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While trying improve my painting skills, and paint mini to level I don't want throw them in recycle bin I got a problem. Let's say 28mm miniature(cadian trooper) took almost 9 hours to paint from primed to varnished and set on shelf.
So the question is how many time you spend to paint your regular guy to acceptable level?
Also do you repaint minis you paint earlier before your skill improved?
I have no idea how long it takes me to paint one mini, because I usually paint them in batches. I usually have 20-30 on my desk in various stages of painting. But I would not be surprised to find that averaged out it's several hours per mini.
For me, painting is part of the fun of miniature wargaming, and so 'it takes as long as it takes' works for me specifically because I enjoy the process.
Repainting older minis happens... sometimes. Usually a mini I only have one of, and it's not part of an army. So my old BattleTech minis I painted in the late eighties, yeah, they got stripped recently for repainting. The hundreds of Skaven I painted for my first WFB army in the nineties? Nope, they are what they are and will not be stripped for repainting, EVER.
If you want to speed up your painting, you could always try slapchop? Some people swear by it..
"The larger point though, is that as players, we have more control over what the game looks and feels like than most of us are willing to use in order to solve our own problems"
Well I started working on my Heldrake before we moved house, and that was about 12 years ago I think...
My problem is more that I never get round to painting, and also I can only paint for an hour or so at a time before my eyes get worn out and can't focus any more.
I'd say for the average troop model I spend an hour or two tops - but I also paint in batches so 'per model' is a bit harder to judge. I have started using a slapchop-style method though, with contrast paints over a zenithal prime, and that makes things a lot faster. If anything, better looking than I was managing before too.
Probably 15 to 20 minutes per model, to consider it "acceptable for tabletop" which usually means Contrast on spray can zenithal.
I often spend more, though, especially as now that I'm playing Kill Team I have the urge to go above this minimum to make my teams unique and characterfuland also to experiement more withnew techniques.
When I painted mass troops for ASOIAF or all contents of a board game in one go it was definitely this Contrast quickpainting method, and, all things considered, I'm still happy with the results.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/08/13 11:17:50
I paint in batches of 5 infantry models. I think batch painting is key to not spending too much time per model. Of course if I painted 10 per batch, or more (I know people who paint 30 per batch), that would improve the economies of scale. 5 is optimal for me though, any more and I get disheartened and feel like I'm not making any progress.
It takes me about 5 hours to paint 5 infantry models, so roughly 1 hour per model. This doesn't include undercoating (I do this with spray paint) or varnishing (also spray). After this amount of time I feel like I've got the models to a stage that I think they look good.
I am no expert painter by any means, I certainly won't be winning awards for my paint jobs. I think if I had more patience I could up the end result, though 1 hour per model is about as much time as I'm willing to spend.
I feel like I have some kind of urge/complex. I like to took at some of my model from shelf and feel it's not how I want it to look like. And damn golden demon always make me feel my minis ugly.
I do batch paints to point I do base coat, main light shapes, reflections and then I start add fine details and that consume a lot of time. Smooth transitions from light to shadow take a lot of time.
I tried zenithal + contrasts, but it's always not like I like how it's looks. You know shadows have wrong hue and reflections has wrong colour for this basing and Idk. All wrong.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/08/13 20:43:15
kabaakaba wrote: I feel like I have some kind of urge/complex. I like to took at some of my model from shelf and feel it's not how I want it to look like. And damn golden demon always make me feel my minis ugly.
I do batch paints to point I do base coat, main light shapes, reflections and then I start add fine details and that consume a lot of time. Smooth transitions from light to shadow take a lot of time.
I tried zenithal + contrasts, but it's always not like I like how it's looks. You know shadows have wrong hue and reflections has wrong colour for this basing and Idk. All wrong.
I can't paint with a quarter of the skill you have, but I suffer from the same problem.
When my model comes out looking like crap (to me) I shelve it, and won't play with it.
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
After hiatus I try paint squad of cadians. Then strip them and paint again and again. And still don't like first squad of 20. They looks good from tabletop distance, like they part of their base highlight by reflected light from below, illuminated from above. But whet you look at them upclose there's spots of paint and it's make me mad... Now I spend more time until I'm happy with model,but it's like I finish army right to start of 12th edition.
kabaakaba wrote: After hiatus I try paint squad of cadians. Then strip them and paint again and again. And still don't like first squad of 20. They looks good from tabletop distance, like they part of their base highlight by reflected light from below, illuminated from above. But whet you look at them upclose there's spots of paint and it's make me mad... Now I spend more time until I'm happy with model,but it's like I finish army right to start of 12th edition.
That's why I'm focusing on Kill Team, if I can get 10 guys looking the way I want, I'll expand to Combat Patrol for 40k.
But so far, bases and tactical rocks are aggravating me.
BorderCountess wrote: Just because you're doing something right doesn't necessarily mean you know what you're doing...
I like kill team cause of that. Easy to paint. Nice rules. No power creep. I found out Boarding actions(which looks like Warhammer I dream of) and that way easier to paint 3 different army of 500 points compare to 1500 of same force cause of context theme and paint job switch in-between them. Like you don't go crazy painting another 150 guards.
kabaakaba wrote: I feel like I have some kind of urge/complex. I like to took at some of my model from shelf and feel it's not how I want it to look like. And damn golden demon always make me feel my minis ugly.
I do batch paints to point I do base coat, main light shapes, reflections and then I start add fine details and that consume a lot of time. Smooth transitions from light to shadow take a lot of time.
I tried zenithal + contrasts, but it's always not like I like how it's looks. You know shadows have wrong hue and reflections has wrong colour for this basing and Idk. All wrong.
Luckily, I’m the last panel, but know you aren’t alone. Might be handy for you to keep old models and compare them to newer ones to slowly see improvements. Plus, the fact you can see errors means you can improve on them, which is better than being blind to them.
One day I will have something funny enough to be in a signature.
kabaakaba wrote: So the question is how many time you spend to paint your regular guy to acceptable level?
There is no easy answer to this question unfortunately. You could ask 100 people and get 100 different answers. Everyone paints at different speeds, uses different techniques (or variations on the same technique), has different standards that they set themselves to meet and can approach the same model as someone else in an entirely different way. These factors, and many more beside, contribute to the end result and the time taken. There is no hard and fast answer to how long painting a model should take you.
To use myself as an example. I know if I'm painting a space marine, it's going to take me about 3 - 4 hours form start to finish If I knuckle down and do nothing else but paint. Now I'm not factoring in priming, because I always prime a model a day or more in advance so it's got ample time to dry. I also don't varnish my models unless I have a specific reason to do so (applying decals and such). So I can discount those two aspects from my overall time.
If I'm painting a character model, whether it be a space marine, or a LotR model or even a one off "paint it for fun" model, I know that that is going to take me much, much longer, because i'm going to put a lot more effort into then I would a standard space marine. It might take me upwards of 8 or 9 hours, or even more if it's a bigger model. But that's generally over the course of 3 or 4 sessions and not all in one hit.
But if you asked me what I think is the single most important way to improve your painting skills and the amount of time it takes to paint a model, then there is actually only one answer. And that is PRACTICE. You can have all the fancy tools, all the best paints. You can use all the advanced techniques, and cut all the corners you can to achieve your end result. But there is no substitute for practice. It doesn't matter what you paint, or what techniques you use, just keep painting. Practice builds skill. It builds confidence in your skills. And that all, in a roundabout way, increases the speed at which you'll find yourself painting.
Also do you repaint minis you paint earlier before your skill improved?
I have repainted my old minis from when I first started. I've kept a few for various reasons, but the rest I all stripped back and have repainted over the years as my skills increased. But again, that's all personal choice. I know people who won't repaint their old minis, and I know one guy who is forever fiddling with his paint jobs as he learns new techniques and skills. He mostly paints busts and larger scale display models though.
I paint in big batches aiming for tabletop quality so I bet it averages out tov16-20 per mini at most. Base/prime, block colors, dip, drybrush, matte spray.
Nice and quick tabletop standard. I have limited hobby time and I'd rather be building terrain anyway so the figures need to get painted quickly and efficiently.
kabaakaba wrote: They looks good from tabletop distance, like they part of their base highlight by reflected light from below...
Sounds good to me!
kabaakaba wrote: . But whet you look at them upclose there's spots of paint and it's make me mad...
I don't do this with units. I'm painting a unit, not individuals. There's no need for me to closely inspect a member of a unit that will be played as part of a unit.
I feel like kabaakaba should have a look at non GW minis, as they usually don’t drown in details and can be painted much faster in my experience, though as they mentioned lotr already it's probably not the main problem.
I'm usually at 1-2 hours per infantry sized model. Plague Marine needs more because of all the details, an Ork boy needs less.
I also never had the urge to paint to Golden Daemon standards, in fact most of the minis I see in competitions leave me rather cold. In that I see the talent from a technical point of view, but I wouldn't want my minis to look like that. No-metal-metal paintjobs for example. I see it's probably a lot of work, but I find me slapping boltgun metal on a sword, then an ink and a highlight looks more like I imagine a sword to look .
Same with GWs product paintings, anything nurgle usually looks aweful and goofy and doesn't service the gruesome models at all - but I wouldn't dare to say I'm painting better than them, just that my models look like I want them to look like.
Not sure what I'm getting at, maybe just that you don't have to paint to internet levels, especially not for normal troopers. Also you have to find what works for you. I tried out several contrast paints during the last couple of years, but I don't think they actually make me paint faster, as correcting mistakes takes more time than with normal colors and the washing step I save when using them is not the most time consuming.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2025/08/14 08:44:32
Cyel wrote: 3 months in and I have painted:
8 infantry units
2 cavalry units
2 Dire Wolves
8 heroes
4 officers
108 small based models and 10 cavalry size models. These contrasts really do the job! Definitely recommend them for ASOIAF.
This is also how I normally paint miniatures in board games
Note that this is the minimum acceptable for tabletop/board game for me, but this is what the question in the original post was. I often spend much more time painting with more attention and experimenting with new techniques.
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2025/08/14 10:13:21
It's not like i whine about mine painting time, just curious how much time people spent.
I tried non gw minis and ithout all that details they look flat.
Also i tried contrasts and idk, something always wrong with them.
And i don't use whashes cause they are too uncontrolable.
kabaakaba wrote: And i don't use whashes cause they are too uncontrolable.
I'm starting to see why it takes you 9 hours to paint a Cadian trooper Washes are a great way to improve the appearance of a model without too much effort.
If you're happy with how long it takes then fine, it's not a problem. Life isn't all about trying to find efficiencies.
kabaakaba wrote:It's not like i whine about mine painting time, just curious how much time people spent.
I tried non gw minis and ithout all that details they look flat.
Also i tried contrasts and idk, something always wrong with them.
And i don't use whashes cause they are too uncontrolable.
That's all fair. Seems like you're just someone who loves the uber-greebled GW look and has no problem taking a very long time to paint miniatures.
Cyel wrote: 3 months in and I have painted:
8 infantry units
2 cavalry units
2 Dire Wolves
8 heroes
4 officers
108 small based models and 10 cavalry size models. These contrasts really do the job! Definitely recommend them for ASOIAF.
This is also how I normally paint miniatures in board games
Note that this is the minimum acceptable for tabletop/board game for me, but this is what the question in the original post was. I often spend much more time painting with more attention and experimenting with new techniques.
Good stuff. It's presentations like this that make me think I should really put some time into learning zenithal highlights and contrast paints.
feel free to post your criticism here 
.
I even posted the experiment's results on this very forum 
