I'm currently painting my Space Wolves army at a rate of 1 space marine per evening. Is this a good production rate?
Having said that, I am yet to paint on the Space Wolves chapter badge and squad markings. So it's going to take me 13 evenings to paint a 13 man squad (with all weapon options) and then some more when I go back and do the markings.
I have 6 troops choices to paint. 13 x 6 = 78 evenings. That's roughly 11 weeks, or rather, 3 months! Then there's the dreadnoughts, the drop pods, the wolf scouts and any characters.
James warned me about this and suggested dry brushing my army, but I can never bring myself to do it. I'm too much of a perfectionist. But then, persistence and a high standard will always pay off in the long run, as it did with my Tau army.
It's also important to paint your army in manageable, bite size chunks. Even though James can blitz through an entire squad in an evening, he only ever buys 1 boxed set at a time. Meanwhile I'm sat here with loads of assembled and base coated models amongst stacked boxes of unopened drop pods.
I'm suffering for my art now, but when I have a beautiful army of well painted miniatures I'll be smiling.
Now to ponder how to keep my avid Space Wolf readers entertained for the next 3 months as I paint a Space Marine every night.
8 comments:
June 19, 2009 at 5:04 PM
Batch painting... you can cruise through a unit in a couple days.
June 19, 2009 at 5:10 PM
Imo Thats a great rate per model, i am currently painting chaos knightsand he first one took me four days to finish, spending almost 20 hours to paint and drying.
June 19, 2009 at 6:30 PM
I am a big fan of painting a squad at a time assembly line style.
I usually paint a test model first to figure out the sequence, then I do all the rest at the same time, Base coat one night highlights the next pick out details , etc.
I like it this way because when you are done, you have the whole squad finished.
I also like the decals for the shoulders when using decal solvent they look real good.
Keep up the good work,
John Dickerman
Santa Cruz Warhammer
June 20, 2009 at 6:13 AM
That is a great rate, however why not aim for a combat sqd every 5 days, that way you paint one colour on all five, then swop for the next stage - saves time, dried paint and brushes. However, you must love the feeling of satisfaction every time you finish one - so do what you do, great progress.
June 20, 2009 at 6:55 AM
That's almos the rate I'm going thru as well. I would spend one night assembling and basing them, the next night undercoat them, and start on my first mini the 3rd night. Leaving them to dry overnight is a good practice to make sure they're done proper.
It took me almost a year to complete a 3k point Tau army, to the very detail, and I'm glad i didn't rush it. Now working on my ultra marines
Keep up the good work!
June 20, 2009 at 10:29 AM
Playing is fun but sometimes the building and painting can be just as much fun (I enjoy the modeling aspect more myself). As long as you're making progress and you're happy with the rate... really it doesn't matter how fast you go.
June 20, 2009 at 3:24 PM
Good thing I'm in a painting mood at the moment. I think I'm saving my strategic brain for the Tau VS Dark Angels apocalypse game next weekend.
June 22, 2009 at 6:49 AM
I know how you feel, I am a very slow painter as well, although I do them in an assembly line, but yes, it pays off. I roughly take one month per squad (Rhino included).
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