Painting Quandry

[Gallagher_Standard_Barer]

I've finally resolved to get all my lead painted, a daunting task with over 100 mini's needing paint, and I thought I would ask everybody here how they go about painting.  Specifically do you basecoat the whole model, then wash the whole model, then highlight.  Or do you basecoat, shade, and highlight one part of the mini before moving on?

Typically I've done each step for the whole mini before moving on, but I've been looking at some of the minis on www.Dragon-Miniatures.com and he seems to complete the whole process for each section of the mini before moving on, with some pretty good results.  So what does everyone here do?

[Veez]

Sounds like the work of a master.  Me I'm a bit of a journeyman.  I base white, blacken the metals, drybrush the metals, hit the deeper or darker colors as appropriate and do the highlights/drybrushing of all the same colors at the same time.  Saves on paint and allows me to go back and fix mistakes.  If I'm convey-belting large groups I do them one step at a time like an assembly line.  The final product is solid and though not show material, it decorates the board nicely. 

Then gets killed and set aside.

[Ruther]

First i paint some thin layers of the basic color over the mini than i use a mix of layering and wetblending for highlights and shades. I do that with every part bevore i move on the next  (first do clothing than armor and last weapons) So its the seond version for me

[Sylvas]

I'm probably the wrong person to respond to this query, since I'm so anal about painting...but here goes...

I paint from the inside out, using mostly a black basecoat (unless the mini is going to have a bright, colorful paint job)...and totally paint an area before moving on to the next area...I usually layer my paints so that they really stand out...it takes a long time to do this, but the results do speak for themselves...

B.
helps to be an art major...

[PFC joe]

I basecoat (to give  a rough idea of what goes where) then paint all the dark areas and blacks (including metals) then move onto lighter colored areas.  It's much more difficult to clean dark "oopsies" off of nicely shaded light areas than it is to smudge out light colored wandering brush strokes.

I basecoat entire squads  then do the highlighting and shading by color in turns.

-PFC joe

[semai99]

I basecoat (to give  a rough idea of what goes where) then paint all the dark areas and blacks (including metals) then move onto lighter colored areas.  It's much more difficult to clean dark "oopsies" off of nicely shaded light areas than it is to smudge out light colored wandering brush strokes.

I basecoat entire squads  then do the highlighting and shading by color in turns.

-PFC joe

I do amost the same as PFC Joe first I look at the squad to be painted (or mutiplies as the case might be ie plastic Ducal Militia) I then decide how many to paint in one go it might be 5 or 10 depending on how much detail is on the figure with the 40 Ducal militia I painted them in batches of 20.

What I then do after deciding on the amount to paint is what my colour scheme will be usually refering to reference I have collected of painted figures (not just warzone) for an idea of a colour scheme that will look good on the particular minis I'm painting. Then I usually undercoat white.  Then looking at the figure I usually paint the largest coloured areas first on all figures then the same with each colour, then I shade and highlight each area.   

I'm by far not the bast painter in the world but my style of painting suits the tabletop painting but by some fluke my smaller scale figures always look better than my 25mm figures    and I'm probably the worlds worse for not finishing of an army before moving onto another paint job.

So my aim this year is to actually finish painting units from my painted armies AND actually finish each one of properly with squad markings etc   

[Ruther]

About the numbers, i usualy never paint more than 2 Minis at ones and if its an individuel i focus on just that figure.
In the past i only needed about 2-3 hours per mini in TT qualitiy (i'm a bit picky when it comes to quality ) but nowadys i spend about  5-6 hours for TT quality minis.  I guess you can figure that i need some time till i actualy have an army finished but as i own about 4-5 Full painted ones it isnt that urgent to finish new ones 

[Alpha]

Well, I probably do it a weird way, but here's my method.

I start out by base coating them with an appropriate primer (black, white or grey depending on the colors going on top - black most commonly, but if I'm going to use bright colors, large areas of flesh or whites on the model, I'll use white. I rarely use grey, but do when I don't want it to be dark/muted or especially bright and colorful). Sometimes I'll use model enamels and spray paint several squads at once using this as a primer and base coat. This is kind of a quick and dirty method, but it has served me well. I like the Model Master spray paint for this and have used it on quite a few of my figures.

I then drybrush, shade and get the "primary color" of the mini to look good (ie blue for a Etoile, Green for a Capitolian Lt. Infantry, etc). This lets me hurriedly get the larger areas done without having to be very careful...and if I don't like them at this stage, I haven't done a lot of work if they're Pine-Sol bound.

Next I block in the detail colors. I then work the skin, then straps, packs, boots etc. I then drybrush and higlight these areas carefully (since they're smaller) Next comes little details like buckles, badges, etc. At this point I do my "favorite" part. I look at the generic looking figure and think about what I can do to make it stand out a little. Is there an area I can paint to draw interest or make it look more detailed and "showcase" than it really is (I rarely paint showcase minis - just simple tableop mnis with a little extra detailing at the end to make them look (in a VERY cursory glance) like showcase minis. Typical stuff is like checkerboard patterns, numbers or unit marks, rank stripes, etc. It's amazing what a tiny bit of this can do to make very basic figures look impressive on the table (at least to me...you may think my paint jobs bite. LOL).

Finally, I do the base (I usually go VERY simple here - I like them looking like "game pieces" and want to just frame the figure). I just paint the area a grass green color then dip it into flock. I then let it dry completely and do any last touch ups (I work quickly so, there's usually a few spots where I messed up something previously painted)....then dull coat the heck out of it to protect it.

This method works very well (for ME) because it is quick and gets things painted to a useable level. I can turn out a squad or two a night...sometimes more if they are similar to each other.

Wow...after this I'm now totally in the mood to go paint...maybe I can finish up some of my ton of partially completed lead. LOL

[semai99]

Ruther & Alpha, where can we see pictures of your minis 

I then drybrush, shade and get the "primary color" of the mini to look good (ie blue for a Etoile, Green for a Capitolian Lt. Infantry, etc). This lets me hurriedly get the larger areas done without having to be very careful...and if I don't like them at this stage, I haven't done a lot of work if they're Pine-Sol bound.

I do something similar but I tend to apply a thin coat of the base colour add shading in the recceses and then drybrush lighter colour it sounds labour intensive but you'd be amazed how many you can get through in a night

[MadBrad]

I don't know if it moved from the previous website, but there was a guide to painting large numbers of figs in a short time span. 

The very condensed version:

1: Base coat everything black. 

2. White Drybrush the entire figure

3. Mix the primary color for an area, about half paint and half "thinner".  (Thinner for acryllic paints should be about half acryllic floor wax and water mixed.)

4. Apply this "blocking color" to the appropriate drybrushed area.  The color should thin out on the white, highlighted area, and crevass darker into the detail/fold type areas.

5. Paint in a few additional details as needed.  Metals probably won't work well with this technique, so you can paint on guns, knives, buckles, buttons, whatever else, as well as eyes and other "special stuff"

6. Do final cleanup as needed on all other areas.

The disclaimer on the article, as I recall, indicated that this technique would get you large #'s of finished figs with a minimum of effort, and would not win any contests.  The author, however, did request feedback if anyone did win a contest using this technique! 

It occurs to me, that if you want to paint your army in two steps, this quick method, then go back and re-paint a few figs at a time to a higher quality, it would be a decent way to get those figs on the board, fast, and then allow you to more leisurely upgrade paintjobs.  I usually find modifying an existing paint job is much easier than trying to start from bare metal. 

Hope this helps!

MadBrad
 

[Alpha]

Ruther & Alpha, where can we see pictures of your minis 

I had quite a few in the Excelsior Gallery and a couple have made it to the catalog now. I'd like to see the gallery back...it was a nice feature and a source of inspiration.

Anyhow...for now I've thrown together my own gallery you can take a look at. Like I said, most of these are nothing special, but I certainly don't think they look bad. A few I admit I'm a little proud of.

You can take a look at them here:

http://www.wolfbanes.com/minis.htm

[semai99]

I'd like to see the gallery back...it was a nice feature and a source of inspiration.

I liked the gallery as well as it gave several people different approches to painting the same figure with some suprising results

Anyhow...for now I've thrown together my own gallery you can take a look at. Like I said, most of these are nothing special, but I certainly don't think they look bad. A few I admit I'm a little proud of.

I like a lot of them they would look great on the tabletop, You've given me some ideas as to how to do about painting my SOR when I get around to them especially the Northern Guards Which I really like (your paint job) and the figures themselves

[Alpha]

Also, I have a few of my terrain items here:

http://www.wolfbanes.com/terrain.htm

There will be some interesting new stuff coming here soon....including updated pics of my Citadel and my Lutheran "Martyr's Hill"

[Alpha]

I like a lot of them they would look great on the tabletop, You've given me some ideas as to how to do about painting my SOR when I get around to them especially the Northern Guards Which I really like (your paint job) and the figures themselves

Thanks! I'm really glad you like them...I do like the Camo pattern on the Northern Sons. I plan on using a similar scheme on some Bauhaus figures as well (it was derived from German WWII camo).

Like I said, they aren't "showcase", but I think they are very nice for tabletop figures...and best of all is that I can paint a squad in a couple of hours.
On a positive note, my wife and I have agreed to start giving each other a night of free time a week (taking care of my son and letting each other have a little personal time). We stopped that when we moved into the new house because there was so much to do...but we're going back to it now. My usual activity on those nights was painting minis while watching Sci-Fi or Horror movies...so I'm looking forward to Monday nights. I'll add new pics as I get stuff done.

Hopefully I'll finish up that mountain of half done units I have....

[semai99]

Alpha thats great news, I'm trying to make an effort to do some more painting during the week when i have time rather than watching TV. So you wont mind if i copy your northen sons then 

I went to your terrain gallery I get a large picture but just stays the same not changing to the picture at the top, I saw the citadel in the other gallery before and it looks good.