Noobie question on painting and assembly of tatical space marines

[Xaric]

Painting When you paint the tactical space marine do you assemble them before you prime and paint or do you cut out the part of the plastic frames they come unassembled on and paint them on that?

When using a spray gun I wish to learn how to use one because my brother used it for his grey knights with 3 coats of silver and they looked as if they was metal they looked awesome so I want my space marines to be of that quality how would I use colors do I use a color chart I hear using a cold color with a hot color provides the best effect the colors I had in mind are and I will provide a link to GW page.

Base primed black (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800007a&prodId=prod1500288a)
Naggaroth Night Base coat (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800002a&prodId=prod1500008a)
Kantor Blue on top of the Naggaroth Night Base but light so it still shows (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800002a&prodId=prod1500012a)
Khorne Red for the trim (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800002a&prodId=prod1500006a)

Please advice me if this is a bad idea or a good idea as I am not that great at painting and if you have any website on painting charts or such to aid in what color to use that would be most helpful

Assembly of the tactical space marine I always have this problem with putting the arms with the boltgun on the model do I put the arms on first then glue the gun onto the model or do I glue the gun and arms then attach them to the model?

Also with gluing can I glue it after I paint the model with super glue or would it not stick due to the paint?

[YorkNecromancer]

There's a weird thing where people keep telling me 'painting on the sprue is the right way to do it'. As someone who has been painting models for over two decades, I have never done it that way, and frankly I never would. If people do and like it, cool beans. Not for me. This is because no matter how careful you are, you'll be left with ugly mold lines and horrible bits of unsmoothed grey where you clip the pieces off the main body of sprue, not to mention shiny bits of glue over the top of your paint when you assemble them.

I always assemble models and paint then, unless there is a big piece which covers another - then I would clip and assemble the pieces, undercoat and paint them as fully assembled as I could, before final, careful gluing.

As for how to put boltguns on, with the new (2013) tactical squad, I find the most effective was is as follows:


Add a small dot of poly cement to the left arm.
Then, dry fit the right with its bolter to check the fit.
That way, if you need to move the left arm, because you've only used a dot of glue, you should be able to refit it without cutting it off and trying again.



Bear in mind, you should be gluing your plastic models with poly cement in most cases; it's easier to work with than superglue, creates a MUCH stronger bond (because super glue is actually a fairly brittle resin, where poly cement actually melts and refuses the two plastic pieces together to form a single piece), as well as staying 'soft' for a period of minutes before drying, giving you time to work on the posing.

The only time I would use superglue on a plastic model would be if I needed a piece to be instantly bonded - say if I was using it to hold another piece in place while the poly cement set. Otherwise, superglue is for metal and resin only.

As far as making your models look awesome, it's actually quite easy to get a nice tabletop look fairly easily. If you tell us your colour scheme, you'll get more specific advice. However, in general, follow these steps.

1 - Undercoat:
Make sure you undercoat! No undercoat = paint which flakes off over time and with use. There are three real choices of undercoat colour: black will lead to the final colour being very dark; white, and the model will look VERY bright; grey and the final colours will look pleasantly subdued. There is no right anwer to your undercoat choice, though if you want a dark model and use black primer, you'll be making life very hard for yourself! If you want to use a colour undercoat (for example, I use a red one for my Blood Angels), there's nothing wrong with that at all; it will make final painting a lot easier. (Oh, and if you want red models, I recommend Halford's red car primer. You get twice the primer for half the cost. Great stuff.)

2 - Painting:
Apply your main colour. Leave to dry. Then apply a wash. These are now called 'shades' by GW, but are sometime referred to as 'skill in a bottle'. You can use a brown wash on almost any model and it will look great. A black one is better for a darker finish. You can also use a specific colour, for example a blue wash on blue paint for Ultramarines.

Once that has dried, drybrush your model. There are plenty of guides online telling you how to drybrush - it's literally the easiest technique in the world.

Once you've done those, your model should be good to go; just add the details, repeating the above steps. If you want to drybrush something small - say a boltgun - without getting paint on the rest of the model, use masking tape to cover the bits you want to keep the new colour away from.

Hope this helps!

[Deadlift]

http://www.lounge.belloflostsouls.net/showthread.php?36597-Deadlifts-Airbrush-experiences

Have a look at this mate, could help you a bit :). I never paint on the sprue, but I do sub assemble models and stick them to cork bungs in some areas.

Anyway have a look at the thread.

[Xaric]

I did provide my primary paint scheme this is for all models I won't provide additional paints because a rhino has much more detail and parts to cover then a tactical squad.

Primed with Citadel Technical: Imperial Primer (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800007a&prodId=prod1500288a) because i want them to have a darkish finish
Base coat with Citadel Base: Naggaroth Night (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800002a&prodId=prod1500008a)
Spraying on top of that with a thin coat with Citadel Base: Kantor Blue (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800002a&prodId=prod1500012a)
Trim on sholders and one of the knee pad and the Sgt helm of the unit Citadel Base: Khorne Red (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800002a&prodId=prod1500006a)
As for a shade I will most likely use Citadel Shade: Nuln Oil (http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat800004a&prodId=prod1500264a) I have used it in the past and it gives a realistic metal outline to models that have armor plates.

Still picking other colours for bolters and such

[Darren Richardson]

most of the advice given so far is sound, one thing though when making SM's up don't glue the gun onto the hands as it will make paintin the chests fiddly, stick a tiny bit of bluetack (or equivalent) into the hands of the marine, this will stop paint from geting on the contact point where you will glue the guns in place.

As for the guns themselves, cut them off the sprue but leave the handles on, stick them by the handle into some bluetack on a strip of wood which you can hold, then airbursh/paint them as required, once dry and finished you can remove the guns, the handles will be bare then you can cut off the handles and still have bare plastic to glue with.

Of course the undersides of the gun might need fileing down to get bare plastic, unless you can get hold of artists masking tape, and cut it very thinly and stick stripes down on the underside of the gun where the left hand would hold it, this is the method I use.

On a side note:

Artists masking tape also make good makeshift templates for painting Tactical Squad/Devestartor/Assualt markings on Rhinos/Razorbacks, if you have steady enough hands you can cut a piece of tape, stick it down in the right place and make the shape, I would do this after undercoating the model white, then just leave it on and finish sparying the model and just peel it off at the end.

Hey Presto instant squad markings on your Rhino/Razorback :)

[YorkNecromancer]

That colour selection sounds pretty much like you know what you're doing.

I migt suggest doing a single test model first, and seeing how it looks once finished; that way, if it works, you know you've got the right colour scheme. If it doesn't, you can then tweak it until it's right.

[euansmith]

I always assemble first and then paint second. This is because assembling the figures allows you to see what you can get away with not painting :)

[Tyrendian]

I always assemble first and then paint second. This is because assembling the figures allows you to see what you can get away with not painting :)

yeah I used to do that too... :)
if you want to do that, you really should basecoat the model first though, while the spray can still reach everywhere easily (i.e. before attaching chest-held weapons like bolters for example) - there's not much looks dumber than a grey splortch beneath your bolter...

[Darren Richardson]

you know there is good advice in this thread, I wonder if a Mod can make a helpful guide thread and make it sticky, using advice from this and several other threads....