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Obviously, it all depends on what models you're painting and what paint scheme you use. But, for a rank-and-file model, how long does it take you to take him from primed to fully painted and finished.


For me, although I tend to paint in batches, I spend about 90 minutes on each Chaos Marine. If I work hard I can knock off two in 2 and a half hours.
Wood elves take me less time if they're the plastic models and much longer if they're detailed metal ones.

You?

Usually it takes me 20 - 30 minute's if I want a neatly painted guardsman, if not, 5 - 10 minutes.

Tanks, forever, and don't get me started on Super heavies, I started it several months ago and still haven't finished my Baneblade.

I spend 30 minutes to batch paint 5 imperial guardsmen to tabletop quality and they look pretty good.

and it takes me half an hour to paint a single CSM.

it matters how tabletop quality is considered highlights, blacklining, etc. what is "tabletop quality"

ya but i paint my models in pairs that take 3 hours

roughly 2 hours per chaos marine, longer if its an Imperial Fist, yellow takes fooooorrreeeevverrrrrr.

Brother Heinrich wrote:, longer if its an Imperial Fist, yellow takes fooooorrreeeevverrrrrr.

quoted for truth.

I'm still just starting out with proper painting, but it takes me about two hours to get to playable quality.

For reference (since people are asking what others consider "tabletop quality") this is my standard level of detail for rank-and-file boyz:



Please ignore the crappy barrel drilling, I need a new drill.

that sure is a lot, 2 hours for normal rank and file?

Yeah, like I said, I'm not very practised at it yet. I tend to go in batches, doing the basecoats for 10 boys at once, then shading, highlighting and detailing one or two boyz at a time; that's the stage that takes up most of the two hours.

It could be worse: a friend of mine is a perfectionst and an amazing painter (http://thestandardtemplateconstruct.blogspot.com) but takes about 20 hours on each of his basic Tac Marines. Characters and elite units take him almost literally forever.

most time I ever spend on a single miniature was 4 hours. I couldn't find the right color tone. I wouldn't live through 20 hours of painting. I only spend 1 hours or more to lords or models I really want to stand out.

I painted the terminator librarian the best ive ever painted any model in 5 hours. He looks extremely good Id expect to get a good $40 australian for him.


Edit: Not that im selling him, and partly because he is a limited edition space hulk librarian terminator with a massive axe.

As long as we're not including basing or drying time, it's usually about 15 minutes per model for me. Note, though, that I work in batches of 8-12, and I generally do not do a huge amount of detailing. To me, "tabletop quality" is basically the step above "ugly" and a step below "really good looking".

As others have mentioned, though, all bets are off for vehicles and bikes. If I'm working really fast, I can paint a Leman Russ to something like TT in an hour.

Also, if you find yourself painting lots of reds and yellows on a black basecoat, please, please, do yourself a favor and invest in the appropriate GW foundation paints. They work shockingly well.

^
same for me, mostly. I do tend to put 'enough' detail in my models. So that they look good in my eyes.

It depends on your skill, scheme and view of quality.

Personally I spend aqbout 5 to 15 per infantry model and they look good from about 3ft away, which is the average distance you see when they're on the table so I'm happy.

It depends if I'm painting the model to paint the model or painting the model to play the model, but since we're talking "tabletop" quality, I'll go with the latter - since I paint in a fairly relaxed matter, usually sitting at my desk watching some TV show or another on Netflix while painting (right now it's Black Adder ), I'll do a single Fire Warrior in about an hour.

If I'm in a rush, like I was with most of my Boyz, I can do one every fifteen minutes or so, and they still look okay from a few feet away.

I prime my models en masse using Chaos Black spray and try to avoid using a colorscheme that would require another color of basecoat, with the obvious exception of things like Ork skin and Fire Warrior cloth bits. This allows me to simply avoid areas that are going to end up black in the end, cuts down on brushing, all I have to do there is touch up.

On the other hand, if I want to actually put some love into the paintjob, a single model may take up to five hours. I actually spent about ten hours on my Chapter Master, which I never plan to field, just got an idea for a conversion and decided it'd be fun to model and paint.

I have issues with certain details that I can never get right (like faces) so I usually just sort of fudge it, solid color with black dots for eyes. I hate flesh tones. Hate hate hate.

45 minutes per guardsman, a few hours for a tank. Its the face on the guardsman that take up most of the time. I like them to have eyes.

Not counting drying time, assuming they're primed, I can paint a squad of IG in a few hours. That's a base coat, details, a wash, and basing.

Here's an example:

^
and they still look nice

kadeton wrote:I'm still just starting out with proper painting, but it takes me about two hours to get to playable quality.

For reference (since people are asking what others consider "tabletop quality") this is my standard level of detail for rank-and-file boyz:



Please ignore the crappy barrel drilling, I need a new drill.

a very well done mini. I would be interested to see what your HQ looks like. I also think that that mini is a bit above table top quality for the standard joe. I've always heard the three color rule being used, and generally my minis go beyond that. And i guess if you are more of a painter, as it seems you are sir. then you enjoy the painting as much as you do the gaming itself.

Still, an awesome mini, you must post the pics of your warboss or big mek.

Hmm...was going to do urban camo but I might steal your IG scheme colors there Polonius - looks nice and it'll be a heck of a lot faster.

Generally speaking I can paint small batches of 3-6 (never more than 6) in 3 or 4 hours. That's for something fairly simple like Khorne Berzerkers (with their 3-4 colors), basecoat, wash, two levels of highlights and details like gemming/skulls/etc. Models that are more finicky take longer. I'd probably shoot myself trying to paint Ork Boyz, and I keep putting off my IG because I just KNOW how long it's going to take me to put together my infantry.

Here's an example of my "table-top" standard, although the pic isn't quite as close as it could be.

it took me forever to get mine painted just because i had so many of them, of course i have the "easiest army to paint" but it still took me several months to get them painted just because i have very little time to paint. but you see the results here, http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/304213.page

It took me forever to get mine painted just because i had so many of them, of course i have the "easiest army to paint" but it still took me several months to get them painted just because i have very little time to paint. but you see the results here, http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/304213.page

It took me forever to get mine painted just because i had so many of them, of course i have the "easiest army to paint" but it still took me several months to get them painted just because i have very little time to paint. but you see the results here, http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/304213.page

Actual camo is a PITA on guardsmen. The metal catachans (and tallarn) have more than enough texture to cheat with washes. Even the plastic cadians have some nice crisp folds in the fabric.



My Praetorians have red tunics, khaki pants and helmets, with red trim.



I wanted something that matched, without looking stupid. I dropped the yellow, added a dark brown that I also used for stormtroopers and inquisitorial forces, and shifted the red to the traditional catachan bandanna.

Another tip: if you want to paint flesh faster, go with a darker tone. The easiest skin tone to paint that I've found is to the Ral Partha African, wash black. It gives a very rich skin color, and all joking aside, the eyes really pop.

I find that working an hour or two a night, I can get into a good "assembly line" groove and take a squad of IG from sprue to table in a week. So, if we assume that 3 days are spent on the painting, that is rougly 30-40 min per guardsmen. I spend maybe twice that for my HQ/Characters.

I can usually paint 1-3 tanks in the same amount of time (1 week of steady work). Since I use an airbrush to do most of the heavy lifting with my vehicles, it really doesn't take much longer to paint 3 tanks than it takes to paint 1. Most of the time is spent during preparation and clean-up!

to give you an idea, here is what I painted in just over an hour.

Duke Nukem here took about an hour and a half, since he's a character model:


My regular infantry take about 45 minutes to an hour a man:

I painted this squad in a little over 2.5 hours.

Just so you guys know, they are based now.

^
like how the blue turned out.

The blue? Hell, I like the Kroot hat. That made me chuckle.