First I'll start with the simple fact that having an artist for a wife really has changed my perspective on a lot of painting and how I do it. Though I really haven't painted much of anything since we meet and got married, I'm looking at getting back to it very soon. (as in I got a new set of paints and brushes for Christmas and itching to get my new Dystopian Wars models going)

Quote Originally Posted by Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll View Post
These are the first models I've painted since I was a little kid, so any pointers are certainly appreciated! Purple is the army-tying theme, Gold is the elite-tying theme, Red is the Cryptek/Canoptek theme. I'll need to get a better backdrop for better pictures, there's no good light in my apartment, but here's what I got.
I guess my first question would be are you looking to get them to stand out a bit more on the battlefield or are you looking at improving your technique for painting overall and trying to work more towards "centerpiece" quality of work?
They look good, but the colors are flat.

If you're looking at the battlefield then I say go for a bit of inking/washing, followed up by drybrushing on the majority of the models. Then finish with some highlights on the edges of anything you want to pick out. That will give them a bit of depth and make them stand out a bit more. Highlights like that tend to look a bit weird up close but look much better once they are placed at "battlefield" distances. Those are pretty quick and easy techniques, and look good on the battlefield, but it is kind of a dead end path of painting technique development.

The much harder technique but will go a lot farther, is learning to blend the paints and colors as you go. It takes a bit more understanding of light and how it works but it will give more realistic looking finish. It also takes a lot more color theory and understanding color bases and how to tint them the way you want. You'll blend darker in recesses and blend lighter on edges. You'll never have a flat color and you'll almost always be blending one way or another. Also to lighten and darken purple you aren't just going to use white and black, you might use red or blue with your purple to change its hue.
I'm just starting to learn some of this and it takes a lot more color knowledge (something I didn't know I was completely lacking until marrying an artist) but it is the sort of techniques really good painters use.

If you go to a site like CoolMiniOrNot and check out what is there you can notice things like that. If you look at the really highly rated ones you'll never see a flat color and you'll never see a straight transition line between the base color and highlight. The transitions between the dark recesses of the model and the highlighted edges will be seamless, you can see that it changes but can't point to an exact point where it does. Looking at acrylic painting in general, will probably give you a lot more knowledge than looking at painting advice directed specifically for modelers.