Justin said:
Damn this looks good. I have never painted anything in my life and the first two guys I did look kind of bad. Can you share some tips on how to keep the paint neat when doing the little details. I try to just get the smalles amount on the tip of the brush but it still seems to never go on correctly.
It depends on how much time you're willing to invest of course... I'm a fairly experienced painter, but very slow... doing a model to that quality took around 20 hours. It's ok for me because I do enjoy painting (but I'll be doing the genestealers in large batches with a more simple technique).
To paint at that kinda level, you will need the right tools. Good lighting, preferably from 2 arm mounted adjustable lights (or a commercial light setting from numerous high powered flourescnets) is very important. If you can't see it, you can't paint it.
Also need a few brushes; including an ultra fine detail brush (just head to a hobby store and ask for the smallest brush they have... mine is like a 5/0... which I guess is 00000, where 0 is considered traditionally as a fine brush).
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/c...oryId=cat180020a&pIndex=1&aId=400007a&start=2
Also worthwhile following this paint guide. They also have a 360 degree minature gallery so you can follow their paint scheme.
BUT. I get the feeling you're a beginner... so I'll give you the kind of tips that helped me out when I was starting...
mount the minature to a base; glu-stick or old paint pot will do nicely, so you don't get your hand in the way of things.
Get a cheap plastic container... one of those take away containers is perfect; use the bottom for water, the top as a palette.
Red goes on white well, doesn't go on black well at all. You might need to prime your figure in white, then paint the bits that aren't going to be red black (with a fine brush). Alternatively, you can use multiple thin layers of red to build up the red coat, but it's a more advanced technique in that it tries your patience.
Never dip your brush in the pot and then go directly onto the minature; you have to dab your palette to see how the paint flows, and then wet the brush as needed (I recommend having drops of water next to the paint on the palette so you can mix as needed).
Paint that's too thick will overflow and also obscure detail once dried.
As a beginner, you don't want to be too ambitious; start with flat blocks of colour as in Stage 1, then use washes (thinned out watery paint) to lay the shading; the thinned out paint will flow into the recesses on the minature (as long as you didn't blot it out with thick paint).
Don't just paint the wash over the entire model though; carefully lay it down on the areas that need it (like carefully paint it over the eagle crest, carefully avoiding the red of the armor).
Also, keeping your minature steady while painting is important... at least in reference to your brush. Which means your brush wielding hand has to brace against your minature holding hand somehow; you can even brace against your own fingers to keep things steady. If you press against the model itself, then make sure to use a light touch, or you'll rub paint off.
If you're not up for all that, then block in the colours and check out that link that I put above; the army painter one... You'll still need to be neat and careful blocking in the colours... the more time and effort you take, the better it'll look. But at least you don't need to paint 0.2mm highlights across an entire model.
I'd only recommend learning the hardcore, traditional painting method if you're interested in collecting 40k stuff (or other minature based games). You're probably better served just ebaying a Space Hulk that's already been painted by some chinese dudes (runs about 600-700 bucks) if all you want is a nice space hulk set.
In fact, I was tempted to do that myself, except I wanted to know how good I was still (better than ever) and the colours from the ebay set aren't 100% accurate (to Games Workshop colours). I'm not collecting 40k stuff anymore though, so this is pretty much my last hurrah as far as painting goes.