speed up painting process

[jbaeza94]

So I was wondering if you guys had any tips to speed up the painting of infantry. I'm a slow painter at about 2 hours per non character/vehicle mini, anything you guys do to speed this up?

[Charlo]

Batch paint!

[jbaeza94]

May I be inducted into the inner circle known as batch paint, brother?

[Teetengee]

Paint one colour at a time across all the members in a squad (or 5 or whatever number works best for you). That is batch painting in a nutshell.

[Grotsmasha]

For batch painting 5- 10 models is a good number. By batch painting by the time you get to the 5th/10th model the 1st is dry and you start your next colour, it eliminates your waiting for paint to dry time.

 

Cheers,

Jono

[Liberame]

An example of batch painting. 

 

Step 1: Paint the Bone

 

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y210/Yongshigi/IMAG0495.jpg

 

Step 2: Pain the green, silver, red

 

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y210/Yongshigi/IMAG0525.jpg

 

Step 3: ????

 

Step 4: Profit !!

 

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y210/Yongshigi/IMAG0563.jpg

[jbaeza94]

Wow that simple? Thanks a lot guys!beautiful army Liberame, what color did you use for the bone?

[Liberame]

Earth khaki and bone from Vallejo ...I think

[SnakeChisler]

Zandri dust from GW, a wash that's reddy brown though I thin it there's a GW tutorial on YouTube

[shabbadoo]

An example of batch painting.

Step 1: Paint the Bone

Step 2: Pain the green, silver, red

Step 3: ????

Step 4: Profit !!

Hey! that's just how the Underpants Gnomes paint their armies! They always leave out Step 3, so there is a bit of mystery about the process, but the final results are fantastic!

[jbaeza94]

This community is the best. Love the south park reference

[FarFromSam]

After you get 3 color tabletop minimum finished tell yourself it's good enough, and if anyone comments on them say they're the first models you ever tried painting.

[Brother Moridius]

In all honesty I think 2 hours per mini is pretty fast already, I'm in the 8-10 hours per and my little green men are decent table top quality, but I think I just enjoy huffing the fumes haha. Consider yourself lucky!

One other thing that can speed up painting is drybrushing, sometimes its much easier and you get 90% of what you'd get after an hour with a fine detail brush in a couple of minutes.

[jbaeza94]

Brother moridius, wow 8 to 10 hours? That's for the rank and file marines right? Wow I thought I had it rough. I know all my sgt, chatacters, and veterans take from 5-7 hours depending on the complexity and detail of the marine. I tried batch painting a dev squad last night, I spent about 4 hours, no special effects on them like highlights, but I'm pretty satisfied with the outcome.

[Teetengee]

Yeah, batch painting I find works best when not doing highlighting, as highlighting tends to dry pretty quick anyway. (depending on methodology of course)

[Ironheaded]

I really try to primer my models in the color of their basecoat.   Since i'm airbrushing, and using white/grey/black Vallejo primers, I can mix in proper hues and get on with the job.   So my first stage of "batch painting" is the primer+base coat.   

 

I might come in and dust in some highlights ( 45 degree angle of color that's a medium-highlight of base coat.)  If the figure is a mix of armor and fabrics, I skip this step.

 

Usually after this, I do a wash

 

Then it's all the info from above.

[Ironheaded]

Zandri dust from GW, a wash that's reddy brown though I thin it there's a GW tutorial on YouTube

 

I've been doing ink washes for years, and not by buying pre-made washes.   It's just calligraphy inks + future floor wax (or liquid dish detergent) and distilled water.    I like using the inks cause they'll be transparent all the time.

 

In contrast, I did like using P3 washes, but if one doesnt mix them up enough, results are blaaaaaah.  And it has some opacity still in it.

[Liberame]

Because I paint such large volumes, my method is able to get a marine ready in 2-3 hours. I think I average about 1-2k pts painted a month for the last 3 years. ETL excluded. That first etl I was in I painted 10,000 pts in 3 months

[Knight Angels]

for the space marines:

1) find out which colour does use the most area

2) Do it like this, for example steel-colour:

a) basecolour (with leadbelcher)

b ) wash (with nuln oil)

c) drybrush brither colour (with ironbraker) on large areas, but dont paint in to the edges and little recesses (dont know if this is the correct word in english). You have to drybrush

d) drybrush even brither colour (with runfangsteel) on the edges. Use only little colour

3) Now that is done the most area on the modell start paintig the details:

a) bascoat

b ) wash

c) highlight 1

d) highlight 2 (optional)

(note) the red & black parts need one more highlight

[Knight Angels]

here is another example of the method described above. only thing different is the black which i washed in the end and not after basecoating.

I takes little time an looks great.

 

[Darth Ghandi]

Just started painting DW after years of absence from the hobby.

I am extremely lazy so i have opted for basing my DW white and then just washing them with seraphim sepia and a few highlights. 

[Roland]

For Greenwing I prime with Angel Green spray. Then I hit the chest eagles and robes with Skeleton Bone, followed by Gunmetal on all the metal bits. Boom three colors, and it's enough to make em pop on the table.

Past that I do 10 at a time with any other colors (Red bolted casings, any leather, etc)

Deathwing and Ravenwing are similar, the colors just change (Skelton bone spray, Angel green, gunmetal for DW;and Black, gunmetal, white for RW).

[Tygwyn]

I've got a whole load of black primed minis and think a can or two of Angel Green might be the only way to go, how close a match is it?

[Malakai]

Here's the trick to batch painting. Do it around 5 models per but most importantly try and keep it as neat as possible and always finish out the color you're currently working on. Clean up takes me the longest and is generally the most frustrating as I have to switch back and forth between colors. I may even start using a wet palette soon to keep my paint from drying. Also I'm looking into drying retarders as most of my touch up work is done with a small brush and a small amount of paint on it.

 

And yeah 2 hours per mini is pretty good. Average guy for me runs 5-8 hrs with more on character models. That time has been cut considerably as I have started working with an airbrush for my basecoats but still 2 hrs is nothing to sneeze at.

[Ironheaded]

Here's the trick to batch painting. Do it around 5 models per but most importantly try and keep it as neat as possible and always finish out the color you're currently working on. Clean up takes me the longest and is generally the most frustrating as I have to switch back and forth between colors. I may even start using a wet palette soon to keep my paint from drying. Also I'm looking into drying retarders as most of my touch up work is done with a small brush and a small amount of paint on it.

 

 

I'd say for you.. go with wet palette and not retarders.   Retarding agents for tricks like wet-blending, special effects or airbrush work.  For sheer grunt-work of mass model painting troops.. wet-palette is a win.