Tom's Order WiP (Or 'Tales of a Newbie Making Rookie Mistakes')

[tjgreenway]

So, I figured it was about time I started a painting blog so that I can track my progress, as well as to provide motivation to actually get some painting done. I'm pretty much brand new to the hobby, having dabbled in skirmish scale stuff as a youngster, been slowly getting back into it over the last year, building up my hobby supplies and trying out different systems. Spent a few months playing around with Mantic miniatures in an effort to get into Kings of War, but the lack of a good narrative put me off that system, something I've discovered in abundance in AoS, so here I am

I've had the starter box for about a month now, but have been slightly dreading putting paint to such beautiful miniatures. I actually intended to start a Chaos army with the Bloodbound as the base, adding in some Beastmen (I always wanted a Beastmen army as a kid), but after reading the first couple of novels set in the AoS world, I fell in love with the character of the Stormcast and decided I wanted to fight in the name of Sigmar instead, and so begins my adventure with the Lions of Sigmar  Good job, really, as the first miniature I attempted to paint (other than a few Mantic Dwarfs months ago) was a Bloodreaver, and I quickly got fed up with all the fiddly little bits. The Stormcast, on the other hand, have been (mostly) a joy to paint for me as a beginner; a good size, bright and colourful, not overly fiddly but with enough detail to make them interesting. I opted for the Lions pretty much because the colour scheme appealed the most to me, so I'm hoping that as I play catch up with the fluff, the characters themselves will be just as cool  

I should probably point out that I'm not much of a photographer either and tend to do most of my painting at night, so there's likely to be some dodgy camerawork and lighting involved here. That said, here are my first two (semi) completed Liberators, along with the little progress I've made on everything else. I'm happy with the colour scheme and as happy as I'm going to be at the moment with technique, so I'm forging ahead with the rest of the Liberators now  They're a bit messy, and I'll probably come back and add some highlights in when I've had a bit more practice with brush control, but for now they'll do. Have also left bases for now as I'm still undecided on how to theme them, constantly changing my mind on which realm to set them in, so I'll be patient for the time being.

As far as my setup goes, I started getting back into the hobby on a fairly tight budget, so picked up the Warcolours range from Cyprus, got just under a hundred paints for about 100GBP if I remember correctly, and am now slowly adding in other paints from GW as I need them (loving the new metallics!), along with a mix of GW and Army Painter brushes. The Warcolours range is really nice to work with, quite thin, so along with using a wet pallette, not had to worry too much about thinning them down so far, should probably be more aware of that going forward though.

So far, models have just been primed black, base sprayed Retributor Armour, then based with brush and have used Strong Tone Quickshade brushed on. Ended up with considerably shinier models than I'd really like from the QS, but I'll forge on with this method for the rest of the starter set, then start to experiment with other techniques a bit more. Really want to get a whole army painted up and ready for the tabletop as soon as possible now so that I can start playing a few more games, then hopefully I can develop some better techniques by practising on the Mantic miniatures currently collecting dust

My aim now is to finish these Liberators by the end of the week - an FLGS in the city is running an AoS centred hobby and games night on Friday and I have a rare Friday night off, so I want to get started on the Retributors then if I can't get a game in. Will probably leave the Liberator Primes until after the Retributors, want to give them a bit more TLC as the unit leaders  Not overly fussed about the Retributors as I'll be replacing them with ones from the multi part kit soon-ish anyway.

I'll leave it there for now, as an early night has turned into two hours of painting (well, a bit of painting and a lot of playing around with the camera, I get distracted far too easily ). Mainly posting this so that I can track my own progress, hopefully be able to look back in six months to a year and see some progress being made, but obviously and hints and tips etc are more than appreciated  

[Dez]

Looking good so far, nice work towards getting them on the tabletop! Good luck to you on Friday.

 

[Soulsmith]

Hey there, glad you're so enthused and enjoying the hobby! They're off to a great start.

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[tjgreenway]

So, it's been a week and .. well, very little has been done. Got some purple and silver down on the 5 Liberators I was hoping to blast through but it's all getting a bit messy, bad eyesight and an unsteady hand isn't making for the best of painting  Already seem to be close to destroying a second basecoat brush too (Citadel Small Base this time, the Army Painter Regiment brush didn't last long at all). I know the Citadel and AP ones really aren't great, but that's probably also a lot to do with my technique which will hopefully be rectified in time, so at this point, would it be worth investing in better brushes?

Finding it seriously frustrating constantly having to touch stuff up all the time thanks to messy brushwork, it's taking me forever to get anything done. Think I'm going to have to try to stop being such a perfectionist and just suck it up and face the fact that my first army at least is going to be a bit of a mess  Hopefully they'll look a bit better once they're all bunched up on the tabletop - I'll just have to hope noone peers in for a closer look 

[elfhead]

Don't be to discouraged by the resultaten on your first results. You will get better, pretty fast. There is a topic on this forum about what changed peoples life when it came to painting models. Lots of great tips in there. 

It seems odd you ruined those brushes. Maybe you don't wash them enough or maybe you use your paint to thick. Thin down you paint is some of the best advice there is. Using washes and highlights was a real eye opener for me, back in the day.

for the really small details try putting your elbows on the table and palms of your hands against eachother. That should help steady your hand.

keep it up!

 

[Dez]

Make sure you aren't getting paint in or near the ferrule. That's the metal bit that holds the bristles to the handle. When putting paint in your brush, only go halfway up the bristles.

[tjgreenway]

Yeah, I think I've been a bit heavy with the paint at times - I'm using a homemade wet palette for the most part, but I've got a habit of using metals straight out of the pot. I don't know why, I just don't like how they look on the baking paper  I'm (fairly) sure the paint never gets down to the ferrules (I did a lot of Googling when I started out so that was one thing I was really aware of from the off) but I probably don't wash the brush out often enough when I'm doing lots of the same colour, will have to keep an eye on that. But yeah, my three week old GW brush is now a bit crooked at the tip, weird.

Went back and did another hour or so last night, though; back to doing one model at a time and found I was enjoying it a lot more, seemed to be able to concentrate better so results were much less sloppy. It was all starting to get a bit tedious doing one colour on multiple models all at the same time, so I think I'll stick to one at a time from now on, even if it ends up taking forever  Ended up touching up two of the Liberators where needed and finishing off their base colours, just finished work and brushed on a coat of Strong Tone Q/S, so we'll see how they look tomorrow night 

I'm really looking forward to getting these Stormcast finished up now (not that I've even bought them all yet! ). Once I've got everything that I need for my tournament list finished, I'll be hiding the Quickshade away and focusing on learning some proper techniques. I made a start when I first bought a load of Mantic Dwarfs and Undead about a year ago , buying Quickshade may well have been the worst thing I could've done for my painting. I'm far too impatient though, just want this first army on the tabletop as quickly as possible  

[Dez]

No need to hide the Quickshade, it's an excellent tool in your arsenal. I've been painting for over a decade and still use it myself. What I find works is after I use a wash, I'll highlight back up to the original color leaving the quickshade in the recess. That will really cause your model to pop. Once you've mastered that, you can start looking towards your light source and adding a bit of a highlight color to that. Then, you'll look at shadow's and recesses again to add deeper shades. 

Just take one step at a time, and your painting will progress in no time. I also like to see my stuff get done ASAP or faster and on the table top, and by learning one quick tip at a time I've gotten to be a pretty fast painter with good results. By learning one step at a time, you'll be able to revisit your models later to add great layering and detail to models that were done to a quick tabletop level. 

So base painting and quickshade is a great foundation, keep it up!

[Ratamaplata]

Hey dude, I'm in the same position as you... I played (mainly 40k) from 11 to 16 then have had a 20 yr break! 

Things that have helped me now are wet palette and thinning the paints. Also, I watched some Painting Buddha videos on YouTube which helped massively, check them out.

[tjgreenway]

So, work has pretty much taken over my life over the last couple of weeks, leading to very little progress. I've also been without glasses for a while now too, so any attempt at painting has been cut short by headaches. That'll be all sorted soon, though, new glasses will be ready to pick up in just over a week, and a few days off here and there booked in for painting,  so no more excuses  

In the meantime, I've been busy immersing myself in the  AoS narrative, just finished reading Quest For Ghal Maraz in the Realmgate Wars series and I'm up to Fury of Gork in the Black Library books, really enjoying the story so far; nice, easy reading and looking forward to trying out some more of the battleplans from the Realmgate Wars books soon.

Playing wise, I've had no chance at all to get down to any local hobby stores unfortunately, but I seem to be doing a good job of converting the wife into a secret gamer  I'm also getting a two sided modular gaming board commission made at the moment, and I think it'll help her get into it when we're not playing on a plain wooden table  Really looking forward to seeing that come along over the next few weeks now, Jesse at Beastly Commissions in SA is making it up (https://www.facebook.com/beastlycommissionpainting/?fref=ts), have plumped for one side as volcanic wasteland and the other for marshy grassland so a bit of an Aqshy/Ghyram feel to either side, with scope to use modular terrain to switch it up a bit. Going for a two sided board has left me stumped on how I want to base everything, though. Will probably end up leaving them for a while, as I'm constantly changing my mind at the moment 

The last few weeks has seen me cut a deal with her who must be obeyed, too. I've basically signed away my soul to go on a massive hobby splurge over a couple of months, with the idea being that I spend a year's worth of hobby money in one fell swoop, then keep it to a bare minimum (replacement paints/brushes etc) for about six months. So, my Lions of Sigmar force is now steadily growing, and will be up to a 2000pt army within a couple of months. Not content to stop there, however, I went a bit mad on ebay today and picked up The Silver Tower, along with King Vlagorescu's Ghoulish Host and a bunch of extra ghouls. Oh, and some Chaos bits and pieces for the wife's Bloodbound army. So I might not be spending any money for a few months on miniatures, but I certainly won't be bored!  

I'll leave it there, for now, but hopefully next time I update I'll have my glasses and actually be reporting some steady progress into my growing mountain of plastic crack  

[Dez]

I hope you get your glasses soon, you've lots to do! I think you will really like The Silver Tower. And KV Ghoulish Host...I keep thinking about it myself haha. I've too much Ironjawz to paint, stay the course!

If you want some motivation over the next 6 months, this might be for you 

 

[tjgreenway]

Progress! Three more Liberators are ready to be washed and work's started on the first of two Primes. Amazing what an early finish at work can do, managed to knock off at about 9 and don't start until 4 tomorrow so got a solid three hours of painting in once the wife had gone to bed  The only thing stopping me from cracking on until the early hours is the slightly strong Jim Beam's I've been sipping in the meantime. That's also why there's no pictures, I should probably check them over with a sober eye and do any necessary touch ups before photographing

I've had a rearrange in my study too, all unpainted plastic is pretty much out of sight now. I've tucked away all the Mantic Undead and Dwarfs I had assembled and unpainted on the bookshelf as I walked in and replaced it with my AoS books and Stormcast boxes (full of unpainted plastic, naturally), along with setting up a glass display case full of my favourite games and the miniatures painted so far at the top. Definitely felt more productive tonight than I ever have, but whether that's down to the early finish, the swish new setup or the Jimmy's, we'll have to see  

[HadrielCaine]

Welcome to the hobby! Looks like you're making a great start and being active in the online community is going to help you come on leaps and bounds in no time. I've been painting for 20 of my 27 years and army painter quickshade is always my go to, even on display models. If its quick it doesn't mean you're cheating. 

What I see so far is excellent for a first army so well done! You'll get neater. Then you'll paint something new and feel like its a totally different ball game. I'm always learning as a painter and we all have to start somewhere.

I'm really heartened to see that the fluff and background drew you to SCE, I've tried to avoid the new fluff as I've spent 19 years in the Old World and I'm still sad over its demise. If its bringing in new players, maybe I should give it a chance!

 

A

[tjgreenway]

Finally made some progress last night - I'm now up to seven Liberators finished, a Liberator Prime almost done and started work on my Lord Relictor. So I've been pretty slack since last posting, but I wrote out my list for November's tournament last night, hoping that knowing exactly what needs to be painted (until I change my mind!  ) will spur me on. I'll also need to change the name of the this topic soon, as the Flesh Eater Courts narrative has suckered me into buying up the King Vlag boxset and a bunch more ghouls, whoops! That, along with the copy of Silver Quest on it's way, the Bloodbound half of the starter set and my longing for an Orruk or Fimir army should make for a mixed bag of painting to come - now I just need to stop buying stuff and actually paint it! 

[DrEmrys]

Hi. I just found your post and I'm very interested to see the results of stormcast with Quickshade. Unfortunately pic links seems to be broken to me. Can you update post them again? Thanks!

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[DrEmrys]

Welcome to the hobby! Looks like you're making a great start and being active in the online community is going to help you come on leaps and bounds in no time. I've been painting for 20 of my 27 years and army painter quickshade is always my go to, even on display models. If its quick it doesn't mean you're cheating. 
What I see so far is excellent for a first army so well done! You'll get neater. Then you'll paint something new and feel like its a totally different ball game. I'm always learning as a painter and we all have to start somewhere.
I'm really heartened to see that the fluff and background drew you to SCE, I've tried to avoid the new fluff as I've spent 19 years in the Old World and I'm still sad over its demise. If its bringing in new players, maybe I should give it a chance!
 
A

What approach do you follow with Quickshade for display models? Do you do any highlights before after Quickshade? If so, do you apply matt varnish in between or at the end? I'd like to know more. Thanks

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[HadrielCaine]

I use it in these bottles:

http://goblingaming.uk/hobby-supplies-the-army-painter-warpaint-warpaint-qs-strong-tone-ink-apwp1135/dp/2168

It seems to have been rebranded as warpaint and quick shade is the name for their tins of dip. Sorry if that was misleading. I just use it as a wash and highlight after wards. I tend not to varnish anything. But I know a lot of people do.