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So I've begun painting a full space marine force, and I've hit the wall partway after the first squad. I am painting this very meticulously, but the mind numbing repetition of white lining over grey is killing me inside. So I ask..


What does the average Dakkaite do to stave off boredom while painting?

If i have large numbers of modles that needed to be painted (as I do now), I force myself not to buy anything new until i get them done.

I also find that haveing music, or other people to talk to/paint with also helps (I simply can't paint in my basement by myself for some reason).

I paint different model lines, different armies.

Building up the collection of a 1000 different models from one army
and leaving it unpainted totally breaks me.

I personally need FEWER things on the painting space that need work. I try to work on 6 or 10 models for a squad (or partial brood) and I find I get nothing done.

But I only have 3 or less, I breeze right through them.

Mattlov wrote:I personally need FEWER things on the painting space that need work. I try to work on 6 or 10 models for a squad (or partial brood) and I find I get nothing done.

But I only have 3 or less, I breeze right through them.

Oh no, I totally agree, but to me that means I can get away with having 5 models from
one faction and 5 from another. Having different paint schemes helps me mentally
digest the future task.

This is why I don't buy big boxes anymore, or clean out ebay second hand armies.

I'm working on 99 Orks right now. I don't think I can help.

80+ marines here. This is the big problem with collecting an army all at once.

what i do is paint in batches of 10-15 minis.

this way, when you finish them, you can treat yourself with a sergeant or character or something.

also, make a plan and stick to it. i havent made a plan for finishing my SoB army, and its biting me in the a$$ atm. i just keep painting random stuff (except for the stuff that i need to, ie troops). if you make a plan, and stick to it, you can finish an army in a relatively short amount of time.

i also find that listening to music with a strong, repetitive beat (like trance, or any other from of electronica) and/or someone(s) else to paint with works like a charm. this way, you can all paint and chat, and thus get stuff done while having a good time.

hope any of this stuff helps.

later
BLARGAG!!!

To motivate myself I pick color schemes that are complex looking but very easy to accomplish. I do this with a black base coat. Drybrush codex grey, then drybrush white. Then I can leave. It looks flashy and kind of cool.

When I come back I add a dry brush layer of red gore, then a pretty overall drybrush of warlock purple, then a final drybrush of my own bright pink mix that I try not to heavily apply anywhere and follow it up with a leviathan purple wash. This way the pink looks vary in many areas and the purple wash contrast with it somewhat shading the model really well but not breaking the pink theme. It sounds really complicated, looks really complicated, but it's easy as pie and I can paint 10 models in one sitting... well without the detail work. I usually go back and do the bright blues and a few metal colors to break the monotony of the pink.

This is for my Noise Marines but it really works with anything. You just need to find a sequence of colors that works well with what your painting. This doesn't work for all armies though, I don't think I could do something like IG like this. Unless I was going to call it 'super stylized' and all that. But generally my stuff comes out looking really well and it was really easy.

The reason this motivates me to paint is because I'm thinking "The way I paint things is easy, fast, and good looking. I think I'll knock a few models out right now". I get through the detail work by thinking "Only these few really short details and I'm done! Awesome, now time for some pie!".

100 orks right now...

Now that schools back again, I've stopped painting them one by one, and an now painting them in batches of 3.

Unfortunatly I decided to highlight line every single detail on every single model. First step is a dark grey priming, them codex grey drybrush, then a brighter grey light drybrush (i rubbed the name off the valejo bottle somehow) then I line every single tiny detail with white. After that I do general details (eye mouths weapons skulls etc).

I'm trying to paint it all very meticulously and well in this style. I have a blog going in the blog section about the army. My fear is at this rate I won't be finished until sometime after the mayan calender ends. I will of course be dead as will we all by then. 2012. Its coming.

I'm just svitzing due to the incredible time it takes to line the models. It's not a painting style I'm really willing to deviate from due to time (I just play with a lot of unpainted models), but I would like to finish it someday.


The suggestion about painting when company is over is a good one, and I've had a tv as well as music going for the duration so far. I think I'm just going to have to grit my teeth and get it done a squad at a time.

Unfortunatly I decided to highlight line every single detail on every single model

An that is the problem.
You do the basic painting for the whole army. THEN, you go back and detail a sqd at a time until the whole army is done. Trying to max detail everything from the start will get very boring, very quick. With the result that your army will never get done.
I have found over the past 15 years of 40K that the best way to paint up a army to award winning levels is to do so in gradual steps. Start with a good basic table top paintjob with extra care spent on characters, then upgrade a sqd at a time until the whole army is done.
Keeps ya from getting bored to death and lets ya have a painted army to play at the same time.

ShumaGorath wrote:So I've begun painting a full space marine force, and I've hit the wall partway after the first squad. I am painting this very meticulously, but the mind numbing repetition of white lining over grey is killing me inside. So I ask..


What does the average Dakkaite do to stave off boredom while painting?

I look through other painted miniatures ( normally sci fi / military figurines ), pick something i like about it, and try to achieve the same look .

pros: if i succeed, i learned something and woot im happy.
cons: if i fail, i still learn something, but i'll be too lazy to strip the mini rofl.

*note this does not apply to whole armies! this is why i dont have anything other then individual figures painted
wahahaha.... *cries in a corner.

I do it in squads or units.

Right now, I'm adding final details to a Sternguard squad (made entirely from plastics) and their rhino.

After this, I'll move back onto the rest of my SM Battle company. I have 13 more "tactical" brothers to paint up, but only 6 are for the tactical squads. The rest are for the two full strength Devastator squads.

Then I'll move back to my eldar, and strip and repaint my guardians (all 80 of them).

I don't buy new stuff untill i've painted what I have, damn girlfriend getting me presents

i usually ask myself how i want the army to look. if i just want something to play with (my nids) ill pump out the whole army in a weekend with 3 basic colors, no detail work at all.

if i know i want it to look good, ten i just bear it. if i start hating it i paint soem epic or something. i have found that changing model ranges helps keep things fresh. rhight now im painting:

orcs and goblins
epic imperial knights
2 deathguard vindicators (building)

i switch it up between these three quite often, plus the new ork stompa is coming soon, and im ordering 3 so ill be on them soon. school slows me down as well, so all that time i wish i could be painting is actually good, so when i do actually have time to paint i enjoy it.

It's doing the transfers that get me bogged down. If you want a good finish, it's rather involved, gloss varnish, decal softening, you may have to cut the decal about especailly when fitting them on Marine shoulderpads, then finish off with matte varnish.

Plastic Skaven are a trial - tiny fiddly things with lots of colours, brown fur, flesh face and hands, black nose, pink tail, metal/leather armour with straps, spear/sword, shield and any other areas of detail like pouches and water bottles. And being Skaven, you're up to your neck in them.

Howard A Treesong wrote:
Plastic Skaven are a trial - tiny fiddly things with lots of colours, brown fur, flesh face and hands, black nose, pink tail, metal/leather armour with straps, spear/sword, shield and any other areas of detail like pouches and water bottles. And being Skaven, you're up to your neck in them.

They are indeed horrible...and they are too many. I like my skeletons, though, tedious to paint, like all rank and file troops you need many of, but at least easy and fast!

Greets
Schepp himself

I tend to not buy another unit 'til Ive finished the one Im on, & it always starts to become a chore towards the end of the box because I find Im doing such similar models over & over again.

On the other hand, I find it helps to have a CD on. You know those albums you buy 'cos you like one track? leave it in while you finish the unit & by the end of the unit youll have an intimate knowledge of that particular album by the time the units done.

I likes to gets mah value from the minis & the albums.

Reaver83 wrote:I don't buy new stuff untill i've painted what I have, damn girlfriend getting me presents

Man i wish i was lucky enought to have a GF in the first place and when i do get one they never do stuff like that

its just me and the mins

I have at least half a dozen projects on the go at once. N Some have been going on for years now...

When I'm in the mood/have time to paint I sit down and decide - "what do I fancy doing now"...

At the moment I'm in the middle of a unit of 10 Tactical Marines. When that's finished, I've got a choice of units from some BFG Chaos, Hordes Skorne, Confrontation undead, 28mm Late Saxons for WAB, Seven Years War French 28mm, a bizillion blisters and boxes of various LotR models, and a few more units of Spayz Marienz. And several half-complete terrain projects for various scales and genres.

And if none of them tempt me I may get a couple of starter fleets for Uncharted Seas.

For me the hobby is about fun. If it isn't fun I'm not going to do it. That's what work's for!

If I want to actually play a game I've got many alternatives already painted up to use if I want to, or I can borrow a mate's figures.

To my mind, if I have to force myself to do it, I'm in the wrong hobby...

My advice to the OP: Sell off the crap you can't bring yourself to paint, and use the procedes to buy stuff you do want to paint. Either that or learn to love playing with unpainted figures. Or of course, pay someone else to paint them. Or help you paint them.

A really good music selection helps- Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and other more relaxed music helps a lot for me

Also an old tv show I have seen before- currently ghost in the shell as a lot of it is just conversation. Afterwards probably something like Father Ted or Family guy- seen them all repeatedly but still classics.

I will also do 30 mins painting then read forums etc

Finally I couldnt be bothered doing tomb kings right now-really not a fan of painting them (I cant seem to do it well) so I bought myself a Deamon Hunters Inquisitor for something different, cant wait to start on him

I set a timeline based off a large tourney. That always inspires me to do it. But, I usually pull an all nighter for the last leg

I have a spreadsheet with my army list written on.
As i paint the models i either move them from the unpainted to painted column, or i colour in the background of the cells. I find that staring at this while at work encourages me to paint more, and its really satisfying when you finish models and update the sheet.

I also try to paint in batches, normally 4 - 5 models. I just finished 3 chimeras at once over 2 nights which was nice. Gives enough time for each model to dry, if i have to wait for it any longer i get distracted by something else.

Having said that I just did some work on my carrion and im happy, also undercoated the inquisitor, I think mixing up what you paint would have immense benefits.

The last time this was discussed, we threw together an article out of the results which can be found here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Getting_Motivated_to_Paint

Si there a noticeable difference if you paint to table top quality varnish etc then go back and do the detail and revarnish?

To get myself to paint I lose a lot of games. So each new unit gets me thinking, this is the one that will turn it around!

When painting I put on a video.

Second section of the wikiarticle legoburner posted, Targets, is what works for me. My current project is a brand new marine army for adepticon. I've made my list for that and bought the units. I'm not flying to chicago with an unpainted army. That's my motivation.

Things that my army MAY need, but I don't particular fancy.

I also seem to find my concentration train weak at the weathering stage. Only fully weathered three of my larger models and one squad, plus one character and I must have a 3.5k army now.