'Quick painting' tips

[IBBoard]

OK, MadMaffMan requested this, and I'll post it as a forum topic for now. It could make a good article, but I've not painted for a while so I'm a little rusty. I'm not sure I'm exactly an amazing speed painter either

Anyway, tips for painting quickly, as picked up from having an Ork army:

1) Drybrush wherever possible. My Orks' skin is heavily drybrushed, inked, fairly heavily drybrushed and then drybrushed. It doesn't make it look Golden Demon level blended, but it picks out the detail well and gives them the highlights they need to look good on the table.

2) Inks are your friend. Ork clothes are very much the same - get a collection of different browns, paint different models with different combinations and then give it a coat of chestnut ink. This works on most colours from Bubonic Brown through Snakebite Leather to Vermin Brown (and possibly beyond). If you've got a smooth coat of basecoat then the ink just gives you the highlighting and stops it looking so plain (especially bubonic brown)

3) Take advantage of the undercoat. Part of my reason for drybrushing skin is that it lets you leave a black undercoat in the deepest parts of the musculature. If you then ink over it later, the very deep darkness remains, but gains a slight hint of colour.

4) Paint in batches. A fairly obvious one, but paint in batches of a reasonable number. I find I can usually work on five or six Orks at once. Don't work on too many or you'll find your paint drying out by the end of the batch (especially if it is a mixed colour) and don't work on too few as you'll take longer to complete them as you wait for paints to dry.

5) Don't rush! Almost counter-intuitive when it is 'quick painting', but don't rush it. The best of paint jobs can be spoiled by a lack of tidyness, and a simple basecoat can still look great if you keep it neat. Always try to get a clean distinction between colours. If you get paint on an unpainted area, paint over it later, and if you get paint on a painted area then either dab/wipe it off with a bit of water and an older (but still soft) paint brush/drybrush or a bit of kitchen roll.



So, there's the tips I can come up with for now Any other suggestions or comments on where it's unclear or anything, just yell. I'll leave it a while, see what needs correcting and then post it as an article later.

[MadMaffMan]

Do you undercoat using a brush and paint or one of those spray-cans.

When i last painted my Dark Angels i tried the spay-cans but it was a real pain finding somewhere to do it and then afterward i'd find areas like the underside of the arms and body where the paint hadn't got. I began to think maybe it was easier to just undercoat with normal paint and brush.

[IBBoard]

I spray undercoat (got to go outside into the back alley behind our block of flats ) and then thin down some Chaos Black to paint over the areas I missed. If you turn the models a few times and spray at different angels (put a few in a cut-open box and hold that from underneath so you can get a lower angle) then you shouldn't have as many missed patches

Just don't spray when it's too cold or you end up with the Skull White coming out like spray snow

[IBBoard]

OK, I've come up with another point - Keep your palette small. If you just use a small number of paints, you can batch-paint easier and things get much simpler. For example with Space Marines just use chapter colour, chapter colour highlight, black, silver and armour wash for metal areas and one chosen colour for the eye. It won't look quite as detailed as if you pick out all of the details in full colour, but it will look neat, effective and won't turn into a random 'explosion in a paint factory' scheme

[MadMaffMan]

I've been reading the online painting guides by GW, in them they keep saying things like '80/20 mix of the colours'. I know what they mean but is there an easy way to do this with out wasting to much paint.

I knew someone who used to use a plastic syringe to mix colours but that seems like a lot of work cleaning the things out after each colour. I used to just use a large brush to transfer paint to a mixing palette and even that used to waste paint.

I dont think i ever messed with Inks before, if the stuff is so runny doesn't it just go everywhere. Mind you i could use it to paint whole squads real fast.

[IBBoard]

Inks are quite runny, but not too runny. They're designed to pool in the crevases of the model, so you can easily shade things like chainmail, furs etc. I've had heavily loaded brush-fulls of ink and not had a problem Just don't let it pool too much - give it an even coating on the flat areas and all is good.

As for the 80/20 mix, there are three alternatives:

1) approximate and go for four brushloads and 1 brushload, that's my method, just mix a small batch and then mix more as you need it (with a bit left to the side for colour comparison)

2) ignore it if it's at that level and go for 100% of the 80% colour - it won't be a perfect match, but it'll be an interpretation,

3) do what GW apparently do (which would be a reasonable cause of them having to mix so many colours) and buy another brand Paul Sawyer (WD editor) has been seen in a photo at his painting desk with another brand of paint's catalogue beside him, and the top Golden Demon painters don't stick to GW paints. Besides, the prices are going up, you only get 12ml and they have a bad habit of drying out.

[TGSC]

who's was that massive pot of black paint you got? was it a 20ml one? think they sell them in Wargames Emproium, £1.75

[IBBoard]

I posted that brand in one of the other threads. 20ml Rackham Colour. It's thick and has a little squirty nozel under that lid, but it's good stuff and I can imagine it being better than GW version (it's a controlled squirt so you can easily get a little bit and then mix with water)

[IBBoard]

OK, I've come up with a final tip that I'll post before I add this as an article:

7) Clean your models Having just stripped paint off a load of second hand models, cleaning sprue lines and moulding marks is a must - there were loads of bits on the metal where a straggling 'string' of metal was left and painted over and it makes the models look messy. Carefully clean up any mould lines etc with a craft knife and assemble them without any gaps and things will look better

Actually, maybe that should come under another article, because it ends up taking more time and so isn't a 'quick painting' tip, but it is worth it

[edit] OK, the tips are now posted in a Quick painting tips article. I left the one from this post out, since it isn't a 'quick painting' tip, just a general tip. I'll see if I can come up with a few more to make an article from

[IBBoard]

LOL, since posting that article, it has now hit number one on google! That's without trying!

Google: quick painting tips