Poll: Is Dark Vengeance too Tough to Paint for a Starter?

Dark Vengeance is out and discussions abound on GW’s latest starter box. The box will shape people’s entry into the hobby for years to come (and bulk out many veteran gamers’ collection too, no doubt). I recently blogged about my difficulties scoring a limited edition. Now, as my box is on its way, I am starting to doubt if my painting skills are up to it. These miniatures look quite challenging to paint, especially for beginners. Or do they not?

Thinking Back to Assault on Black Reach

Ok. Let’s think back to the good old and now decommissioned Warhammer 40K starter box of Assault on Black Reach.

AoBR, as it was known, didn’t always receive the kindest of critiques from the Warhammer 40K community. Nevertheless, as far as the challenge of painting new miniature goes, I think AoBR offered an excellent collection of models – Ultramarines and Orks – to ease new hobbyists into the craft of miniature painting.

Ultramarines get a lot of flak for different reasons (not all of them deserved, I feel). However, they are without a doubt comparatively easy to paint. A rich shade of blue is much easier to do than – for example – a good Imperial Fist yellow.

Ultramarine blue is also very easy to both shade and highlight. Just get a darker and lighter shade of blue and go. There is no danger of ending up with an unfortunate highlight-colours such as pink, which was my first result of mixing a first highlight for Blood Angels way back when. It also has none of the obvious issues of shading black or highlighting white.

Orks are similarly forgiving if you want to paint them to a descent tabletop standard (e.g. if you avoid any NMM-shenanigans or some of the other advanced techniques that often define those better-than-average paint-jobs on Orks). By the very nature of their background, they also do not need to look perfectly uniform in their weapons, war-gear or even their shade of green skin.

The Dark Vengeance Comparison

The Dark Angels and Chaos miniatures that come with Dark Vengeance are, I believe, a whole different level of challenge. Here are four reasons why I think they offer a much tougher introduction to the hobby.

1. Marines in 3 Colours: Anyone taking inspiration from GW’s ‘Eavy Metal paint-scheme for Dark Angels (and who wouldn’t, given that the Marines are all branded with DA iconography) will have to learn not just one paint-scheme, but three. Of those three paint-schemes, the basic Dark Angel green is perhaps comparable to Ultramarine blue. However, a solid Deathwing-white (even if it’s slightly cream) and a well-done Ravenwing black are more difficult to master.
2. Chaos Marines with both Armour and Flesh: The Crimson Slaughter force opposing the Dark Angels in the box offers challenges of their own. The Cultists may be comparable to Orks in what you need to paint. But the various Chaos Marines offer some quite challenging transitions from armour-plates to fleshy surfaces and textures along their various mutations (have a look at the Hellbrute below, painted by Tale of Painters, for what I mean).
3. Details up to 11: Finally, GW really pushed the detail on the Dark Vengeance models up to eleven. Especially on the characters. And of course there more of them in Dark Vengeance than AoBR.  The Chaos Lord, a robed Librarians, a steam-pumping Chaplains, the tentacle-sprouting Hellbrute, a wing-adorned Chapter Master. Each and everyone one of those is a model in need of  custom paint-job with different techniques needed for pretty much each of these models.

What Do You Think? Vote And Leave Comments!

I freely admit to being a horrible painter, so my opinion my not be representative of most hobbyists out there. Nevertheless, I also feel that I need to approach Dark Vengeance from a whole different angle than I did Assault on Black Reach.

I felt AoBR was a good place to test your skills, to try what you can do. As painting skills got better, one could progress from AoBR to some of the more challenging things in Games Workshop’s arsenal.

With Dark Vengeance, it is almost the opposite. It very much feels like I need to train and master my painting-skills on something else, on some “less worthy” models, before I dare tackle Dark Vengeance. Some of those models seem better suited to serve as the crowning achievement and center-pieces for a Warhammer 40K army, not their starting point.

Anyone else share my sentiment? Or am I daunted by Dark Vengeance for no good reason?

I’ve added my first-ever poll to this blog post for just this question, so please leave a vote below!

Z.