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For those having trouble with basecoats, get an airbrush.

As for my pet painting hate, it's faces.
Eldar mostly wear hats, but I've just moved onto IG. Silly me....

Faces and details

I, strangely enough, don't have much issue with eyes. I mean yes, they are no cakewalk, but I definitely enjoy doing them as the model always comes to life when I do.

I hate mixing colors especially after you finish your first test model, realizing that it is awesome and that you want to do the rest of the army like that, and then realizing that you now need to mix a huge batch of whatever so you can paint the rest of your army. Sigh...

Hair also kinda irks me. It just never looks natural (maybe it's the crazy colors or something).

Getting started isnt an issue for me. I have a full army planned, with 500 points worth purchased. Im not allowed to buy more models until that 500 is completely done. I get a model done a night, which means with 25 guardsmen and 3 chimeras (give or take a few days where I really cant be bothered), its only a month to get it all done.

The hardest part for me is getting them to match. All of my guardsmen so far look eeeever so slightly different to the first one I painted, and it makes me die a little bit inside.

Painting model after model after model of the same type - I'm terrible at painting units. Characters I love painting or individual figures but when it's 10 chaps in a squad I find it rather hard to keep going with them.

Definitely the eyes. I usually get one good the first time, then the second one makes him look cross eyed or something.

I find the hardest part of painting is either vehicles(which I have a lot and only a few are painted) or gobs of infantry. I love painting named or special characters, but a 10 man squad feels like it takes forever even when I assembly line them.

I absolutely hate doing the highlights on my Templars. Black is unforgiving. My Orks and Nids are a breeze.

I also have bad luck with detail brushes blowing out. I make eyes white, I dunno how yall do pupils.

The eyes. I always have trouble with eyes. That is why I paint my Nid's eyes solid yellow, and I do it by splashing paint on the eye area and then going back over the edges of the eyes. I just can't keep my hand steady enough or my brush tip thin enough to get it just right onto the eye.

Hmmm, I actually enjoy doing eyes a lot! Of course sometimes it looks deeply, but then again a lot of Eldar wear helmets, so it's not too often. And I think that well done eyes just add so much to a model.

On the other hand I hate having to paint large areas smoothly, especially with light colors. Always been terrible at that.

I'd agree that faces, specifically eyes, are difficult for me to complete in a way that I really like.

I have trouble painting more than 10 men a go. I bought some orks to get a change of scenery from my eldar, but so far I've painted 5 and a half ork boyz with 4 and a half more to go. I wish I'd never bought them...
I find it hard to get motivated even before I paint, because whenever I go to paint something, I just think: "Yep, another job that is never going to be as good as any pros on Dakka." I shouldn't try to set my goals so high, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist on everything, so when I see my models on the table I get sad.

What I love though, is spirit stones, I can pick any colour I want, paint a base, highlight, second highlight, third highlight and then a gloss varnish. I love them, so I save them until last on every model so I feel accomplished when I put down the model. They make the model pop for me.

Highlighting for me. I've only recently found a suitable highlight for my army, and I find it quite difficult to keep it neat for the whole model. Going back to fix up any slips is quite tedious.
Other than that, painting hard to reach areas. For instance, the chest behind the rifles of Fire Warriors I assembled before painting.

Assembling in order to paint. Taking time to carefully clean every piece is monotonous as anything.

Also painting small bits that you don't want to attach until they're done because they'd make other bits hard to reach.

I used to hate cloth and faces, but I'm starting to have a breakthrough on those that feels good.

 Peregrine wrote:
Getting the base color done. Weathering and detailing are fun, but doing the exact same color scheme on tank after tank gets really tiring.

Do you use an airbrush? I couldn't imagine trying to paint a vehicle without one now.

Getting started is the worst part here. Just digging out the models and the paints and setting everything up. I like a game now and then but the thought of painting hits me like that homework you've been trying to avoid all evening.

going from 0 to 1500 points in one go has shown me a few things.

I love assembling / converting, I can hammer out the basecoats fine, its the detail work that bogs me down mercilessly.

I spend loads of time and have trouble getting it to where I want it. hopefully this will change the more i force myself to work on the army.

Eyes. I'm not too bothered with skin at the moment, as my Salamanders are straight black (easy, eh?) But the EYES! Mine always end up bleeding onto the skin. It doesn't help that the eyes are red - nice contrast, let me tell you. It really brings out the mistakes.

My most annoying time is painting faces. Just cant seem to make it look right, that's why all my grey knights have helmets. But also becasue it seems strange to be fighting in the 41st millennium with no helmet, considering all the helpful things it does.

Also blending for all my force weapons but starting to get the hang of that now

I think the worst part of painting for me is finishing a moddel and then seeing someone else's painted better. Then I feel like I have to go back and improve mine :(

Hardest part of painting is time. If I can be bothered to start a project I can pretty much do a very good job on it, however I just can not be bothered to paint more than a squad or two.

Faces , and anything either white or red!

I've only just finished painting my first ever squad of dudes (10 Grey Hunters) and while i enjoyed the process i've noticed that these 3 things defiantly need more attention/practice to get right

 Guardsmen Bob wrote:
What is the hardest thing (or thing on a model) for you guys to paint?

For me (painting IG, no vehicles hey) is painting faces, and more specifically eyes. They usually end up Derpy, or weird. Some times I don't bother, and just let their helmet shadow take care of it for me. Besides, they're guardsmen, just about the most faceless army in the universe.

Worst for me is painting the same colors over and over and over and over and over and over....the reason why it takes my armies so much time to be painted is that I paint a couple units in a specific army I MUST paint something else or I will go nuts, or I will just stop painting and have a hard time getting back to the painting desk again.

Beyond that the only issue I have is deciding on actual colors for painting. Still haven't decided how I am going to paint my in building process Dark Eldar. Haven't the faintest idea yet. Despite having 100s of colors of paint in my collection at home I have a tendency to limit myself to certain palattes and try hard to break out of that, but it causes me no end of consternation sometimes.

Skriker


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Damnosus wrote:
I hate mixing colors especially after you finish your first test model, realizing that it is awesome and that you want to do the rest of the army like that, and then realizing that you now need to mix a huge batch of whatever so you can paint the rest of your army. Sigh...

This is why I ultmately purchased the Foundry paint system some years ago. It comes in 3 bottle palettes with Shade, base and highlights in each palette. Made a big difference for my sanity and decreased the amount of time I spent trying to find just the right base color and time spent trying to mix up new batches of the same colors in the future. They have a base color line, plus a WWII focused color line as well. The only other current paint line that comes close is the Vallejo colors selection. The foundry paints also come in the same style pots that the original citadel paints came in, so last forever without drying out. Of course it is an investment, but since investing in the first two paint sets about 6 years ago, the only other paint I have bought is the occasional replacement bottle for favorites and often used colors (like black, white and flesh tones).

Skriker


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tyranid Horde wrote:

I find it hard to get motivated even before I paint, because whenever I go to paint something, I just think: "Yep, another job that is never going to be as good as any pros on Dakka." I shouldn't try to set my goals so high, but I'm a bit of a perfectionist on everything, so when I see my models on the table I get sad.

The simple solution for this one is MORE painting. The pros on Dakka didn't get that good by not painting, they got that good by doing a ton of painting. Yes you will occasionally find someone who just paints great right out of the gate and we all hate them, but generally it is a learned skill of applying techiques consistently that eventually leads to great results. I paint well, but not as insanely as a heavy metal painter, since all those people do all day, every day is paint I am not surprised since I have a different day job and lots of other hobbies too...can't compare yourself to the really big boys until you are ready to spend all day every day painting minis over and over.

Skriker