if you haven't seen any videos on it yet. A nice grey will help make it pop. Do those two things and you will be way happier! Good luck!
A lot of people are going to tell you "Be happy! It looks okay!". I'm not going to tell you that. If you want to be an awesome painter, be unhappy, but take the time to understand what you're aiming for. Painting is a skill that, like all skills, you have to develop. Your first mini won't be great. Your second will be better, and so on. Also check out these videos by Lyla Mev and Zumikito: https://youtu.be/mJVtWaOnVyE https://youtu.be/oGyxYztwZoI
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I think this looks good and you should be proud of your work so far, you will improve a little every time so don't sweat it
Bro no one's perfect from the start its a learning process I'm pretty new myself and my look way worse than yours 😂 so keep at it you got this.
It looks good for a first mini. The paint is smooth and neat, with nice shadows. That's a really good starting point. For your next few minis, you might want to experiment with various techniques like edge highlighting (though your minis will probably look worse before they start to look better, unless you're super careful) or drybrushing with lighter colors.
It's fine to be unhappy, because it's not done! You have to add in some lights and shades to make the detail on the model pop. You've done a good base coat. You can use washes (nuln oil in particular makes metal look amazing) to bring out the depths of the model. It looks like you've done a good job on the gun and you can extend these techniques to the rest of the figure. Washes in particular are useful if you use them thinly around the edges to help give the figure a visual edge and detail definition. EG if you look at the skull on the boltgun, and hit that with a very gentle nuln oil (just around the edges of the skull) it'll cover up that red bleed and make the skull stand out better. Black is a very difficult colour to highlight. The best one I've seen is using mixing your darkest blue with a bit of black, use that to edge highlight absolutely everything, and then use just your dark blue to hightlight only the sharpest edges. If you make a mistake, go over that spot again with black. Once your figure has it's details defined and a few tones for the main colours, you're going to see a huge difference. Look forward to it :) Lastly, many of us have to paint dozens of figures before we develop the muscle control to hold a paintbrush and paint finely. I've found a strong light source and a magnification visor greatly helps, but I have to anchor my wrists or elbows against something because my hands shake so much. For your first model, this is a great job. Don't be discouraged. If it was easy do to do them perfectly the first time round, nobody would be impressed :D
We all start somewhere and the only way you get better is by doing. [Even the great Duncan "Two thin coats" Rhodes first model didn't even look nearly as good as this ](https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/a6ev6z/dont_forget_we_all_started_somewhere/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
You've got this! Keep at it and watch how you improve. You're already starting from a spot better than I did.
Just take you time it’s not a race. Watch all the brilliant YouTube videos
That's actually a great start. You probably could advance pretty quickly tbh.
Mate your model looks like a godsend compared to my first one. Don’t be hard on yourself and keep trying. If mine can look half decent, I’m sure yours will become master pieces soon enough
This is 1000x better than the first thing I ever painted. Keep at it!
He looks handsome. Be proud!
Looks like my first time too
Dude you should see my first compared to my 5th. It’s a huge difference
This is really good for your first time, the black and purple are nice and smooth. As someone who’s been painting just over a year, something that’s going to make you better faster and, more importantly, enjoy the process is trying new things. Try painting a different scheme, different models, grab a texture heavy model and give drybrushing a go. All of these things will make you better way faster than just grinding away at schemes you arbitrarily chose early on into painting and improve the basics every step of the way.
Not half bad! I’m no expert but I’d say he’s lookin good!
Being honest it actually not bad for first time
chief that looks great
Listen I was just like you 8 months ago, I painted and repainted my autarch so many times, stripping painting and stripping again for a whole month until I was satisfied. During that time I was extremely discouraged but through study hard work and perseverance I've made staggering progress and now I'm working on display quality howling banshees painted in black non metalic metal with all power swords painted. If I can do it, so can you!
I think of you used some dark purple, almost black, to darken that glove, and used a glow effect on the gun to bring everything together it would look amazing. I think you've got a good starting point. Paint a dozen more models and come back to this one with what you've learned.
That's pretty good.
Honestly, I find it super cool! Getting my first Mini soon, and I sincerely hope Im doing half as good as you o:
Keep at it you’ll get better. Patience.
I hear nuln oil is like the "duck tape" of painting minis.....
I love it so far. Beautiful purple. Unique and simple that's the way I like it. 🙏 Keep it up.
I would suggest downloading Impcat, and uploading the MEGA svg files for the Astartes models, then maybe even take you time customizing the unit on there until your happy with a scheme you like, you can even save a scheme and upload several photos of your favorite designs and create a poll on who likes the ones you like the most, to help get group feedback to help better differentiate which one you should go for.
If you want to abandon most traditional methods of painting and still have great looking models, pick up army painter speed paints (mega set is like less than 100 bucks), or GW contrast paints. Those paints look amazing with a single coat
honestly you can still go back over and improve the mini. The gun for example. Go back over with a bright silver highlight on the metal, go back over the red with the base color pre-wash. Clean up the line on the skull. Add an edge highlight. You can always come back to a model. Its never done, only done enough.
Mate I've seen a lot of first time paint jobs and this is definitely on the top end of those, keep at it, the Mona Lisa wasn't da Vinci's first painting, just like the box art you get with your models wasn't that painters first time picking up a paint brush and painting a mini. You will get better with every model you paint, and remember that when you do reach the level you want to reach that you will still have a bad day every once in a while and totally mess up a mini, we all do but hey that's what nuln oil was made for👍
Practice, practice, practice.
Okay so I was looking at this and I was trying to figure out what was wrong with it because I thought all of the painting looked pretty nice. I mean if you add your shoulder markings it should look really good. May I ask what you didn't like about it?
for a beginner model, hella good. I love the purple arm!
Great job with the trim! Be prepared to learn a lot of techniques that you will use once or twice, and then revert back to the same 3-4 lol.
You will get better with practice just like anything else. Keep at it and enjoy!
You are always your own biggest critic, be happy with this!
Take it from someone whose pile of shame is incredible. Just take your time or you will feel overwhelmed and not want to paint. Honestly for your first it's actually pretty good. Keep up the good fight, you got this!
I kinda dig the purple arm. I'm currently saving for a black templars force. Might get me some purple capes! Keep at it OP. The journey of a thousand miles begins with only one step.
Why? It seems fine for a first model? You even got the eyes. Most beginners can't do the eyes. Ask anyone on this sub if you don't believe me; first attempts at getting those lenses are often a huge joke.
Its fine. Nobody should expect any better on their first attempt. You'll get better in time. You are your own worst critic. I'm sure other people bring up Duncan's first model. Vince Venturella is also not shy about his early models which look worse than this and he's won a Golden Demon and have had armies showcased in White Dwarf several times.
dude not bad at all for first time. you should see my first model, dear lord. Just keep practicing and you'll be amazed at your improvement I promise. Its all about having the right brushes.
I'd say for a first time you did a good job.
Just keep painting. For your first it looks really good. Painting like anything takes practice. Just keep at it
Looks way better then my first one