Speed painting?

[Deleted]

Anyone have some good techniques for speed painting Tyranids, or guard?

[starwoof]

I try to pretend that every model is a character. Then it seems like its going faster.


But to try something that WORKS, I advise doing them assembly line style. On my nids I do the black basecoat, then all the purple on them, then all the pink, then all the white, etc. Painting a squad at a time makes it go a lot faster.

[titan0]

choose a simple skeem or... insted of priming your models just use an airbrush and just paint the finishing details.

[Deleted]

thanks, ill try assembly line style

[Goddess of Darkness]

The one that I use is production line technique...you grab a squad and paint them all one colour at a time. That way your army looks like it is getting painted quicker and after you have done all the basic colours on all the squads you then start the process again on the highlighting.

The whole idea is that you have done half the painting and there is no unpainted models on the table.

[Icehornet]

I follow the same technique myself. Assembly/production line style is by far the best way to go about things. Since I'm painting a Imperial Fist army (Yellow, yellow and...Yellow) I find that I get things done in far quicker time then I would if I did them one at a time. Just grab a Squad, stick to as small a paint range as you can and off you go...

Avoid getting hooked on one model!!

The only time I dont follow this method is when I paint My HQ's, vehicles and what not....

[titan0]

you could just paint the eyes of yur moddel and call it painted.

[Deleted]

i daresay i'm rather good at painting eyes now.

[Woz]

Here's how I did my 'nids
White Undercoat
Base colour (Terracota)
Black wash
Dry brush the highlights (Blood red)
Claws were given a brown wash.
Paint details (like the eyes)
Then give the entire figure a light dry brush with white.

[Deleted]

Assembly line, and force yourself not to go into super detail. Once you start detailing you're guardsmen, it's hard to stop and you will be forever touching up that guardsmen's boot!!!

[Deleted]

hehe cool thought on the thread....id go with most of the people who agree on the production line approach...way simple...and way better than single figure painting....however i do tend to put better detail on those xtra special...xtra unique figures such as stormtroopers etc. So like normal G squads...its the production line approach!

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

I support the assembly line approach too, though basic detail is nice, like drybrushing the winged skulls on the cadian helmets and little stuff like that.

a good ink wash takes your model from 100% nice to 200% nice with a tiny tiny amount of effort. I always recommend getting good with washes if you want a great looking army. my friend told me that I paint my models to golden demon standards but then I told him to look closer and he realized I just wash them. from the tabletop they look spactacular, but up close you can see it's just a trick of the eye. works for me though!

[Mabus]

I would not recommend ink washes all over the model. On some areas ink would do fine, but on fatigues and faces ink makes the model look shiny and glossy. I mean no offence to people which do this but that's my personnel feeling when discussing ink washes. I use to use ink on my Tau, when I realised they looked shiny I found a better technique. Highlighting! It takes time but the models really do look good. You could even use this technique whilst painting whoule squads at a time.

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

I just finish my models with a really strong dullcote that takes all the shine out of everything - that way you get no gloss off the wash or the decals. when I finish a squad or two then I just line em up and spray em down and voilas, no shine.

[Mabus]

I wasn't talking about your army Turtle, don't worry. I was talking about the way some people think of ink as some kind of a miracle way of getting they're armies looking amazing.

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

well, before inking my army looks good but it's pretty much just nice cleanly painted colors with solidly applied tones. once I ink my models they do look amazing in my opinion.

here's a 'vs' shot: on the left is a pre-wash model, on the right is a washed one.


here's a better wash example:



in my opinion, a good wash does kinda make your model instantly amazing (at least on a tabletop quality level).

I dunno - I'm not saying that washes are the end all be all of producing quality models, infact I consider pretty much a 'quality cheat' where you can get a great result for little effort. if you hand do your highlighting/lowlighting you can come out with a way better result but you're also looking at investing alot more time/effort in your models (which with guard infantry can be ALOT of models).

[Mabus]

Hmm, what do you make of dry brushing? I don't think that's been mentioned yet.

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

it takes a lot of time, wastes alot of paint, and often ends up looking grainy. it's good for picking out details and adding a worn look to metal and stuff like that but it's definately not a speed painting method.

it can be done to look really nice in certain circumstances but the only time I've done it and like it is with my orange marines who are ALL orange with no gradiation. I just drybrush to keep the cracks in the armor from filling in, so the black primer shows thru where the cracks are - looks super nice but it's painstaking.

[Mabus]

I find it's qicker than washing models in watered down paint or ink.

[Turtleboy(AWOL)]

I guess washing is easier for me since I wash the whole model..it's pretty much akin to dipping them - I just get a tank brush and slop wash over every millimeter of the model - no skill thus no precision thus quick and easy.

[Deleted]

Drybrushing is OK sometimes, but it's not nearly as fast, and only looks better on some models. Ink washes are sweet, they look good and take like 10 seconds per guy (If you do whole model). Plus, it speeds the rest of the painting cause you only have to paint solid colours on all the other parts.

[Mabus]

I can't decide which one I like best. Using ink is good but in about a week I drybrushed about a billion Mordor orcs. If I was to do that with even watered down ink I wold go through several pots of ink.

[Deleted]

I've painted like 20 skaven with little over 5 drops of ink. It will not run out unless you drink it or decide to paint a table with it.

[Mabus]

Yum, brown ink!

[Deleted]

Tasty stuff there.