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Currently having some issues regarding my whfb army. Atm I have skaven, I have all the models for 2000pts+ but everytime I come to paint them I get seriously disheartened to the point of not knowing what to do. For me to be able to play I need to spend 30 minutes in deployment and 30 mins in packing them away, I also worked out that if I painted at least 1 model a day I would be there for about an entire year before I would have a fully painted army :S.

So I'm at a point where I dunno what to do and could use some advice really, I'm not sure if skaven is really the army for me given the amount of work I need to do to get a from scratch army up and running and to even play with them - albeit I do really like them as a race and army, they are fun, the models are nice and they are rather powerful... But its just the pure investment of time I can barely afford to give, just my motivation is nearly murdered at the site of a single unit of 50 knowing theres about 4 more or so to do @.@

The alternatives, so far the only one I've really liked the look of is beastmen, filling a chariot / monster'ish army that wouldn't have even a 10th of the models my skaven field. The only problem I can see would be fighting hordes and I haven't heard too great a deal about beastmen apart from them not being too good...

I like the idea of vampire counts but they are just too expensive for the units and as I plan to play in GW stores using mantic and other providers isn't an option. I kind of refuse to do elves, im not really interested in any elves... or chaos especially since the warriors of chaos and demons of chaos have been separated. Dwarves are also kind of an option but i have the feeling there due for an update and I don't really wanna jump on them just yet.. Bretts are also an option I'm just not sure what to move to, if to move to them at all. Some opinions would be great right now @.@ before I just go ahead and throw my stuff on ebay only to regret it lol.

sorry if this is the wrong place >.<

Magnets mate will solve alot of your problems with regards to the sheer amount of time you spend of deployment. Once you have units that are magnatised to trays it becomes a lot quicker to set them up.

As for painting them just dip them skaven are an army that lends themselves to dipping (in fact I think they look better dipped)

What I would not do is ebay the army for another army that is also high model count.

I didn't think beasts of chaos were that high in model count, bretts either its why there under consideration I guess. I'm not very good at dipping, most of the skaven in my gallery are as dipped as I can make them without getting grumpy about it xD

I know that sometimes the thought of painting an army is overwhelming. I ususally just start and then when become stressed I change to a different army for a bit then when I go back, I'm fresh and ready. Keep the ratz, you will regret getting rid of them I think. I love mine.

Army Painter so colourd primer whicj may (or may not) help you-prime in base coat in one go? They do Fur Brown or Leather Brown. They have some Skaven pics that are done with their fur brown/Qickshade, and they look OK...

http://shop.thearmypainter.com/#

Well as another poster said, dipping with Armypainter will do wonders, and you could also avoid painting each core moddel to extremly high standards since tehy are not likly to stand out in a game. Focus on the big beasties and IC

What helps me with an overwhelming pile of models to paint is just pack away almost everything in your case or whatever you use to transport them, and only bring out one unit at a time. It's much easier to look at a unit of 40 clanrats to paint than an entire army of 250+ models. Once you finish one unit, pack it away and pull out the next.

I also paint units by the rank, which helps as well. Just sit down for a painting session and do 5 models then stop and take a break or come back to the next rank tomorrow. It helps me from getting that soul-destroying feeling that I still need to paint 60 zombies.

I suppose your right, the only problem I have with the quick-paint methods is I dunno, im a really aweful group painter in that if I see a piece of detail thats been ignored I have to em, un-ignore it and it just developes into over an hour or so on one guy then I'm kicking myself had to physically stop myself adding highlights to a slave rat @.@

I'm hoping my mild space marine venture that I have going atm will refresh me for when I come back to deal with those slaves, my only other alternative because I do want a whfb army is beastmen so, I'm kind of hoping a break will refresh me, im not a fan of the selling/buying buisness xD

This is the one of the biggest reasons I now play Ogres. XD

Magnetized trays would do wonders to help with deployment. Have a flat metal sheet (or flat magnets, or whatever) and put a small magnet under each base. The whole tray can be brought out and packed away with almost no effort!

As for the paint, being very detail oriented can be a hard thing to overcome. What I think is best is to start with a primer that is the color of the fur that you want. Then start with a cohesive color (or colors) to do for the cloth. Work bit by bit and try to assembly line it. You focus on the details, but only 1 detail at a time, assuring yourself that you will return to each detail. But because of this method, you can get entire blocks done to a decent method and the sight of color in your army can help inspire you to keep going.

Another thing that might help is add plenty of large monsters and expensive units. Stormvermin are more pricey than Clanrats. Rat Ogres are good. A Hellpit or two would still make a nasty army! Weapon teams are pretty expensive and pretty easy to paint. Sprinkle these throughout your army and reward yourself by painting them after you've done a good chunk of rats.

Other army projects are also helpful. Space Marines are a lot more forgiving than Skaven when it comes to painting. XD

I've often had a similar problem when it comes to painting masses of details on models intended just for gaming, coupled with being a naturally slow painter means in around three years im yet to field a fully or even mostly painted army. I find the main thing that helps me is priming the model with the most prominent colour and adding a quick shade or highlight then fill in the details - I find washes extremely helpful here. This has really helped the progress of my daemons. I've learned somewhat from the stage a few years back when I painted a unit of tyranid warriors as individual components, one at a time..

I've just started a Skaven army, my first block of 40 rats is part painted but it is slow going! I try to sit down for half an hour to an hour at a time,every day or two. During which I'm finding I can get through the whole block with one colour.
Im doing a p&m blog of the process if it would help inspire or motivate you Its for a Tale of Many Gamers campaign at my local GW so I have a timescale to try and adhere to. Shouldnt be anything too hefty, a unit or two a fortnight. First stage is a Lord and a Core for the 24th March. Its defintaly a lot less daunting than when i was doing 40k orks and had tonnes of them sitting on the desk. The advice above about packing them all away and only looking at the unit you're working on is sound advice for large painting projects.
I'm forcing myself not to build anymore untill this unit is complete and based, but i have frames just sitting there waiting :(

Try painting them in smaller groups. Paint 5 to 10 first. Take a break, maybe paint a character or monster in between. Then go back and paint some more of the unit. The secret is to get some finished so you feel like you are making progress.

Painting the same type of model the same color over and over 40 times can get tedious. Smaller groups make it less tedious.

Im going to try hitting out one unit at the time... I think if I can get the 150 slaves minimum done I'll be much happier... I'm going to try like mentioned above and go one unit at a time, doing one colour at least a day on each of them in a huge batch.

5 have already been done / almost done so it will be a 45man batch instead... as for the other 50man units will be undercoating them brown to save me the effort of one of the colors.

Also going for the magnetized movement trays too.. I really hope it helps improve deployment lol so I can just store them away in my case already on movement trays just to take them out and put them back in as such between games.

ty for all the friendly advice :S I hope it works otherwise, looking at whfb may not be the game for me given how much of a high focus steadfast is in a lot of armies its difficult to get around these blocks of troops with any of the armies I seem to be drawn too xD