How important are highlights and drilled barrels?

[The Shadowlord]

I ask the thread title for a few reasons:

 

1) I'm an abysmal painter. Being a minor perfectionist coupled with not having the necessary skill is annoying. If I spot something wrong with a mini i'm paiting, i'll try and make it better but I usually ruining another part in the process or finding hordes of other places that need work (sometimes only visible close up, but then also from far away once I know it's there).

 

2) I don't enjoy painting. It's tedious, I can play without the paint, it takes me far too much time to paint a single mini for skill reasons and the reason given in '1)'. At the end of it, I just don't get the sense of achievement. I look at it and think "It'll have to do..." no matter the quality. It could be GD standard (exceedingly unlikely) and I won't recognise it.

 

3) I don't like re-doing things. Ever. I'd rather leave a model on a shelf and never use it than have to strip the paint off, and i'm the same with other things. If I feel like a chapter of my story isn't write, i'll get so demoralised by having to re-write it, that it never looks good enough and I lose intrest. It's just who I am.

 

4) I don't see the point in barrel drilling. It's another thing I have to do along with mould lines and whatnot that doesn't help me in games, and I never notice them when i'm playing anyway. I don't get why it's seen as being important.

 

5) Skills like highlighting elude me. I can never grasp the finer skills. I can't mix paint, I don't know quantities when thinning, I can't highlight or build ups in colour. If it's not putting a brush into a pot and then onto the model, it's too complex, and similarly to drilling, I can't fathom why it's such a necessary talent.

 

I'm only asking because i'm getting pressured more and more to paint my minis. Games are being restricted to painted minis only, as are tournies, and the amount of people who'd rather miss a game than play against an unpainted army is growing. Is there any hope for me beyond shelling out for a professional paintjob?

[kaomera]

Painting and drilling barrels is important because it bothers some people. If a player isn't going to enjoy playing an unpainted army, then there's no reason they should have to play that particular game of 40k. It's their choice, and it limits the games they do get to play. If you simply can't enjoy painting, that's ok, but your gaming options are going to be limited by that choice. It works both ways...

 

What I can suggest (if you do want to give painting a go) is that you try simply to paint to a very basic tabletop standard. Limit the number of colors you use and either forgo any detail work at all or dip, wash, & drybrush (whichever you find works best for you). If you can, use three (or so) colors that you can use a single wash over - you can paint them a bit too bright and the wash will dull it down and create "instant highlights", plus the wash should help cover areas where you have gone slightly over a line.

 

I find that patience is a virtue. Trying to speedpaint can result in frustration. Instead do a little bit at a time (and keep notes on what you've done / what you're working on!) on a single squad, and then move on. For example, it's easier for me to avoid overpainting raised areas into the surrounding model by using several semi-drybrushed layers, letting each dry in turn - so therefore it wouldn't matter if the first (or second) layer didn't manage complete coverage of the area I'm trying to paint... Also, if you can manage 10 or 15 minutes of painting, several times a week, it will take forever to actually be done with your army, but you'll always have some progress to point out.

 

Normally you should get better at painting and find it faster and less arduous (if not even a bit fun) with practice.

[Obliterator]

Painting and drilling barrels is important because it bothers some people.

Agreed on the painting, not so on the drilling of the barrels. While it is expected in this hobby to at one point actually paint your army, drilling the bolters isn't necessary in my book. If all you're after is a basic paintjob (block in at least 3 colors, no highlights or shading), then there is no point in drilling the barrels. I'm always happy if I can play against a painted army, as playing plastic grey or primer black armies tend to get boring after a while ;) .

Painting your army gives your opponent the impression you actually care about your individual army, rather then jump on the latest über codex and rush all your minis together just to sell them again when the next codex hits the shelves. And a game with two painted armies makes it more fun, as it's easier to be sucked into the storyline of the battle. 40K has such a rich universe, it would be folly to ruin it all with the dreaded Grey Legion of Moldline chapter.

 

That said, there are tools to allow you to get a decent job very fast, even if you have two left hands. The collection of colored primers from The Army Painter is a blessing for people that want to save time basecoating, and their quickshade also looks very nice to add instant detail to a mini (although personally, I can't seem to apply it to a satisfying result). Just decide on a main color for your chapter, and pick out secondary and tertiary colors by hand (or use different colors on different parts, and gue them together afterwards).

 

Let's say you want to collect green marines with yellow helmets. Just glue together everything but the head and the bolter. Spray the bodies with green primer, and the helmets with the yellow one. Spray your bolters with the metallic primer and once dry, glue it all together. There's your 3 color minimum for tournaments. Dip in QuickShade to make some details pop, and then varnish with some matt varnish to get rid of the shine. Flock and you're done.

 

I recently stepped away from painting my Tyranids with too many highlights and blended colors as that took me too long, and I just blocked in the different areas of the model with the Citadel Foundation paints, and once those were dry I applied a wash. It takes less then an hour for each mini, and they look quite dashing on the tabletop (a painted example is on YouTube, just look for the Beasts of War channel, and search for 'Tyranid Warrior'). I'm confident those exact same techniques could be used for other armies as well.

 

If you do want some more depth in your painting, have a look at drybrushing your minis before you put the parts together. you'll find that you get your army painted and battle-ready in no time, and that it's more satisfying to play with painted minis.

[CarbonCopy]

Drilling out bolter barrels is not the underlying cause of your question. That is easily amended with a dot of black paint at the end instead.

 

I think this is your primary problem:

 

5) Skills like highlighting elude me. I can never grasp the finer skills. I can't mix paint, I don't know quantities when thinning, I can't highlight or build ups in colour. If it's not putting a brush into a pot and then onto the model, it's too complex, and similarly to drilling, I can't fathom why it's such a necessary talent.

 

You sound as stubborn as a few friends of mine. Let me make a guess and you tell me if I'm correct... (I'm trying to be constructive, not critical.)

 

It's not so much of a matter of the "finer" points of painting eluding you, it's more a question of "why should I bother?" But once you try, you are totally overwhelmed by the process because you are not getting the results you THINK you should get for what you think is an incredible amount of effort.

 

Your post sounds a LOT like my friend Aaron. He once asked me, while I was trying to teach him painting basic (This is a direct quote) "This is stupid! WHY paint on highlights? The model highlights itself."

 

That's both true and it's not at the same time, but that is an entirely separate debate.

 

There are several layers between people who are gamers and those who are painters. Gamers see each miniature as a game piece. Painters see each individual miniature as a potential work of art. Most of us fall somewhere in between, more or less.

 

You sound more like a gamer. You have a very hard time seeing why it is necessary to put so much work into a "game piece" that is probably just going to be removed as a casualty during play anyway. Why go to so much trouble, beyond what you see as already excessive, to meet someone else' arbitrary measure of excellence?

 

It's about illusion. It is about maintaining or expanding the imaginative scope of a fictional universe that is represented by these "toy soldiers" on a miniature battlefield. As such, many people want the expanded illusion of playing with and against a well painted army. The rest of us see them for what they really are; toy soldiers used in a frivolous game.

 

I am definitely more a painter than a gamer. I can literally count on one hand how many games I've played since the current edition of 40K was released. Why? I spent entirely WAY too much time on even the most basic ground troop. I'll not even bat an eye at spending 65 hours on painting a single model to the best of my ability. As such, there is absolutely no way in heck that I can field a painted army on the table past 1000 points (out of probably 5K of Marines and 7K of Eldar). But that is my focus. I paint. Very, very slowly.

 

That said, I'd play you. I have absolutely no right to criticize or comment on your painting ability uninvited for three reasons;

1) I have no right to complain about unpainted models when 95% of mine are unpainted, too.

2) Not everyone CAN grasp miniature painting techniques -- even basic ones.

3) Beauty to one person is absolutely repugnant to the next person. (I have an art/design background; I love Jackson Pollock but hate Picasso.)

 

The people you seem to be dealing with would very much like to play against a middle-level gaming standard. You sound like you could care less and just want to play.

 

Not everyone can be an award winner. But there are some rather quick, basic techniques that you could employ that will produce a passable gaming standard without driving you crazy. It's all about tricking the "must-be-godlike-paint-job-or-I-won't-play-you" idiots.

 

Instead of highlighting, try using a "dip" technique to shade your models. Contrary to the name, you don't actually "dip" the model in paint. This is a suggestion that should be rather quick, but definitely won't win any painting awards.

 

It goes something like this:

1) Paint the model's basic blocked-in areas. All the armor a solid shade, dot in the helmet visors, etc. Just try to be neat. Let it dry overnight.

2) Apply some "battle damage" by using some metallic paint and a fine brush. Just a couple dots here & there will do it. Anything too messy will be fixed in the next stage.

3) Use a heavy black or dark brown "Wash" over the entire model. It'll shade and make the models look "battle warn" enough to please the people mentioned above. If you can't or won't mix a "wash," use one of GW's pre-made wash paints.

 

Hope this helps.

[Vulcan He'Stan]

Nice reply Carbon and i am exactly the same kind of person you are. I have thirty tactical marines sitting in front of me now, having been painting them for over a year.

 

That said, id like to think they were all of a very high standard.

 

Shadowlord, it all depends on your pride IMHO. I have had many armies over the 17 years ive been playing. At first, the painting was horrible (and this includes conversions). Seriously, shocking. Its only over the last four years or so that i have taken an active interest in improving my painting skills and learning new techniques.

 

And in the below lies your problem:

 

I don't enjoy painting. It's tedious, I can play without the paint, it takes me far too much time to paint a single mini for skill reasons and the reason given in '1)'. At the end of it, I just don't get the sense of achievement. I look at it and think "It'll have to do..." no matter the quality. It could be GD standard (exceedingly unlikely) and I won't recognise it.

 

If you dont enjoy it, no matter how hard you try you will never actually see the point in putting any kind of effort into learning and 'teaching' yourself how to paint. I have many friends who are also 40k players and most (at least 6 including my twin brother) are of the same mindset as yourself. I have spent quite a few occasions giving them basic help and id like to think that they at least now knock out a decent level of painting standard.

 

I dont hold with the excuse that 'i cant paint'. I can understand not wanting to and also not having the motivation to but not that you cant. Even the most basic painter could at least put three colours on a miniature to make the model TT quality.

 

In terms of the advanced skills, there are literally hundreds of articles online. Dozens of YouTube videos and two books by GW itself on how to paint miniatures. If all else failed, you could even walk into your local GW store and ask for some advice / tips from the staff. They would probably give you a demo right then and there.

 

I would suggest looking at how and where you paint as well. Maybe your painting area is not good. Try to relax when you paint, put some music on, watch the TV even. DONT do mammoth sessions, 20-30 mins at a time is good. Another tip, and i learnt this whilst trying to play the guitar years ago. If possible have your miniatures on show, paints ready and a brush to hand so that when you walk past them (probably on your way to wasting hours of your life on COD or something) you will think "you know what, lets do ten minutes on these first!". A couple of those sessions will then get you in the swing of things and moving.

 

If you dont think that the above works take it from someone who knows. I had severe depression for some time, if i hadnt done the above, the minis would never have been painted.

 

Give yourself a deadline of maybe a week for 10 marines. Get them done. You will feel achievement, trust me.

 

The final point, if you dont feel like you want to model/paint the minis then consider your choice of army. Maybe the SM arent for you and you will find inspiration in another army like the Tau, Orks or Tyranids?

 

Try it and see, if you dont like it still after a few attempts then maybe its not for you after all :D

[Octavulg]

The above posters make good points. Painting models is an important aspect of playing 40K.

 

That said, highlights generally do not look like light reflecting off the raised points of a model. They look like highlights. And this is exacerbated when the model is under a light source clearly different from the one the highlights reflect. Highlights can look very good. But on many occasions they don't.

 

Barrel drilling is also ridiculous. Not least because if you drill a barrel wide enough for the hole to be plausible, the barrel will be incredibly fragile. Use a black dot instead.

 

Tabletop quality does not require things like highlighting or layering or anything of that nature. You can get remarkably good looking miniatures with basic colors, a few details and a wash. Stop worrying so much. B)

[LardO'Blood]

I think I might understand you. If you really want to make the models look nice, then you can either paint them more or less piece by piece. I do this on HQs or models I really want to look nice because all my brushes are like as thick as an earbud jack so painting details on an assembled miniature is impossible if you don't want to mark it somewhere else. You could also try getting smaller brushes, that can make details a lot easier.

If you really don't want to paint then find a way to do a quick and dirty (not literally dirty!) way to paint your models. I enjoy painting some models like HQs and plasma gun marines, but I HATE painting bolter, flamer, melta gun and heavy bolter marines. I can easily do a Dark Angels tactical squad in an hour with my painting technique:

Paint on black under coat

Dry brush a dark green on twice

Dry brush on a bright green once

Paint bolters silver, if I'm feeling fancy I'll search for a while to find a fine-ish brush to paint the bolters red and silver.

Done.

I also have a pretty nice way to get robes done:

Paint on my beige/white color, fully covering the models robes or cloth, may take two or three layers.

Squeeze brown poster paint against my pallete and completely cover my brush in it. Run over the robes in the brown poster paint.

Wait 5 minutes or use a hair dryer to get all the poster paint halfway dry, use a wet brush or a wet finger to wipe off the poster paint.

GW sculpts their robes just well enough that the paint will stick in the crevices. Yes its basically a wash but I'm to cheap to buy one.

Experiment, experiment, experiment! Seriously, the more the try the more painting will grow on you and you'll come to want to buy new models just to paint, if not play.

[The Shadowlord]

Thanks for the multiple replies (i'll get around to replying seperately at some point). I'll just pick out a few comments to reply to straight away:

 

The final point, if you dont feel like you want to model/paint the minis then consider your choice of army. Maybe the SM arent for you and you will find inspiration in another army like the Tau, Orks or Tyranids?

 

You're right, SM aren't for me. I gave up painting my Chaos marines years ago because I couldn't get close to the demo figure I was helped with (everywhere I painted buggered another section just enough that is was slightly noticeable, usually a single bristle made a line of metallic or clashing paint and it kept appearing the corner of my eye, but fixing it meant I ruined another bit with another bristle or a violent hand-twitch).

 

My Tau are having the same problem (as are my fantasy armies, Lizards and WoC). Despite this, I like these armies, I don't want to dump them because I can't paint them. The only armies I find fun, it seems, are detailed ones which don't lend themselves well to painting.

 

Give yourself a deadline of maybe a week for 10 marines

 

I tried the deadline thing for 2 previous tournaments I wanted to attend (1 40k, 1 Fantasy) and once after then to see if I could do it after missing the tournaments. It just doesn't get me motivated. I just put it off till the day of the tournament, remember it, shrug and go and do something else. If i'd be shot unless I did it, sure, i'd do it then, but I won't be, so it's not a huge deal to me.

[EmbattledSoul]

tyranids? prime, base, and dip.

[The Shadowlord]

Tyranids don't interest me. I've tried them before and never got into them, and now the new codex has made my old set-ups either illegal or inneffective, i'm doubly unwilling to try them again. Orks are the same, although i've never really wanted to use them. Besides marine armies and Tau, the only armies i've considered have been the Eldars or Necrons. DEldar is being started by everyone I know (which is a large turn off), Necrons need an update before I can play anything that doesn't have a Monolith or 5 and/or a C'tan in it, and the only Eldar set-ups I like are Dark Reaper heavy (points sink) or Wraith heavy (point and cash sink; £8.50 for a single wraithguard...), neither of which are practical.

[Rogue Trader Voril]

I can share a friend's experience in the same situation. He hated painting, plus with doing construction jobs most of his life he didn't have the dexterity left to actually get the fine detail. He did a very simple marine color scheme... something like Iron Snakes. He spray painted them all silver, and then bribed me with a Land Raider to paint the eyes, shoulder pad trim, and one knee pad red. White shoulder pad, and a chapter decal later and done. Not award winning, but better than the gloppy paint slop I was sure was going to be the end result.

 

There has got to be a way to get a similar simple, but good result for other armies as well.

[Vulcan He'Stan]

If i'd be shot unless I did it, sure, i'd do it then, but I won't be, so it's not a huge deal to me.

 

Clearly what you need is a personal painting commisar. :confused:

[Replica]

If all youre doing with them is gaming then id say barrel drilling and highlighting are unimportant. However there are ways to 'cut corners', such as dry-brushing highlights on and painting the ends of the barrels black. These things are quick, and do not require a high skill level to achieve. Painted armies look much better than the old 'march of the grays'

[agroszkiewicz]

If you don't enjoy doing it, then its not important. If you are painting large amounts of mini's to get them on the game table ASAP then only do enough to give some contrast of color. If you can tell color differentiation at 24 inches it will look fine in a large formation on the gaming table.

[Todosi]

Here is the solution to your problem:

 

paintedfigs.com

[ShinyRhino]

Your best bet is to focus on what you do enjoy about the game, while making the minimum strides toward painted as possible.

Take your Marines, and paint them a single base color. Something simple that you can get in a spray can is great for a starting point. Army painter makes a wide variety of spray colors that work just fine without dips and such. If you really want to avoid having to highlight, choose a metallic color. Silver, gold, bronze, etc. Try not to use a high-gloss enamel, though. No other paint will stick to that.

Once your base color is down, paint the pads a solid color. Anything, really.

After the pads are done, pick one other large detail on the model, and paint that. Could be gun casings, a kneepad, backpack exhaust vents, etc.

 

Once these three steps are done, you've achieved the magical "three color standard." You've applied three non-primer colors to your models, which is all most tournaments require. You won't win any painting awards, but you'll be free to play the game without being harassed about fielding the "Sea of Grey."

 

For a lot of us painters, it's enough to see SOME color across the board from us. I know it is for me. I'd rather see a motley collection of three-color models across from me, instead of a bunch of half-built, unpainted models. Everyone has their own skills in this hobby. Some are great sculptors, some painters, and others brilliant tacticians. I can't fight my way out of a wet paper sack, but I can paint.

 

Once your three-color scheme is done, play to your heart's content. If anyone gives you a hassle about your paint work, point out that you're not a great painter, but have made the honest effort to get color on the table.

[Tanhausen]

That is one SOLID advice :lol: It even got ME wound up to give my DW another push :D