Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Painting my Space Marines in their white paint scheme is a chore and a half.

I generally simply do not have the time nor patience for it. I'm a slow painter (partially due to a lack of experience) and when I paint I want to do it well, so I can easily spend upwards of 3 hours on a single MEQ model. The only Dreadnaught I ever painted took me more than 15 hours and even though I'm very happy about how it turned out I'm not looking forward to doing that again. I shudder to think about painting Mortarion, that'll probably take me 40+ hours...

I try and paint everythign. I used to paint and build models as I got them... 3 kids and a real job later I have some unpainted and in progress models simply because i lack time

 Strg Alt wrote:

Karol wrote:
1 Paints cost too much.
2 I have no place to paint.
3 I don't think painting would be fun for me.

No place to paint? So you don't own a table and a chair? Geez man, you have more serious problems than unpainted stuff.

To really enjoy painting it helps to have proper lighting too. I normally load some models and paints on a tray to expedite packing/unpacking.

Today i went to warhammer world to work on my painboy and read some more Black Legion over a coffee. The painting booths there are pretty nice. Adjustable lamp is good.

I tend to paint in big project loads as i like to keep things consistent. but often times i will burnout on steps because of all the block painting.

stuck on about 66% done on my necromunda terrain from dark uprising that i started on release.

nareik wrote:

 Strg Alt wrote:

Karol wrote:
1 Paints cost too much.
2 I have no place to paint.
3 I don't think painting would be fun for me.

No place to paint? So you don't own a table and a chair? Geez man, you have more serious problems than unpainted stuff.

To really enjoy painting it helps to have proper lighting too. I normally load some models and paints on a tray to expedite packing/unpacking.

Today i went to warhammer world to work on my painboy and read some more Black Legion over a coffee. The painting booths there are pretty nice. Adjustable lamp is good.

Please do t think this is a dig as it isn’t, but you can literally buy a decent lamp for painting for the same cost as an average box of GW models.
I’ve literally got a 3 daylight bulb lamp I use from amazon for £25.
I’ve had this thing for a couple of years now and it still works perfectly.



Edit: as a side note I’m seeing tons of people saying they don’t paint because they are bad at it.
Like anything in life it takes practice, no one starts out as an amazing painter.
If you don’t paint you will never improve, it’s kind of a defeatist attitude.

I found it helped to break down the process of painting into stages that were realistic goals, informed by identifying previous failures.

Being able to look at your work and say “this is bad” is a great first step: identify what went wrong and work out what you could do differently next time.

For learning to prime my first mistake i noticed was i only sprayed the model from above, so there was a lot of unprimed places on the downward facing areas of the models.

Next time i made sure to spray from more angles. Unfortunately this clogged up details.

The time after this i was careful not to overspray but i ended up learning not to spray from too far or the paint might become dusty.

Another lesson I learnt was i struggles to get paint into the deepest areas without messing up the adjacent surfaces. This left spots of white where i wasn’t able to get paint in the deepest recesses. This meant i switched to black.

With black undercoat i was unable to see details so clearly to paint, but then i remembered by earliest mistake with the white spray where i was only hitting the most raised surfaces and realised i could use that as a technique over the black spray to pick out details and help me see what i was painting. It also had the pleasing effect of creating a shadow/highlight gradient of any colour i layered over it.

So as you can see being able to look at a ‘bad’ job you did and working out what went wrong and what you could try instead is a really useful tool to improvement.

 timetowaste85 wrote:
I love to paint! I also love to sleep, spend time with my wife, eat, [need to] work, spend time with friends and family, and sometimes play video games. Painting gets its time...but I’m pretty specific with my painting and don’t rush. So I don’t get done as much as I want.

I love that Mr TimeToWaste's post is a very detailed run down of how he allocates his time. I'm not so sure you have that much time to waste, Mr TimeToWaste. Get back to work!

Jackal90 wrote:

nareik wrote:

 Strg Alt wrote:

Karol wrote:
1 Paints cost too much.
2 I have no place to paint.
3 I don't think painting would be fun for me.

No place to paint? So you don't own a table and a chair? Geez man, you have more serious problems than unpainted stuff.

To really enjoy painting it helps to have proper lighting too. I normally load some models and paints on a tray to expedite packing/unpacking.

Today i went to warhammer world to work on my painboy and read some more Black Legion over a coffee. The painting booths there are pretty nice. Adjustable lamp is good.

Please do t think this is a dig as it isn’t, but you can literally buy a decent lamp for painting for the same cost as an average box of GW models.
I’ve literally got a 3 daylight bulb lamp I use from amazon for £25.
I’ve had this thing for a couple of years now and it still works perfectly.



Edit: as a side note I’m seeing tons of people saying they don’t paint because they are bad at it.
Like anything in life it takes practice, no one starts out as an amazing painter.
If you don’t paint you will never improve, it’s kind of a defeatist attitude.

Lets not make threads certainly is not about bashing. Some people really just don't have space or money at all..
Karol is a child living in Poland for example. My parents certainly didn't want me paining on kitchen table or give me money for anything when I was a kid.

Certainly, understanding that everybody starts at the bottom, not getting discouraged and persevering will yield improvements. Seems like a no brainer life skill/attitude to me. Everybody fails sometimes so even if I do its not a big deal.. Nobody is perfect.
Its like if I go to the gym for the first time and not walk out looking like henry carvil and decide its not for me...
I'm sure most males would love to have the body of henry carvil but most men dont want to put in the work of henry carvil..

Some people just don't want to take that first step for whatever reason and assume they wont be any good without trying. I don't get it but there it is.
We cant all be henry carvil. All we can do is aspire and encourage.

I think ive developed a man crush on henry carvil… *sigh*..

Im fortunate enough to have somewhat dedicated use my computer desk double up as a paint/build space.
Currently littered with basing materials and minatures being constructed so that's all I do.

Once I'm in painting mode I set my alarm in the evening and try to at least get 1-2 hrs in before work after the gym at least couple times a week to get that muscle memory and repetitiveness.
Will have my wet pallete there and can just jump in straight away. Occasionally Will replace the paper if ts gotten too messy. I cover my models with foil while im away at work, gym, GF etc. and give them a quick burst of canned air to ensure theres no dust on them while Im away and get stuck straight in. Make sure I wash my brushes after each session and give them a good scrub with masters sop every couple days.

It wasn’t a post to bash people.
Someone said they didn’t have a lamp, yet the models they own cost indefinitely more than a lamp.

That’s like having a house full of food but starving to death.

Money isn’t the key factor for not owning one when someone happily pays more for models.

Yes, it is an extra cost, but you can’t say it’s too expensive then go out and spend that or more on more plastic.

Jackal90 wrote:
It wasn’t a post to bash people.
Someone said they didn’t have a lamp, yet the models they own cost indefinitely more than a lamp.

That’s like having a house full of food but starving to death.

Money isn’t the key factor for not owning one when someone happily pays more for models.

Yes, it is an extra cost, but you can’t say it’s too expensive then go out and spend that or more on more plastic.

If you read his posts in other topics you'd know that its not the case...
He doesn't go out out and buy more plastics like me or you lol. He's been using the same army pretty much for years. As I said he's a kid.

Its certainly an outlier situation, not the norm.

But for some people it really is a choice between buy this box of models or buy supplies. Not everyone can have both. I would question this a s choice of hobby in that circumstance, but each their own..
Some people just have that kind of financial paradigm. Unless you have ever lived on £1.50 portion of chips a day I don't expect you to understand

Jackal90 wrote:



Edit: as a side note I’m seeing tons of people saying they don’t paint because they are bad at it.
Like anything in life it takes practice, no one starts out as an amazing painter.
If you don’t paint you will never improve, it’s kind of a defeatist attitude.

I think it's more that they don't want to invest the time into practicing. Not everyone prioritizes time the same way, and many people only have the one army. It's easy to find the time to play a game once in a while, even if you have an active life, but finding the time to learn a whole new skill can be difficult if you're also working, raising a family, keeping fit/sports, ect. Particularly if you're also spending time learning other skills for home/work.

I can easily see a guy who plays his space marines made from a few battalion boxes as a way to keep up with his buddies from school, but out side of their time in the shop 1/week, really doesn't have the ability to prioritize the time away from family/work/other interests. In this example, he plays the game as a social activity, rather than as a big hobby.

 Insectum7 wrote:
Painting my Space Marines in their white paint scheme is a chore and a half.

have you tried the apoacathary white contrast paint? not normally a big fan of contrast paints but apocathary white is very much on my list of ".. ok this is REALLY useful"

BrianDavion wrote:

 Insectum7 wrote:
Painting my Space Marines in their white paint scheme is a chore and a half.

have you tried the apoacathary white contrast paint? not normally a big fan of contrast paints but apocathary white is very much on my list of ".. ok this is REALLY useful"

White contrast over gray seer looks really good IMO. Ive seen some SMs at my local shop painted this way in person and I was quite impressed..
Im going to be doing this for my shadow specters and banshees.

the white armor on my sisters here was done with the white contrast.

normally primaris marines work poorly with contrasts put I did up a primaris apocathary in the contrast and it looked pretty good

I don't like painting. My armies tend to be a collection of units I had to paint for a tourney game way back when.

BrianDavion wrote:
the white armor on my sisters here was done with the white contrast.

Can you tell me which foundation and which paint exactly? I'm currently painting three layers on my DG to get that look, and I'd love to find a shortcut.

I believe apothecary white over gray seer

This seems to be the dogs bollocks.

I haven't painted in almost 2 years. I was thinking about this for a while, my initial reaction being that my time is so split between work, my son I have every weekend, my partner, the gym, family and friends. I realised however that all these things were taking up time prior to my drop off in painting.

I think I have found the real culprit in reflecting on it. I used to play 40k 2/3 times a week but not long after 8th dropped I played less and less and my painting followed shortly after to the point that I now do neither with any regularity. With gaming, even with sub par units (I was renowned for playing a lot of terminators and Land Raiders in 7th), being my driving force to paint it's no surprise I've stopped. With GW gutting the game mechanics to a 7 year olds level myself and a number of my friends have stopped playing. Probably explains why a few of us now only play historicals despite huge piles of grey GW plastic....

Time. Other activities.

I do, but really slowly, and I don't buy more till I'm finished with what I have. I like to buy the army bundles, so it gives me a lot to work through; assembly is much faster than painting, so there's usually a few grey ones for a while.

 Argive wrote:

Jackal90 wrote:
It wasn’t a post to bash people.
Someone said they didn’t have a lamp, yet the models they own cost indefinitely more than a lamp.

That’s like having a house full of food but starving to death.

Money isn’t the key factor for not owning one when someone happily pays more for models.

Yes, it is an extra cost, but you can’t say it’s too expensive then go out and spend that or more on more plastic.

If you read his posts in other topics you'd know that its not the case...
He doesn't go out out and buy more plastics like me or you lol. He's been using the same army pretty much for years. As I said he's a kid.

Its certainly an outlier situation, not the norm.

Point of order - while Karol was at the root of the quote chain, Jackal's point was in response to nareik's comment on lighting.

I don't think there was any need to jump down his throat here, dude.

 Dysartes wrote:

 Argive wrote:

Jackal90 wrote:
It wasn’t a post to bash people.
Someone said they didn’t have a lamp, yet the models they own cost indefinitely more than a lamp.

That’s like having a house full of food but starving to death.

Money isn’t the key factor for not owning one when someone happily pays more for models.

Yes, it is an extra cost, but you can’t say it’s too expensive then go out and spend that or more on more plastic.

If you read his posts in other topics you'd know that its not the case...
He doesn't go out out and buy more plastics like me or you lol. He's been using the same army pretty much for years. As I said he's a kid.

Its certainly an outlier situation, not the norm.

Point of order - while Karol was at the root of the quote chain, Jackal's point was in response to nareik's comment on lighting.

I don't think there was any need to jump down his throat here, dude.

Appreciate it but this is Dakka, my skin is thick enough to just ignore it.
People like to try and find fault instead of commenting on the actual topic.

I think anything thing I haven’t seen on here much is the urge to paint.
I’ll go through weeks where I churn out models at a stupid rate (for me anyway)
Other weeks I pick up a brush and just don’t feel it.
That’s partly due to staring at over 100 chainrasps though.

Seem to buy a lot faster than I paint, leading to several ongoing projects and slowing myself down.

 Jidmah wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
the white armor on my sisters here was done with the white contrast.

Can you tell me which foundation and which paint exactly? I'm currently painting three layers on my DG to get that look, and I'd love to find a shortcut.

Apocathary white over wraithbone.

Someone broke into my car and stole all my paints. Lol just waiting on $500 to buy the army painter range. And some citadel for the gaps

BrianDavion wrote:

 Jidmah wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
the white armor on my sisters here was done with the white contrast.

Can you tell me which foundation and which paint exactly? I'm currently painting three layers on my DG to get that look, and I'd love to find a shortcut.

Apocathary white over wraithbone.

Thanks, I'll give it a try

I think many people go through seasons - one month you get really on-board with painting and do it every night as a habit. Then maybe you finish that squad, and can't be bothered to start a new one for a while. Inertia basically.

 Jidmah wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:

 Jidmah wrote:

BrianDavion wrote:
the white armor on my sisters here was done with the white contrast.

Can you tell me which foundation and which paint exactly? I'm currently painting three layers on my DG to get that look, and I'd love to find a shortcut.

Apocathary white over wraithbone.

Thanks, I'll give it a try

No problem. not entirely sold on contrast paints but the apoacathry white is a good solution to the "painting white problem"

Personally I do paint, largely as a mechanic to slow down buying, however several at the local group don't, their reasons vary but at the end of the day, their models, their choice.

I don't think we have anyone unable to paint, or ashamed of paint ability - both of which are pretty valid reasons, if you are going to make a right pigs ear, or think you are then sometimes plain plastic or just a coloured primer is perhaps preferable.

we do have several who find painting takes time they just don't have - typically they have a few painted characters accompanied by the primed legions

tends to be a bit of needling over unpainted models, more for historical games than 40k/AoS but its gentle and good natured.

at the end of the day most recognise painted looks better, but not all have the ability and we all understand that

Time, that simple. Plus I think I am in the process of my eyesight degrading from very good to problematic when I switch between close and further focusing. I am on the cusp of needing glasses, so at the moment it can really cause me headaches, etc. Time, however, is the absolutely key factor. My job is way too intensive to allow me the time to paint with any real leisure and focus.