ced1106 Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 It took me a *month* to scrape off the mold lines, fill gaps, and correct them after color spray priming for just a batch of 40+ zombies. I find it annoying that the better you get, the *longer* it takes to paint a mini. I like Owainfox's technique the best! :D 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K2h2m3 Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 Hard to say. Sometimes I think it's average, other times I think I'm glacially slow. My two biggest problems are that I don't have a dedicated space and finding the time to paint. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
althai Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 I find it annoying that the better you get, the *longer* it takes to paint a mini. It doesn't have to be that way. As you get better, you can definitely get more mileage out of taking your time if you want to get a really good result that you would be happy to have in a display case. But as you improve as a painter, you can also get a very nice result with much less time. A fun exercise is to try speed-painting - give yourself a 45 minute or 1 hour time limit and a prepped figure, and try to achieve the best result you can within the time limit. They also have speed-painting competitions at some conventions, such as Gen Con. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hammer570 Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 If I actually put in the time it takes me about a week to finish a mini. Even then I'm just painting most days, not every day. My painting output would increase significantly if video games did not exist. ^^ This. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghool Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 I could probably paint a lot faster if I wasn't succumbing to the effects of aging - eyesight going (need to paint with reading glasses now), and a bad back (an injury preventing me from sitting for more than an hour or so). Also, no kids would help loads. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug's Workshop Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 During the process of getting better, you will likely paint slower, because you are still training yourself on these new techniques. But once you have made those techniques part and parcel of your painting, you can paint faster. For example, I cleaned the mold lines off 20 armored skeletons. The first couple were more difficult than the last two, because I had to learn where all the metal injection points were, and where the mold line was. Once I figured out that every skeleton's right big toe had a little extra piece of metal, it became easy to prep the minis. Knowing how to get armor the way I wanted it, it became easy to put on a basecoat of walnut brown, drybrush with a couple tones of silver, and wash with a rust wash. Done. The bone colors can be varied with warm tans and browns vs cold, a little bit of reddish or greenish, and highlighting a little bit with ivory. Quick. They don't need to win trophies, just look good. And basic basecoat-highlight-wash painting is so ingrained into my because I've been doing this 27 years, I don't have to think much about the "how." In fact, I could experiment a little bit with different colored washes, and found neat decomposing-green wash that will work great with zombies. My brush control means I can do a quick run through the miniatures and get the leather straps done without having to redo the surrounding paint. Now, my goal of getting 10 completed by Tuesday is not going to happen. I forgot about their shields. But minus the shield and a little bit of static grass, they're done. It will take me two weeks to complete 10 minis. Back when I started, and had more time but no skill, it would take me months to the same amount of work. And that's with freehanding some sort of heraldric mark on the shields. Because I know how to keep it simple. Large geometric shapes are easy! I've been learning how to paint for 27 years, and there's no sign that I'll cease to learn new stuff anytime soon. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CashWiley Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 The proper question is, 'How slow do you paint?' :) I started off painting slow and got slower! It's actually a running joke around here now. Like many others, I struggle to find time to paint because painting minis isn't a high priority compared to most things in life. And currently I'm on mini-painting hiatus while I learn stuffy canvas painting and whatnot... But I was hitting about 2-6 hours for tabletop. For better than tabletop, I stopped counting. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ub3r_n3rd Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 The proper question is, 'How slow do you paint?' :) I started off painting slow and got slower! It's actually a running joke around here now. Like many others, I struggle to find time to paint because painting minis isn't a high priority compared to most things in life. And currently I'm on mini-painting hiatus while I learn stuffy canvas painting and whatnot... But I was hitting about 2-6 hours for tabletop. For better than tabletop, I stopped counting. If Cash painted any slower, he'd be unpainting things! 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CashWiley Posted June 1, 2016 Share Posted June 1, 2016 The last mini I was working on, I cracked off some primer while repositioning the arm, so technically I am currently working backwards... 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goblyn Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 10 - 20 minutes 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sylverthorne Posted June 4, 2016 Share Posted June 4, 2016 Depends. I've usually got a handful of minis being worked at once (you can ask OneBoot and ReaperBryan about this; they've seen me do it). Result is usually 'I'd show this off' after.. what, a few hours? That includes basic sprue/mold-line removal and gluing. No fancy bases, though. >.> I paint a little slower at home, but use the same basic setup. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pingo Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 No matter what, I always feel like I am painting at a glacially slow pace. It's why I find it helpful to have detailed WIP threads. Then I can see a record what I've done and the changes it's gone through, rather than just feeling "Not done yet ... Not done yet ... Not done yet ... Oh, now it's done." I think I work faster and more efficiently overall when I am painting several minis at once. Unfortunately, this means I am often painting a large number of figures at different stages. I may be finishing a couple a week, on average, but most of them will have been started months before. Last January I finished over forty minis in a fortnight and a bit, but most of them had been languishing in half-finished states for ages. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hibou Posted June 5, 2016 Share Posted June 5, 2016 I am the world's slowest painter. I have been working on the same bolt action soviets army for about 10 months at 90 minutes a day. I paint in layers rather than wet blending so that definitely draws out the time. I do feel that I am getting slightly faster over the course to my current project. I think its mostly do doing the same thing over and over on 50 figures. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eilif Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 Interesting thread. I'm a tabletop-quality guy so basecolors, dip and maybe a bit of drybrushing here or there. When I get motivated and am working in medium sized batches I probably turn out an average of one mini per 20-30 minutes not counting drying time. As far as getting better, the improvement of my style mostly has to do with getting cleaner results and more effective dip-shading by improving my application methods rather than learning new techniques. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishnjeeps Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 For me, It takes as long as it takes... Not a great answer but its true. Real life sneaks up rather frequently lately so I don't get to paint as often as I'd like. I have some minis I've been "working on" for years. that being said, I haven't touched them in years either. I'll get back to them eventually though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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