# GK, Daemons, Tau



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

So I'm just building on all 3 armys, i just finished my first Daemon tonight, i have been working on my Tau for about a week and have been working on my GK army for about a year. I am not a great painter, my love is the game but I'm slowly working to get better at painting.

I also have the worst camera, need to get a new one

enjoy, let me know what i can do to paint different or be better, or what you think of my skeem

to point out, my Grey Knights have a mix of Black Knights, its my made up chapter of the GKs...so the black one is finished even tho he looks kinda empty, looks awesome in mass tho.


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

got the Nurgle Prince done now, couldn't get the wash to set right tho.


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

i forgot to post this before but please, let me know what i can do different in my painting, trying to get better.


----------



## jaysen (Jul 7, 2011)

Three armies at once? That's pretty bold. The camo cloaks on the Tau really stand out.


----------



## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

For the Horns and Teeth on the 'thirster I would consider trying to build up some colour so it is not flat white. Try adding a brown wash around the base of the base of his horns and leave it to dry a bit before gently dragging it up towards the tip, if you let the wash dry a bit first you should have a nice gradiant of colour and also helps you learn the blending technique.

Once you have done this and feel happy repeat on the teeth for a bit more depth, i'd also be tempted to paint his finger nails/talons in a similar fashion but maybe from a bleached bone base


----------



## Dave T Hobbit (Dec 3, 2009)

I agree with Jaysen that the cloaks are a great personalisation.

Your paint schemes look harmonious, so that is a good base to improve your technical skills. Ratvan's suggestion of using washes is an excellent way to create a real improvement for little effort.

For me the problem that really leaps out is how thick the paint looks. I find that paint diluted to the consistency of milk works well for me; whilst it can seem frustrating (it did for me to begin with) two thinner layers of paint will give you smoother coverage and more control than one thicker layer. It is also a good habit to pick up as it makes it easier to pick up blending and layering.

Using several thinner layers might solve the issue you had with the wash on the DP as well.


----------



## Midge913 (Oct 21, 2010)

I would say that 3 armies at once is a bold undertaking, but then I would be guilty of far worse

I would echo the comments made above. Thinning your paints and picking up some washes will really help you progress to more difficult skills like blending, layering, and glazing.


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

i have 2 washes but ill get some brown washes and try that, i panted them all with a spray base coat, then detailed...ill try thinning the paints out.

as for 3 armies, i got the tau and daemon battle force with some extra kits in there, ill have to take a pic of my GK, most of them are done, still have to add a few SS and Terms, maybe another LR

thanks for the comments, you all rock!


----------



## Ratvan (Jun 20, 2011)

for thinning out your paints, I find that 1 part colour to 2 parts water gives me nice coverage, you will of course need to do more layers but again this will help you learn more techniques.

Also look into the wet palette technique, it deffinately helped me by keeping my paint as or very close to how I mixed it and lasted a long time, essentially saving you money in the process.


----------



## Daemon Prince Paintbox (Feb 21, 2011)

Nice work. I think the Nurgle needs...Nurglefying. Maybe some rust on the blade with a few washes (Devlan, watered down Thraka Green in the recesses?) It just seems too clean. Other then that, keep up the good work.


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

Ratvan said:


> for thinning out your paints, I find that 1 part colour to 2 parts water gives me nice coverage, you will of course need to do more layers but again this will help you learn more techniques.
> 
> Also look into the wet palette technique, it deffinately helped me by keeping my paint as or very close to how I mixed it and lasted a long time, essentially saving you money in the process.


ill have to try that, thanks


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

Daemon Prince Paintbox said:


> Nice work. I think the Nurgle needs...Nurglefying. Maybe some rust on the blade with a few washes (Devlan, watered down Thraka Green in the recesses?) It just seems too clean. Other then that, keep up the good work.


well, the way his armor is it looks like a ascended termy, so i tried to kinda blend the two opposites. tho yea, making that blade rusty and bloody would look cool


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

So, this isn't really part of the project, but was crazy fun.

this is a 3v3 match, my GK, 2 friends with IG and Black Templar vs SM, Tau and orks. in short they got crushed. we played 6,000pts per side.


----------



## Nipolian (Nov 4, 2009)

Looking nice, 3 armies at one is a little daring however the thing that really baffles me is you are building both GK and Daemons! … it’s just heresy!

By the way is it the Templar player with the matching black and white dice …


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

the black and white dice are mine, he has a block of mixed colors.

as for the GK and daemons, i hate daemons, hate the gods of chaos, but i loved how the daemons feel on the board, plus i have a little evil in me, so my back story is really far fetched in the fluff...i tell people all the GK that have ever lost there life to chaos has risen as a daemons and sow insurrection to protect Drago, in short, there fun to play but my allegiance will always be to the emperor.


----------



## Firefighter X (Apr 21, 2010)

Three armies? You're a mad man aren't you?

Seriously, that's a mammoth undertaking, best of luck to you.

As for painting tips, I'll echo what serveral others have already said. Thin your paints and use washes for instant shading.

The 3 main secrets to painting for me are a good primer, thinned paints, and a quickshade. 

For primer I use a rattle can [ regular old spray paint ] from Wal-Mart. I use the flat white or the flat black. It's only $.98 a can and it sticks to metal, plastic, and resin quite nicely.

I'm no Dj24 but I'll give you the tricks that I use. I find that the quickest way to paint [ something I am NOT guilty of. Glaciers move faster than I paint ] an army is to limit your pallete to 3 or 4 main colours and have 1 "highlight colour" for them. For example when I use Boltgum Metal, I edge highlight with Mithral Silver. Brass Balls [ a P3 color ] gets highlighted with Burnished Gold. etc etc . 

The fastest and nicest looking technique for me is a 3 part process which is built like this, 1. Shade 2. Base Colour 3. Highlight. However when I paint they are applied in the order of 2,3,1. I'll explain further down.

You want to thin your paints down to the consistancy of milk [ the 2:1 ratio mentioned previously ] and apply multiple thin layers. It's better to put many thin layers down instead of 1 thick one as it won't clog detail and affords you more opportunity to blend by progressively adding more colour to the mix.

Try to keep your painting nice and tidy. If you have to go back to an area and touch up because your brush touched it with another colour, do so. Once every thing is based in the primary colour [ step 1 ], come in with the highlight colour and just give it faint highlights on the edges [ step 2 ]. I prefer extreme edge highlighting personally, others here are more skilled and actually edge blend.

After you painting is tidy and highlighted it's time to shade [ step 3 ]. I use a product called Army Painter Quick Shade. It comes in 3 tone shades; Soft, Strong, and Dark. This product is a pigmented varnish and is VERY THICK [ it's really nothing more than repackaged Min-wax Floor Stain ]. I love it and have had great success with it. You can dip the mini in it or brush it on. I choose to brush as I have more control over application. This product eats brushes so use cheapies. The idea is that this product seeps down into the recesses and pools there. When it dries [ 12 hours later ] it leaves the areas stained and darkened. It also forms a nice, hard varnish shell on the mini that stands up against touches, and minor bangs. It dries extremely glossy however so a matte varnish spray is applied to dull it down. Even though I sing it's praises, I'd recommend not using it if you're a novice painter and use GW brand washes instead. The application process for the GW brand washes is the same as the Quick Shade, however you can gob this stuff on and it's so thin it won't clog up the miniature's detail. You get the same effect with less risk.

Lastly, the greatest tools we have at our disposal for improving our painting are the collected wisdom and experience of our member base. Check in on the Project Logs forums and see what your collegues are doing. And do as you did in this thread, ask questions.

I hope that helps.

Cheers,

FFX


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

thanks for the tips...my plan as of now is to finish painting the completed models i have so far, then go back over the ones i want to improve on...sometime tomorrow ill post a pick of my GK army as it is. i need to add some more terms and trans but that's in time.

my bloodletters i want to have that evil black and blood red look, ill post one of thos when i get a proto done.


----------



## Firefighter X (Apr 21, 2010)

DK1 said:


> my bloodletters i want to have that evil black and blood red look


That's exactly the look I went for with mine. By no means is this meant to hijack your thread. Here are my Bloodletters using my 3 part process and the Quick Shade Dark Tone. This images were posted to give you a visual reference for the tips I'd suggested earlier.


































Cheers,

FFX


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

by all means, gives me an idea of how i want mine to look, i want to do a brighter sword with some effects, ill have to do one and see how it turns out


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

got some more to add, now i start on the painting for the daemons, hope they come out ok.


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

so, i have been thinking about collecting a space wolves army to add to the collection, i love my GK army but i would like a more standard army and Vanilla SM army dosent interest me, and a friend has BA. 

So is this a bad idea?


----------



## Nipolian (Nov 4, 2009)

Maybe you should hold of on another army until you finish what your working on ... just a suggestion though.

I like your dreadknight though. It's close to how i painted mine. I painted the words on his armor black, highlighted them with codex then picked out certain letters with Hawk Turquoise and created a glowing effect. It came out pretty nice. I also did that on all my Grey Kningts armor ... but i painted them silver. Just what i did though, hope it gives you some ideas.


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

but...but but...

well i have small things to get for my armys, need some more terms for my GKs, can never have enough terms.

the awesome thing is i love playing all my armys. the bad thing is no one wants to play big games vs Daemons, Tau and GKs.


----------



## Nipolian (Nov 4, 2009)

Alright if you think you have things under control then go for it!  Just be careful not to get so bogged down with your projects that you get nothing done (that has happened to me quite a bit)... 4 armies at once is quite the challenge but that's not to say that you cant do it.


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

ill be alright, love the game, i have been working on the Daemons today, dont like how i did the Daemonets, the Krone came out for the start, need to add a few touches here and there


----------



## DK1 (Nov 16, 2011)

ok here is the ruff pics...im not liking it

any suggestions?


----------

