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Hello! I've returned to the hobby quite recently, and started with a horde army. Like most people, I want a fully-painted playable army at some point. I was wondering which IG/AM units are most 'effective' to paint, comparing painting time with point cost. The regular Guardsmen, for instance, are obvious time thieves: A human-sized model with lots of details, only getting you 0.5 % closer to a 1000 point army. Which units would be on the other end of the spectrum? Maybe Bullgryns? They seem rather easy to paint (haven't tried), but still cost the same as ten Guardsmen. What do you think?

(For clarification, I'm not skipping Guardsmen. They are lovely. This is more of a thought experiment.)

Tanks, tanks, & more tanks.
+ enough infantry to screen them/hold objectives.

the most "time effective" I encountered so far are Cyclops demolition vehicles. Its basically just some flat surfaces without much detail, 1 or two lenses and two small, accessible tracks equal 60 points.

I'd heard contrast paints are a god send for guard.

BrianDavion wrote:
I'd heard contrast paints are a god send for guard.

Yep you can do decent battle ready job with those.

As for OP's question. Especially if you have airbrush tanks are dead easy. You can tanks in no time with one. Baneblade chassis would give you lotsa points with one model and with airbrush can be got fast to playing stage. Provided you aren't doing lots of complicated weathering

Guard lend themselves well to monochrome schemes, so all you really have to pick out is the face and hands with a flesh tone (assuming Cadians). It's only as difficult/time consuming as you choose to make it. For example, a tan scheme:

Light grey primer (spray)
Tan basecoat (spray)
Apply flesh tone to face and hands (hairy brush)
Slop entire model with Agrax Earthshade or some contrast paint that shades tan and flesh equally well
Paint minor details.

If you want the armor to be a different shade from the cloth, boots a different color, etcetera, that's obviously going to be more time consuming.

Thanks for the input, you're probably right about the tanks! They seem cumbersome to me, but I guess that's a matter of technique.

 John Prins wrote:
Guard lend themselves well to monochrome schemes, so all you really have to pick out is the face and hands with a flesh tone (assuming Cadians). It's only as difficult/time consuming as you choose to make it. For example, a tan scheme:

Light grey primer (spray)
Tan basecoat (spray)
Apply flesh tone to face and hands (hairy brush)
Slop entire model with Agrax Earthshade or some contrast paint that shades tan and flesh equally well
Paint minor details.

If you want the armor to be a different shade from the cloth, boots a different color, etcetera, that's obviously going to be more time consuming.

Not sure if FW still make them but I bet someone does there were cadian heads with full face respirator masks which even saved having to do the faces.