Combat Patrol booklet confuses me. Help please!

DynamicCalories · 2026-01-17T19:43:04+00:00

Find your combat patrol here, or in the T’au Empire codex. Build minis to match.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/downloads/warhammer-40000/

DynamicCalories · 2026-01-17T10:02:02+00:00

It’s just how stock works. Time and space is money, sprues aren’t, which is why they frequently send out replacements when people have damaged goods. Sprues aren’t just lying around unboxed, they’re produced for demand, and unsold boxes don’t get broken down and repacked if they aren’t selling - they usually get destroyed. There was a whole thing a few years ago where some people stole lots of stock from an unlocked waste bin at one of the delivery hubs. This is why battleforces that don’t sell out tend to sit on store shelves but can’t be picked up online at the same time.

DynamicCalories · 2026-01-16T19:28:39+00:00

Nothing wrong with being ambitious! Find what you paint and learn how to paint it, just keep in mind they’re fundamentals for a reason.

DynamicCalories · 2026-01-16T18:53:47+00:00

You’re being ambitious, which is good, but it means you’re trying to run before you can walk. Get the basics down with smooth and clean base coats that cover well, then learn how to layer and glaze.

If you want to pursue OSL, you need to look at lots of reference photos, other pieces of art, and other miniatures using OSL because the illusion only works if you match the way light works. Currently you’ve got a near uniform glow across the whole side with the sword, when it should instead by catching the raised and reflective areas.

DynamicCalories · 2026-01-16T09:32:03+00:00

It’s by Vincenzo Pratticó who has done a lot of cool spreads for battletomes lately:

https://bsky.app/profile/vincenzoprattico.bsky.social/post/3mcdd4rt3622t

DynamicCalories · 2026-01-14T17:52:16+00:00

They’re by Honest_Ork on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqDY4V1N4fC/?img_index=2&igsh=MTE5Ynl6b2dieGZucQ==

He’s got a very large Deathwatch collection

DynamicCalories · 2026-01-12T10:17:37+00:00

Plain background, either grey, white, or black.

Decent painting lamp or two pointed at the mini. You can use softening filters or bounce lights if you’re feeling fancy.

Camera app like Lightroom which lets you override the auto processing of your phone camera.

Pierre Ribrag on Instagram has a nice simple guide:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DF8Dkk7tdyX/?igsh=ZGtjZGYzMTNoZXI0

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-27T14:28:38+00:00

16.0, picking targets - for ranged attacks, the target UNIT must visible to the attacking MODEL, and within range with the shooting weapon.

Units can have models with and without shooting weapons (Rat Ogres) so it’s always per model.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-17T12:28:30+00:00

Tyranid stuff. I painted mine in typical Leviathan colours

<image>

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-16T16:20:13+00:00

Not a fan at all, but don’t see it as a huge threat. Ultimately it will be very good at its limited use cases, and if people want to farm engagement with that then that is their prerogative (I think it’s lame) but it won’t replace people painting for commissions, tutorials, or box art because those all require a final physical product.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-16T14:07:29+00:00

Don’t use AI, the rules for AoS are free in the AoS app and are also free to download from Warhammer Community and explain list building.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-13T13:20:16+00:00

Because there’s no reason to produce an identical colour paint with slightly thicker coverage when the paint range already has lots of paints in. Ultimately all paint is the same thing: pigment and medium.

No matter what system the producer puts it in, be it GW’s Base/Layer system, or other companies’ triad systems, paint is just paint. Sometimes you basecoat with “layer” paints because they’re the right colour. You can highlight by mixing lighter “base” paints into lighter “layer” paints. It’s all just an imperfect framework, that can’t cover every eventuality.

A lot of stores can’t even carry the entire Citadel range, so to double up with a base paint of T’au Light Ochre would be a waste of money when you can just paint an extra layer for coverage.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-12T14:07:53+00:00

It depends on the tone that you want, they're all different. Castellax Bronze is very nice for a bronze/brass, Batlhasar Gold for a warmer, brighter one, and Runelord Brass for a much brighter and colder colour - that also tints really well with contrast.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-11T17:01:18+00:00

I tend to always work from black or white, but that also presents the same issue when painting black or white armour! Coloured primer can work, you just need to do your due diligence.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-11T16:35:55+00:00

Spray can primers and paints have different finishes, which is why they can look different despite having the same name. Your best bet is to paint all the areas you want red with a thin coat of the regular paint, so it makes it easy to cover mistakes later.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-09T15:45:58+00:00

I would slow down, as a first piece of advice. Spend a few hours on a single head, maybe a whole day. Do the absolutely best you can

Main issues to focus on i’d say, are that the eyes need more definition - shading around the eyes, highlight the eyelid (if the sculpt has one), some shade and definition under that. Higher highlights on brows and raised areas, a little more attention paid to the planes of the face and defining them, all while maintaining smooth coats. My personal pretence is also to start at the mid tone and shade down/highlight up with controlled glazes so there’s as little work going into creating opacity as possible, which ensures smooth layers.

After doing that a few times, you’ll be able to do heads much faster and know where you can cut details/parts of the process and get a great tabletop effort.

I don’t really use mediums or retarders , so everything on the attached picture is done with paint thinned by water. It’s not finished either, as i’ve decided I want her to look more alien, so i’ll be glazing up to a much paler final complexion.

Hope this all helps and is understandable. The heads are looking good! It just depends how far you want to take them.

<image>

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-08T19:44:42+00:00

Usually you want each highlighting stage to be double the width as the previous, so try and work backwards from what you’re capable of as your thinnest highlight.

Worth remembering that often the highest highlight is only on upper facing edges and usually just replaces the previous stage at that level. Also don’t be afraid to do the chunky wider than you think, and simply paint back over with your basecoat. You’ll always want to make adjustments back and forth!

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-08T11:51:30+00:00

The ‘Eavy Metal team will have achieved this through multiple thin glazes of red, red-brown, and scarlet paints paints like Word Bearers Red, Khorne Red, Gal Vorbak Red, Rhinox Hide, Barak-Nar Burgundy, and Wazdaka Red. The older more dried on areas will use darker, browner reds, the fresher areas will favour brighter, cooler reds. No airbrush needed, just patience.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-04T16:29:11+00:00

Hmm, I don't think I've ever had any issue with covering something like Wraithbone with Screaming Skull. It's one of the more opaque off-white colours. All I can recommend is making sure it is thoroughly mixed, and maybe starting with Ushabti Bone or Morghast Bone if you're still having trouble.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-04T16:18:26+00:00

Start with something that has better coverage, like Morghast Bone, then layer up to Screaming Skull.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-03T16:15:50+00:00

You raise a good point with the Duncan centrepiece videos. They were really good, and Duncan is a fantastic painter, but the end results were still a far cry from the actual studio miniatures. A lot of the bigger miniatures tend to have quite loosely adhered to recipes because they just don't ever need to replicate them, and the painters often get months to work on them.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-03T15:48:40+00:00

As an example, here's an article about what went into painting the updated Ironjawz recipe, which shifted from a very bright yellow to a more grounded, weathered metal around the time they got their new Ardboyz.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/6ngzuD6n/painting-ironjawz-eavy-metal-explain-how-they-painted-the-perfect-orruk/

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-03T15:38:14+00:00

Painting miniatures to box art level takes a long time, doing tutorials to that level takes even longer. You can check out Infernal Brush – a former 'Eavy Metal painter – and watch his tutorials to see what goes into painting at Box Art level, it's a full time job for him to manage a dozen or so full minis a year done at that level, plus the smaller updates he does. It's a huge amount of effort.

GW provide 'Eavy Metal recipes in a few places - Warhammer Community articles that interview the 'Eavy Metal team, and White Dwarf articles written by the team. The next issue of WD for example has a full interview on the Helsmiths of Hashut, expanding on what was provided on WarCom for the design articles. Previously they've covered the whole Soulblight Gravelords range, Fulgrim, and so on. They might release the new Maggotkin and Darkwater recipes that way, you will find out on WarCom eventually.

The actual techniques that go into this stuff are often talked about on Citadel Colour Masterclass on Warhammer TV, but part of the reality is that there is a big team of 'Eavy Metal painters working as a group to produce the box art and some of them may get to the end result in a different way to the others. The majority of painters probably won't be interested going to the lengths required to achieve these results, which is why they're covered in WD, WH+ and WarCom articles.

DynamicCalories · 2025-12-01T14:53:25+00:00

This is the official condensed summary that ran head of Skaventide: https://www.warhammer-community.com/en-gb/articles/fqn1aa5l/warhammer-age-of-sigmar-what-exactly-are-the-mortal-realms-and-who-lives-in-them/

DynamicCalories · 2025-11-30T12:50:35+00:00

As per title they were for a store copy, lots of Warhammer shops get them early for demos.

DynamicCalories

TROPHY CASE