Quantity has a Quality all its own - or

[iamfanboy]

Wow!

 

My GUIDE LIVES!

 

:geek: For those of you who are visually oriented, I'll put up a photographic guide to this method soon; I've got 1k points of Space Marines that I've salvaged together out of a Space Marine army AND a Chaos Space Marine army that I sold on eBay some time ago - the Stormcrow Dragoons will sally forth!

[Brassangel]

This is a very useful thread, especially for those who start busting out Ork Hordes or Imperial Guard infantry. Good job!

[Gregg]

I just started 40k a year and a half ago and I had a fully painted 8000 sapce marine army (that I'm currently repainting because I want a Blood Angel army) and a 3000 Kroot Mercenary army that I painted used this exact technique except for the rule #9 which I never did). I found that the assembly line technique works especially well with drybushing.

[Will of the Emperor]

tried with a 2000pt BT army (sob, sob)

works really well, although......

 

:runs and hides behind a chair:

no more black! PLEASE NO MORE BLACK!!!!

[the jimster]

this is a really good way of getting sqauds/armies done really fast and its good with the assembly line once you finished painting the last mini the first one is dry

 

with me its

-basecoat painted on all minis

-drybrush each mini with bleached bone for highlights(dont like tron marines haha)

-secondary colour on shoulder trim and chest eagle

-metal & weathering

-small details e.g. eyes and purtiy seals and srcipture

-varnish

 

mini complete

 

jim

[Full-choke]

Didn't even read the whole article but I have been building and playing since March of 08 and I have close to 5000 points of my 6000 point SM army built and painted. I have found that keeping the projects smaller and focused helps a lot too, a unit of men, or a couple of tanks...nothing major. When getting one close to completion, get something else to move on to for the next project. My 3 current projects are a Stormlord, 15 snipers and my Chapter Master, all of them are getting heavy modding too which is where I am at now. It works quite well if you plan before you attack something like painting an entire army.

 

F-C

[Peakey]

WOW

 

I have started a 1500 points Iron warriors army recently,but only about half is fully painted ;) .I sort of use the production line technique but I'm still frighteningly slow.The colour scheme is simple:

 

Armour:

-boltgun metal and then badab black

 

Trim:

-shining gold and then chestnut ink

 

+ red eyes and LOTS of warning stripes :P

 

but still......SLOW.

 

P.S how do I wash a tank without leaving streaky/blotchy brush strokes?

 

<_< (AMAZING GUIDE!!!)

[Shortsonfire79]

P.S how do I wash a tank without leaving streaky/blotchy brush strokes?

 

A really, really big brush, with soft bristles. I use a 1.5 inch brush when I do happen to wash tanks. Nice, long strokes will give you the best results. Try not to overlap the strokes, or you'll have thin strips of darker areas.

 

Don't buy GW brushes for this, try something cheap, a $2 brush would do.

[Peakey]

;) Shortsonfire!

[Methelas]

Wow, nice guide. I myself have much trouble getting myself to paint figures and when I do, I go for quality.

 

I've got to try this technique!

 

Thanks!

[Cedric]

P.S how do I wash a tank without leaving streaky/blotchy brush strokes?

I hear a spraygun will produce an even layer of wash on a tank. I'm planning to try it out myself this summer.

A local hardware store sells an equivalent of GW's gun at 1/3 of the cost, as usual.

 

If not, breaking the symetry of the armour , perhaps by adding rivets or modelling reactive armour will provide some detail for the wash to stick to, thus reducing blotches.

[Heartwork]

Fantastic guide. My dad is a modeller and he's said these sorts of things many times. Your basecoat point is especially important. I know people who hand paint them (not wrong when you have the time) and when they're in a rush, they just glob it on and reap the consequences later. I used to use "Johnson's Klear" for decals and cut off all the fiddly transparent stuff aswell which can tend to show.

[insan0]

4) Always use spray basecoat.

 

(another potential flak alert!) Always use spray basecoat. It goes on smoothly if shaken properly, speeds up the whole process (which is the POINT of this article, don't you think?), ensures a clean, consistent product, and speeds up the whole process.

 

Shake it thoroughly (for 2-5 minutes, can held upside down), and DON'T TRY TO COVER THE ENTIRE MINI WITH THE SPRAY. A firm spraying is just fine, but if you do two or three sprays to get in all the cracks it ends up too thick and ugly.Touch it up by hand afterwards with thinned-down paint of the same shade as the primer, or a touch darker if you don't have the same shade - never lighter. If you're going to be flocking a miniature's base, decide whether you're going to do it before or after you spray basecoat the miniature, and ALWAYS flock the bases using the assembly-line technique (discussed below).

 

 

I would recommend giving your minis a quick wash/rinse if you are using a spray basecoat. I never had a problem with this for the longest time and then one day disaster struck and my spray primer bubbled all over half a unit of guys.

 

99% of the time it might be a time waster, but oh what a horrible feeling!

 

--Dave

[Brother Loring]

I've taken an absolute age to paint my black templars the 'normal way' (not to a high standard, I'm just slow) but have really thought about doing something like this. Does anybody have any pictures of a force they have built in this sort of time period.

 

Cheers

[Kronk]

These 10 bolter marines used an assembly line method.

 

1. Gathered all of the bits I needed.

2. Cleaned all of the bases, then the feet, then the torsos, and so on.

3. Glue the figures together.

4. Put the rocks on the bases.

5. Primed them.

6. Painted the base color for the bases.

7. Drybrushed the highlight color on the bases.

8. Painted the feet and legs below the knee.

9. Painted the legs above the knee.

10-Whatever Continue painting the same part on each model.

Whatever +1: I sub-grouped red and white bolters, so there was one place where I painted 5 bolters red and 5 bolters white.

Whatever +2: grass flocking.

Whatever +3: shoulder decals.

Whatever +4: Black around the outside of the base.

Whatever +5 Matte Finish spray sealant.

 

I am a slow painter, so these guys took me 8 hours from start to finish. 4 hours on a Friday, 4 hours on the following Saturday.

 

Edit: Wow! I did miss a purity seal on one leg. Easy to fix, though.

 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b176/bwtodd/Minis/2009%20Christmas/10Troops001.jpg

 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b176/bwtodd/Minis/2009%20Christmas/10Troops002.jpg

 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b176/bwtodd/Minis/2009%20Christmas/10Troops003.jpg

 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b176/bwtodd/Minis/2009%20Christmas/10Troops005.jpg

 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b176/bwtodd/Minis/2009%20Christmas/10Troops006.jpg

 

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b176/bwtodd/Minis/2009%20Christmas/10Troops007.jpg

[Mithril hound]

Thanks, im gona be painting quite a bit of my mates tau and this should speed things up. With my csms/13.co army i paint most of three dudes, then another three then ill finish the rest in one go :devil: .

[Aerixis]

I agree on the airgun/brush decision. It's always good being able to basecoat marines quicker than assembly line painting.

 

It's a bugger for my marines though, The Angels of Redemption are half green half bone so it means regardless I'll end up assembly lining them with half bone anyway!

[halfling hopperston]

great guide, unfortunately my paint scheme is not that easy but the Assembly line method is a great way to get any pain job finished.

 

but i would add one small thing to this guide.

 

15) when you have your fist complete models *DO NOT* remove them from your workspace.

having a complete model/squad at your workbench when your trying to punch through the whole army is a great motivator to get that current squad looking just as good :(

[lawlskees]

Hey,

 

 

 

I spend about 3-4 hours on a basic blood angels assault model. I just started up a new army and I want them to look Immaculate. Hopefully I can get the pics up soon but the OP's rules is my technique in a nut shell. Except for assembly line n what not, except do a little when putting the base red gore over the white spray primer.

 

Now Yes it will take me a couple months to make a 1500+ army but so what. No rush here, even though i am eager to play, having a bad ass painted army that stands out and looks glorious is a better feeling in itself. ( also satisfied good o' OCD) =D

 

Heres what i do for my BA's

Steps:

-White Prime

-Red Gore Base

-Black INK wash

-Touch Up Red gore / apply black to gun / chest / joints

- fortress grey / Spacewolves grey highlights to chest wings and skulls on guns etc.

-dry brush small areas / apply blood red to armour

- apply clean blood red to armour

- highlight black areas with gunmetal / dry brush jetpack vents / skull / gun

- highlight armour with blazing orange

 

now u see, perfect way to "layer" your model. This makes a wonderful way to get those space marine armour crevices to stick out. ( the spots in between the armour pieces) You should see how just adding the blazing orange highlights...almost makes the paint job as it blends in all the other work.

[Rymeer]

a rule of painting that should be mentioned:

 

find yourself a supply of 'blue tack' (the blue stuff used to tack up posters on walls). This sticky material can be reused over and over, so a small supply lasts a good long time, especially if you store it in a small plastic box so it does not 'dry out'.

 

The reason to use this material is so that you may glue arms and bolter in place, using blue tack to attach arms to the torso to get the angles right. This makes the arms and bolter a sub-assembly and easier to paint, as well as freeing up the chest area for painting without needing to angle the brushes and slopping paint all over.

 

Once body and arms are painted, just glue arms to model and you're done.

 

Just a thought,

 

Rymeer

[Brother Sergeant Tabris]

All of his steps are advised. I started painting Ralpartha mini's like 17 years ago. There was no assembly line painting with then as each model was individual. Then I found WH40K and the armies actually beg to be assembly line painted. It took me 6 years to develop all those techniques and someone finally put them out to read

[culix]

Great article! Thanks very much for writing this. Your talk on the assembly line process is key, and makes me realize I should only spend time prepping the part I am going to glue on next, so I can build faster. In fact, tip #12 could even say "While assembly-lining, always stick with the same _tool_" - that way it applies to prep and modelling as well as painting.

 

Using your tips makes me feel like I'm making faster progress. Awesome!

[culix]

At Brother Tyler's invitation I wrote up a draft of this article to be hosted in the Librarium. Comments and criticism are quite welcome!

[geektom]

Really good advice-2 years after the last post, it is worth saying again!

 

Having painted 1000's of points of Skaven and Empire, it is the only way to go. In Fantasy, your "front rank" can receive some extra TLC, but even for a picky painter like me, it is a waste to spend the time on the "middle clump".

 

I will be testing this coming up soon as I attempt to do my first 20 Tactical SM models when they arrive later this week.

 

The rule I most often break is doing all the touch ups at once and at the end... Anyone old enough to remember the "Anal Retentive Chef" on Saturday Night Live? Yeah, that is me doing touch-ups...

 

I don't have a true airbrush, but even the cheapy GW one has been great for applying a smooth base of color after priming- well worth the modest investment, IMO.

 

Also, a good wash makes all the difference- I can personally recommend Army Painter "quick shade" products where you dip the entire model. I used it in desperation when I needed to complete 30 models before a tournament and was very impressed. I would post pictures, but I only have WHFB models, so they would get deleted. PM me if you want to see.

[Shadespyre]

Great guide, it's working in a similar way to this that I've painted over 1000 Warhammer miniatures in the past 3 or 4 years. The system works even better for Space Marines and Guard, where almost every model will be in exactly the same colours.

 

I'd like to add a couple of extra tips if I may?

 

Write Things Down - i try to record the paint colours I use on each unit, so I can come back and add to an army / unit later on if I want to. I also like to make a list of all the details to paint on a unit and tick them off as I go, it gives a real feeling of progress as you head towards the end of a squad (and it saves you missing a purity seal ;) )

 

Only Play What You Paint - I haven't fielded an unfinished model in the last 3 years! Setting that personal rule is a great motivator to get things done. It does work best if you have an existing army to game with in the mean time I guess (so I am playing Empire while painting Vampires at the moment). It helps if you have at least one fellow gamer who will follow the same rule, so you can encourage each other.