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Buttlerthepug wrote:Do wait till 3 weeks before to paint an entire army (doesnt help that it was 600 models >.> )!!

Something tells me this was a typo

I'm a slow painter by nature, but in the past 11 months I have painted the following to completion (including mold line removal and some modding):

30x Choppa/Slugga Boyz
*3x PK/BP Nob
*17x Shoota Boyz
*6x Killa Kan
1x Looted Land Raider "Countas" Battlewagon
*21x Big Shoota Boyz (including modding their guns to be Loota guns)
*2x KMB Meks (countas Loota)
*1x KFF Big Mek

I have in process:
*16x Loota (50%)
*7x Rokkit Boyz (50%) for countas Lootas
*4x Big Shoota Boyz (50%) - Non-modded guns
*2x KMB Mek (50%) for countas Lootas
*1x AoBR Warboss on Warbike (10%)
120x Slugga/Choppa boyz (50%) - I stopped painting these when I started running shoota boys and a Kan Wall

Awaiting painting (primed, cleaned up mold lines, mods done):
*17x Shoota Boyz
*3x Buzzsaw/Rokkit Deffkoptas
*25x Grotz (only need 20)
*2x Runtherder
2x Trukk
1x Battlewagon (w/ Deffrolla)

Items marked with a * indicate what I need to get done for the Nova Open. I also need to purchase 3 more plastic Killa Kans.

I got this far by making myself paint at least 15 minutes a night almost every night. There are some days I don't feel like painting (such as when too tired from work), but to make up for that I add an additional hour to the painting work I will do on the weekend. So far it's let me have a nice steady progress on getting a painted, quality army up to standard.

And to note, I barely use washes. Most of my work is highlighting, with some initial drybrushing of grey over the black primer to pick out the cloth highlights. I could be painting my army much faster if I swapped over to a dip method, but I prefer the appearence of my army as I have painted it.

I have a few strips of wood 1"x1"x 18"
I blutac a squad to one of them and paint the squad on that.
From priming to washing, to varnishing.
It makes me faster when doing the one colour at a time batch painting.
I've done green tides for apoc games plus whole Crimson Fist companies using this method.

RiTides wrote:

Buttlerthepug wrote:Do wait till 3 weeks before to paint an entire army (doesnt help that it was 600 models >.> )!!

Something tells me this was a typo

That might or might not be correct .

I fixed it though, since you know, painting an entire army in 3 weeks is definitely something you don't want to do. At least I don't anyways

Yeahw hen I see a new army I want to start I do the, buy one box at a time and paint them. Buy another, paint them, etc...

This is also good because they wife is ok with this method. as opposed to dropping 400-500 dollars down at once.

When I am really cranking out minis quickly, I definitely do batch painting techniques...

First, I prime the models (hopefully a color that is one of the main colors of the army, be it an army painter, krylon, or whatever color. if not, white, black, or gray.

Then I take approx 10 models at a time, crank up the music/netflix queue/podcast archive and start batch painting.
The way I batch paint is one color at a time, one body part at a time, it really sounds simplistic, but it works very well. that way you are only using the brush in a few type of strokes that can be replicated easily before moving on to the next action, plus, if you are only doing one part at a time, you get through them pretty fast and can take a break almost whenever you need, just finish the current step on the batch and stop.

Everything about painting has been said already, so I wont add to it.

However I will say something about air brushes.

First, don't get one unless you plan on painting large amounts of models. I mean multiple 2k armies. Otherwise it's not a good investment because of the amount of effort involved in having one.

Second, don't buy the GW branded one. It's far too cheap and over priced.

Third, if you plan on getting an airbrush, consider the extra cost of propellant/compressor in the purchase. I'd go with a small compressor as it's got a variety of uses outside of the airbrush. Also, if you are painting enough to make the airbrush purchase worthwhile, then you'll end up spending as much on propellant as you would a compressor anyway.

Lastly, do your homework. An airbrush is NOT just an airbrush. It's airbrush, compressor, lines, regulator, de-humidifier, cups, and the time it takes to learn the tool, how to mix paints for the tool, and maintenance.

Get an Iwata Eclipse airbrush. Less than 100.00 bucks. If you want to make the investment you can get a silent compressor which has a water trap hoses regulator and whatever for about 350.00. It's a good all around double action airbrush and you can do wondrous things with it.


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All numbers in USD.

Find a good primer color that will best complement your paint scheme. I've primed in red, brown, dark green, khaki, almond, etc in addition to the base white, grey, and black. For example, if you are painting blood angels, a brown primer coat (Krylon Camo Brown) is really easy for a red to cover and the shadows won't be as harsh. For my tyranids, a brown wash over the almond primer coat gave me my basic flesh.