Moral Support and assembly line painting tips needed

[TrexPushups]

I have a tournament on Nov 11th for which I need 59 models painted as Novamarines.

 

I have 5 done and some are still on the sprue.

 

I need some encouragement and tips on making an assembly line work.

[Captain Idaho]

I find don't have too many models to do at a time for myself. I need to see results to keep motivated, so I do them in batches of like 4-5.

 

59 models is a tall order. Hope someone has solid information for you.

 

I trust we'll get a tournament report?

[TrexPushups]

Sure thing.

 

I'm taking mostly primaris marines in a battalion along with 3 units of scouts 2 attack bikes with heavy bolters, 2 venerable dreads with lascannons and missiles and 5 devastators with 3 different heavy weapons. (Weird yes but it gets me another lascannon, and access to flakk missile and a 3rd target for hellfire shells.

 

So I imagine it will interest people to see how it does.

Edited October 22, 2017 by TrexPushups

[Stoic Raptor]

It's rough, but if you absolutely have to have them all ready by that deadline, prime and basecoat them first.  Then apply the base colors by squad. Then go back, if you have time, and do details.

Normally I'd recommend doing a squad at a time, start to finish, but it's always been my experience that one never gets around to the last units in time.

[Brother Lunkhead]

I have masses of Astartes to build and paint, so my heart goes out to you. I can only tell you what works for me. I process in large batches. Prep about 1/3rd of your troops and at least one of your larger models for base coating. Base coating can be done fairly quickly. Once base coated go do something else while they completely dry. Processing so many models at once kind of spends me, so I usually don't start detailing until the next day. I detail one layer per squad at a time, then let dry. Usually by the time you finish the last one, the first squad is dry and ready for the next layer.

 

When you get to the point of thinking " painting space marine squads is soooo boring", work on one of your larger models. I find that this helps break up the monotony(sp?).

 

Don't psych yourself out. You can do this. Good luck. Hope this helps 

[TrexPushups]

I have masses of Astartes to build and paint, so my heart goes out to you. I can only tell you what works for me. I process in large batches. Prep about 1/3rd of your troops and at least one of your larger models for base coating. Base coating can be done fairly quickly. Once base coated go do something else while they completely dry. Processing so many models at once kind of spends me, so I usually don't start detailing until the next day. I detail one layer per squad at a time, then let dry. Usually by the time you finish the last one, the first squad is dry and ready for the next layer.

 

When you get to the point of thinking " painting space marine squads is soooo boring", work on one of your larger models. I find that this helps break up the monotony(sp?).

 

Don't psych yourself out. You can do this. Good luck. Hope this helps:tu:

 

All I can say is thank the emperor I chose a quartered color scheme that uses white and dark blue.

 

Wouldn't want to make it hard on myself...

[Kinstryfe]

The white is the tricky part. How are you priming? If I were attempting it, I'd very likely prime white then quickly brush the blue base on, then metal for the weapons. I'd mix up a batch of fairly dilute black (greyish) ink wash and literally dip the models and shake em off. Let it dry, then touch up the white and highlight the blue areas as required. If you're not going for a perfect paint job and just want them to look nice from across the table, that would probably do it. You could fairly easily batch paint all of the main steps in a few chunks, then go back and get fiddly with highlights and detail as time allows.

 

Setting goals for yourself may help keep you motivated as well. Know how much you need to paint by when. If you commit to getting everything assembled and base colors done ASAP, that's half the job right there, and the rest is just grabbing a few models at a time for detail work.

 

Good luck, and keep at it.

[TrexPushups]

I'm priming white, painting the blue area black(doesn't have to be a good coat just darker, painting the blue base coat

 

I use drakenhoff nightshade in the recesses and basecoat the white pallid witchflesh.

[fisheyedbunny]

For this many models you definitely need either an airbrush or ratttlecan for primer, for any vehicle or even some troops you can also grab the blue base coat and mask off the white areas and spray them. I do this with my Howling Griffons.

 

 

It speeds up the basic stuff so much for vehicles and all you need to do is fix a little bleed through.

 

The dip option is also 100% spot on, just make sure its quite diluted as you don't want to dirty down the white to much but you can always bring it back up with a drybrush of the white.

 

If you check the Tale of Gamers thread in the Forge there are a few Novamarine armies so it might be worth checking them out and also reaching out to the people and seeing if they have any tips. Always better to learn from other peoples mistakes.

 

Good luck brother

EDIT:
 

For moral support you could start a thread with a countdown and a plan of what you want done by X days left. I find it is much easier to paint when I am accountable for what I need to do. Some people really dislike the pressure of this but I have found that the painting progress threads on the forum have really helped me press on with my projects (Tau and Griffons).

Edited October 23, 2017 by fisheyedbunny

[greatcrusade08]

im a dab hand at batch painting for deadlines, done a couple big events this year, each with over 100 models.

The key is set mini targets.

i always aim to get base coat and wash done first, that way if i dont get the project finished, its still tabletop useable

As Idaho suggests do half dozen at a time, and try to get each "batch" finished in a day, or whatever time segments you have.

I can normally manage 3 hours in a day painting, so 6 is very doable.

[Prot]

Lots of great advice, but the big ones I use are:

 

- Coloured primer.

- Airbrush

- Washes (sometimes the washes work best, sometimes the gloss washes work best if you don't want to darken the prime colour)

- Light drybrushing, and re washing sometimes speeds things up a ton.

- Do NOT take on more than 10 models at a time. It feels a TON better if you can look at 10 finished dudes every couple of days/week.

- Start with the 3 basic colours. Only at the end of the squad should you consider doing 2nd/3rd level highlights, etc. 

- I actually base in batches without the models on the base. I find this is very rewarding to plop a finished fig on, or even as a break from the squad if it starts to feel like a grind.

[treadhead]

For me the key is to paint in small batches (I find 5 is a good number) as the paint should be dry on the first guy by the time you get to the fifth

 

Make liberal use of spray undercoating

 

Using the task (paint the squad) and reward (paint the character / dreadnought) system works well for me too

 

Sticking something entertaining on in the background (I find the iron man or avengers movies quite good for this although i do make mistakes when hulk does the "puny god" bit) can be a good way to keep it from getting monotonous

 

Make sure to lay in a good supply of the paints you're going to use beforehand as it sucks to run out when you've been bitten by the painting bug

 

Sacrificing a portion of your KFC to the paint god (he especially likes the wings) has been known to be helpful as well

Edited October 24, 2017 by treadhead

[MeltaRange]

If I was doing Novamarines, I would do a zenithal prime job with an airbrush from dark grey to pure white.  There's my white.  Then, I would use a blue glaze over the blue parts, thin enough so that the shadows/highlights done with the primer were just tinted blue.  Then a darker blue glaze in the shadows of the blue.  DONE.

[TrexPushups]

Got a good bit of work done today.

3 paint steps done for 20~ models and one more done for another 11.

 

Still so much to do.

[Brother Lunkhead]

Sounds like you are well on your way! Good show