[mozznstein]

First of all, thanks for the input guys, makes it easier to keep going, I think you will be pleased with the results. More pictures to come in the next few days.

@ Archlord101: I primed her in black but I tried something different for the first flesh tone. When I started painting I didn't know a whole lot about color. To shade I would just add black to base coat, highlight once with the original color and add another highlight with white added. This works somewhat, but all your models end up looking a bit grey. A technique I adopted for the psyker model, and all my models since then is to transition from one darker color to a lighter color.

All that to say, the base color for that model was a deep sunburned tan. Really ruddy and dark. I was trying to get some different shades of skin in my army without too much effort (yup I even have a black guardsman). I then started mixing the leftover ruddy tan with a lighter flesh tone and water and slowly layered on the highlights to get the end result.

Colors have to be somewhat exaggerated to stand out on a gaming table so particularly when I do flesh colors I try to start out with something a tad outlandish, like a sickly green tan or even a purple brown mix. Strictly speaking it isn't realistic but the variety it gives the figures gives the impression of realism which is more important. I don't want my guard to look like clones, one of the ways I can mix things up is in flesh tone. Though to be fair not all my guys are going to get such special treatment :-/

@Sister Bluebird: Actually that was one of my first conversions before I knew much of the fluff so I was just trying to come up with a sniper rifle. However, I usually played him as a vet with a normal lasgun because I haven't had much luck with sniper rifles.

@ Andusciassus: You hit on the thing I think is most important to what I am trying to do. All the little conversions are where an army gets a lot of its character. Real humans have more traits in common than traits that distinguish them. If I can come up with one little difference on each model I think people will get an impression of individuals forming the ranks and not just little bits of plastic or metal. For me, again, the goal is the impression of realism.

Just for kicks, I've attached a picture of one of my early practice models. This one represents a change in how I paint. Until The Piper I would pain a model and then give it a wash, but after perusing CMON and a couple tutorials I tried to progressively shade the model with layers of paint thinned with water. I did all my shading by adding white to the base color. Notice how that makes this model's colors seem very pastel or foggy. More pics here.