Mnemoidian

@alphanull: You probably need to take a deep breath and calm down a bit. Don't you think it's a bit too soon to spew that much hate? The screenshots so far don't look terrible.

To put that comment into context: I'm annoyed (no longer angry) about the intitial announcement trailer for XCOM (it was terrible), and I really enjoyed Syndicate. Hell, I didn't think Syndicate Wars was terrible (it wasn't great) - but at least it was MORE Syndicate.

As for this, I think it looks ok - though I'm still hoping to hear more about what it is. I will at least wait for the announcement article (in Gamereactor?) to be released before I string them up.

@strangone: Sure, a lot of people may have left Starbreeze, including Magnus Högdahl - but that doesn't mean that they are going to put out crap. At least give them a chance? Even entirely unproven studios can do good things, and Starbreeze at least has had something that allowed them to make good games.

Even if Starbreeze has a new guard, I'm excited to see what they can produce.

@turbomonkey138: All out of bloody angles (I kid!), but there are some Blood Angels on previous pages - unless that was a sick burn! ;)

But certaintly, more! :)

@FateOfNever: I'd say at this point, your best bet is to get familiar with the brush, but certainly check out some tutorials.

In my opinion, the biggest failure of Games Workshop's tutorials is that they doesn't show you how to use a brush, which turns out to be rather critical. Watching some youtube tutorials, just to get a feel for how other people use a brush can be a good thing. I think Jawaballs did a good job of showing how to paint a couple of years ago, but that's Space Marines (doesn't mean it invalidates the advice, though).

Also - make sure you take good care of your brush(es), clean them carefully (and gently, don't tug on the bristles) every time you use them. And make sure not to get paint into the Ferrule (that's the metal bit the bristles come out of) of a brush as that will pretty much ruin it right away.

A well-kept brush will stay good much longer - and will help you a lot while learning to paint.

But really, don't worry about it. Just paint. If you are having problems with something, look up some tutorials for that, but only dig as deeply as you feel comfortable before painting. I think the key thing is to ground your expectations - it will take dedication to get really good at painting, and your first models may come out looking terrible, and that's just fine. :)

Another option could be to investigate if your Local Game Store (LGS) has a "paint night", or something - that could be an invaluable source for help :)

@Sitoxity: Not going to claim to be an expert, but certainly, I'll write down how I did it (however, so far, I'm not entirely happy with it yet).

Primer it white (I like how it makes it easier to get bright, strong colors), then start painting the background/lowest layer - ie: the cloth that I've painted dark red (mechrite), and the background in the main image (that I've painted bright blue (ice blue?)). Then add the yellow border and start filling in Sanguinius.

At this point, my goal is much like the props guy on BLLSL - make it pristine, unspoiled - just pure colors. It'll look bad, but it's a base to build on.

Next, apply washes to give depth. On scrolls, I usually paint the scrolls Bleached Bone, and then wash with Badab Black, Devlan Mud and Gryphonne Sepia. Go back with Bleached Bone to clean up the flat areas - repeat washing and highlight with Bleached Bone again.

Same basic idea for Skulls, except I replace the Gryphonne Sepia with Ogre Flesh.

On the red cloth, I have a similar technique: First cover with Mechrite red, then slather on plenty of Badab Black in the creases, then clean up with Mechrite red - finally put a basic highlight with Blood Red.

The hardest part is the yellow... Yellow is a very difficult color to paint - it's very transparent, and it's very difficult to clean up mistakes. I usually try to wipe off any mistakes I make with a piece of paper asap - and failing that, cover with white and start over. Gryphonne Sepia works quite well to shade Yellow.

Same basic strategy for other parts... not sure if that answers the question? Not that those colors are the "right" way to do it or anything - follow your heart! :)

As for brushes, I do most of my work using a pair of Winsor & Newton series 7 brushes - sizes 0 and 00. They are pretty expensive, but I'm very happy with them - doing detail work is a lot easier with good brushes.

Does that help? :)

@Gilsham: Yeah, the mixing of plastic and pewter kits have always been a problem - you'll want to use super-glue to combine those, however, Superglue makes a brittle bond and is unlikely to hold for long (especially with handling). A normal solution to this is to drill holes in the plastic and pewter and insert a brass rod (and then glue) to make a much stronger bond.

That landspeeder kit in particular has been remade in the last few years, and the Typhoon Launchers are now in plastic as well - so it's much easier to put together :)

You don't need to shoot the glass protecting Zhao, it breaks on its own after a short while - or, at least it did on both of my playthroughs.

Just evade for a while when you've killed the 3 ladies.

@SSully: A lot of the cost lies in initial investment - you'd probably end up around $100 (very rough estimate! Includes a box of 5 Space Marines at $25) if you'd pick up what I'd consider the optimal "basic kit" (including 3 pots of paint) using Games Workshop branded stuff. You should definately look into non-branded tools though (at higher quality) - so you should be able to get away with a lot less than that.

But the rest of that $100 includes 2 brushes, cutters, files, 3 pots of paint, varnish and spraycan of basecoat - which you won't need to get per box of models.

3 Colors is pretty standard for a "play"-model, as far as I know, but the one I posted on page 2 here has had at least 12 colors applied to it. The ones on page 3 are about 7 or so. Each pot of color is about $4 - and will last a lot of models.

For the paints, I'd do some serious research before I'd stray away from GW colors, though. Especially when you are just getting started. Nothing wrong about using alternative paints - it just might be harder to get started as a lot of tutorials will reference GW color names - but there are color charts for several competitors you can use for that.

Hope that helps! :)

(Of course, if you intend to start actually playing the game, you'll need more than 5 models... you'll also need the rulebook and an army codex.)

(Using dollars, for reference, as I couldn't figure out easily how to get the GW site to display in English with Euros)

@Otuz: I was thinking of the runes on the cloak of your Autarch, actually :)

But I might be wrong about that as well, not very familiar with the Eldar models.

@Commisar123: I wish! Some banners come with a pattern in the plastic - such as the 2 banners I've posted. I'm actually terrified of ruining my models with my poor freehand painting skills...

Otuz's looks like the real deal, though. Very nice :)

@Vegetable_Side_Dish: Oh, they can be beasts, but they are best for cracking tough units. I don't encounter many of those in the few games I play (vs Tau and Sisters of Battle) - so they feel a bit wasted. But I love the models, and we play for fun anyway - so I don't care much :)

@Vodun: Tell me more about this "Greater good" of yours.

( ... trying to get better at free-hand painting before I fill in Chapter Symbols and such...)

My first playthrough (on "Give me a Challenge", pacifist, no alarms) took me more than 45 hours - my second playthrough ("Give me Deus Ex", free for all solutions) "only" took about 15 hours :)

So... Yes!