How long do you spend painting minis?

7

7ommy

New member
Hi all,
I have just been browsing the \"browse gallery\" (as you do) and found a brettonian knight painted by beltane (i think, sorry if i am incorrect) and it says \"painted in 5 days\"
I was so shocked at this as it is so well painted. I spend much longer and i think mine is quite a lot worse. Im not sure if hours wise i paint any slower or not which is why i am looking to see how long you lot spend painting most minis.
Cheers
Tommy
 
gohkm

gohkm

Active member
Same here. Don\'t know how the professionals do it so fast. I mean, I could spend an entire morning layering on flesh tones to get something I like, and yet, it still looks miserable compared to stuff posted by say, someone like haley or zaphod.

What\'s the secret?
 
S

supervike

Super Moderator
months...

I only paint when the mood strikes, so it literally takes weeks, sometimes months for me to finish a mini.

There was one stage where I was cranking out 5-10 a night, but they were just poor tabletop quality stuff.
 
R

Rachel

New member
Yeah, but you\'ve gotta wonder exactly what \'5 days\' entails... is it 5 hours? or 50?

For myself I rarely spend longer than 10-15 hours even the most complex/largest pieces. I put more time into stuff for competitions though.
 
No Such Agency

No Such Agency

New member
God, I\'m slow as molasses. From start to finish a mini usually takes >1 month for me. I managed to produce a Mini-a-Week for 10 weeks, but I couldn\'t keep that up for long, after the last one was done I needed a break. As for hours spent, probably 5-6 per mini I\'d guess. It\'s the details that kill me, I spend forever on those. and when I get in a rut, it\'s the freakin\' Grand Canyon of ruts. Like now for instance :(
 
S

Slider

New member
How lond do I spend painting a fig = \"NOT NEAR LONG ENOUGH\". I wish i could spend alot more time painting then I do..... :mad:

And the reason they are so good ladies and gentlemen is raw talent mixed with a whole lotta practice.....:|~

Now I\'m depressed repeat until mood passes: must not throw away brushes must not throw away brushes:(
 
Grizzix

Grizzix

Member
usually about 2 to 3 hours a day for 2 to three days. sometimes more sometimes less or, just long enough to get the scores im getting.:~:):));):Dlol
 
F

frenchkid

New member
depends but i\'d say around 8 hours per mini. And I think you go fqster as you get better or have more practice so that could be why they don\'t spend to much time. I know cyril\'s nurgle marine took him 35 hours sculpting and painting that seems like reasonable time to me.
 
Valander

Valander

Member
It depends on the level of painting I\'m going for. If I just want \"rank and file\" stuff to throw on a table and play, I can usually do about 4 minis in a couple of hours (assembly line painting for R&F helps). If I want something better, then it ranges from 3-5 hours per model for a \"corporal\" level paintjob (around 6.5-7 here), and if I want more then I may take it up to 10 hours or so.

Also, a lot of it depends on how much crap is on the model, and how inspired I am at any given moment. Those hours may not always be consecutive, either! ;) I\'ve got several models sitting around in unfinished states--granted, I may have only spent an hour or two on them of actual painting so far, but they\'ve been that way for months. :rolleyes:

I\'ve definitely found that I am getting faster, though. The more you practice, and develop your own style, the quicker you\'ll paint to the same level.
 
airhead

airhead

Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
Not near enough to get a good score, but way to much according to my wife who thinks I should be painting the garage doors instead of dragons. Go figure.???
 
C

Cerridwyn1st

New member
Originally posted by gohkm
Same here. Don\'t know how the professionals do it so fast. I mean, I could spend an entire morning layering on flesh tones to get something I like, and yet, it still looks miserable compared to stuff posted by say, someone like haley or zaphod.

What\'s the secret?
Click to expand...

Hey, Glyn, how does it feel to be compared to Jen? :D

I\'ve found that I\'m getting faster as I go along. The big time-saver is that I don\'t re-do as much. I used to spend hours going over the same thing over and over. I\'d paint it, be fairly happy with it, then mess it up trying to do something else, and have to re-do what I\'d just accomplished.

So what\'s helping me paint faster is that now I tend to \"do it once and I\'m done\".

I really can\'t say exactly how long I spend on a given mini. I guess I should, since I sell my work, and it would be nice to know just how much I\'m making on a per-hour basis.

Part of the problem with figuring how time much I spend on a given mini is that I don\'t work on just one mini if I can possibly help it. Instead, I\'ll paint a bit on one, put it down and do the same stage on another, then go back to the first after that layer has dried.

Helps a lot with production, but sucks for trying to caluclate time spent. Also, my pallet tends to look like some kind of painting accident, with all the different colors on it. :rolleyes:
 
Sand Rat

Sand Rat

New member
I\'m in the define time spent crowd - Last year, getting a whopping 8 minis finished, I would say I spent maybe 80 total hours on minis. Including prep time and other such things.

This year, I\'ve finished 45 minis so far - 25 since May 1, and have prolly spent 2-3 hrs a piece doing some assembly line painting on them -
 
D

dave3555

New member
Far tooooooo long.

I think my problem is I am too self critical. Perfectionisum is a curse and a blessing.

You never get anything done but when you do it looks good!

Dave
 
U

U4-Welcome

Guest
I started a mini yesterday. About 5 hours into it, I\'ve almost finished the basecoats. Then I\'ll block in the freehand, then highlight, then do the other pieces (hands & sword), then the base. ETA 15 hours. It better look good :rolleyes:.
 
airhead

airhead

Coffin Dodger / Keymaster
5 hours into a lot of minis and I\'m just getting it de-flashed, glued, pinned and primed if I\'m lucky.
 
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