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Hello,

I only paint for fun and don't actually play. As a result I quite like taking time to try to paint the best model that I can given the pretty strict limits of my ability! However, I've started to wonder if my technique is causing me to just waste my time and this in turn is causing me to lose my motivation to paint at all.

In short, I prime my model and then apply a base coat before shading with nuln oil, agrax earthshade etc but my base coating is essentially painting the entire model using all of the different colours. Once I've applied some shading I then repaint the entire model again leaving just the recesses shaded and bringing the brightness back to the rest of the model. However, my base coating is taking approximately 10 hours and I then just do almost exactly the same thing again once I've applied the shading, I then will highlight up to complete the model. I have seen a lot of people who will base coat with a single colour before shading but I worry that this will make the finished model look worse because large parts of it will have been painted the wrong colour initially. I also think it would be difficult for me to effectively paint around the shaded areas with correct colours without just painting into the shading itself.

So, what should I be doing? Am I doing it right or am I wasting my time?

Thanks.

If you don't play then I would suggest that you should do the best paint job you can, I see little point in doing tabletop standard if the models don't see a tabletop ever. Tabletop is there to just get stuff painted before play. I guess if you aren't enjoying the time spent painting then you could reduce the painting time, but would you be happy with the result?

That's pretty much exactly how I paint, time can be saved minimising the number of different basecoats but I tend to find that when I do this, the layer requires more layers to get the colour strong enough. I'd say keep doing what you're doing if you're enjoying it, even if others can't see the basecoat work you've put in, you know it's there

Try this routine:-
Basecoat the entire mini in its largest basic color ( no detail work ), leave all metalwork till the end, wash with whatever you want and then blend your highlights, do skin areas and gloss varnish it, once dry do your decals (if you use them) followed by more gloss and then matt varnish, then weather with powders and fixer of choice ( white spirit,commercially available fixer etc ) , hairspray trick, do chipping and all that stuff to taste then a final varnish followed by metal work and a matt coat if wanted/needed.
A lot of people varnish after bascoat and shading then dont apply any clear at all after as it can mute the highlights/ weathering/ metals etc.

If youre painting for fun, as i do, take all the time you need. I personally often work on certain parts for a long time, and bounce back and forth between bits, as opposed to just doing the models like an onion.. Eg doing all the base colours, then all the washes, then all the highlights.. Imo if youre doing that its basically just production line painting. Take your time, give each part 100%


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, i disagree with the guy above.. Always start with faces and flesh areas

OP, you're doing it right. You can speed things up by using the same wash on as many things as possible (for tabletop work you can normally get away with brown on most areas). Batching up helps too.

Thanks for the helpful replies. I'm pleased that I am doing the right thing and therefore not wasting my time!

If it's fun, you can't waste time doing it!! I've painted a model before, only to strip it and paint it again just cuz.

If I'm eager to get a game, I'll do a quicker speedpainting job, but it's really satisfying to paint a model for the display case.

I paint to play so I do the minimum I feel I can get away with to create a satisfactory tabletop result that won't embarrass me even if people won't "wow" at it.

If you are painting purely for your own satisfaction, do whatever you like.