Thoughts and ponderings: Painting

No pics this time around folks but look forward to some in the near future including Usarkar Creed , Sly Marbo (er i guess its just Guardsmen Marbo now) and my first Leman russ. However the overall point of this post is a sort of self reflection on my painting progress and experiance so hopefully if a new person comes along and reads through this blog they will learn from my mistakes.
( General tip )

• Paint for yourself not for anyone else: Everyone has a certain skill level or inate ability in regards to painting and damn near everything else. If you did your best then you have nothing to regret.
• Always seek to improve: What my be your best today may eventually make you laugh at how far you have come, always seek to improve at what you do and dont get discouraged if it dosnt turn out how you planned.
• Look to those who have laid the path before you : The internet is full of people who have been painting for a long time . just looking at pics of another persons army online can give you some ideas and folks like Jawaballs (blog listed on the right ) offer instruction on how to go about painting. Even if you dont follow thier methods 100% you can addapt certain techniques to your own.

• Sometimes you gave to know when to stop: this is sort of a two parter.The first is that you dont have to get everything done in one day and when painting with something a small scale can be tiring so take breaks or you will give yourself a wicked head ache. the second part is that when painting dont try to do to much.A case in point the recent Necron lord I did? shortly after I took the pics I tried to do some extra stuff to it and just totally wrecked the look of the model ( I have since repainted it and will also post pics of that as well.)

(painting tips)

• Painting faces made lazy: Possibly the most annoying part of painting IG is painting faces however a trip to a GW some time ago Me and my bud heard aneasy way that while only two steps looks preety damn good for being fairly basic. Tallaran flesh foundation paint (Always add some water to this and mix between applications) and ogryn flesh wash.You get some nice shading and it looks preety realistic
  
• Many thin applications beats one single application any day: always thin you paints ( unless you apply to the Jawaballs method of painting) I always add at least one drop of water to all my paints when painting and use layering to get a nice smoth paint layer even if it takes several applications to get the full color.
• Metallics NEED several applications and a wash to look good: Because of the nature of metallic paints it normally takes a few application to get a consistent covering. Also I highly recommend adding a light Badab black wash to metallics to dull out the flakes a bit.
• White primer? slap on a wash: This helps bring out the details and makes it easier to see where you need to apply your brush to paint....now if only there was a way to do this with a black primer.
• White primer for light color schemes Black primer for dark color schemes: A general rule of thumb is that if you are using red or yellow as the main parts of your color scheme use a white primer. If you are using mostly blue or green use black. tans and grays tend to work well over either at least from my dealings with it.
• Washes are the best thing to happen in painting EVER: They add shadowing with as little as a single layer in most cases.
• Simple Green: The best thing to use to remove paint from metallic and plastic minatures .Its found in the auto motive department of stores . simply put it in a container that you can afford to use for this purpose and a crappy old or cheap tooth brush. put the mini in the solution over night scrub the paint off the tooth brush and let it dry.
  

Well thats all I got for now. please note that thies are only my observations in my forays in painting sometimes its different for others its a matter of trial and error. I hope this helps someone. Until next time take care.