Speed painting

[lono]

Before I go into a lengthy ramble here, the question I have is:

Does anyone else find that speed painting units and armies is a therapeutic and much needed break from the stressful task of trying to paint a single mini to the best possible standard?

OK, now onto the ramble!

Recently I have been in a painting rut. I\'ve not finished a single mini since the GD Vostroyan (September) and the only other thing I have painted is a really rushed and shoddy looking 500 points of vehicle-heavy Orks for a tournament (done in a night). I\'ve tried to paint on various occasions, but haven\'t been able to get focused enough to finish a mini.

Yesterday I had a great day though and painted 15 models in just a few hours. Taking a more speedy, army building approach to painting has got me back into the mood.

I think that in my quest to get better I had put too much pressure on myself. Trying to make all of my minis as perfect as can be just meant that I was becoming disheartened. This morning I\'m looking at 15 freshly painted Gaunts that aren\'t going to set the CMON voting world alight, but look good as a group and most importantly are driving me on to paint more. Today my mission is 5 Ripper Swarms, 6 Genestealers and 7 Warriors!

I think that I might have discovered that after being widely known as one of the slowest painters around I may actually be the total opposite, an effective speed painter. This is freaking me out a little!

So back to the initial question, does anyone else around here speed paint?

 

[Hinton]

Sorry to hear you\'ve been in a painting rut. It sounds like maybe you\'ve found a way out of it, so keep doing whatever works for you.

I don\'t speed paint. It probably stems from what you talked about: trying to make each one as perfect as possible. I know I have a long way to go before I get really good at painting, so I tend to take my time.

I just posted a newly done mini today and it\'s the first one I\'ve managed to finish in 2 months. I was also in a bit of a \"funk\" as far as painting and it felt really good to at least have something \"finished\" (even though it could have been a lot better). Maybe speed painting is something that I should look into.

 

[rosac]

my tip for speed painting orcs, i have 50+ to paint. Drybrush the skin white and wash with dark angels green. then paint the jerkin and metal. Done! i use this technique for my gobbos red robes as well:beer:

 

[Dragonsreach]

I don\'t tend to Speed Paint, but I have done some figures to a reasonable standard in an afternoon. (3-4 hours)

I see a lot of figures posted up with statements like \"Done in 45 mins\" and I tend to thing \"SO?\". or in some cases \"You should have taken longer\".
Maybe if you want to paint armies then speed painting can work for you but it\'s not always the way for everyone.

Different Folks, Different Strokes.

 

[War Griffon]

I agree with DR.

My view has always been that somebody somewhere has taken the time to sculpt the figure therefore give it the paint job it deserves.

To a greater extent I think speed painting can be more stressful than taking your time. I paint to de-stress and relax but if I have time limits in which to try and paint a figure in an hour or two then I find it can just add to the stress levels.

Everybody gets painting blocks hell you only have to look at the last time some of us posted a figure but to get around this I find it helps to change the type of figure I am painting and sometimes the size as well.

 

[skeeve]

I don\'t know, don\'t find it therapeutic at all...
I once participated in this speed painting competition GW has - the one where you have to build/paint entire battleforce/legion in 2.5 days. I won it, but after painting tyranids for 16 hours straight on one day and about 8 hours on the other and finishing carnifex in the last hour before the deadline I haven\'t been touching anything tyranid for half a year.

Fortunately, my family was quite supportive – they were tube feeding me during this, I had to use restroom from time to time though

 

[goblinLB]

i got worked up about trying to get my minis as best as possible and was not enjoying painting and done a bout half a mini a month then my borther matty1001 told me just to paint all the base colours and call it finish i have now finished about 10 models in 2 month and am enjoying it just try painting them at tabletop then work back up to the best once

 

[Arkzein]

I tried with my last model, things still ended up over 10 hours. (Which, to be fair, is fast for me). Suppose it depends entirely on what you have to paint, never going to do it with single pieces, a small army either (14 models in the one I\'m working on right now) but something with tons of models... (Skeletons, Zombies, Imperial Guard, orks, gaunts spring to mind) you\'d never finish if going for top quality each one I\'d imagine.

In any case, not here, I look at it as working out quicker as I\'m almost certain to go back and strip a model I don\'t like later anyway. lol

 

[matty1001]

I speed painted when i first got into the hobby, just drybrushing nids.
But now, i can\'t get back into it, it just won\'t happen, although i do paint fairly quickly, about 1mini every three days. Although college has been very busy the past couple of weeks and iv painted about 2 half models.

 

[generulpoleaxe]

i find it impossible to paint to a gaming standard nowadays.

i see flaws and start to correct them, thank you cmonlol

i find i take longer when i am trying out new ideas or pushing myself.
otherwise i can nock out a decent mini in 5-8 hrs.

 

[electrolito 77]

Well, for me it depends like you Lono... right now I got tired of paitning so many Ravenwing bikes one after the onther so I started painting a DA marine squad to a lower standard, and yes it does give you sort of a release... I so excited that I started assembling more and I even converted a regular marine into a Librarian to put him up with the newly painted squad of marines.

To sum things up, yes I do speed painting every once in a while to break it up a bit...

 

[Talion]

I\'ve never understood the different painting techniques for tabletop or display. I\'ve always painted each mini to the best of my ability. I don\'t treat one mini different from another............Mini\'s have feelings too.


This might also explain that in 20 years I\'ve never had an army.

 

[johnboyjjb]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach
I see a lot of figures posted up with statements like \"Done in 45 mins\" and I tend to thing \"SO?\". or in some cases \"You should have taken longer\".

What irks me is when you see that a mini has been done in an hour and it looks like something that would take weeks for me to accomplish if I could do it at all. Things scoring in the 7-8 range.

 

[No Such Agency]

Originally posted by skeeve
Fortunately, my family was quite supportive – they were tube feeding me during this, I had to use restroom from time to time though

For future reference, you can get tubes for that too.