Dark Angels GW minis

[fubar]

Hi all i'm a returning member, took a break due to health and i'm getting back into the hobby thanks to a friend talking me into joining a small WH40K tourney in a few months time.....hence my choice of models. Hoping to get back into my bigger scale stuff too.

I've not painted figures like this before and so i've been going to my local GW store for painting lessons and tips but thought i'd just share here as well and see if you guys can offer me any help or advice....feel free to comment i'm always eager to learn more about the hobby.

So far i've just started a small tactical squad of 10 marines, gonna use them to practice my skills on, they have been base coated with Caliban green then given an ink wash of Nuln Oil and now i'm starting to layer them with Caliban green on the high spots of armour.









If thats too many pics let me know and i'll delete some.

Any advice is welcome and hope you all have a good weekend.

TTFN

 

[Quaralane]

Excellent looking minis so far, fubar.
And nice to have you back

 

[TDA]

Looks good so far, and the Dark Vengeance set is full of great models and especially for a starter kit as they're without a doubt the best snap-fit minis GW have ever done.

Not much yet to comment on from the pics, but I'll be keeping an eye on this as 28mm is my preferred scale and have been for 12 years now, so good to see more of it here

 

[fubar]

Thanks guys, and its nice to be back Quaralane....hope all is well mate.

Starting the next layers tonight i hope so will let you know how it goes.

 

[The Nylon Gag]

Fubar, thought you'd been abducted or something.

Good to have you back mate, hope all is well

Gag

 

[fubar]

Hello again mate, nice to hear from you.

Well i had my first crack at layering using the colours and techniques the GW store showed me.....not too sure i like the results. Cant decide if its the colours they recommended or my ham fisted attempt at fine lines?!?!?! lol



The highlights look too great a contrast to the original Caliban green.....rather than a natural highlight it looks more like a border of a new colour......gonna have another go with finer lines. Better lay off the coffee for a bit!

TTFN

 

[sunsanvil]

Good stuff. Are those "Finecast"? That new plastic has incredible potential.

Yea I would say that highlight went on too opaque. Try making the color more translucent with something like a glaze medium, then you can do one pass, then another narrower, and a third even narrower to give you some gradation.

Word of encouragement: don't be afraid to paint the way you like. Too often within the gaming community people just want to be told "how to" and then go at it mechanically, which is fine if you see something you like and want to achieve the same finish, but there is so much more reward for self expression.

 

[fubar]

Yes i know what you mean, 'this is the only way to paint them' is a phrase i heard from more than one gamer!
I've started to look around the web for other 'how to paint' guides and found a rather nice one i'm tempted to try as i think it looks much nicer than the edge highlighting method.

How to paint a Dark Angel Space Marine

These are the basic snap-fit plastic models from the Dark Vengeance starter set, have to say i've been very impressed by the level of detail in them.....especially the Terminators and Ravenwing bikes, which i am really looking forwards to trying to paint up.

TTFN

 

[sunsanvil]

I've been experimenting with "zenithal" airbrushing which I think could work well for these minis.

 

[fubar]

Ahh do you mean like this method?

How to paint Dark Vengeance Episode 3 Dark Angel Space Marine

I'm gonna try the brush method tonight with luck, will show my results later if they are any good lol

 

[TDA]

Yeah the highlights are a bit harsh, if you own an airbrush I'd suggest giving them a zenithal highlight. I use that on most space marines and it looks great, then you can refine the paintjob by brush afterwards, with washes, edge highlights and whatever you fancy.
And don't listen to gamers proclaiming there's only one way to paint them, they're wrong. There's endless ways to go about it, you just have to find the style you like and suits you the best

Try and check out some of the popular fora like warseer.com, dakkadakka, bolter and chainsword etc. there's loads of cool wip threads. And for inspiration there's coolminiornot.com, puttyandpaint.com/ and several other sites packed with minis

 

[fubar]

Thanks for the websites mate, will check them out ASAP.

Well i gave the brush method a crack tonight and have to say i found it a lot easier than the edge highlighting method. Heres a few pics of my efforts....sorry if there are too many.

Theres about three different layers on there on top of the original base coat...



...as you can see i need to practice mixing paint, the layers had quite a contrast so i gave the whole model another wash with Nuln Oil to blend them all together a bit more. Trouble is i'm starting with a limited number of paints so have to improvise a bit. :

After a further wash....





I couldn't resist finishing him off as well as i could, i'm quite happy with the end result as this was my first ever attempt at mixing colours to create custom shades but i can see lots of room for improvement. Main thing is it was fun! ;D



I also think i'm happier with this style than the edge lining atm.....although once my skills improve a bit i will try the other style again. I do have an airbrush but heaven knows where it is atm, i moved just last month and i'm still surrounded by boxes of stuff. lol



TTFN

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely looking good.

Best advice I ever heard for modelling of any kind was "find what works best for you"

 

[Kyle Nelson]

Stellar work! I really do enjoy the look and feel of the wargaming painting style. If you paint your whole army to this standard, you'll go far.
If there is one thing I would work on, it would be the red areas. They look great now, but a little bit of extra highlight on the edges would go a long way towards making them 'pop.' Try mixing a little bit of yellow or orange into your red mixture, if you feel like making a change. Just my $.02 is all. ;D


That being said... DEATH TO THE FALSE EMPEROR!
-Kyle

 

[geegad]

love the detail of your work bud the colour really pops

 

[fubar]

Thanks guys for the encouragement. ;D

I spent this afternoon trying to replicate the first model and, hopefully, improve on him....see what you think.



I'm having a little trouble getting the colours consistent from one model to the next....but they are pretty close, and a little variation is ok with me, i never did like the idea that each suit looked identical as each is supposed to be an ancient suit passed from one generation of Marine to the next......but if they start to look too different then the squad will look a bit daft as a whole i guess.

I need to start thinking about basing them, the GW store is keen to sell me some basing kit at £25 which seems a little steep to me. :

Have a good Easter all.....dont eat too much chocolate. 8)

Long live the Emperor.....down with Chaos.

P.S. I did try to edge the red in a lighter shade but its a little hard to see from that pic.

TTFN

 

[JohnSimmons]

They look really good mate 8)

 

[Quaralane]

They're looking good.

 

[geegad]

they look superb..there is a games work shop in my town and they have all these figures set out in a battle in the window and the level of detail in the figures and tanks is superb...do you do the roll playing or is it just for fun

 

[hook1169]

These look solid! Wicked good job on em'.