Want to paint miniatures

And what exactly should i do with all that anger ?
seems highly fucking useless to me

they're gonna be shit for a while

keep practicing, it take experience to figure it out. After a while it gets easy.

At worst, you can always throw your shit minis in a bath of Super Clean for a few hours and scrub them clean.

"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hatred leads to suffering...but what the Jedi failed to teach you, what I have learned, is how to persevere, to pass through the suffering, and achieve ultimate power!"

-Count Dooku

I don't really think anger works that way.

You've never been angry enough.

True, but what the hell does anger solve ?

Anything you can imagine

user, we highlight because light looks different on a 2 metre human and a 2 inch model. We use paint to try make it look as if the model is actually as big as the thing it represents, to fool our eyes.
Light catches the edges of things. It sits on top of things and shadows gather where it can't reach- in folds and so on.

Try start out with simple models, like a necron or knight. One solid colour, give it a wash of shade ( mostly transparent layer that darkens everything but settles in crevasses and recessed detail to simulate shadow) then run over the edges and top areas with a brighter version of that colour.
Practice. Have fun. Don't give up.

im starting to think that you have a very different view on what anger is

Anger is frustration, displeasure, hostility, annoyance, and irritation.

and how are these things supposed to help?
I usually get frustrated, annoyed displeased and irritated by my painting skills.
But it leads me becoming unmotivated to do anything about it, because i can't be bothered to be angry.

>frustration, annoyed, displeased, irritated = suffering
>learn to persevere
>pass through suffering
>gain power instead of depression

Knowledge and practice without knowing what went wrong will not help you. This is what will affect your mini painting in order of importance. First 5 are mandatory. Do these first before worrying about technique.

1) lighting - are you in a well lighted place with WHITE light? poor lighting means you cannot see the tip of the brush, and thus cannot paint well

2) miniature holder - do you have a good base to hold onto your miniature? get once of those cork on a tool, or even pin in onto a temporal base.

3) Brushes should cost $20 MINIMUM (not from GW). any ALWAYS buy brush soap. Learn to take care of your brush, load ONLY the tip of the brush. You only need 1 size if you're good (Size 2), but for starters, get a size 000, 0 and 2. Also, get a small flat brush for wet/drybrushing.

4) Wet pallet. No more worries about paint your thins and other rubbish. DOES NOT WORK WITH METALLICS. This is the biggest QOL improvement you will ever make. paints never dry out, paint is always thin, always easy to use, always come off easily.

5) Reduce number of colours. You only need these - Primary(3), main, secondary highlight, edge highlight. Metallics (2) - gunmetal and shiny metal. Gold (2) - redder and yellower. Secondary (3) - per primary. Shades/inks (2-4), brown, black, primary, secondary. You can cover most colours (green to yellow to red) with brown. All in all, 12-14 colours, all very close to each other. Better to have a 2 coloured miniature in 3 shades, than a 6 coloured miniature with no shades.

6) Prime grey. Easy to paint on primary colour, easy to paint on metallics

7) Miniature selection - Get a simple one with large flat surfaces. You don't have to get one that you hate, just choose the simpler option. Box dread instead of furioso. Terminator instead of space hulk ones.

Pic related. What I applied these techniques to.

Some tips that will help since they give good results without requiring fine motor skills:

1. Buy a colored primer from Army Painter.

2. Spray the model with gloss varnish when you have finished painting all the main colors.

3. Use Citadel gloss shade such as Nuln Oil Gloss. This glossy wash combined with the gloss varnish will make the shadow wash automatically flow into the cracks without you needing to manually paint them there.

4. Hit it up with several coats of matte varnish to remove all that gloss.

There, you just finished 99% of the steps by doing nothing but spraying and slopping some wash on the model.

>tries it out
>That miniature you wasted now money on now looks more shit than out of the box plastic

>Tries again on another miniature
>motherfucker looks even uglier than the first

>Tries again
>looks fucking awful

I want to point out that even in your own story you got better with each miniature.

>>motherfucker looks even uglier than the first

did you read it correctly m8 ?

Nothing, but you leave some good creative mess behind you.

Shit takes time. As with all talents,you start by sucking at it for a long time, and then sucking a little less.

If you used acrylic, dump the figures in a bath of simple green for a day, scrub them and start over.

Work with these minis as your practice minis and accept that they may never look amazing.

Focus on learning one aspect of painting at a time. Start with just flat colors,working on consistent brush strokes and detail. Work up to different skills like shadows highlights and effects individually. Don't try to do everything at once.

this may not help....

it may help.

>first space marine

WHY IS THIS SHIT SO SMALL IT LOOKED SO MUCH LARGER IN PHOTOS

>tenth marine

FUCKING EYE LENSES HOW DO THEY WORK

>thirtieth marine

Lol I can't believe I ever thought chest eagles were small, they're fucking skyscraper sized. Look how huge these feathers are!

>fiftieth space marine

AW YEAH PERFECT LENSES IN ONE STROKE

More or less. Some people get it in 50 tries some take 500.

Fuck those eye lenses. After many years of playing grey plastic and pewter guys over many games i finally decided to start painting and honestly I'm enjoying it much more than i thought i would! I started with my marine kill team and i have them about half painted and I started on one of my Guildball guys because i really wanted to try out flesh tones. My guys certainly won't win any awards but at least I have that certain sense of accomplishment when i see them on the table. Just stick to it user or if you really hate it maybe the painting aspect of the hobby isn't for you and there's nothing wrong with that

My chapter has black eyes so I just use black wash and cheat. If you like glowing eyes, a good cheat for eye lenses is to paint the middle white (you don't have to paint the whole lens, just the majority of the middle) then use a glaze or wash color to make a glow. The color will seep to the edges and fill them out for you. Boom, perfect lenses every time with a neat glowing effect to boot.

If you're trying to do glass type lenses then you're just going to have to do it the hard way.

I'll have to give that a shot, I tried cheating with slapping some spirit stone red on it and it didn't come out as well as i hoped. Also i really need to actually build a lightbox

Floor stains. "Dipping". Paint on the primer, flat colours, and dip. Voila, great minis with minimal fuss.

Just watch out for the smell and glossy look. Use matte varnish if at all possible.

I'm not even good at that.

The first step to being halfway decent is generally to be bad.

This is 10 years of progression for me, and I'm still not nearly as good as most of the people in see in WIP.

Holy shit, it is like you need to train more than just a morning to be good at something. Who would have guessed?

No mini is wasted, as other anons said they are easily stripped clean.
Be patient and take your time. I have a really bad inborn tremor and it takes me at least some good 3 h to paint a single space marine (vanilla tac, no addons) decently. I still find great joy to look at it at the end of the day as I know I overcame a weakness of mine.

Have you tried drinking heavily? That's my traditional game.

Go ahead user, we all fail our first minies.

The important thing is persevering, you get a firm hand only with practice.

also, always remember to play smooth jazz while painting

from left to right first mini, 100th mini, 150th mini, and 300th mini

been painting 8 years since i was 8 keep going user

I tend to be trembling too, so I started drybrushing pretty much everything.

when in doubt paint entirely using washes.

Anger is like the wind blowing through your sails. You can let it carry you astray, tear your sails and leave you sitting there adrift or you can hang on and just try to harness it and let it carry you where you're supposed to be going.

I can vouch for it personally. I endured years of mountain trekking with my family as a kid, only through sheer rage. Totally worked for me.

you've never been so angry that you just went and fucking did it?

I'm looking at getting into 40k, and it's resulted in me watching some of the How to Paints on Warhammer TV.

They info for Dark Vengeance has a pile of tips, like steady your hands by resting them on the table etc.

I believe in you, user, keep on keeping on.

For the Anons with trembling hands, perhaps one advice you might use :

Put both elbows on the table, close to the chest. One holds the mini (preferably in something easy to handle; I use an egg sized jar with blutack), the other the brush.

That way you end up with everything at eye level PLUS, you get a good posture. It works for photography, it works for miniature painting.

Just adjust your lighting so you don't have to change from that position (I use a spelunking LED headlamp, on top of the rest)

Can you go see another painter in person? Or even better, paint together. They'll probably spot what you're doing wrong. I know I spotted mistakes in my work where I didn't suspect.

>filename gets cut off
>A THING OR TWO ABOUT PAIN.pdf
not sure if want

No, whenever i've become angry it has caused more problems than solving anything

>DO YOU WANT TO LIVE FOREVER?!

everyone goes through this man

It's a right of passage in a way. Powering through those first few minis will be the hardest thing you ever do. You'll notice improvement over time as you get more consistent and learn more tricks.

One tip for Shakey hands, rest your elbows on the table and paint at roughly eye level. having your arms steadied by the table helps a lot.

Also, try finding a place to paint with friends or even just other hobbyists. Usually someone else will be more than happy to show you tricks and advice if they see you in the store painting.

>Tfw too scared to fuck them up
>Tfw £143 worth of plastic going to waste

>Emperor Palpatine's guide to the arts

This.

I used to paint most when I was in uni. I'd just take a case full off shit to the shop nearby with a few friends and just sit there from open to close.

Don't paint nearly as much since.

Threadly reminder that even the greats were common paint-daubers at first.

>>hands shake like a motherfucker

This you can learn to get around.

>insecure with just about anything i do

This means you're fucked.

Literally Hitler

Try a new hobby. One that doesn't require steady hands or thousands of dollars of outlay.

When I went to take a crack at painting, I was just patient as all fuck. I thinned my paints to the extreme, then went with minimum risk, minimum reward-style painting.
Took me a few days to finish a model.

Painting is a skill. Some have a natural talent for it, but that only gives them a head start. If they don't practice the skill, they never get better.

All you need is practice user. Keep painting minis if you love doing it. Eventually you will become competent, maybe even good at it. In time you'll surpass the lazy fuck with a natural talent for it who never practices.

Quitting before you have a chance to grow is just a self-defeating attitude and will prevent you from ever doing the things you think are worth doing. Don't give in.

>Eventually you will become competent, maybe even good at it. In time you'll surpass the lazy fuck with a natural talent for it who never practices.
This. We have a guy in our meta who's "I'd literally prefer to play bare metal than that shit"-level bad. I'm not complaining for two reasons:
- he takes care to play painted stuff. While there's a ton of Silver Surfers in the meta, he tries to field stuff painted and shaded wven if he comes home with the new mini at 11pm with the tournament the next day. Gotta respect the attitude
- He's getting less and less shit as time goes on, now his painting's rapidly approaching something decent.

>TFW I'm a real life Sith and never realized

I've been leading user's down the dark path this entire time. Bueno.

tl:dr. I'm a scrub and refuse to learn anything by trial and error and now beg for your sympathy/attention to justify my failure.

what.