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So I have bought a full 1850 taudar army. Now I just need to dive in. But I'm a little overwhelmed about how to get organised with it and want to approach it in the right way.

Would you guys build everything and then paint it, or build a unit at a time and paint as you go?

Also what strategies do people use for staying organised?

And how do you test colour schemes best without having to strip models?

It's a daunting prospect, I did Daemons in a similar fashion when I bought a whole army at once.

I spray all of the sprues with whatever I want as my main basecoat using Army Painter sprays and then build and paint a unit at a time. If you do it in HQ, unit, Heavy, unit, etc you get a 'reward' paint for each mundane unit

Kholzerino wrote:
So I have bought a full 1850 taudar army. Now I just need to dive in. But I'm a little overwhelmed about how to get organised with it and want to approach it in the right way.

Would you guys build everything and then paint it, or build a unit at a time and paint as you go?

Also what strategies do people use for staying organised?

And how do you test colour schemes best without having to strip models?

Mix things up to keep things interesting. This goes for both building and painting, and mixing the two.

From a build standpoint, you want to make sure you are assembling stuff and get it ready to prime fast enough to keep the paint station stocked. I use a spray prime, so that can be weather dependent.

Mix what you are painting, reserve some fun things for rewards for boring stuff. Paint 5 troops, one HQ, 5 more troops, tank, etc…

I make checklists. Write down everything you have for your project, and a little circle next to it for each one you need to do. When it is primed and ready I put a little dot in the middle of the circle. When I paint it, fill in the circle.

As for paint schemes, there are a few MS-paint like templates out there, or if you have it, DoW. Or just paint a spare mini.

Let's step back a second. Are you in a hurry to get the whole thing on the table? Do you want to take your time and get it all painted to as high a standard as you can? Do you own an airbrush and use it to paint minis?

Depending on your answers there are different ways to go about it all.

I have found that if you want to play with your army while getting it painted the best thing to do is focus on one unit at a time.

Get your HQ and Hero's done first than work on a squad/unit at a time. Put the other stuff in its case or a drawer just somewhere out of site. It makes it feel less overwhelming.

Paint at least one of each troop type entirely before starting the rest. That way if you don't like the colors it isn't nearly as much work to change it.
Keep your paints used for those figures seperate from your other colors. That way you wont grab the wrong shade by mistake.

Thanks folks!

Yes I do have an airbrush. And I'm planning on some airbrush technique stuff that I haven't really done before.

I have a couple of extra units that I might use for for testers (things I don't think will make the final army list).

Look over directions.
Stop and THINK
Trim sprue
Paint on sprue
Assemble
Base
Seal

On this thread I go step by step of my batch painting technique. They're tabletop ready and I always field 100% painted. They aren't 10/10 but they're ok for me...

60 Orks in 36 hrs:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/443827.page

I wish you luck with this I know full well how overwhelming it can be.

When I brought everything for my white scars, I was overwhelmed for a few days. A £500 pile of boxes is a de-motivating sight. I ended up putting everything in the closet and did one unit at a time. And when they are done, they go on the display shelf where I can see them.

I also found keeping a blog to be very motivating. People regularly looking at your work and discussing it helped the wheels keep spinning on the task at hand.