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1. I stick the figs (probably about 24 if 28mm, maybe 40 if 15mm) to the yardstick with a little white glue, let it dry.

2. I spray them with black primer.

3. I dry brush a coat of whatever the most common color of the figure is on everything.

4. I drybrush on about four other colors. Which ones depend on the fig, but usually its one for the flesh, steel over the weapons, brown (or other color as appropriate) over the gear, and then a bright, highlight color to pick out something important, like the plumes on a knight or the pompon on a Napoleonic grenadier.

5. I drybrush a color over the base, as appropriate (green for grass, light brown for desert, white for snow, purple for some weird, alien planet, whatever).

6. I wash the whole thing with a thin black, usually enamel rather than acrylic. It just seems to interfere with the underlying color less.

7. I dull coat it for most pieces, or semi-gloss it if it is weird enough that this would help.

That's it. Whatever the piece is, from a space marine to an Ottoman janissary to a Napoleonic grenadier to an Old West gunslinger. Are they going to win any awards? No, though oddly enough I do get some compliments.

To me, less is more.

What do your paint sessions consist of?

Slow. Very slow.

I do a lot of 'base coat plus two or three highlights and then a final glaze or wash'. But for me, painting is a fun part of the hobby. I find it relaxing, and don't mind taking my time on it.

If you consider painting a 'necessary evil' to get through quickly so you can get on with the game, anything you can do to speed things up is perfectly valid.

I'm an absolute hot mess at painting, but I'm not really aiming to be anything else, so that's fine. The only real consistent part is they all get blutacked to a balsa wood block as a handle (or use a proper handle, if there's more metal than plastic to them) and sprayed wraithbone. After that, chaos - every mini is a conversion, even when I'm deliberately trying to complete a squad every one's got their own unique thing going on, I'm liable to sit down planning to get stuck into a Terminator and wind up distracted by a cultist, and I can half-arse a champion I'm not really feeling while lavishing care on some random trooper's pistol holster just because something about it caught my eye. Honestly it's a miracle I ever focus long enough to get painting contest entries finished inside of a month.

I'm with Vulcan on this, I like painting and generally can't leave things at 'battle ready' kind of standard. I also have a thing about ordinary troops being heroes that deserve a good paint job. It becomes a bit of a problem when I'm painting squads, because I'm a bit flighty in terms of projects, and tend to get distracted if I'm doing repetitive stuff. It often means I have half painted squads that sit around for ages, or squads with one or two complete, nicely painted models and the rest not much further on than the priming stage... I've really got to get better at that if I ever want to own a proper fully painted army!

 CancelledApocalypse wrote:
I'm with Vulcan on this, I like painting and generally can't leave things at 'battle ready' kind of standard. I also have a thing about ordinary troops being heroes that deserve a good paint job. It becomes a bit of a problem when I'm painting squads, because I'm a bit flighty in terms of projects, and tend to get distracted if I'm doing repetitive stuff. It often means I have half painted squads that sit around for ages, or squads with one or two complete, nicely painted models and the rest not much further on than the priming stage... I've really got to get better at that if I ever want to own a proper fully painted army!

Oh, so much this!

"Good Enough" for me is the point where I force myself to stop painting a particular mini because there are so many other minis that need paint.

My basic process is to drill the foot and pin the mini to a cork as a handle.

Bases are handled separately and get a layer of PVA glue, sections of sand and flock which then get ~3 shades each of paint. I usually try to add some custom (cork) rocks or (wood) bricks and have just recently discovered tufts.

I drill my gun barrels, spray primer (lately I've been doing two colors for a Zenithal effect), and then base coat. Once base coated, each region gets a wash and one or two levels of highlight. I really try to blend my skin tones. Then I painstakingly pick out all the little details (brass rivets and buckles, etc.)

At this point I usually have to call it quits. I've been trying to paint at least one mini a month and trying to enter the monthly competition here on Dakka, so then I take my photos, crop and black/white balance in PS and then post to the competition and my painting blog.

However, there is always more that I want to do. I only get an hour here and there at night to paint, and so even at one mini a month, "good enough" for me is the point where my desire to move on to the next project overcomes the OCD voice in my head saying "oh but you could also add..."

Similar to what others have said on this thread, painting is something I really enjoy doing, so taking 10 months to finish a squad doesn't bother me too much. Luckily, unlike others on this thread, I don't bounce around much; I tend to work on 1-3 minis at a time start to finish and after their photo op, they join their mates in the great Waaagh! in the stars.

I’m pretty new to this hobby and I have found that reaching the point I think anything is good enough is pretty difficult.

One day I decide drybrushing is out, the next it’s in. One moment I decide washes are not the answer, the next it’s the only solution. Colours change, ideas form and are then abandoned, various parts are ruined by poor brush control. Sometimes I think it’s all coming together, but usually that sentiment turns out to be an indication I am about to declare failure.

I am definitely enjoying this hobby but I am also aware I have basically no idea what I am doing or where it will end up.

Good enough is the point I realise if I don’t force myself to stop literally nothing else will get painted!

 Vulcan wrote:
Slow. Very slow.

I do a lot of 'base coat plus two or three highlights and then a final glaze or wash'. But for me, painting is a fun part of the hobby. I find it relaxing, and don't mind taking my time on it.

If you consider painting a 'necessary evil' to get through quickly so you can get on with the game, anything you can do to speed things up is perfectly valid.

Very much a necessary evil! Get the paint on, do it so it looks reasonably good, and is tough enough to take a beating from ham-fisted gamers, and go on with life.

No Sistine Chapels for me


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XvArcanevX wrote:
I’m pretty new to this hobby and I have found that reaching the point I think anything is good enough is pretty difficult.

One day I decide drybrushing is out, the next it’s in. One moment I decide washes are not the answer, the next it’s the only solution. Colours change, ideas form and are then abandoned, various parts are ruined by poor brush control. Sometimes I think it’s all coming together, but usually that sentiment turns out to be an indication I am about to declare failure.

I am definitely enjoying this hobby but I am also aware I have basically no idea what I am doing or where it will end up.

Good enough is the point I realise if I don’t force myself to stop literally nothing else will get painted!

To me, washes and drybrushing are pretty much all there is to it. If I slop on the paint anywhere near close to where it is supposed to be on the figure, I find that first the drybrush and then the wash generally save the day.

XvArcanevX wrote:
I’m pretty new to this hobby and I have found that reaching the point I think anything is good enough is pretty difficult.

One day I decide drybrushing is out, the next it’s in. One moment I decide washes are not the answer, the next it’s the only solution. Colours change, ideas form and are then abandoned, various parts are ruined by poor brush control. Sometimes I think it’s all coming together, but usually that sentiment turns out to be an indication I am about to declare failure.

I am definitely enjoying this hobby but I am also aware I have basically no idea what I am doing or where it will end up.

Good enough is the point I realise if I don’t force myself to stop literally nothing else will get painted!

In the end, practice makes perfect. You have to paint stuff to get good at painting.

However, you have a big advantage I didn't when I started 30-odd years ago. YouTube tutorials are a wonderful thing; even after all these years of painting there's still so much I can learn.

 Vulcan wrote:

XvArcanevX wrote:
I’m pretty new to this hobby and I have found that reaching the point I think anything is good enough is pretty difficult.

One day I decide drybrushing is out, the next it’s in. One moment I decide washes are not the answer, the next it’s the only solution. Colours change, ideas form and are then abandoned, various parts are ruined by poor brush control. Sometimes I think it’s all coming together, but usually that sentiment turns out to be an indication I am about to declare failure.

I am definitely enjoying this hobby but I am also aware I have basically no idea what I am doing or where it will end up.

Good enough is the point I realise if I don’t force myself to stop literally nothing else will get painted!

In the end, practice makes perfect. You have to paint stuff to get good at painting.

However, you have a big advantage I didn't when I started 30-odd years ago. YouTube tutorials are a wonderful thing; even after all these years of painting there's still so much I can learn.

So very true! I can’t imagine even coming close to getting the results I have so far without hours watching YouTube tutorials! Five months ago I had no idea what a glaze was, or what a layer was; in fact nearly everything was completely alien to me! YouTube is literally like having an art tutor on call to answer questions. I am grateful to all those people for the effort they make to teach, in particular Vince at Hobby Cheating, Zumikito, Trovarian, Goobertown and more whose names I don’t want to destroy!

The thing that always gets me is the base coating. It’s dull to do and I always think that simple flat block colours always look terrible together, even when I know that a couple of steps later should tie it all together and it will look fine again.

Prime, zenithal white, then I use washes for the most part.

I don't aim for "Brilliant at 6"." but I'm closer to "Good enough at 3'.". The army is cohesive at arm's length - it isn't intended to be viewed up close - because I don't play that closely.

 Flinty wrote:
The thing that always gets me is the base coating. It’s dull to do and I always think that simple flat block colours always look terrible together, even when I know that a couple of steps later should tie it all together and it will look fine again.

You do have to love that moment when it all comes together.

I get this a lot when I’m using mixed contrast/traditional painting. It goes from garbage to gold in one session.

 Nevelon wrote:

 Flinty wrote:
The thing that always gets me is the base coating. It’s dull to do and I always think that simple flat block colours always look terrible together, even when I know that a couple of steps later should tie it all together and it will look fine again.

You do have to love that moment when it all comes together.

I get this a lot when I’m using mixed contrast/traditional painting. It goes from garbage to gold in one session.

100% agree with this, base coating takes soooo long and you're just thinking 'will this ever look any good?', then that moment when you can suddenly see what it's supposed to look like is extremely cathartic and makes the whole process worth it.

Depends if you’re talking about me or my opponent.

If my opponent has made an effort and his models share the same colour scheme and she or he has models that correctly identify the things they’re supposed to be, that’s good enough for me.

I wouldn’t be super pleased if they turned up with a mish mash or crap and asked me to “pretend” this is that and everything was differently coloured.

For myself I hold myself to higher standards than my opponent. Not because I believe myself to be better, but just for my own satisfaction. I’ve been painting for a very long time, even if I haven’t played many war games. I want everything painted to what I consider to be a decent tabletop standard (that is like the old school D&D orc in my avatar - speed painted, but still with a bit of detail) with paint jobs getting progressively better the more powerful and important the model.

It depends on the game and my intent. I've finally learned how to paint faster and call things, "good enough". Did an entire 2,000 point Soulblight Gravelords army last year, and that felt really good.

For the OP and others … I’m sure your method works great, I’m not saying otherwise and not trying to lecture or anything, I’m 1000% sure there’s better painters than me on the forums, just adding two other speed painting techniques that get excellent results:

1. Army Painter quick shade. It’s oily stuff and dries super shiny - at first - (also super hard which is good, it’s very very durable) but it works brilliantly. Just base-coat the colours you want, cover it all in quickshade and let it dry overnight. At which point you will think you ruined the model. But give it a coat of spray matt varnish and magic happens. YouTube it. Search for “zombicide army painter quick shade” by Zorastro (or some very similar name).

2. “Slap-chop” … basically zenithal highlighting with a base coat of contrast/speed paints. Again, YouTube is your friend.

Of the two I feel the first one is better for either beginners or those without the right equipment. It’s easier because it doesn’t require the zenithal highlight and the understanding of how levels work and how transparent paint looks with varying levels of base coat. I also feel to get the best results you need an airbrush or atleast skilful application of high quality spray with an understanding of levels. Otherwise it can look pretty crap. It also requires some knowledge of paint control and pushing shadows into the right places.

The first one on the other hand is just “paint between the lines” and then dip. And can be further enhanced with a quick dry brush before the dip for a bit of extra pop.

If you go the first method, I’d recommend the darkest shade for pretty much everything, so you only need one.

For me, bare minimum is basecoat (after priming), wash, edge highlight (or drybrushing). Example:



If I needed to paint a 2k point army ASAP, this would be least amount I could stand to do. I generally go a step beyond that for speedpainting projects. Another example:



Here there was a zenithal highlight prior to basecoat, pinwashed joints and edge highlights.

 The Pig-Faced Orc wrote:
...and everything was differently coloured.

Oh dear. You probably wouldn't like my Bretonnian army then. Each knight has his own (granted, fairly basic) heraldry.

Its really been a process for me.

I am a bit of a renegade, always going against everything either hype, meta, textbook or rated. (when I think about it this goes for all things I do..)

So when I started out I emediately refused to do most things that people recommended me to do (thinning paint not included, I always did that)
on Reddit (in this case, considering Reddit used to be the only place I actually uploaded anything, currently no longer on it by the way, too much toxicity etc and when you get a ban in another Reddit you also cannot post on the warhammer subs so its a horrendous site imho)

I never really liked the hyper-light look (a bit the mass-effect look) of linework, preferring only to line as much as you use spot colors sparcely..

But these days do try to line a lot more (when it comes to metallics I enjoy lining it, still don't like lining anything else though)
and put more time into really getting those accentuations to color where I used to be content with simply having the basecoat do that.

I've never done my painting along the traditional path with basecoat-layer-wash-lining/drybrush or anything, alternating wherever I go.
It helps that I prefer the rough and dirty look so you can't go too wrong there.

Maybe in time I'll try out different styles but currently good enough to me means something that I'm either bored of painting/got ideas to work on something else or adding anything to it will ruin it.

I never picture the endresult anymore because everytime I did it turned into something else entirely anyway.

-Leopold.

 Vulcan wrote:

 The Pig-Faced Orc wrote:
...and everything was differently coloured.

Oh dear. You probably wouldn't like my Bretonnian army then. Each knight has his own (granted, fairly basic) heraldry.

There is a difference between armies like bretonians and harlequins, who are supposed to be a riot of color on the battlefield, and a mish-mash of ebay rescues that zero effort has been put in to give a coherent look.

—

I mostly use basecoat/wash/drybrush techniques, but also a lot more edge hightlights these days. Normally just a single one. I don’t have the hands/eyes for super fine blending and edges. My tyranids are almost entirely contrast, and table-ready in like 4 steps.

I love troops with different colour schemes fighting alongside each other - as long as there's something to tie them together, like some common element. I've been building a craftworld force for a while made up of ad hoc units from various (nearly all) different craftworlds. They're a riot of colour, you'd probably hate it!

I've also been writing a story about a circle of pre-heresy marines, one from each legion, who are sent out on a mission of cross-legion-cooperation (actually just a publicity stunt) and end up encountering much more than they bargained for. I'm currently converting various mk3, 4 and 6 marines to represent each legion character - plus a load of ship crew, soldiers and iterators besides.

I love rag-tag forces...

 Leopold Helveine wrote:
Its really been a process for me.

I am a bit of a renegade, always going against everything either hype, meta, textbook or rated. (when I think about it this goes for all things I do..)

So when I started out I emediately refused to do most things that people recommended me to do (thinning paint not included, I always did that)
on Reddit (in this case, considering Reddit used to be the only place I actually uploaded anything, currently no longer on it by the way, too much toxicity etc and when you get a ban in another Reddit you also cannot post on the warhammer subs so its a horrendous site imho)

I never really liked the hyper-light look (a bit the mass-effect look) of linework, preferring only to line as much as you use spot colors sparcely..

But these days do try to line a lot more (when it comes to metallics I enjoy lining it, still don't like lining anything else though)
and put more time into really getting those accentuations to color where I used to be content with simply having the basecoat do that.

I've never done my painting along the traditional path with basecoat-layer-wash-lining/drybrush or anything, alternating wherever I go.
It helps that I prefer the rough and dirty look so you can't go too wrong there.

Maybe in time I'll try out different styles but currently good enough to me means something that I'm either bored of painting/got ideas to work on something else or adding anything to it will ruin it.

I never picture the endresult anymore because everytime I did it turned into something else entirely anyway.

-Leopold.

Sounds like you're a bit like me. Although I did use the traditional methods for years. But stuff like miniature painting in oils. YouTube that, it might be interesting to you. Totally different method. Requires much more artistic vision (because it looks like a mess to begin with, you're basically painting in shadows and highlights without layering them) and it doesn't come together at all until the final stages. So requires a vision before hand and also faith that it won't look like a horrible mess when you're finished.


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 CancelledApocalypse wrote:
I love troops with different colour schemes fighting alongside each other - as long as there's something to tie them together, like some common element. I've been building a craftworld force for a while made up of ad hoc units from various (nearly all) different craftworlds. They're a riot of colour, you'd probably hate it!

I've also been writing a story about a circle of pre-heresy marines, one from each legion, who are sent out on a mission of cross-legion-cooperation (actually just a publicity stunt) and end up encountering much more than they bargained for. I'm currently converting various mk3, 4 and 6 marines to represent each legion character - plus a load of ship crew, soldiers and iterators besides.

I love rag-tag forces...

Like someone else said above ... and regarding the Bretonian Knights army someone mentioned ... as long as it makes sense and they're all tied in somehow, I'm fine with it.

What I was getting it is someone taking a half-painted blood angels terminator and saying, "okay, just pretend this is my orc warboss, because I don't have a model for that". My response would be, "well, you can't have him in your army then ... at least not if you want to play against me".

Given the STUPENDOUS cost of GW minis, I don't mind people proxying stuff to test out a list. I wouldn't expect someone to drop $20+ for a mini they might never use again.

But if it becomes a regular thing, I do start getting antsy...

Nothing's ever "Good enough" for me

FML

I love painting, so getting to "good enough" is a long process. Generally all my projects are for army painting with few pieces for smaller games, but since I take so long I've not played a game of 40k since May last year, I've started pushing further into display territory (nowhere near it, but hey-ho, judge yourself). The airbrush step is the speedy bit and after panel lining, you realistically can leave them as tabletop quality. After that point, the churn is real.

1. Primer
Airbrush steps
2. Preshade
3. Base, mid-tones, highlight (x2 usually, 3 if I'm fancy)
4. Back in with airbrush to correct above
Brush steps
5. Details + freehand, chipping
6. Oil wash/panel lining
7. Edge highlights
8/9. Streaking
9/8. Oil dot filters
10. Final edge highlights
11. Pigments (not usually done for my marines)

You end up with this:


My bare minimum these days is something like this (preshade, airbrush highlights, edge chipping):

 Vulcan wrote:
Slow. Very slow.

I do a lot of 'base coat plus two or three highlights and then a final glaze or wash'. But for me, painting is a fun part of the hobby. I find it relaxing, and don't mind taking my time on it.

If you consider painting a 'necessary evil' to get through quickly so you can get on with the game, anything you can do to speed things up is perfectly valid.

I feel that so much

For me , I have been working on decreasing time per model from about 10 to 3ish and man its hard. Especially placing highlights and volumes and all that in a short amount of time.

 The Pig-Faced Orc wrote:
Depends if you’re talking about me or my opponent.

If my opponent has made an effort and his models share the same colour scheme and she or he has models that correctly identify the things they’re supposed to be, that’s good enough for me.

I wouldn’t be super pleased if they turned up with a mish mash or crap and asked me to “pretend” this is that and everything was differently coloured.

For myself I hold myself to higher standards than my opponent. Not because I believe myself to be better, but just for my own satisfaction. I’ve been painting for a very long time, even if I haven’t played many war games. I want everything painted to what I consider to be a decent tabletop standard (that is like the old school D&D orc in my avatar - speed painted, but still with a bit of detail) with paint jobs getting progressively better the more powerful and important the model.

I don't care for unpainted figures, because I know that most "armies" of even a couple of hundred figures in 15mm, or a hundred in 25/28, can be painted to battle standard in a day or two, not counting the drying time.

I have known people to do pretty good cheats though. One guy I know goes for a "museum piece look" (he calls it that, I don't know why) where he just spray-paints the figure with a base coat, maybe blue for ultra-marines, say, then drybrushes whatever he considers an appropriate metallic over it (bronze, in the above case) and then does the dip (minwax polyshades tudor satin) over the whole thing, and he's done.

That's a little too little even for me, but I have to say that it does have an interesting, abstract effect. If the figures are matched up with others similiarly done, and the terrain isn't so well painted as to destract from the miniatures, I think it works. Escpacially if you see miniatures gaming as just an extension of board gaming.

Kinda looks like a "chess set +."

To each his own.

 NapoleonInSpace wrote:

 The Pig-Faced Orc wrote:
Depends if you’re talking about me or my opponent.

If my opponent has made an effort and his models share the same colour scheme and she or he has models that correctly identify the things they’re supposed to be, that’s good enough for me.

I wouldn’t be super pleased if they turned up with a mish mash or crap and asked me to “pretend” this is that and everything was differently coloured.

For myself I hold myself to higher standards than my opponent. Not because I believe myself to be better, but just for my own satisfaction. I’ve been painting for a very long time, even if I haven’t played many war games. I want everything painted to what I consider to be a decent tabletop standard (that is like the old school D&D orc in my avatar - speed painted, but still with a bit of detail) with paint jobs getting progressively better the more powerful and important the model.

I don't care for unpainted figures, because I know that most "armies" of even a couple of hundred figures in 15mm, or a hundred in 25/28, can be painted to battle standard in a day or two, not counting the drying time.

I have known people to do pretty good cheats though. One guy I know goes for a "museum piece look" (he calls it that, I don't know why) where he just spray-paints the figure with a base coat, maybe blue for ultra-marines, say, then drybrushes whatever he considers an appropriate metallic over it (bronze, in the above case) and then does the dip (minwax polyshades tudor satin) over the whole thing, and he's done.

That's a little too little even for me, but I have to say that it does have an interesting, abstract effect. If the figures are matched up with others similiarly done, and the terrain isn't so well painted as to destract from the miniatures, I think it works. Escpacially if you see miniatures gaming as just an extension of board gaming.

Kinda looks like a "chess set +."

To each his own.

I'd say that's fine. If he did the dip using something like oils or Army Painter Quickshade it would probably work even better. Especially if he put a modicum of effort into the bases (like PVA glue + sand, base coat and dry brush, then going around the trim with black). Bases really pull things together and add a lot, even for a very simple paint-job. No need to go nuts with bases (and actually, I don't like those show-piece bases for gaming), but a tiny bit of effort pays exponential dividends imo.


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 ForgedSteel wrote:

 Vulcan wrote:
Slow. Very slow.

I do a lot of 'base coat plus two or three highlights and then a final glaze or wash'. But for me, painting is a fun part of the hobby. I find it relaxing, and don't mind taking my time on it.

If you consider painting a 'necessary evil' to get through quickly so you can get on with the game, anything you can do to speed things up is perfectly valid.

I feel that so much

For me , I have been working on decreasing time per model from about 10 to 3ish and man its hard. Especially placing highlights and volumes and all that in a short amount of time.

I paint almost entirely in oil these days. It's not for everyone, it's an expensive experiment if you don't like it, and there is a steep-ish learning curve. But if you're a decent painter already and are happy with table-top quality, you can get much better results much more quickly. Not including drying-time, which literally takes days.