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Hello all,

I've been thinking about how to speed up my painting, and also about what level of painting is acceptable.

There are quite a lot of "speedpainting" videos on Youtube where it appears to me that it's basically just normal/slow painting... and they just speed up the video a lot!

There's this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_apY9hhn9xc
Which I think has a fantastic result for one day's work. Music's not great.... I would estimate about 10-15 minutes per model here.

And this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ro_h07pler4

Does anyone have painted models where they stuck to a time limit?

Or does anyone have any more video links or webpages where they have achieved effective results in a short time?

It would be great to see what people have accomplished in a time limit - perhaps a model you did in 20 minutes, or an army you did in a day or a weekend.

Why's anyone in a rush to paint for 40k? Not like there's any tournaments anymore

Miniature Mentor did a good video on speed painting (but its not free *cough*).

Speed theory for hand painting is generally the same: Block on base colors than a strong glaze/wash.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/237797.page

My record for this kind of thing is a Guard Platoon paintathon that I did that knocked out over 100 minis over a weekend. I don't have any pics but I averaged about 10 minis an hour not including wash dying time.

Taking slightly longer, but still less time than I'd normally spend on minis, this squad of BA was done in 40 minutes or so per model, and still looks good, I think:

Finally, although I spent longer, I was able to paint up the contents of Infinity Operation Icestorm in one week, to what I would call a pretty good standard:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-77159-43619_Operation%20Icestorm.html

Take your time with the painting. There are very little reasons to rush painting and when you do you will almost always want to repaint the thing later on. Heck if your situation is like mine, assembling and painting miniatures is more than half the hobby, so why rush it?

John Wirral wrote:
I've been thinking about how to speed up my painting, and also about what level of painting is acceptable.

The 'acceptable level' of painting is entirely subjective, but the best general rules I can think of are "neat trumps complex" and "completeness counts." Does elaborate freehand look cool? Yes. Will carefully glazed shadows and highlights be more realistic/evocative (depending on exaggeration) than flat colors? Of course. But which makes for the more visually impressive game, one lavishly painted HQ leading an army of grey plastic or a completely, if simply, painted force? I think most would say the latter. What was the quote? "Quantity has a quality all its own," or something to that effect.

As for how to speed up your painting, there are any number of ways. Ignoring the obvious (washes, assembly line/batch painting, airbrush, etc.), I'll focus on a rarely mentioned aspect - the color scheme, itself. A simple scheme will obviously be easier to paint (split and/or quartered Space Marines are right out), but also consider specific color choice. Predominantly dark colors with light accents are trickier, as you have to build weak colors up over strong ones (how many painters have struggled with the white shoulder pads on Black Templars?). Reversing that allows you to prime light and shade down for your main color(s), which is quick and easy with washes, applying your darker, better covering spot colors in one or two coats. High contrast schemes are also conducive to speed painting, as the stark color shifts can take the place of highlights, to a degree, in establishing the model's form and creating visual interest. The red hand on a Crimson Fist, for example, identifies the hand as such without the need for highlight/shade to clearly distinguish each finger. Finally, either completely avoid or rely heavily on black and white, depending on your intended style. Being at the extreme ends of the spectrum, so to speak, painting realistic black and white are tricky. If you like a more cartoonish look, however, they're dead easy and quite fast. Simply spray on your black and edge it (a white colored pencil makes fine lines on hard edges a snap) or spray on your white and blackline it (a micron pen or oil/enamel wash can make quick work of this, if you use batches to negate the time lost to drying).

Honestly i really need to start working on my technique for speed painting... i take my sweet time on the characters/"centerpieces" of my army, but my writhing hordes of nid gribblies? Ive been sitting on a squad of 20 gargoyles for 3 weeks because i knocked one out in like 4 hours and just couldnt get motivated to do the other 19

I see some people who play an squads that have an airbrushed basecoat and airbrush highlight, that probably took more time to assemble than paint.

I don't think there's exactly a definition of "acceptable", because if someone tries really hard but it looks pretty crappy, what are you going to do, say, "I'm not going to play you because your models suck?"

I've never refused to play with someone even if their models are unpainted, though most FLGS will have house rules that state only models that are *painted* (not just primed) are playable, and many players will give at least a little bit of a hard time, if the paint job is obviously very low effort (like marines that are black primer + silver shoulder).

About 50 minutes per model on average. Speed gained by production line method and only 2 washes (agrax and flesh). Grouping colours to where one wash does all does help, the wash also (if heavy) does a good job in lining between colours.

Basic but neat work, with some nice touches (wood grain on guns, neat eyes) to make things look a bit better than they really are.

I got on a kick there for about 2 weeks just to see what I could do to a model in about an hour. It was a fun experiment and I think it helped me get faster overall. I would recommend spending time on your models. If you are playing 40k take the time on the seargents and special characters. With "skirmish" type games I find myself wanting to paint everything up as well as I can.

Anyway, Here are a few models I did up in an hour or less.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/620055.page

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/617391.page

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/617757.page

 Lord Scythican wrote:
Take your time with the painting. There are very little reasons to rush painting and when you do you will almost always want to repaint the thing later on. Heck if your situation is like mine, assembling and painting miniatures is more than half the hobby, so why rush it?

Pfft. It took me 3 years to assemble my meagre Tyranid army, THAT'S why you learn to speed paint

As for speed painting techniques, I'm far from the best, but a few tips from me...

Use white undercoat. For your "base" colour, slightly thin the paint and apply it like a wash. It should not be as thin as a wash, but thin it down a bit and let it settle in the crevices and the raised areas the white will naturally shine through and give you a highlight. If you have an airbrush instead of using white you can just use a lighter version of the base colour.

Then hit it with a wash. Devlan Mud (Army Painter Strong tone) is a good one because it's a "catch all", you can use it on almost any colour and it will give you a nice shade, but you can use other ones as necessary. My skinks I used a purple wash, my Orcs I used a green wash just on their skin before using a devlan mud on the entire model (skin and all).

Use a LARGE brush whenever you can. I have a 1cm wide flat brush and a 0.5cm wide flat brush that I use a lot when speed painting. A large brush is not only faster it's also easier to get your finish smooth as you can manipulate larger pools of paint where you want them to go, less strokes means you can create a smoother finish faster than if you'd used a small brush. Obviously sometimes you need to use a small brush to hit certain details, but try and use the biggest one you can for each job.

Here's some examples...
Spider Riders, about 50 minutes each


Termagants, 25 minutes each including cleaning mould lines and assembly (snap fit but glued)



Compared to my Hormagaunts which were about 40 minutes each NOT including assembly. (You can see I spent longer on the streak effects on the carapace and I was more careful doing the claws).


25 minutes per Orcs (including assembly and mould lines, snap fit models but required some modifications)



25 to 30 minute Guardsmen, including assembly (about 25 minutes for snap fit, about 30 minutes for multipose... for some reason in this pic the snow looks absurdly high, it's just the angle, it's only about 2mm thick)


30 minute Savage Orc (painting only, not including assembly)


15 minute Zombies (painting only, not including assembly)



COR, I think this took about an hour, can't remember exactly


20 minute Skink (not including assembly)


For certain models assembly can take a considerable time, that's why I stated whether or not the time included assembly. Some infantry models take me 20 minutes just to clean the mould lines and assemble, even more if there's gaps to fill with greenstuff.

Basing also takes time. Most my bulk armies I base 20-40 models in maybe an hour or two (plus drying time). Never really timed how long it takes me to base.

It is quite telling that all those "speedpainted" models look far above everything i can produce after putting hours in...
Come on guys, give me a break, I'm trying!

AllSeeingSkink, those look great! I'm a notoriously slow painter (ie it takes me about 1.5 to 2 hours to paint a Chaos Marine... in Black Legion colours), but want to get an army painted with relative speed (after I'm finished my Chaos Marine force). I know you outlined how you do it, but perhaps for the benefit of all, you should make a step by step tutorial with pictures.

...I would read the gak out of that

If people are interested I'd consider doing a pictorial of how I do it... though it does vary from one model to the next, the basic idea is the same but you might use different colours and different numbers of washes depending on the result you're trying to achieve.

I don't have any free time in the next couple of weeks to do it, flat out at work so I wasn't intending on painting anything in the next couple of weeks.

Also I have nothing on my painting desk I intend to speed paint any more, I'm currently working on 15mm WW2 stuff which I'm not speed painting. The tank took me a couple of hours and the infantry probably about an hour each, not exactly speed painting for such small models





If there's genuine interest I could give it a go though, any particular models you'd want me to do (it might be an army I already collect )?

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
If people are interested I'd consider doing a pictorial of how I do it... though it does vary from one model to the next, the basic idea is the same but you might use different colours and different numbers of washes depending on the result you're trying to achieve.

I don't have any free time in the next couple of weeks to do it, flat out at work so I wasn't intending on painting anything in the next couple of weeks.

Also I have nothing on my painting desk I intend to speed paint any more, I'm currently working on 15mm WW2 stuff which I'm not speed painting. The tank took me a couple of hours and the infantry probably about an hour each, not exactly speed painting for such small models

If there's genuine interest I could give it a go though, any particular models you'd want me to do (it might be an army I already collect )?

I'd be interested in just a more detail description of how you painted your gaunts, no pictures needed. Mine are similar style to yours just with yellower skin and green carapace but I'm spending several hours per model on something that doesn't look as good. I'm not in much of a rush to get them painted but with a 100 or so left I'd like to cut down a bit on the time required.

I don't like to rush my models. I rarely get to play a game so I enjoy taking the time to paint each one the best I can

From sprue to a few in 36hours.

Here I painted 60 orks in 36 hours.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/443827.page#4169647

 Lord Scythican wrote:
Take your time with the painting. There are very little reasons to rush painting and when you do you will almost always want to repaint the thing later on. Heck if your situation is like mine, assembling and painting miniatures is more than half the hobby, so why rush it?

In order to actually get it done...

Many years ago, when I actually kept track of my painted miniatures with regular numbers...I might have agreed. To paint a couple hundred figures at normal speeds, one at a time can be done before you die. Then I expanded my collection several times - and had to start keeping track of my painted figures by the square foot (or shelf as the case may be...but my shelves were generally easily calculated by the square foot). Now I have around 140 square feet of painted miniatures. Most of those are on shelves where there is less than 4 square inches per miniature (and some of the historicals are rank and file at around 200 miniatures per square foot). On the low end, that is something like 5000+ painted figures.

If I were to have taken my time on each one - not necessarily the 40+ hours that I spend on something extra special...but 3 or 4 hours of color, by color - stroke, by stroke painting that I might do on a hero of sorts... It would take me 7+ years of painting 40 hours every week. If I am lucky, I normally can get about 6-8 hours a week to spend on miniatures...so, 35 years or so. That would also mean I would not have time for the really special stuff anymore (no more dragons or giants, demons or robots...at least not to give them the attention they deserve). Sculpting new figures would be right out as well. As would a lot of the experimenting that I do. No more terrain projects, and I would need to give up my other hobbies. Even then - I would probably die long before I painted my backlog of figures (probably have twice as many figures waiting to be painted as I have painted).

Instead - I decided I needed to get moving a bit. Granted, speed painting isn't for everyone. However, even for those people who do want to spend 3 or 4 hours (or more) on each figure - the techniques are helpful to learn. If you look at the figures that the AllSeeingSkink posted above, they are an excellent base to go into more detail if he wanted to. Blocking in colors quickly and adding depth can allow you to spend more time on freehand, custom decals, layering, shading... It also lets you not should you choose to. Sometimes I will paint an army quickly to get it off the table, only to come back and finish the detailing several months later (be sure to wash them again to get the grubby paw prints off).

durecellrabbit wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
If people are interested I'd consider doing a pictorial of how I do it... though it does vary from one model to the next, the basic idea is the same but you might use different colours and different numbers of washes depending on the result you're trying to achieve.

I don't have any free time in the next couple of weeks to do it, flat out at work so I wasn't intending on painting anything in the next couple of weeks.

Also I have nothing on my painting desk I intend to speed paint any more, I'm currently working on 15mm WW2 stuff which I'm not speed painting. The tank took me a couple of hours and the infantry probably about an hour each, not exactly speed painting for such small models

If there's genuine interest I could give it a go though, any particular models you'd want me to do (it might be an army I already collect )?

I'd be interested in just a more detail description of how you painted your gaunts, no pictures needed. Mine are similar style to yours just with yellower skin and green carapace but I'm spending several hours per model on something that doesn't look as good. I'm not in much of a rush to get them painted but with a 100 or so left I'd like to cut down a bit on the time required.

The Tyranids are pretty simple. The blue carapace isn't what I'd describe as speed painting, but since the fleshy parts are so quick I spend a bit of extra time on the carapace to make them pop.

The process is just...
1. White Undercoat (spray or airbrush)

2. Thinned down Rakarth Flesh, slightly thicker than a wash, not as thick as a "layer" paint (it is kind of hard to describe, I keep test parts around when I'm painting to check the consistency). Apply it with a big arse brush over the whole model (it doesn't matter if it gets on the carapace, it'll be painted over anyway). Just try and avoid big pools, but let it settle in crevices to create some shading.

3. Army Painter strong tone, again apply with a big brush. Acrylic washes like these dry quickly, the main important part about this step is not going over an area that is dried or even partially dried already, as it will leave lines and in general look messy. Use the big brush, work quickly and apply starting from one side of the model and work to the other side to minimise having to go over areas multiple times. For 'nids I just start at the head and work to the tail.

After the wash is applied but before it's had too long to dry (especially if you got it on quickly) you'll have a minute or two where you can manipulate the wash. Use your brush to shift it around to make sure it's not pooling in weird areas and coax it in to the crevices.

4. (not really speed painting) I then basecoat the carapace dark blue and the claws dark red (or dark brown). I do a 2 stage highlight on each. Even though I don't really think of this as speed painting, you can most definitely alter your technique to make it go faster and still look good. Use a brush with a good sharp tip and a decent reservoir (number 1 or 2 is a good size, make sure you maintain a good tip). Then apply the highlights as streaks, the tip of the brush at the tip of the streak and the body of the brush aligned with the streak. For larger models I might spend more time carefully tuning the lengths of the streaks and use more than 2 stages of highlight. For the likes of Termagants, I just rapidly dab the brush on to the carapace so I can do the streaking in a matter of a couple of minutes.

5. To add more contrast to the fleshy areas, all the slits and ridgy fleshy areas I go over with a brown ink. NOT a brown wash, a brown ink. I use one of the old GW brown inks that you can't buy any more, I believe it's the same as Liquitex Burnt Umber acrylic ink (that's what I intend to buy when I run out of GW brown ink but I still have 1 pot left!)

http://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-Professional-Acrylic-Transparent-Burnt/dp/B0026439C4

I just apply it with the same brush I used for the streaking (a sharp point and a decent body like a 1 or 2 brush will let you quickly work around the model.

6. Paint the eyes orange to add a bit of contrast. 'nids have big huge eyes so it's worth painting them.

Done. If you work quickly you should be able to paint gaunts in under 30 mins, I aim for 20-25 mins.

I will admit doing step 5 after the flesh is not ideal, it would be better to do step 5 earlier and then do step 1/2/3 more carefully afterwards, BUT, the time difference is phenomenal so I just follow the steps outlined above.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

durecellrabbit wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
If people are interested I'd consider doing a pictorial of how I do it... though it does vary from one model to the next, the basic idea is the same but you might use different colours and different numbers of washes depending on the result you're trying to achieve.

I don't have any free time in the next couple of weeks to do it, flat out at work so I wasn't intending on painting anything in the next couple of weeks.

Also I have nothing on my painting desk I intend to speed paint any more, I'm currently working on 15mm WW2 stuff which I'm not speed painting. The tank took me a couple of hours and the infantry probably about an hour each, not exactly speed painting for such small models

If there's genuine interest I could give it a go though, any particular models you'd want me to do (it might be an army I already collect )?

I'd be interested in just a more detail description of how you painted your gaunts, no pictures needed. Mine are similar style to yours just with yellower skin and green carapace but I'm spending several hours per model on something that doesn't look as good. I'm not in much of a rush to get them painted but with a 100 or so left I'd like to cut down a bit on the time required.

The Tyranids are pretty simple. The blue carapace isn't what I'd describe as speed painting, but since the fleshy parts are so quick I spend a bit of extra time on the carapace to make them pop.

The process is just...
1. White Undercoat (spray or airbrush)

2. Thinned down Rakarth Flesh, slightly thicker than a wash, not as thick as a "layer" paint (it is kind of hard to describe, I keep test parts around when I'm painting to check the consistency). Apply it with a big arse brush over the whole model (it doesn't matter if it gets on the carapace, it'll be painted over anyway). Just try and avoid big pools, but let it settle in crevices to create some shading.

3. Army Painter strong tone, again apply with a big brush. Acrylic washes like these dry quickly, the main important part about this step is not going over an area that is dried or even partially dried already, as it will leave lines and in general look messy. Use the big brush, work quickly and apply starting from one side of the model and work to the other side to minimise having to go over areas multiple times. For 'nids I just start at the head and work to the tail.

After the wash is applied but before it's had too long to dry (especially if you got it on quickly) you'll have a minute or two where you can manipulate the wash. Use your brush to shift it around to make sure it's not pooling in weird areas and coax it in to the crevices.

4. (not really speed painting) I then basecoat the carapace dark blue and the claws dark red (or dark brown). I do a 2 stage highlight on each. Even though I don't really think of this as speed painting, you can most definitely alter your technique to make it go faster and still look good. Use a brush with a good sharp tip and a decent reservoir (number 1 or 2 is a good size, make sure you maintain a good tip). Then apply the highlights as streaks, the tip of the brush at the tip of the streak and the body of the brush aligned with the streak. For larger models I might spend more time carefully tuning the lengths of the streaks and use more than 2 stages of highlight. For the likes of Termagants, I just rapidly dab the brush on to the carapace so I can do the streaking in a matter of a couple of minutes.

5. To add more contrast to the fleshy areas, all the slits and ridgy fleshy areas I go over with a brown ink. NOT a brown wash, a brown ink. I use one of the old GW brown inks that you can't buy any more, I believe it's the same as Liquitex Burnt Umber acrylic ink (that's what I intend to buy when I run out of GW brown ink but I still have 1 pot left!)

http://www.amazon.com/Liquitex-Professional-Acrylic-Transparent-Burnt/dp/B0026439C4

I just apply it with the same brush I used for the streaking (a sharp point and a decent body like a 1 or 2 brush will let you quickly work around the model.

6. Paint the eyes orange to add a bit of contrast. 'nids have big huge eyes so it's worth painting them.

Done. If you work quickly you should be able to paint gaunts in under 30 mins, I aim for 20-25 mins.

I will admit doing step 5 after the flesh is not ideal, it would be better to do step 5 earlier and then do step 1/2/3 more carefully afterwards, BUT, the time difference is phenomenal so I just follow the steps outlined above.

Thank you. This should help me a lot.

I LOVE speed painting! I always try for the gold at GenCon, but I keep forgetting it's not a race to finish the model....

I'm still fairly pleased with this Orc Warlord. He was 45 minutes painted with assistance from an incandescent light bulb:


I always do a quick 10 minute paintjob on any model I'm eager to put on the table, but they rarely look great. It just gives me time to add details as needed.

This is a speedpaint using an airbrush and AMMO weathering effects... dont remember the exact time but it was pretty fast

durecellrabbit wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Thank you. This should help me a lot.

I should mention that the times I state assume the time per model when you're batch painting a whole bunch. If you try and paint 1 at a time the drying time for the base coat and the wash are pretty long. I usually just do 10+ in one hit, so the paint is dry on the first one by the time I get to the last one. Otherwise do the basecoat after work one evening, do the wash the next evening and then finish it off the next evening.

My tips:
Always use a brush one or two times bigger than you'd normaly use.
Wash the hell out of them BUT that does NOT mean you can be sloppy here. Washes fix loads of mistakes but can easily create some used wrong. Agrax Earthshade is a good colour for almost all colours but keep the pools limited.

Best way for Space Marines: Airbrush

Black undercoat
zenithal highlighting with grey and white.
Semitransperant paint.

Done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMuEUFihPa4
Here is an example. Add a few details and it's a great looking miniature.

RoninXiC wrote:
Best way for Space Marines: Airbrush

Black undercoat
zenithal highlighting with grey and white.
Semitransperant paint.

Done

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMuEUFihPa4
Here is an example. Add a few details and it's a great looking miniature.

I actually don't think it looks that good. The zenithal highlight adds a lot of contrast but the model looks really flat unless you go back with a brush to edge highlight and shade the crevices. I've tried a bit of airbrushing to speed paint Space Marines and I haven't found anything I like that doesn't involve going back over with a shade, by the time you get it all done it's still quite time consuming.

I recently experimented with priming chaos black, spraying rhinox hide, then doing a couple of dustings of mephiston red followed by drybrushing edges and details Lucius lilac before tying the colours together with a wash/glaze of carroburg crimson.

Details get picked out in abaddon black, rinox hide or averland sunset (over a base of rinox hide to produce something similar to the black lining effect). Edges and textiles are drybrushed terminates stone. Washes of nuln oil, agrax earthshade and Druchii violet will be used depending on the effect I want (Sometimes I will wash yellow with violet before drybrushing with stone... purple shades yellow really well).

A very low end effect, but one I am happy to put on the battlefield.

Really interesting to read all the posts here. I wanted to try to get the cultists from Dark Vengeance completed in one weekend - maybe 8 hours work (following making the models and pre-shading.)

I tried using a bigger brush and painting in mostly washes over the pre-shading. I am quite pleased with the results.




More pictures here:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/623641.page