Ye Olde Inn

I'm looking for a way to limit the amount if time that I put toward or spend on a mini. I go slow, very slow, when it comes to painting. Is there any suggestions one can offer to keep a brisk pace when painting? I've reading about limiting a color palette to 3 or 4 colors to keep it simple. I've also read several tutorials about glazes and building them up over white. I'd rather spend an hour on a mini knowing that I'm keeping my time limited and have an adequately painted figure by the end instead of spending several hours trying to get one finished with mediocre to poor results based on the time/effort put into it. It'll also expose me to new techniques and methods. I guess I'm in a poor painting slump, is that even a how to categorize it, right now and am unhappy with any results.

two methods. Sorry if i repeat something you already know.

For 10-20 minis at a time:
Spraypaint black from everywhere
Spraypaint white, but only from above (don't do pffffffffffft. Never. Do pft pft pft pft. Takes one minute more per model, but is less risky and has better results!)
The result should look like that.

Paint the mini in base colors, use bright tones; a little bit thinner than normal. They will automatically be a little bit dimmer where the primed model stayed black.

For the right color thickness, i can advertise strongly to use awet palette. Without it's difficult to get it right. On a wet palette, with a single twist of your pen, you can adjust the amount of color, the perfect pen tip and the thickness of the color. Not to mention you can mix as you want but that's not for fast-painting.

Care for the player's perspective, not so much for the rest.
That means, paint hands, weapon, face, upper side of the chest, shoulders and upper side of the arse carefully.
The underside of the belly, the armpits, underside of anything, the shoes and all the other invisible parts: no need for careful painting.

dip what you did in a tin can of Army Painter. Quickshade in a Sepia-like tone works for most of the color schemes. Don't forget to shake the can before opening it. If you shake it, the shade will be stronger, if you don't the shade will be more transparent. Use a tool, pliers for example, to dip the mini.
Afterwards, shake the mini so that what's too much comes off. Let it dry standing, so that the shade flows to the lower parts of the model.

when it's dry, shake up a can of matte transparent protection spray and do the pft pft pft thing again.
Shaking it up is important because most of the matte spray products have the problem that the small crystals for the matte impression settle down at the bottom end, and the rest of the fluid is high-gloss. So better shake it an extra minute, until the arm hurts. Be VERY careful with matte spraypaint: It can become grey where too much of it settles. So really think about the pft pft pft thing.


The more expensive method:

Spraypaint the miniature with an airbrush before assembling, each part with two or three colors, but do 30 minis at a time. The little bucket on the Airbrush has enough volume for that.
Then glue it together.
Do some details with the pen. (only where necessary).

Problems with the second method:
* You need an airbrush.
* You need airbrush colors.
* You need models that needs assembling. (So they're new & they are made from plastic)

So it is expensive. The typical ebay-hunter among us won't have too much use for the second method.

Wet Palette.
Pick area of 5 to 8 models to paint. Example: Leather.
Put a base color out.
Mix a swatch from the base color. Go from lightest highlight to one or two shades below base color in one stripe. Mix the highlights lighter than you actually want them to be in the end.
Paint that, area for area. Wet blend, do not layer. Waaaaay faster. I'm talking small areas here. One leather shield at a time, for axample.
When these areas are done, they are too light/lighter than you wanted them in the first place. Continue with washes and glazes as dark as you like it. Change and tint the base color thusly, bringing very much modulation and interest to the eye.
If you wish, take care of midtones and highlights, glaze for color and temperature contrasts, and so on, however much time you want to spend on a mini.

It seems I have been comparing everything to too high of a standard. I came across and which shows Warhammers painting of a couple of their figures. The painting struck me as 'basic'. Then my duh moment finally occurred. Most of the minis I've been looking at must be show pieces painted to a really high standard, far above standard tabletop. So time to set my standard to a more realistic level. No need to be harsh on myself.

I know exactly where you are coming from!

I insist I'm average at best, most people insist I'm good.

The thing is I'm a media average, but modally, I'm above average.

I'm always looking at how far I have to go to get to the top, not how far from the bottom I am!

I tend to rush my men to be honest, not worrying about too much detail. The other thing is I tend to paint undead, so provided you finish your paint job with Seraphim Sepia shading paint it will always turn out pretty good. I normally plaster the whole miniature in that shading as it makes material and armor look dirty and moldy and it brings out the definition in bones, it sinks into eye sockets and teeth brilliantly.

I don't give a flying fraggle about how good I am.
I do give two shits about how much fun I'm having painting and that the result looks like I have painted it.

Yeah, I tend to try too hard and it takes a long time, but as long as I'm having fun.

sajungzak wrote:Yeah, I tend to try too hard and it takes a long time[.]

At least I'm not the only one! I guess my Aspiration is to paint well enough that my figures look like the really good painted models that I've seen, not those in the Un-inspiration thread. My Expectation is to improve in tiny amounts every time I paint. Likely my aspiration will always be far above where my expectation is but as long as the gap between the two is slowly closing then HUZZAH, progress!

I'm gonna try for more dry brushing, but the consistency of the paints I got threw me off. Are they supposed to be kinda hard, like jelly?