Steve Troughton-SmithAn evening of edge highlighting later, and I’m almost ready for the next step. Gonna try to push these through my painting desk to clear up space #minipainting
All that’s left is spot highlights, basing and transfers, I think! Well chuffed
Group photo! It has taken six years to make inroads on this box set 😰 And there’s still a lot to do before it’s complete… Something something ‘slay the gray’, something something ‘pile of shame’
Feels real good to move these off the painting desk 🥰 #MarchForMacragge
Halide is definitively my weapon of choice for taking RAW photos with the iPhone. This is 'just' a 12 Pro Max, but it consistently outperforms all my remaining, aging DSLRs by almost every metric, and Apple's Camera app by a wide margin. Really looking forward to a 48MP periscope assembly this year…
Next project for my painting table: Cadians! Hopefully this one won’t take 2 months…
…starting with a little bit of a touch-up on this Sentinel I painted in 2009 (💀). I will go back and give it a finer edge highlight later, but for now it's a little bit more respectable
Minor tangent I can paint up while I wait for new brushes. Could be a quick one
For context, this is part of the 1997 limited edition Imperial Guard Praetorian XXIV box set (pic 1) that nine year old me was enamored with. The last batch I painted turned out like the second pic, but yes it's taken 25+ (and counting) years to actually paint it all up 😅 And yes they're based on Zulu
Today’s side project: take this crummy 2009 paint job (first picture) and make it a little more respectable. Let’s see… /cc @pilky
Batch painting is exhausting and doesn’t have any real payoff until the end, so I’m gonna try doing some single minis to completion instead. It’s funny just how bad that first layer looks before highlights
Phase 2. Good opportunity to catch up on Critical Role 😄 /cc @dskuza
And some fine edge highlighting before bed. Pretty pleased about how much I can do in a day this way 🥹
Making good use of my fresh new size 000 Windsor & Newton Series 7 🤓
Back to the Cadians. If I’m lucky, I might get these done before the end of March. A decent month for minis!
A lot of edge highlighting left to do, but they’re starting to shape up
Honestly these are harder to paint than the Space Marines 👀 A lot more steps and more-organic highlights to worry about, but I can see an end in sight and they’re looking 👌
Last thing to do on the model is the skin, which I have no practice at. Can’t ruin it too badly from here though!
Final spread for the month of March! A touched-up Sentinel and Dreadnought, and freshly-painted Cadians, Praetorians, Intercessors and a lone Hellblaster. Very happy with every bit of this, and big chunk of progress made on the pile of shame 😄 #WarhammerCommunity #warhammer
And a glamor shot of the Cadians before I put them in the cabinet 🤓
I accidentally spent the evening creating a small diorama board just to have a nicer background to photograph minis on 😅 So have some action shots! /cc @pilky
I had begun these Death Guard back in 2019 when I first started painting again, with Contrast, but I think I can do much better today — so I picked up everything I need to re-spray them and start over. Luckily Contrast is very thin so I don’t think I’ll strip them beforehand. Final shot of the previous attempt
This sculpt is kicking my ass — there are just so many nooks and crannies and different surfaces to pay attention to. I don’t want to think about the other dozen on the todo list 👀
Starting to look convincing. I think every model in this damn army is going to have to be treated like a character model for painting. There’s just no way I could batch five of these at a time
No more for tonight. Just a few things remaining, but Papa Nurgle would be proud…
That specular highlight on the bone, and the fleshy tentacle, came out 👌
I guess I lied! Mini complete 🥳. I’m sure I’ll go back and tweak a few things when I have the patience, and basing is in progress, but so much better than my first attempt (second pic)
Phil Dokas
Stuart Gibson@stroughtonsmith it’s what The Great Unclean One would want.
oisin@stroughtonsmith oof that's a tough one - looks you are making good progress tho 😀
jmorris1974@stroughtonsmith where do you get the figures?
Chris Dunbar@stroughtonsmith they already look pretty great.
@cdunbar must do better!
Alex@stroughtonsmith (I don’t know anything about this activity but the end result looks great :-)
Are there color themes or you go all by your imagination?
Are there color themes or you go all by your imagination?
Hwee-Boon Yar@stroughtonsmith I might have missed half the story here. But do you do anything else with them after you are “done” painting etc? Or is that the destination?
@hboon do I? No. There's a whole game system, but I do not play
@stroughtonsmith ok. Because you said “storytelling”, so wondered if you did more :)
Sophia 
@stroughtonsmith I read this as Canadians and was quite confused
Sujal Shah@stroughtonsmith how did you capture that. The shot is as beautiful as the figurines. I have a light box so that part I get, but the rotation?
@Sujal I have one of these I use for minis https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00PHRD1AW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
@stroughtonsmith oh the base is white. I couldn’t see the base in the image, blends really well. Guessing the overall brightness of the scene helps too. Thanks!
@Sujal I have a white plasticard disc I put on top of the turntable that's a little bigger and hangs over the edges, and then it exposes right out
Arkadiusz Matecki@stroughtonsmith do you play or just paint?
@Danteusz just paint
@stroughtonsmith You could make a cool diorama out of your squads
Pierre de Wet@stroughtonsmith do you make terrain at all? Any thoughts to a YouTube channel with your painting techniques etc?
@pierredewet only pre-made stuff really. I have not successfully built a board yet
@stroughtonsmith those look great! If ever you decide to do a sideline channel in terrain and painting do give a shout!
Johnathan@stroughtonsmith these look amazing. How did you learn where to put the paint lol? Like highlights and stuff? All the detail. I used to paint space marines as a kid, but they were always super flat, and today I don’t think I’d be able to make them any better.
@johnathan there is so much knowledge on YouTube these days that it's hard to go wrong, if you can afford the paints and tools to match the techniques https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhOBAMaUmbA
How To Paint Cadian Shock Troops and Diverse skin tones | Astra Militarum | Imperial Guard
@stroughtonsmith I get that, but lien this highlightssssss are so good
Curtis McHale@stroughtonsmith your work is awesome
@stroughtonsmith Nail polish stand? 😃
@Danteusz perfect for paints
@stroughtonsmith one of the best hobby cheating tools 😃
Josh Wold@stroughtonsmith what are you using to hold the figure?
@joshuawold just a Citadel Painting Handle (https://www.games-workshop.com/en-US/Citadel-Colour-Painting-Handle-2020) but there are plenty of popular alternatives. You can also go for a clothes peg with some blu-tac, which I do when painting the base
@stroughtonsmith thanks so much! I bought a kneaded eraser and will try sticking it on a cup. First painting session ever for a figure tonight. So excited!
@joshuawold definitely send pics!
@joshuawold don’t go straight from the bottle, put the paint on a plate (or palette) first and add a drop of water, remove most of it from the brush. You want it to be like milk when you apply it, might take a couple of coats to get a nice solid color, & let it dry before adding more. Takes time — listen to a podcast or audiobook or something while you paint. My first minis were all like this
@stroughtonsmith I added water, but I must have done too much. I also didn’t remove most from the brush. I’ll try again! Thanks
@joshuawold in case it helps (also everything on this channel): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBQT570JLlk
How To Paint Space Marines as Blood Angels for Warhammer 40,000 and highlight them like ‘Eavy Metal
@stroughtonsmith thanks!! I’ll take a look