Fixing My Worst Painted Warhammer Army

[@Pud26]

Alternative title: Taking your finished army to the next level, has a broader appeal I think, this is super informative thank you!

[@DominionDee]

This

[@ThomasGallinari]

and less demoralising for people who can't even remotely paint as good as this

[@skrosscarson6092]

Great recommendation. I agree with this.

[@20stardust]

Not clickbait enough for the algorithm.

[@ladieh8898]

Or .... he can keep the title & ppl could choose not to internalize everything and make it about themselves lol

[@Dadsidehobbies]

Sees thumbnail. Immediately remembers Ninjon not listening to Vincy V in opening of video. There's a lesson in there somewhere 🤔 🤫

[@RobbieB2606]

Original job was by no means bad (better than I can do), but your updated army looks massively better. Awesome army

[@KireektheAndroid]

That original Night Lords army painting video inspired me more than any other project I've seen and helped me finally finish several of my own armies, after many years of struggle to find and stay motivated.

[@tomsteer3485]

I watched the first video on this army several times and honestly thought it looked okay, but for the extra steps it does look waaay better. Think I am going to be taking a similar approach with my FEC army that I am currently in the process of building. Get it all done and get pay some games with it, then come back later to add to the paint level

[@jc7997aj]

Remember your never really finished painting a mini.

[@user-bm3ts2ql6s]

When his "worst" is 10000 times better then my best... :(

[@egon446]

I feel ya bro :D

[@jc7997aj]

And if it wasn’t would you even be here watching ? Don’t compare yourself to others compare to the last thing you painted. Also if you’re not putting in the work stop complaining.

[@jelstone20]

@@jc7997aj Who are you to tell people what they can and can't say?

[@ethan6322]

Nuln oil

[@loupiscanis9449]

The grass is all way's greener on the other side of the fence , 😉 🐺LC .

[@MistahJsArcade]

so a Time Capsule army, throw a complete paint job on the whole army, to the level of skill and patience you have for it at the time, and once a year you upgrade the paint job on all but one squad. by the end, you will have an entire timeline of the evolution of the army.

[@johnyonkers3974]

I've inadvertently done something similar...I started painting miniatures for a boardgame (Rivet Wars) several years ago. At the time, I was pleased with the results. A few years later I was hosting a painting lesson for my nieces and I dragged one of the unpainted minis out and quickly did it up. The difference was astounding.

[@Wijkert]

6:20 not to mention the trigger control practice you do here, will come in handy during future projects!

[@piratepimm]

This looks genuinely better. Would love to see a similar video for the Ossiarch Bonereapers, that army painting video remains one of my favorites of yours

[@SamBrownBaudot]

This is an important message for a lot of minis painters: You can always come back to your old armies and add detail, interest, smooth the transitions. Don' tget hung up on every single miniature being a prize-entry contestant. Do as much as you enjoy, then on to the next thing. I'm a little bugged you criticized this army as "your worst". Ok, so maybe it is, relative to you, your worst. But you're a prize-winning professional painter. Your worst is better than what most new painters could aspire to hit anytime soon, especially for a full playable army worth of figs. It's like the fitness model at the gym pointing out the one tiny patch of fat they still has left; it makes the normal folks at the start of their journey think the goalposts are impossibly far away, and demotivates them to even start. I'm with those who'd love to see this titled something that puts the emphasis on that it's leveling up your own work, not dogging on work that most folks still can't match.

[@modelmanjohn]

One man's screw up is another man's golden demon.

[@thegibb]

There's nothing wrong with the Night Lords books.

[@HansBohr]

2 videos after this army was done, you doubted yourself and felt like an imposter. But you had the maturity to go through, the humility to go back to your army and the courage to bring those model up to a better standard. This is just beautiful and an example to follow.

[@parkerreed8565]

Night Lords Omnibus is incredible! ADB is a genius. Loving you going back to this army, was very impressed that you got all of them done so fast in that last video, but I understand looking back that it was a little rushed lol

[@adamschorsch2358]

Really, REALLY glad to see you revisit this army. As I watched the original you had the blues and most of the other stuff done and I thought, "it's not very vibrant but it works for a speed-painted army" then you hit it all with the oil washes and lost what vibrancy you had. Good to see a skilled painter can look at something they did and acknowledge they weren't happy with it, I'm in the process of repainting about 9,000pts of Tau for precisely the same reasons!

[@NINETAILEDF0X]

Why would you not be proud of having read the books? They’re a great read and nerd shame is very early 2000’s - be proud of your interests!!

[@max-w.krause6155]

These books may not be high literature but were really suspense, building up the absolutely not-heroes to somehow (very! Though psychopathic) likable characters. Probably among the best black library books for me.

[@_marduk]

I THINK IT LOOKED GREAT! They're toy soldiers- just a hobby! But, I really appreciate how you built on your previous work. It's inspiring! You're an amazing painter. Thank you for all your work & videos.

[@benjaminjane93]

This is so funny because I just very VERY recently began a similar project to repaint my chaos army. AND my chaos boys are also heavily Night Lord inspired! My personal legion are the Rime Fiends (subject to change), they are a contingency of Night Lords that got stranded on an icy hellscape of a planet for centuries before found by a derelict ship piloted by worshippers of Khorne. The Night Lords took it as Khorne choosing them and thusly they have married their Night Lord shock tactics the ferocity of the Khornite world eaters. Basically allows me to play the majority of the army both as World Eaters and CSM. I also use a lot of old WH Fantasy bits like furs and Chaos Warrior helmets in order to give them this Old World Chosen look and feel to them.

[@joshuabrowncrow]

I’m all about this. After time I have more patience and skill, so it’s great to go back to already painted miniatures and level them up. I’ve had some results that really surprise myself without a lot of work. Great video. Glad you got your army to a place you feel better about. Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!!!

[@11twiztidjuggalo]

Dude the why u put things into a realistic perspective is so inspiring and is so good for this community to keep us painting

[@albinofreak620]

I did a similar approach to your Night Lords for my Black Templars. This makes me want to revisit that army now that I have a couple of years of consistent painting under my belt, instead of being a rank amateur.

[@UriskOfTheFae]

The reminder that I can always come back to models later when I feel like it or have improved is invaluable as a new painter. I don't have to burn myself out on my third model trying to get him perfect just because he's a Be'lakor proxy XD These Night Lords look super awesome! Definitely tempted to pick up a couple of the particularly monstrous models you worked on~

[@JoeTheGons]

I rarely, if ever, see someone go back to upgrade their models. Props to you and your ability to redo your own work to make it "better". I say better in quotes because your worst is my dream :)

[@adamgriffiths1703]

Thanks Jon, I’m really just learning to paint now. I started off with a Sons of Horus army and I’m happy with how they are generally turning out but I am improving and love the idea of revisiting them over time and subtly improving them as I get better. Thanks for another great video.

[@furiyen4890]

Your original Night Lords video was an inspiration, the reason I subscribed and why I continue to watch your videos!

[@parkerbutynski500]

Nothing wrong with reading the Night Lords books! They were great!

[@Acrylicviking]

I'm happy you were able to pick this army up for more painting! I've done variants of your techniques here on some of my first Night Lords to upgrade them. I also had near-black marines to begin with!

[@optimusWII]

I love how you used so many different paint brands and ranges in this video and mentioned what each one was good (or bad) for.

[@Rhaenday]

This was a fun watch as I'm currently doing touch-ups to my army as I re-base it for TOW. I've come a long way since my first models and seeing their previous state as "base coated" I can make some great improvements to what previously was a lot of time spent on the models with relative ease and quickness today. I'm not among those who see older paint job as some sacred proof of previous (lack of) skill or history - I'm just all the more happy my army looks better than ever!

[@4Xscalper]

Good stuff man. I have a box of d&d models to test and mock up color schemes with a tweaked list before painting the more expensive ones. Thanks for your insights.

[@lukesevern3923]

I'm currently doing this with my Tyranids. The problem is I had completed over 300 minis the first time, so the finishing touch stage at my current skill level will take time. Great vid Jon

[@nathanielsmith6262]

So I've been listening to all the TUP episodes again and just yesterday I listened to the one about repainting your armies. Really awesome knowing your much happier with your awesome army!

[@Vorpal_Wit]

Really enjoyed this one, Jon. I think this is really one of your greater strengths - that fearless dive into previous/older work. Well done.

[@aaronk-b4676]

This is one of the best miniature painting videos I’ve watched, and I’ve watched a lot. I enjoyed the first video about this army. What a killer sequel 👍👍

[@MrSJPowell]

I love how as you're describing your steps and adding commentary about your paints, I'm thinking about what little things I'd do differently. For the edge highlighting on the blue, I'd probably have reached for Golden SoFlat's Medium Phthalo Blue. For the lightning bolt I immediately thought "I'd thin that down with white ink to make it flow better" On the other hand, I usually stop before I reach for my metal color chrome, and just stay happy with metal color silver. Might have to break that stuff out soon for some extra shine. Excellent upgrade to your army. Looks excellent.

[@kellykuciemba6789]

Looks cooler now! Of course, having a completely painted army always looks pretty good. Coming back to create more contrast makes sense.

[@MarchHare55]

This is super helpful. Still nowhere near having my craft space set up, but I've been looking at my old Skaven army (from 30+ years ago) and wondering if they're a loss. This gives me hope. 😉

[@Maccrack2]

Love videos like this, upgrades of old projects. Such a cool video !!

[@Vimes839]

Great video, you're totally right about doing a few upgrade steps each year as you improve as a painter. Might also be cool to leave one model un-updated each year (or just photographed the same way), to get a real grasp of your progress.

[@amagrude]

I’m doing exactly this. Washed about 20 soldiers and nuked contrast. Shelved the pile and am spending the next year getting better. (I’m completely new to painting.) They aren’t going anywhere and I’m getting better every time I pick up a brush.

[@nocturnowl_0100]

Great video and inspiring to see you demonstrate that you can still improve an old paint job without starting over

[@sarcastrophe9090]

“Oh no I read a great piece of writing to enjoy in my spare time. But I’m not proud of it.” Actually get over yourself. Great job on the repaint though 👍

[@Wijkert]

7:50 a heavy body paint like the Scale Artist range are indeed no great for edge highlighting. I you had thinned it with a ink of roughly the same color, you would have gotten a mixture that would have worked I think. I know, not an ideal solution for army painting, but maybe something you can try in the future.

[@Ben18181820]

Super cool to see you come back and make the army look even better. I love your large army vids.

[@Brandedwolf]

Really nice upgrades to the army. Always time for more lists :D Also 100% agree on spedpaint golds, they're so nice to work with :D

[@Odinkarr]

So freaking cool! I love seeing really fantastic artists admit that they could have done better and then going and correcting projects. Thanks for being real dude, keep up the awesome content!!

[@joemagill4041]

I think the real take home from this video isn' t so much coming back to an army an redoing it because its 'bad' but that re-visiting a paint job and putting a fairly small amount of effort can push you from okay to something very impressive. Sometimes we say it takes a little effort to get most of the way and that's fine, but sometimes re-visiting something and addding just a small amount of effort can make a huge difference.

[@bruf77]

I love this type of video! This can help anyone that wants to grow and refine their painting skills. I’ve been painting over my varnished models for years but hear people talking about stripping old models. Personally I don’t care for base coating and like to get to the fine detail parts.

[@Hot_Dice]

Daaaamn Jon. You painting them pure 100% all natural lightning bolts?

[@KingofCanada22]

I watched your video where you painted this army just last night while building my soulblight for AoS, now watching this one where you take up again. It just makes me think of (to use GW terms) the first video got this army battle ready, good enough for the table top and that's about it. Then you come back and take it to a parade ready standard. Even with this part taking 4 days, and the week previously used it's still less than 2 weeks for a fully painted 2k army, which is great time for the quality you've achieved

[@ancientlights]

Big Fan since Covid began, I did saw the original video when it came out (thought it was for a client and felt bad for them) and was very puzzled by the over-the-top application of the red osl, it was very uncharacteristically of you. They now look significantly better! Love it! look forward to future videos of yours!

[@MarketResearchReading114]

I find good enough to be a great inspiration for "better when I'm ready"... you will have that push to go back, and you will have a lot of time down doing rough stuff you can build off of.

[@Biggles369]

I have the same problem with some of my armies in that they are “weathered” for display and so look dismal at table top. This is a great example of how to bring back the contrast that is needed. AP gold! 😊

[@jessecapra2350]

Tbh I thought the army looked fine. The one thing where I went "what the hell are you doing?!" Was the airbrushing on the eyes it just added soooo much red.

[@Max80well80]

Love the final result! What a huge improvement. When looking back across all your old models, what is the most common step that you would take to upgrade them now?

[@dracorotor]

I found that either incompletely airbrush base-coating in gold over black or poorly drybrushing gold over black as my first step gives my night lords a grimy gold look to their trim without having to go in and manually pick it all out. It looks stained and scuffed without having to spend more than 5-10 minutes per unit, if not less. The tradeoff is hand-painting the panels, but that seems to go faster because they're all basins by design, so I don't have as much risk of overpainting if I have too much paint on the brush when I first touch plastic.

[@paulbenbrook5542]

"Pure, uncut lightning bolts. Unadulterated Peruvian marching power."

[@benjaminjack867]

Looks fantastic, anda cool idea to upgrade our old armies

[@ReynardCalcifius]

Did this recently with my Death Guard, originally just basecoated and oil washed, but wanted to go back recently and add in vibrancy and highlights and they look so much better!

[@thorikstoneshield3716]

In the forum I attend, we were just talking about this, can we make our old minis better, without strip them? And watching your work I can say yes, thank you Jon

[@maverickman6486]

Had a friend who would put minimal work on an army just to get it to the table. He would then update/add detail to the army if he was still excited about it and still playing it over time. Kinda like what you did hear.

[@TheTkhhwilliams]

This was really awesome. I liked the look before, but now DAMN! Those are sharp

[@sirbobulous]

This is cool. 'Model Rescues' like this are way cooler than 'model rescues' that are strip+repaint.

[@Ultramarine40]

Awesome video Jon, those nightlords now look fantastic 🤩

[@omfgblondie]

I would be interested in seeing how you would improve that OBR army you made years ago, in the weekend collab with Scott.

[@rccarguy3696]

That was a brilliant upgrade! And so much better than repainting everything!

[@thecraftmasque]

i update the paintjob on my skeleton warriors every decade or so... then put it back into storage for another decade or so because after 30 years the only thing i like about it is (and always has been) the one skeleton with a static grass mohawk.

[@tokoloshgolem]

Great episode, thank you. You’re an extremely good painter and very entertaining.

[@kingkreaghan]

I don't have any armies at all due to never having played Warhammer. I play Dungeons and Dragons pretty religiously. I love painting characters. I've thought about getting a bunch of guards to paint as city guard for my capital. This video made me want to do it even more. Army looks great!

[@patticusfinch139]

I’m definitely going to incorporate your old Night Lords scheme for my Carcharodons. Which are allegedly Night Lords successors anyway.

[@_stork_]

grimdark 101: Yes it is ok to use bright colours! yes contrast makes it look better! No bathing the model in only browns and more browns doesn't look good or "grimdark" 0:53 really shows how the average "grimdark" army actually looks outside of the 7000 lightbulb, 2k (usd) macro lens 16:21 looks so much better, army saved :)

[@lat1n0_h0t]

"And I use dried blood.." (Oh no, not again) "...by the Army painter." (Phew 😅) This is a sweet video, love the revision work you did to tune up the army you didn't like. It looks 100% better. Great video as always. (I'd like to thank Scott and Jay from EoB bc with them doing the 40k league. That idea probably got Jon to look at his nightlords again. Thanks guys lolol)

[@chuppath1ngy]

By your youtube plaque. On the left, second shelf when you first reveal the night lords in the cabinet. Please tell me those aren't magic cards stacked upright? I have so much anxiety from even just my commander deck falling off a table, let alone those stacks crashing to the floor! Hahaha Another great video, their revamp looks awesome!!

[@chicagohobbyhero]

Always nice when we admit things we want to be better. Love that you didn't strip anything, just built from where it is to where you want it to be.

[@MushieNino]

This is a great video, seeing someone try something and just do okay is pretty informative as a learning painter. Thanks for sharing your touch ups.

[@nicholassawyer6023]

I'm excited for the gunpla primer video.

[@rybastudio.artwork]

As the comission painter which focus on armies... Yep, painting armies is different school of painting. I paint like 4-5 armies per year, and it took me 2 years to undarstand what kind of techniques, effects etc., are best on the table.

[@KurtMifsudBonnici]

Calling that your WORST painted army just destroyed my confidence LOL. My painting is nowhere close that level.

[@Dark_Iron_miniatures]

This was a fun video ,really liked the overall point we don’t need to start over just improve

[@Invictus_MCMLXXIX]

I currently have two test models and I'm still not satisfied! Two more will follow and I'm glad I didn't paint any more minis straight away. 😅

[@BitzboxTV]

Just adding the light blue was enough to really bump up this army. Contrast makes such a difference

[@jessdd6040]

Looking good! those Helldrakes were looking particularly rough lol

[@DeathofaNote]

What a GREAT video!! Agree the red OSL was overkill on your original paint job (but over all it still looked great). The difference afterwards is honestly amazing.

[@florianschaffer8120]

man, they look so sick. Csm were my first army and this inspires me to give them a brush up

[@Haruki2009]

I think a wordbearers paint guide would be awesome. 📖 🤲 More specifically in your grimdark vibrant style.

[@Clear-As-Mudd]

That army looks so good!

[@Glasmn45]

Wow. Massive transformation sir. Bravo!

[@ktongue]

Love this view. Encourages me to pick up painting again. Did you ever paint the Night Lords kill team that inspired this video?

[@isisnmagic1812]

Great video loads of tips for my current project a black legion kill team, thanks for the help in advance.

[@matthewjecelin8358]

I did a similar scheme with my night lords and I found out about streaking grime from that video and I use it every time I do a grimdark or dirty scheme and it's easily one of the best purchases I ever made

[@leforestierdamien877]

i first though that you were exagerating when you said it was a bad paint job, but after seeing the result, i have to say you were right. What i mean is that the 1st paint job was good but, to exagerate, you kindf of had a black legion army from afar, with the original painting. Now anyone that dosen't recognize them as night lord is either blind, or dosen't know 40k universe. the new paintjob is terrific, the right detail pope and make your army look so nice.

[@bakamaru3867]

Every Friday that starts with a Ninjon video, is good Friday.

[@duolik1271]

I hear the burn. I am tired of upgrading the paint job in my sisters. It was from a trade.

[@MrZenL337]

Quick note on the Scale Artist paint, I was hoping you’d try it out, but don’t think this is the best way to use it (I find they are fairly transparent once thinned) I’ve had the most success using it to wet blend right on the model like craftworldstudios does. Longer drying times and always find a way to dry flat even when going in with thicker amounts

[@matejkuselj5881]

Before and after looks amazing :)

[@yaelagulto9746]

"Blood is like butter, it makes everything better"

[@mastafoo886]

its always so encouraging to see an army that is better than what i can do being called bad.

[@colclark87]

I was just writing glow-up ideas for my minis! Perfect timing!

[@edwardwhite1652]

Needed to hear this. I know i need to go back to my old minis now that i'm better. I just.... don't.

[@bedeut_sam]

I see the heldrake and re-airbrushing over the trim and scream a little inside 😂 I still have PTSD from mine - really like the idea of this video since I'm at this stage myself, thanks!