Warhammer 40K Paint Set Part 1

I chose this set to start with for the following key reasons:

- It is space marines! It would be cool if it were Terminators XD (to get soon)

- Almost all flat surface with no major layering/texturing required (compared with The Hobbit Starter set)

In the box, you will find  8 Citadel paint pots, 5 space marines with base, a Citadel Starter brush and a painting guide. One key note about the paints supplied and the guide is that 3 of the paint does not match the content of the box, which would confuse beginners. To simplify things, you can try the alternatives that are available in the box based on the guide below

Abaddon Black - supposedly used as primer here. You can ignore this step. Or try coating plenty of Imperial Primer. If you are already priming the miniature on your own, just skip it.

Ironbreaker -  Use Leadbelcher. Both are silver paint. Ironbreaker is a layer type paint while Leadbelcher is a base paint. The difference between layer and base, from what I have heard, is just the thickness. You could dilute Leadbelcher to get the same effect.

White Scar - This is probably the hardest to replace. You could try Ushbati Bone. I purchased Ceramite White instead for this purpose. White Scar and Ceramite White, like the silver paint above are just layer and base to each other.

Now, with 5 units available, I took this opportunity to test different methods (which is the whole idea of a starter kit) 

Unit 1 - Painting by number

For this unit, I paint strictly following the guide using only the starter brush. Some notes on the deviation done from the guide:

- I was having problem with the Imperial Primer supplied as I find that it does does not stick well and it is watery. I ended up using a spray primer (Bosny Blackboard Black) to simplify my work. Also, I tested both the Imperial Primer and spray against the leftover spruce. Yes. Keep those spruce especially when you want to test paint. Testing on minis is a waste in my opinion.

- Colors missing from the guide is substituted as above.

- Agrax Earthshade was used to wash the entire unit.

Unit 2 - Painting by number part 2

This unit is exactly the same as the above with the exception of the wash. The wash was only used on the cst, medal, skulls and gun.

Unit 3 - White base

I am often told that using black and white primer creates a different result. Since I already primed all my units with Bosny Blackboard Black, I decided to paint Ceramite White to emulate white primer. Although it is not a good simulation, but that should have to do for now. The rest is as exactly as Unit 2.

From Left: MagaCon, Unit 1, Unit 2, Unit 3

Unit 4 and 5 - Red vs Blue

The cool thing about miniature painting is that there is no hard and fast rule. While starting off, you will probably want to follow the original scheme and replicate the results, you will probably want to start working and customizing your color scheme away from the norm.

In this case, I have painted 1 unit in Macragge Blue to reflect the Ultra Marines which I grew up with. The other was painted in Mephiston Red to reflect the Blood Angels which a friend of mind highlighted. The original was painted in Caliban Green to reflect the Dark Angel faction. The black in on the gun of the red unit is Abaddon Black.

Red vs Blue

A note on the parts here is that only Unit 1 was assembled completely prior to painting. The rest had their gun glued after the painting.

Next step:
- Adding some layers and lining shoulder pads.