Ishil Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Ten hours or more, for a 'decent tabletop' mini. My painting quality has been slowly increasing, but so has the time to paint them. I always start off trying to paint to the highest level I can, but they don't always end up that way... Ishil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dks Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 I used to take 3-4 hours on average, usually start-to-finish in a single session. Longer times meant either a complicated figure or redundant work (painting-over of parts that I didn't like). Then I distinctly remember taking 14 hours in 2 sessions (6 hours and 8 hours) on a figure about 5 years ago (Visions in Color 7, the special sorceress figure by Sandra Garrity), as procrastination during exam week in grad school. It was the longest time I had spent on one figure. Soon afterward, I realized how much I still had to learn (and how much more time it would take to paint a figure to my ever-rising standards...), and I've also kept timesheets over the last two years. A typical figure now takes me about 8-10 hours, over a week or two; "quick" means 3 or 4, in 1 or 2 sessions; speed-paints (for competitions) take 45 minutes or an hour; the longest I've spent on a single figure is around 60 hours (my albino Sebeki Master of Words for GenCon 2005). Derek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tanker22 Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Was working on a squade of starship trooper marines awhile back. Think it took longer to clean, assemble and base them than to paint'em up! What a pain those guys were. Almost as bad as putting GW Cadian inf. together. Suppose I get my larger nekkid girls done in 6-10 hours. End up waiting about 6-10 days for oils to dry when its all said and done though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 1-3 hours each on grunts but I've been known to turn out a few half hour jobs when I'm pinched. 3-6 hours on champions or characters. The skies the limmit on "nicer" stuff but I usually like to keep it under 20 hours since I paint for games and not for display or competition. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madog Barfog Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 Suppose I get my larger nekkid girls done in 6-10 hours. End up waiting about 6-10 days for oils to dry when its all said and done though Stop licking them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paintrix Posted September 27, 2007 Share Posted September 27, 2007 I put 10-15 hours in the average miniature I'll sell on eBay, with no more than a couple of hours for cleanup, conversion, etc. (I pick figures that don't need much work in this area.) The same figure for a competition entry might be anywhere from 25-50 hours, with 5 to 15 for conversion, sculpting, and basing. And I *can* still turn out a character for tabletop in 3 or 4 hours, if it's a life or death situation. It won't be that pretty, but it'll be painted. --Jen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Wehrmacht Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 Good lord I think im slow. I measure time by days though, in that I really don't keep too much track of number of hours painted, but rather how many calendar days its been since i started. Unfortunetly I think I am averaging 1 every 3 weeks, which sucks alot in my mind. LW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ixminis Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 I can do 25mm/28mm figures in assembly lines in 30 minutes to 1.5 hours (basic tabletop), same scale but good tabletop or not assembly line (due to uniqueness or complexity) 1.5 hours to 4.5 hours. There's also the "WHY did this take so long?" factor... Rodnik hit the explanation... although it can be other things like cats attacking the brush(es), drinking the paint water (stopped letting 'em after Sue's post about things).... Most time I've spent... err... looks for scrap of paper with time for... sure 10-20 hours? I think? I'm moving from scrap paper to a journal to better keep track... Somewhere there's a piccie of a 45 minute AICOM figure I did... with only the Reaper Pro-Paint primary colors available, so I had to mix to get the sandish/fleshish desert camouflage colors that I used on it... It was passable tabletop... I ramble... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Tiger Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 I have a weird habit of working on about 3 mini's at once for 1-2 hours for 2-4 days and then finish them at about the same time. So I guess my answer to the question as posed is about 4-8 hours for your typical fig. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Legion Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 it all depends on the figure, lots of little details, some detail, or no to little detail. the quality your trying to achieve what the figure means to you and if you are trying out any new techniques. Ive finished table top in 1-4 hours for basic table top. I've also finished them longer as they were specifically MY character and I wanted it just so. Or yet another table top was my pitfiend where I wanted to wetblend his wings, took about 10 hrs. overall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Helltown Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 We're supposed to keep track of how long it takes to paint too!? Sheesh... Of course, I just went from being able to fiddle with minis for hours on end to having to scrounge for time, so.. No clue really how long it takes me to paint a mini. I would guess anywhere from 10-20 hours, but I'm sure I could go faster if I really wanted to... but I don't. I like to take the time to play with the Evil Ones, step out to get a soda from the store on the corner, play a game of solitaire on the 'puter or change the DVD in the living room (the cats have started caterwauling whenever a Lord of the Rings movie is in the player... must be time to 'watch' something else). If I'm painting at the store, customers happen... and Unofficial Reaper Chat... and deliveries... well, you get the idea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vutpakdi Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 I normally take about 2 hrs of so for grunts of good tabletop quality. Leaders, elites, and solos are more in the 3-8 hour range. Depends on the mini though. I do find it helpful to keep a painting notebook with a sheet for each mini (or group of minis if I am doing a small group). Each sheet lists: Name of the mini Month that I painted the mini A list of mini parts and the colors that I used on that part (base, highlights, shades) how I primed and sealed Days, time, and what I worked on for that session I've also started painting the actual color onto the paper now that I've switched to the thick paper Moleskine notebook. I've found the painting notebook to be very helpful, particularly when I want to use a previous color scheme (for armies) or when I want to estimate how long things will take. Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ironworker Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 I normally take about 2 hrs of so for grunts of good tabletop quality. Leaders, elites, and solos are more in the 3-8 hour range. Depends on the mini though. I do find it helpful to keep a painting notebook with a sheet for each mini (or group of minis if I am doing a small group). Each sheet lists: Name of the mini Month that I painted the mini A list of mini parts and the colors that I used on that part (base, highlights, shades) how I primed and sealed Days, time, and what I worked on for that session I've also started painting the actual color onto the paper now that I've switched to the thick paper Moleskine notebook. I've found the painting notebook to be very helpful, particularly when I want to use a previous color scheme (for armies) or when I want to estimate how long things will take. Ron Man I wish I was that organized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vutpakdi Posted September 28, 2007 Share Posted September 28, 2007 I normally take about 2 hrs of so for grunts of good tabletop quality. Leaders, elites, and solos are more in the 3-8 hour range. Depends on the mini though. I do find it helpful to keep a painting notebook with a sheet for each mini (or group of minis if I am doing a small group). [...] I've found the painting notebook to be very helpful, particularly when I want to use a previous color scheme (for armies) or when I want to estimate how long things will take. Man I wish I was that organized. Well, sometimes, I do fudge the date/time keeping a bit, mainly when I'm painting at paint and takes (since I get interrupted so often, the time keeping is pretty useless). I've been an inveterate note taker since high school. The first several years of working life refined the habit a bit and showed me how helpful time keeping can be. Good notes have saved my butt more than a few times at work. On the flip side, having a reputation for a good note taker has gotten me "volunteered" into being a recorder for some meetings that I wouldn't otherwise attend. Ron Ron Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redfeild Posted September 28, 2007 Author Share Posted September 28, 2007 I thought I was taking a long time but it seems I'm on the mark. I just did a Beastman in about 3 or 4 hours. I'm not interested in super fine detail yet but my work looks better than your average pre-painted from WotC or Clix. I love dry brushing. Its fast. Its freindly. I have worked with other blending techniques with some success but I'm not very good with them yet. Sometimes I can get inking to work. Sometimes I can't. Over all I like my average style because its faster. Its not as truely awsome as what I have seen here but its more than adiquite for table top gaming. I have completed 5 figures in less than a week with my style and I'm sure with practice i can speed that up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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