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As the title states, I'm looking to see how people paint up large quantities of models in a shorter amount of time. I'm having... fun with some of my Fantasy stuff, and want to do them up a bit faster. It would also help when I go to expand some of my more 'hordey' 40k armies

1. I put my entire army together put them on a table..well covered the table with paper first, then let fly with a can of primer. bang, a couple mins and my army of 2000pt totally based.

2. ahh the base coloring lol, well i had it easy because mine were daemons, so for me it was okay these will be pink these will be blue...ey? and these will be red, then i just painted them in a total color.

3. Wash time, they all get washed in whatever color corresponds to their base color.

4. Details, i decide which details to pic out, like teeth n ringernails (wait what? sorry, Fingernails) or whatever then i do that for every model, then i pick another detail, like silver armour lining and chains, then do that for every model. and all the way through till i'm finished and happy.

I usually do this in lots of 10, so i take a unit of 10 dudes and go at it till they are finished, take a good break maybe a half a day or a day, then i take another unit of 10 and do those adn a break. so in any given week i can probably polish off about 30-40 models without giving myself an aneurysm and they look alright for table top gaming too.

Assemble everything

base everything

prime everything black

pick out the basic colors

then the metal

then the flesh

high light

wash

final highlight + fix mistakes

touch up base

heavy gloss varnish

dull coat varnish

Finished!

The best thing about assembly line is, less chance of color discrepancy xD

Also, minimize colors as much as possible for rank and file. If the entire batch has boots, belts, and scabbards, I don't really need three separate shades of brown for that, do I? No. One will do. If I want them looking non-uniform, I'll pick three or four easy colors and randomize them over the various clothing items. The models end up looking different but really, they're all the same colors...just in different locations. Spend the time saved at the end to add little details if necessary.

Along the same lines, if they are uniform, do a piece at a time, working "inside out." Start with exposed flesh...do all the faces and hands (or even all the faces and then all the hands if you can tolerate that sort of boredom, but I can't), then all the shirts, then all the trousers, then all the boots, etc. Different people have different standards for so-called "tabletop quality" and mine are at the low end if the internet is to be believed, but I'll try to get away with one or two washes (raw umber on warm colors, Payne's gray on cool colors, and blacklining on armor and weapons or maybe even the whole mini) and I often skip the highlights entirely unless they're really needed.

It should go without saying but take care in your color selections, particularly for large units. Some colors are simply more difficult to paint than others. Test the scheme out on one model from start to finish to see how it goes, as you'll likely figure out a few ways to dumb things down or make other shortcuts without sacrificing an unacceptable amount of quality in the process. It will pay large dividends in time when you're doing multiple batches of ten later on. And when you've figured this out, do what I never seem to do and take notes. When you find yourself suddenly out of town for a few months and are ready to resume painting afterward, you'll know what you need to do and won't have to spend weeks trying unsuccessfully to figure it out all over again, and your squads won't all be different shades of the same color. Ask me how I know this.

By my way of thinking, if I'm doing production line painting then by definition, I'm not trying to win any awards; I'm merely doing enough not to be completely embarrassed by what other people are fielding. This procedure works for me.

I've already realized one place I've been going wrong. I've always done 10 models from start to finish before moving on to the next batch ie.

Build
Prime
Paint
Base
Varnish
etc.

I am happy to note that I'm not super far off when it comes to how the models are painted. I'm trying to create an easy color scheme to mass produce. So far, the yellow cloth I'm painting consists of an Iyanden darksun basecoat, heavy wash with devlan mud, then a light drybrush of golden yellow to give a little bit of a highlight. Looks alright to me and takes about an hour (not including drying time) to do a unit of 10

Yeah thats really about all there is to the assembly approach. Alot of how much you get done will probably reflect on how you are able to deal with the boring process and how much time you have to spare for painting. An hour to do 10 models is about perfect for me so i'm guessing you are similar to me in that regard, but after doing that i totally need a break my brain just frys.

If you are of superior mental faculty then try 20-30 models in one hit same process just alot more of the heads now bodys now gloves n boots now process.

another way you can speed things up is to do 1 test model start to finish, identify how it looks get a feel fro the painting then pick out the most common features, group them and do them all in one shot over as many models as you can stomach. For me that usually boots/gloves/face as they comprise of similar colors and washes. bang 10-20 models partly done in half n hour or whatever.

but otherwise there really isn't much to it, just handle the repetitiveness somehow music or whatever and dedicate a single solid amount of time to it.

If you can do more than 10 at a time, you possess good self-discipline, or else you like this way the hell too much.

My record is 18 at one sitting. Granted, these were Victrix Na[oleonic British, so they were not heroic scale and that uniform is a bit of a PITA to paint in the first place, but after I took 18 from start to finish (a day long project), I couldn't pick another one up for weeks. These days I try to keep it around 5 unless they're very individualistic, and then maybe I'll take it up to 10. Don't push it too hard or you'll burn out and it'll take even longer. It's been weeks (months?) since I've touched a Victrix precisely for this reason. A whole army is on hold now because I pushed it too hard and now I can't bear to look at it. Everyone has their threshold. Mine is lower now than it was when I was a teenager, it seems.

I did my whole plague marine army like this. I lucked out and found a good primer in the color i wanted. So i primed black, sprayed them the color, went back with black for anything that wasn't the base coat and went color by color. Starting with base colors and moving onto highlights. I didn't completely assemble my army. Makes painting a lot easier with better results. So they don't have arms and back packs. They all get the same color done at the same time. While painting, keep track if you missed a color on a model and go back and get it. This is a faster way of doing things, But doesn't look as good as starting and finishing a model than moving onto the next. You can get table top quality easy. Its harder to get a master paint job. But then again. Painting 2k+ worth of models to a pro level would take forever.

Drybrush

I've just started building a skaven horde, with a blog to go with (link in my sig)
An airbrush can definatly help, as can a simple colour scheme, take full advantage of methods that are a little quicker like washing and drybrushing. Sometimes this might not look quite as effective as your best painting, but hey its alright looking when theres a lot sat there and will save days of painting, which you can put into you're more unique models instead of the bog-standard guy's that there's gonna be a lot of.
Theres a bunch of stage by stage piccys of the first unit of skaven I have done in the blog, Im part way through the 2nd lot now just relaxing the pic's a bit cus its more of the same at the moment.

The trick to assembly line painting (my way) is the following:
1.) find friends
2.) pay them in beer

you're out in.... cochrane, yes? at the end of april I am free-ish to do this kind of thing, so, let me know.

Another solution is to use the dipping technique. Some say that "it's not painting" but trust me (and don't listen to them ^^ ), you can save a huge amount of time on hordes.
And it's also possible to get a quite good looking result this way. It's not Golden Demon-ish, but hey you want to paint armies. Check out my gallery (or my P&M blog), every ork in it is dipped. I think that the result looks good for a "tabletop army".

Of course, some armies and color schemes work better than others when dipping.

Probably not the best person to answer this hehehe, my painting tensds to be a bit sporadic, but i do tend to paint in assembly line fashion, i just work in half squads, about 5 minis, base coat 5, the work the same area on all 5, if i have a lot of black for example, i will do that black to all 5 minis before moving onto the next area and work down till all i have left required is highlight on all 5.

Use the colour washes from GW, and use them well.

The only thing wrong with dipping is that it dictates "brown to shade everything", which isn't always what you want.

A nice mix of purple wash and red wash will get far better results as a shade for red than devlan mud or wood varnish will, for example.

This advice especially applies to blues, greens and purples which look really bad if you just goop brown on them and call it a day.

Mix up a few pots of custom wash, and you'll never look back!

I've tried dipping in the past, and wasn't a huge fan of it (probably used it out of context) That said I'll be giving it another shot when I start my Flames of War Soviet Strelkovy Battalion (for those who don't play FoW, its a giant infantry horde) as I don't particularly want to paint 400+ infantry models at 15mm scale. As far as painting with friends, I honestly won't have much (normal) time to do this, as starting in a couple weeks I'll be working 7 days a week, so my painting time will be more whenever I can randomly squeeze some in.

A lot of it depends on the army, and how much of it I have accumulated so far.

For completing an army I already have (i.e. I have 2000 points done, but a lot more in boxes, just base coated, etc.).

1 - Pick a unit type (jump troops, kroot, rhinos, etc.).
2 - Assemble any I still have on spure/un-assembled
3 - Repair any that have sat in my "in box" that need repairs.
4 - Primer them all.
5 - Base coat them all (most of the time).
6 - Assembly line them in pieces, by color (do all the boots, then the belts, etc.). Doint the harder to reach parts first, as they are more likely to get on other areas.
7 - Do the final parts.
8 - Wash
9 - Base
10 - dullcoat (depending on the army).

For a new army, it depends on how eager I am to get started playing with it.
If I want a list ready as fast as possible (1500 points, etc.) I will assemble it, prime it and base coat it.
To me, once I have base coated, I can play with it.

Once past that point, I use my first method to start finishing units.

I just got tired of having so much NOT done, in boxes, in project bags, etc.
So I started by rounding up all of my kroot that were not done, and just finished them.
It was 43 models. I had to force my way through it and it took me two weeks of painting regularly, but when done, 100% of that unit are done.
Period, all of them. its a great feeling. Then I went on to the next unit....

Normally, I don't do more than 10 minis at a time, but I found that I always don't get back to doing the next batch...

Best of luck!

orkboy232 wrote:I've already realized one place I've been going wrong. I've always done 10 models from start to finish before moving on to the next batch ie.

Build
Prime
Paint
Base
Varnish
etc.

I am happy to note that I'm not super far off when it comes to how the models are painted. I'm trying to create an easy color scheme to mass produce. So far, the yellow cloth I'm painting consists of an Iyanden darksun basecoat, heavy wash with devlan mud, then a light drybrush of golden yellow to give a little bit of a highlight. Looks alright to me and takes about an hour (not including drying time) to do a unit of 10

There's something to be said for doing 10 at a time. It gives you some variety in your activity, rather than mind-numbing repetition. Extends your hobby-enthusiasm, and ultimately, if you've got that kind of brain, lets you finish the unit without getting bored and leaving them to gather dust.

Yeah 10 at a time is a reasonable number, If youve got the will power, do as many as you have though. Just its a bit soul crushing having 50+ guys lined up as it can take hours, or several sessions to do one colour on them all sometimes.

i think i just figured out what purgatory is gonna be like lmao. a never ending line of troops to paint but you only get 1 or 2 colors, nd you just have to sit there assembly line painting for eons.

scarletsquig wrote:Use the colour washes from GW, and use them well.

The only thing wrong with dipping is that it dictates "brown to shade everything", which isn't always what you want.

A nice mix of purple wash and red wash will get far better results as a shade for red than devlan mud or wood varnish will, for example.

This advice especially applies to blues, greens and purples which look really bad if you just goop brown on them and call it a day.

Mix up a few pots of custom wash, and you'll never look back!

Why is it they use brown shades for dipping instead of color that looks more like shadows?
like some form of brown grey?

Try playing Skaven slave army, I have 260 of them alone :V


Automatically Appended Next Post:
260 comes to about 520pts

Bit of a psychology thing here, but even 10 might be too much for some. I prefer 5.

Obviously, if you could do 50 or 60 or 100 at a time, it would be much more efficient. I know that rationally. But most humans need to see evidence of progress to stay motivated. A squad of 5 can be mostly or completely knocked out in an evening. If you're doing 50 at once, you might get the faces done. After an hour or two of work, which would you rather see? A completed squad ready for basing or ten gray squads with painted faces? By going smaller, I lose efficiency but I preserve my sanity, as it seems like I've accomplished more.

For those with the discipline, do as many as you can manage at one time. For folks like me, keep it small or you'll burn out.