I think my main problem with being heavy handed during steps like edge highlighting mentioned in Step 4 (I think it was), is that by the time I come to do that step I’ve more often than not been sitting at the desk for a very long period of time. A few hours. And I’m doing the tiny, finishing touches on a model. And I’m rushing them and I’m making mistakes because I want it to be DONE NOW. That might be a good time to have a break, go for a walk, whatever, and come back to it without the panic and urgency.
Or you could do the fine details on a different day entirely. Get all your models to a good tabletop standard, then over the next few weekends paint the highlights, the eyes, pouches, holsters, bags of dog treats etc.
That's one thing I like about batch painting. Each session are for one step of the process. When you're at the edge highlights, you only do edge highlights for like 30 to 60 minutes.
I found the following to manage my ADHD and to minimize time needing medication to help me not stress out/lose focus/feel rushing or rushed: I need to grind out a particular color/step on as many models as I could as a step. That is the only goal for my sit-down time, and take a get up, grab water/coffee (& snack if needed) and stretch/walk around for 5min every 15-25min, then repeat as long as I have hobby time. I set a phone timer/calender reminder to go off even through silent/vibrate mode so I only get the one thing breaking focus and just finish the model I'm on once it goes off before I do my 5-min of break. Really prevents the emotional/focus grime setting in that way because I found a LOT of mine is generated from being seated too long/not active enough
Biggest mistake I think is watching painting videos and think there all painting their models for gaming and getting disheartened with your results. Most of the time there painting one off display models...
I think this is an important point about painting tutorials, especially for those who are relatively new. People often don't bear in mind the purpose of the content creator - that he's not painting an army.
I tend to follow older tutorials or battle-ready tutorials. But I agree intent is ultra important. Also I am not an artist so I know that at some point I have to move on, I can get decent results but I have to spend a truck load of time. So know your limits is also important.
Your point about assembly line painting was SO TRUE. 15 years ago, I did 16 LOTR elves...thought I would die. 8 years ago, I painted 22 Blood Angels for Hours Heresy....the men in white jackets almost took me away....5 years ago, I attempted 44 skaven. What the Hell was I thinking?! I have really come to reason that I ENJOY the painting of models in smaller groups. No one is rushing me, but ME. Self control is needed. Currently, I am FINALLY painting my Space Hulk set, and it is one Blood Angel at a time (as they are quite detailed) or just a few Genestealers at a time. In short, finishing a project is great, but this hobby should be ENJOYED.
I finally reached a state of zen with my painting. I am no pro but I’ve reached a good tabletop standard. Channels like this helped me get there. Thanks, keep the tips up.
My biggest mistake was trying to take on too much batch painting at once. It got VERY overwhelming. Now I know to batch paint in 3 model sets, and to alternate with a different project at the same time as a palette cleanser.
One problem i find is that i can batch really high on certain things, mostly basecoating and drybrushing, but Washes surprisingly and EDGE HIGHLIGHTING doing more than 3 is agony so i often run into burnout.
#1 If I have more than 5 models I work on, I just don't do it. Sometimes I only do 2-3 at the same time. Otherwise I go nuts and into a painting hiatus. #2 THIS!!! Took me a while to grasp how thin paints need to be to suit my paint-style. I am a glazer, thanks to Vince Venturella, duh. #3 Huge issue. I am a perfectionist. I recently tried to convince myself I can get away just with using one-coat paints to do my armies, but no. It does not give me the joy I am looking for when painting miniatures. #4 Patience is a virtue and meditative. That's why I love painting miniatures. #5 I noticed getting quicker the more I paint deliberately slow. Practice the craft makes better craftsmen.
Commenting just to say I really appreciate the title of this video. So many of these videos have titles like “Five painting mistakes YOU’RE making”, which puts the viewer on their back foot. This one is saying you, the instructor, still make mistakes, which puts the viewer at ease. Just speaking personally, it makes it a bit more pleasant to watch. 👏
A big issue can be putting everything away after each painting session. I'm way less motivated to come back and finish up a model if I have to get things ready all over. I recently bought a plastic bin to set over my painting area when it's not in use so I can leave my set up without a nosy cat running off with a brush.
Yes, this. If I'm batch painting, I leave the paint bottles, water cup, and brushes I'm using next to the models so I can pick them up at random times and add a coat here and there.
I have a dedicated hobby space, and for me this problem has flipped, if I don't clean up and put things away the work space gets too cluttered and chaotic which will have a demotivating effect. Keep your hobby space tidy!
One of my bigger mistakes is painting for too long in one setting. There is a point of diminishing returns and I now recognize when it's time to put the brush down and walk away. I get sloppy and impatient after a given time and need to let things rest for fresh eyes.
As a noob to mini painting (been doing it less than a year) and an inherent perfectionist my biggest mistake was putting too much pressure on myself to produce high quality results too soon in my journey. Thanks to the kind advice from yourself and Vince I have (mostly!) overcome this tendency and have learned to become more comfortable with and accepting of my competency level. At this stage I don't feel I make mistakes as such - I treat each hiccup as a learning experience: what did I do, why did it happen, what effect did it have and how can I do better next time? It does still take me ages to paint my minis (about 2 weeks so far for six Burrows and Badgers minis) but I only get a couple of hours per day to paint and I go to what I guess is tabletop+ standard or maybe display (at home) quality.
The first point is something I realized recently. I use to try and do a whole big line up if models. But recently I have been finding that painting 1 or 2 things at a time I get them done better and quicker and don't lose focus. Thanks for the video!
If you have spare models to test stuff, I'd try to see how many colours do I really need. Start with a single colour miniature (of course, you can shade and drybrush), but then try another one with two colours, three and more. You'll learn which details are important, which go under and where your time is best spent. Even a monochrome army can be impressive if the right bits are highlighted correctly.
To your point about it taking some time - I think people get an unrealistic expectation when they watch a RUclips video. They see some regular looking guy sit down with a primed miniature, and within 15 minutes, he is showing off a competition worthy figure. We don't get to see how long those steps actually take. We also don't see the out-takes and editing that makes that paintjob look so simple. Way back in the 90s, when we had regional GW Battle Bunkers, I got to sit next to a former Golden Demon winner and watch him work on some of his figures (while I was doing the same.) He was very practiced, and highly skilled. And it still took him a lot of work.
Pixel peeping my painted models is the #1 mistake I use to make. For those that are not sure what I mean by "Pixel peeping" this is when taking pictures of your finished models and then zooming into the details. This pretty much always results in seeing "mistakes" or missed areas. Sure they are there but if I cannot really see these "mistakes" when just looking at the models normally no one else will either.
My biggest and most consistent mistake is trying to use old/dry paint. Sometimes the paint on your palette has indeed been there too long and you just need to put some fresh paint on there. Messing up your paint job because you're being stubborn is much more frustrating than wasting a little paint.
Tip 5 hits the nail on the head. One of the things that I do when I feel like I'm bad at an art process, is watching timelapses from professional artists and take note when I would have called it "done" and then note how much longer is left in the timelapse. Part of it is experience knowing what to change to make it better, and part is taking the time to actually make it better. There is a reason why the great masters didn't finish an oil painting in 2 weeks, and it isn't (just) because of the drying time. Since I started doing this, I pushed myself to "keep going" when I thought it was finished and my results improved markedly.
I think one of the biggest mistakes I made was not knowing what different types of paint were supposed to do. I didn’t know the difference between washes, base paints, technical paints, and glazes which led to some wasted paint and weird looking minis. I love your channel, by the way. It’s a great resource no matter where you are in the hobby.
Needed to see this today. I've got 34 models in the same army, and i've basically been doing one color all the way through (say German gray for the weapons) and then coming back with another color for the gadgets/gear, and then another color for ____ and after 4 passes i'm kinda done... so hearing this is helping me figure out my own "meh". Appreciate it!
I'd add over-correcting a paint job early. All miniatures seem to go through an "ugly duckling" stage that can be discouraging and cause a painter to correct mistakes that aren't even there or abandon a miniature part way through. Trust the end result and enjoy the process. Great video and advice as always.
The assembly line question is interesting. I wonder if Historical players/painters just have a higher tolerance for this due to the nature of what we have to do to get those blocks of infantry on the table. When my city's endless lockdowns kicked in and I turned to commission painting as a way to make up the shortfall in my income I found myself batch-painting armies of up to 150-ish figures. "Today is boot day" was a thing - grab a pile of albums, que up some good podcasts because you are painting 150 pairs of boots today, and at the end of the day there will be 150 pairs of boots but not one finished figure. And tomorrow is pants day and so on ad infinatum. But it's a bit like the Zen masters thing about "sweep the floor, carry the water, chop the wood". If you have been at this for a while maybe you dont need the reassurance of getting progressive "wins" day by day because you have the confidence that it all comes together in the end. That said, what I absolutely do in smaller batches is "sign off" units in small batches - check everything, do minor touch-ups and so on.
I have a friend who has a list of things he needs to get done for that day. If things change and he needs to move something to tomorrow's list or move something forward he does and his day is done when he completes the list. I've long maintained that this is proof that he is an alien.
@@ausaskar True that. I have a pet theory that on a long enough timeline everyone ends up with an ancient Roman army either through painting or buying one or a combination of the two. At this point in time there are probably more miniature roman legionaries than there were flesh and blood ones.
This is likely true. I almost ALWAYS paint all of the figures for my historical units. I paint 25/28mm American Civil War units of 35+ models. My record is 72 Mordor Orcs at once.
After batch painting 20 night goblins I decided to go with 5 at a time for the next unit - this way I make less mistakers, miss less places and see more progress done faster, which is also quite important, I think
I think my biggest thing is "trust in the process" i always find myself getting demoralized when i am at the 30-50% done a model stage, things are messy, lines are everywhere, there is bleed and mistakes ..... but in my brain i know if i just keep going, its all easy to clean up i just have to do it. Overcoming that "it looks bad now" hurdle is so hard but its always worth it to just keep putting the effort in till the project is done. Models look bad when you are only done 50%, ya just gotta keep pushing. Also dont worry about perfection, perfection is the enemy of great, if you try and be perfect you will never be happy
What helped me satisfy both finishing models quicker AND improve painting technique is a sort of battlefield merit system. If I'm painting for a game, I paint a force to be table ready. Basic stuff, no frills. Then, if they kill something, survive an onslaught, etc... Before the next game, that particular model gets an upgrade: more layering, more highlighting, weathered leather, trim on a cape perhaps. It does take longer, but you can get models to the table and have a good reason to come back to them later to try more advanced techniques.
The 'leave parts along' rings true with me and one thing I'd add to that: know which areas of a mini are less visible when playing and what is worthwhile to prioritize / put extra effort into. Adding details (usually more contrast) into areas that are less important for the overall look / less visible can result in a lot of extra work, since you now need to the same for the other areas of the model or it'll look unbalanced. Even worse if you screw it up, the increased contrast puts extra focus on it. As such before deciding to add any more details I'd always take a look at the mini from a distance at an angle that is similar to the viewing angle when playing. Eventually you don't need to think about it too much. In the beginning something that helped me was taking a picture and painting details in Photoshop (or similar software) to visualize its effect. Knowing how to reduce a paint job and keep it still consistent with the models you spent more effort / time on is really useful. In short spending time on details that result in a lot of extra work with little benefit for the overall look is something I try to avoid.
I just wanted to compliment you on the quality of your audio. Very clear and easy to understand. Not only is that good by itself but it makes for really good closed captions. Many time I have to turn on CC to figure out what someone is saying, and even CC comes out wrong. Thanks!
painting is one of those really strange things where someone can tell you 100 times "two thin coats" or "thin everything" but until you get it just right yourself, it doesn't stick. I've been painting for decades but I only just figured out how thin I need paint and how much I need on the brush for it to look like it's not actually painted. Also that I was wayyyyy to heavy with my highlights so I'm with you on that one! I used to try and batch paint 10 in a row and I hated it and thought I just sucked at painting because that's what everyone told you to do at the time. Now I appreciate my limit. Anyway great vid as usual and some really useful tips! ❤👍
@@Sorrowdusk That's my point. But in order to know how much to thin your paints you need to know the consistency you are aiming for. Some paints need a lot more thinning than others (I'm looking at you citadel!) whereas some brands don't need thinning at all (pro acryl etc). Finding that consistency is something you can only do "in person", not via youtube or other tutorials imo.
Knowing when to leave well enough alone is definitely one of my problems. So many times I have finished a model, cleaned my area and as I went to go wash my brushes got a visit from the “idea fairy,” which resulted in me spending another 2-3 hours fixing my great idea.
Another mistake I made in the past was model selection. I thought I needed a variety of different minis for different game scenarios and I was biting off more than I could chew. I didn't even actually like some of those models. Having the feeling that what you're painting is super cool is that biggest thing that will fuel your drive to painting completion
The assembly line note is so true. I’m starting out and wanted to do 6 Blood Bowl Sauruses. It was aggravating and felt silly to take a break after 4 or 5, but by 6 I was rushing and my eyes hurt. They turned out great in the end. My stamina is building, but my rhythm of working and taking breaks is improving as well. Thank you for the video!
great advice thank you!!! it might come across silly, but when I started I also believed the paint went straight from bottle to model, and giving that advice is super relevant, it makes total difference on y our end results. Also I painted some bolt action army recently in production chain and I got super burntout you are totally right, better to have less quanity and more quality.
I used to used paint from the pot when I first got started in the hobby mostly as a drybrush style basecoating until I added a drop of water to thinned them to improve one of my first mistakes. It was one of the Citadel Foundation paints I did a one coat over the miniatures, sometimes two coats. Most models when I start an army or small squad I take my time to decide which colour I'll go with before I paint them in the colour scheme I'm happy with.
It was so encouraging to hear you talk about your first Black Legionaries taking forever. As those are my first ever miniatures I’m painting right now and I feel like I’m taking far too long to get a couple painted.
I used to paint squads somewhere between 6 and 12 models per batch. And that was OK back then when tabletop level was good enough for me, cause playing the game was the important part of the hobby (and all I could pull of anyways cause RUclips miniature painting channels didn't existed back then. Nobody I knew ever considered thinning down a paint). I even got 20 skaven clan rats at once, a bit tiring but not exhausting. Nowadays I favour quality over quantity as I like pretty miniatures, and I have, thanks to y'all content creators, all the technical knowledge to do so. And since a mini is meant to be painted only once, better do my best on the first try. I usually go for 1 or 2 minis at a time, maximum 3 because if I do more I get bored and start to rush things to get to the next step quicker. And while I was happy with an hour or two per model in the past, I feel like 3h is the bare minimum I have to spend on any 28mm mini to get "acceptable" result, 5h being a more reasonable timeframe to get to an end result that I'm happy with.
I really enjoy painting with a friend or chatting on the phone while painting. I would also add have an oblective for that painting or modeling session if in the build phase. Breaking up parts of the project are helpful, which goes along with batch painting size. For me it can vary, 3-5-10 models. Depends on the unit and complexity of the model. And i would say probably the most important for me is learning to like the process or at least figure out the way you like to do it. For me i hit a point about halfway where i can start seeing the paint job come together and its looks nice. Once i finish the base the model really comes together and the details i may have been stressing over seem to melt away as a whole. Lastly a new thing for me is holding the model at arms length and seeing if i like the colors or even notice the detail. Oh the last two for me would be define your standards for table top in your own way and write down the paint recipes
The thing i have learned from painting for the last two years, is to learn how to turn a mistake, into a success. I have painted a total of three boxes. The warhammer 40k recruit edition, the elite edition, and a box of Mk.IV marines. And I am currently painting the wrath of the soul forge king box minis. And being so new, whenever i would make a mistake it would really bum me out, because i want them to look good. I don't have anyone to play warhammer with so i just paint them for display currently, so my goal is to get them looking good. But whenever i make a mistake, i try to turn that from a mistake into an opportunity. I bought a speedpaint set for this new box i am doing and was painting the cultists, i wanted to get a decent skin tone going on them but was having trouble. It seemed like no matter what i did i just couldn't get it right. So i decided to use the white paint, which really is grey especially on primed black models, to give them a pale skin. And it looked pretty good. They pretty much looked like harkonnens from dune, big pale skinned brutes. But i wanted to add something to them, and i wasn't quite happy with the overall look i had. So, since i now had them pale toned on the skin, other colors could go on much better. So i sat and thought for a while about how i could turn this around to get something i really liked. And then i thought about what they are, chaos cultists, with little horns and tentacles or other corrupted parts on them. So i decided to dive into the corrupted look. I painted them in the army painters speed paint: purple alchemy. It turned out fantastic. The combination of the black primer, covered in white, then covered in the purpleish pink of the purple alchemy, ended up making them look exactly like i envisioned them. After several planned skin tones all failed, the combination of trying several things finally ended up with something i really liked. So when things just are not looking how you want, try and think about how you could use your mistake to build up to something good. Had i never struggled with skin tone i would never have painted them pale, and if i never painted them pale, the color i did end up with would not have looked as good as it does.
The big mistake I make way too often is not being satisfied with a layer I just put down and trying to fix it while it’s still drying. This inevitably tears the paint, leaving a strong outline of the “mistake” and an empty interior that will require many layers to properly cover up again. Just let it dry, and come back to it later
My two biggest mistakes that I learned from 1st dont count how many guys you have left to paint in a hoard army got discouraged, painting them for a bit because didn't seem like I was making progress. 2nd, remember who I'm painting for and doing this hobby for stopping when I'm happy. Yes, you can always add or do more, but dont take the fun and relaxation out of it (one of your videos helped with that cant recall which but its something I try to pass on to other hobbies and kids/friends)
Your #3 I like, mainly because Ill get a model in a unit to a certain level of completion, and move on to the next, feeling pretty content with it. However, what I end up doing is going back to my models some time later. I further their completion, with added highlights or shadows on any number of models I feel like doing at the time. I keep a list of all of the completion rates of models in my necron army. Mainly my HQ and characters are fully completed, and when Im pushing those models to my painting limits I will occasionally grab a few random mostly finished Necrons and use what paint I have left and complete them.
I found the sweet spot for a guard kill team was 5 & 5; based with sand and coffee grounds and zenithal primed all ten at once, then base layer painted the first five followed by some very, very simple highlights. After giving the first five an umber oil wash I began base painting the second five returning to the first now and again to adjust the recess shading with thinners and make-up sponges as the oil slowly dried. Eventually all of the models began to reach a similar stage of completion with the first five receiving pigment powders and weathering with a soft (6b?) graphite stick followed by the second five an evening later. Finally everything got a dusting with a matte rattle can of lacquer about a week later. Anymore than ten models at a time and my attention and ability to complete the project gets sorely tested.
I'm so glad you said this b/c I don't paint for armies to play with, and when I try to assembly line paint it feels like it sucks the fun out. I a feel a lot better that it's not just me.
Sometimes when i watch this channel, i feel like i have to look for hidden cameras around my house, because someone is doing a parody of my life. Of course my life is boring as heck and no one would spend the time and money doing that, but this list is incredibly personal to me. 1) assembly line. went from trying to do a regiment (20+)to 5. starting painting the whole 20 in less than half the time when i bit it off in 5 model chunks. 2) for years, i "knew" this and still did it anyway because i was impatient..Especially near the end of a model. PRESTO! cakey flesh tone on the most detailed part of the model! 3) *hides face in shame* I am soo much better at walking away instead of trying to "fix" things than I used to be. 4) see #2. that is why i love speedpaint so much! 5) this is why i paint alone. painting around other painters who paint fast ruins your day. thanks as always for the reinforcement. I love this channel!
I go straight from the pot when I do skulls on the ground. The chalkyness looks great. I let the white dry, Nuln oil it, after that drys then I get to drybrushing over top and it helps sell that sunk into the soil look.
There's a hidden #6 that you missed. One of the biggest mistakes in painting... is not painting. I'm guilty of this. I'll spend way too long debating on color schemes, or just getting sidetracked with other hobbies and don't put paint to model nearly enough.
I'm almost the same. I'll meticulously plan paints and layers, and then start painting, take ages doing it, but then everything is awful and I hate it, and I'll get demotivated from painting, and not touch a brush for months (last disappointment put me off for about 2 years), negating any practice I might've acquired. And it's not like I can just go buy other miniatures: I've hyperfixated on 40k, and that shit is expensive. "Oh, you can just strip the paint." Bitch, I barely have enough will to breathe, let alone dunk, scrub, dunk, scrub a model over and over again. Fortunately, I've got a friend that has offered to strip the paint off of my disappointments and give them a decent primer for a change, and will guide me through the process of painting my plastic men again, so maybe I'll be able to actually make something decent.
At this moment, still early in my painting journey, my biggest mistake is giving up on models too soon. My CTRL-Z is to give up as soon as I am unhappy with my painting, then remove the paint completely and start over. If I already know I will strip the paint, I may as well continue with the model and just practice: brushstrokes, layering, paint thinning, etc. Plus, I may actually be happy with the final result. Good video. Subbed.
Because of the weirdness of metallic paint, I will generally do big batches of silvers and golds, I’ve been painting Ultramarines here lately. I’ve noticed before that the flakes will stay in brushes and cleaning water and can show up in other non metallic paints. Once done with metallics, I clean everything really well and move on to nonmetallic paints.
My first mini was an owlbear, and I was just starting to test a gold paint. The bottle was clogged and burst onto my table, and part of my owlbear. I was frustrated and soon had the idea after immediately cleaning as much of the paint off my table to use it as gold feathers on my owlbear. Now, I'm always looking at accidents and mistakes as an opportunity to fix and improvise.
Contrast paint has been my blessing and curse for painting. At first, it was fantastic! I got SO many models done in so little time. The problem was that they were a bunch of characters for a Skirmish game and as I played with them and looked at them more....I was unsatisfied with the sloppy paint jobs. And since I only need a handful to play...there was no real reason to rush ALL of them (besides some small glimmer in my pile of shame...) So I am aiming to go back, maybe even fully redo some of them. And when I go back and even add some basic cleaning and detail, it feels GOOD. I do want to finish, but, at least for the big skirmish stuff, I think I need to slow down and take it all in.
My two biggest painting "mistakes" both apply to planning: 1) not having a deliberate plan when I start. Whether it is a large centerpiece model, or 10-20 deep on some infantry, a basic plan of how I will prime, base, layer, and finish the model is key to me maximizing my time, effort, and enjoyment. 2) becoming too reliant or "stuck" to the plan. Plans are not instructions, they are a loose guideline. As I continue through my one or many models, I may determine that the layering scheme I was going for does not work with where the model is headed, and may adjust my plan to match what I now see as a finished model. Sticking too closely to the original plan as step by step instructions has created some painting fatigue (get bored or frustrated) or just altogether stopped me in my tracks. Being flexible allows me to stay fresh and stay engaged.
Don't make the mistake of being afraid to try something new. I recently painted a bit of free hand stuff that actually came out good and the boost of confidence I got was huge. It made my mini look even better and now I'm trying other free hand stuff that I probably would have avoided.
This is all great advice and most of it strikes pretty close to home for me. Especially the batch painting number. Not too long ago I was painting the xenos for Zombicide Invader. I was painting the workers and hunters in batches of about 18 models each. These are simple models to paint and I was mostly airbrushing them. When I got to the "tanks" which were much more complicated to paint (more colors, and those damn tentacles...) I had to stop and cut my batch size down to 6 or I was just going crazy trying to paint the same stupid tentacles over and over again LOL. BTW, I haven't commented on one of your videos for a while, but I wanted to say i enjoyed meeting you at Adepticon this year. Keep producing great content like this and I hope to catch you next year again 🙂
the most I painted as assembly line was 35 goblins and 30 T'au. for me, 10 is a good number. 4-6 is best. I always track the amount of time I spend per model. 4 hours to paint 4 models is one hour per model. however, painting 10 models in 4 hours is 24 minutes per model. if I can get the same result of tabletop ready, it's a success. I'm not trying to win awards. if that was my goal, I would never get thru my mountain of gray!
I can't batch paint in groups larger than 10. By the time I get to the brush on my Marines, I've airbrushed the white zenithal over black primer and then airbrushed the main armor color over pretty much everything (AP Alien Purple). All the brushing is the secondary stuff, so I'll get the first coat of wraithbone on the areas, then move to the next model while the first one sets up properly. By the time I get to model 10, model 1 is totally dry and I can put the next coat down. When I tried to do my Votann (>70% contrast), I tried to do 20 Warriors in series and nearly went insane. I had to break them up into 10 man squads.
Something that really sped up my Necron Army was deciding to prime them in a dark silver metallic then douse them with nuln oil and say "i like this, we don't need to do anything else to the body" so I could focus on one or two armor panels and the weapon.
Painting mistake I've made in the past: priming on sprue. I thought it would be a neat simple way to speed up, but now I dread clipping the parts off, sanding the mold lines, and undoing all the priming. I have a kit of CSM Raptors that I don't think I'll every be happy getting off the sprue (though at some point I'm just gonna have to do it and work with the mistake) Though if you've found ways that this has worked for you, please lmk!
When I'm working on a squad or similar I usually do about 10 at once. Maybe a little more if it's a Blood Bowl Team, or fewer if it's cavalry or light vehicles. Big vehicles I'll do one at a time.
1: Got a pretty high tolerance, painted some 30 Bloodletters at once. However, can't stand painting terrain. Many small are better than one big. 2. I tend to avoid this because of drybrushing. 3. Amen, when I started out I kept a list of everything I "should" go back and fix. Too much anxiety, stopped that fast. 4. This was the reason why I never had anything that "popped" on my first models, plasmas, demonic swords etc, just looked like everything else. I needed some more experience. 5. A good lesson, like many people I tried to do both when starting out. Now I've realized that playng is more fun than painting. I mean, even when I put a lot of time into a model my opponents didn't even pay attention to it until I mentioned it. I mean, I was proud of the work I did, but if you paint to play then everyone involved will be more busy with tactics and rules etc instead of looking face to face with a model.
I think my two biggest mistakes i still repeatedly fall for: #1. Don't bite off more than you can chew. It would be easy to get one unit and paint it up as i go, but why do that when I can mass purchase a 2k point army in one fell swoop? And... now I've got to paint them all. #2. Getting frustrated when your painting skill level doesn't meet your expectations. It's easy for our imaginations to think up something that looks similar to the box art or other amazing models we see shared by pro painters. The tutorial videos make it look SO EASY that we sometimes forget that painting is s skill you get better at with practice.
Simple, but help me a lot. Still have some quesions though. Should I apply metallic paint directly from the bottle to the model when using it? Do I need to wet the brush or put it on a wet palette?
I Just finished batch painting with a brush 1 Marshall, 43 Skitarii, 15 Sicarians and 3 Ironstriders (I was doing several other characters too, but stopped painting them at the highlighting stage). It was too much to do at one time. Small things took a long time. And I got pretty sick of it by the end. I think 10-12 infantry is a good number. And that goes down as the model becomes more complex. I'm planning to paint 12 Serberys dog riders, but I will do all the dogs first, and then all the riders. So essentailly 12 models at time in 2 batches.
I follow rule one with one big exception, which is necron warriors. I batch paint them in groups of 30-40 because it's kind of meditative and is just drybrush metal, paint tube on the guns.
#2 was very good to hear, because I'm just beginning to branch out from my initial army selection, which was... Necrons. Don't get me wrong, I'm really enjoying doing odd things to and with my Necrons! But the paint thinning thing hadn't really come up yet, except in places where I put down white as a layer before Tesseract Green to get a different look.
Thanks for the video. My personal biggest mistake is when I don't respect my paint-to-play ratio. I enjoy painting, I like practicing a practical skill, I like conquering my grey mountain, but if I get stuck painting for over a month without playing, the intrusive thoughts creep in. "What am I doing, why am I doing this, nobody cares, I'm wasting my time, I'm wasting my life" and that can be extremely demoralizing. After I get out and play a game, I'm always fired up to get work done and bring more models to the table for next time.
I don’t know if it’s a “mistake” as such, but I was over-reliant on the old Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade for a while. When I dialled back on the washes, and in many cases, dumped them entirely, I really found my own style and felt happier with my work. I now work much more in the “triad” style.
The biggest mistake that slows me down, is not listening to my gut and erasing something RIGHT AWAY if I don't like it. Coming back and 'fixing' it later is way more work than repainting it right now, while the color is there on the wet palette, and you're working on that area!
For batch painting, I've learn to keep the size of the batch proportional to the time I have for sessions. If I can't complete a step across all the minis in that batch in one session, then the batch is too big. This helps to keep me motivated, as I know a step is done and every new session is something new, even it's painting the blue bits after finishing the red.
My biggest tip: before a batch paint session, try out your colour scheme on a test model/leftover bits/even just the sprue itself. Nothing is more frustrating to hustle and pump out a dozen models only to dislike the colours you chose. A test model adds more time to the process, but it ensures that you will like the end result.
dont know if its a mistake per say but one that can kill momentum is thinking you need different browns for each strap, bag, belt and boot. If each is getting their own brown then that is at least 3 color mixes you are going to need when you throw in highlighting and shading for each item. much easier to do everything with one brown or at most maybe have 1 for straps belts and bag and then 1 for boots.
Knowing when to stop is my personal challenge. Gotta get al the details highlighted etc. One other thing i will add about painting mistakes, is that folks should have more haste and less speed. Worse case example for me was finishing a lovely Klingon battlecruiser, from star trek the motion picture, reaching over to what i thought was a rattle can of varnish and then spraying what was actually a rattle can of black primer over it........ Sad times indeed and I learnt that lesson a hard way (I did end up repainting the model, but 1 mistake cost me a huge amount of time).
Been painting my Leagues of Votann guys right now and the assembly line rule is such a good point. I tried to do all of them assembly line at once and it was driving me mad. Now I just leave them at 5 at a time.
When it comes to assembly line painting I find my limit varies depending on the model. If I'm painting Necron Warriors, I can paint a thing of 10-20 in a single painting session (well 2 due to oil washes) due to their simplicity. However if I'm painting a thing of Ork Boyz the max I can handle is 3-5 due to the different details. I usually like painting 2-3 at a time if it's squad, and of it's a character just the 1 (though I did paint my Techmarine and Chaplain in 1 session, but that's a rarity )
Taking time and reviewing minis within spans of several days between crucial steps is kinda my best looking quality receipt. So rushing and doing everything at once is a mistake.
Batch painting varies for me. My word bearers? Five at a time because of the trim. My anvils of heldenhammer? Ten at a time. Whenever I assemble a squad of either they get stuck to a paint stick. My word bearers are hit with army painters chaotic red and boom! Base coat done. Same with my anvils. Army painters matte black. Spraying is so much faster and easier than hand brushing each one at a time
So I’ve batch painted in an assembly line 20-40 miniatures at a time. However, I am finding my patience for doing that is waning. Especially after having so much fun working on small characterful minis, doing a big batch becomes creatively mind numbing. Also, what is hard is trying to apply assembly line batch painting to units that are similar but not uniform. I was doing some early medieval guys, and they all used the same pallets, but they were slightly different, so each color was going on a different part of the model, etc. once I got to the weapons and armor it wasn’t so bad, but the tunics and trousers in seven different plaids… kind of annoying.
The batch painting limit: One thing that affects it for me is the method. I've batch painted four guys and felt like I'm going insane with that shit. I was painting them with layers and adding simple highlights. But just last week I finished a batch of 13 and I was having fun all the way through. This time I was using contrast paints. Testing techniques and different approaches to painting your minis will give you a max limit on each. It's a good idea to see where your limits are on a whole lot of things, so you'll know to adjust expectations depending on whether you need to paint 3 heroes or 60 rats.
Still not sure about the »2 thin coats thing«… I just don‘t have the time and will to paint everything minimum 2 times. You double the amount of minis you have to paint, theoretically. Thin paints, and if they don‘t cover up well (yellow for example) go for a second coat. Sure. But painting a black armor with contrast paint doesn‘t require 2 thin coats. Set some »shadows« unter the contrast paint, maybe with some dry brushing over the highlights and you are good to go. A normal space marine does not need 2 thin coats to look good. Nobody will notice anyway if the model is on the table with 20 other guys standing around him, ready for battle.
Assembly line is extremely effective for me. That being said, my cap is around Uncle Atom's at about a dozen. Any more than that and it becomes a grind, isn't enjoyable for me, and isn't enjoying it the entire point? I spent last Winter finishing about 7k of WHFB High Elves using assembly lines for pretty much every unit. 100% recommend.
I tend to buy and build in big batches. Trying to paint in that bug batches is extremely daunting. Especially for someone like me that does not enjoy painting in general. I've recently decoded regardless of how many are built and prime to paint a single "box" amount at a time. I also have decided to paint only a few hours (usually 2) a day often on the weekends
I actually do 1 model at a time now. I started doing batches of 10 or so. I'm still working on a batch of 66 poxwalkers. its been years. now I just do one and now I like painting!
When doing "assembly line" painting do you finish the models in your group first before moving on? Like finishing 5/20 to completion before start on the next 5?
Im a n00b and the main problem I have is I can never get a brush tip small enough!! Ive went through so many 000 brushes as I seem to 'blunt' them and its like painting a space marine with a wall emulsion brush. Whats the best brand with the smallest sharpest points??
Oh! I made this mistake! Try using a size 1 brush. The size of the brush does not equal the size of the tip. A larger brush can still have a small tip and it keeps the tip better and lasts longer. Use your small brush only for the tiny details.
The one trick that has given me peace is that I take a painted model and I put it on the table and look at it as if I was playing a game. If it looks great at that distance, that is all that matters. I think the Internet medium has skewed what a decent looking model looks like because they tend to be close ups. By all means go for that extra step if you want to, but also don't let perfection get in the way of good enough.
Number one hits home. It takes me two days to paint 4 models of good quality for PCs in my RPG game, but I'm staring at these 60 orcs have taken like 3 months and counting. Burnout is real.
Batch painting works for historical as well as figures with the same uniforms. The size of the figure also matters too. When I did 15mm Soviets I could do 24 at a time. However; Star Wars Legion storm troopers slowed me down to do seven at once
![I.N "HALLUCINATION" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n5B5q1Hwt_U/mqdefault.jpg)
I think my main problem with being heavy handed during steps like edge highlighting mentioned in Step 4 (I think it was), is that by the time I come to do that step I’ve more often than not been sitting at the desk for a very long period of time. A few hours. And I’m doing the tiny, finishing touches on a model. And I’m rushing them and I’m making mistakes because I want it to be DONE NOW. That might be a good time to have a break, go for a walk, whatever, and come back to it without the panic and urgency.
Or you could do the fine details on a different day entirely. Get all your models to a good tabletop standard, then over the next few weekends paint the highlights, the eyes, pouches, holsters, bags of dog treats etc.
I'm the same way, when I'm going too heavy or not thinking things through it's often because I'm hungry or antsy!
That's one thing I like about batch painting. Each session are for one step of the process.
When you're at the edge highlights, you only do edge highlights for like 30 to 60 minutes.
Glad I'm not alone with this issue 😅
I found the following to manage my ADHD and to minimize time needing medication to help me not stress out/lose focus/feel rushing or rushed:
I need to grind out a particular color/step on as many models as I could as a step. That is the only goal for my sit-down time, and take a get up, grab water/coffee (& snack if needed) and stretch/walk around for 5min every 15-25min, then repeat as long as I have hobby time. I set a phone timer/calender reminder to go off even through silent/vibrate mode so I only get the one thing breaking focus and just finish the model I'm on once it goes off before I do my 5-min of break.
Really prevents the emotional/focus grime setting in that way because I found a LOT of mine is generated from being seated too long/not active enough
Biggest mistake I think is watching painting videos and think there all painting their models for gaming and getting disheartened with your results. Most of the time there painting one off display models...
I think this is an important point about painting tutorials, especially for those who are relatively new. People often don't bear in mind the purpose of the content creator - that he's not painting an army.
I tend to follow older tutorials or battle-ready tutorials. But I agree intent is ultra important. Also I am not an artist so I know that at some point I have to move on, I can get decent results but I have to spend a truck load of time. So know your limits is also important.
Your point about assembly line painting was SO TRUE. 15 years ago, I did 16 LOTR elves...thought I would die. 8 years ago, I painted 22 Blood Angels for Hours Heresy....the men in white jackets almost took me away....5 years ago, I attempted 44 skaven. What the Hell was I thinking?! I have really come to reason that I ENJOY the painting of models in smaller groups. No one is rushing me, but ME. Self control is needed. Currently, I am FINALLY painting my Space Hulk set, and it is one Blood Angel at a time (as they are quite detailed) or just a few Genestealers at a time. In short, finishing a project is great, but this hobby should be ENJOYED.
I tried to do 40 guardsmen once. It was so miserable and I avoided it so much it took way longer than had I done groups of 5-10x
I finally reached a state of zen with my painting. I am no pro but I’ve reached a good tabletop standard. Channels like this helped me get there. Thanks, keep the tips up.
My biggest mistake was trying to take on too much batch painting at once. It got VERY overwhelming. Now I know to batch paint in 3 model sets, and to alternate with a different project at the same time as a palette cleanser.
I think a lot of us have that problem lol
Exactly what I was going to say 👍
I do this as well because it's nice to see progress as you go rather than feel like you're getting nowhere with 10 models at once.
One problem i find is that i can batch really high on certain things, mostly basecoating and drybrushing, but Washes surprisingly and EDGE HIGHLIGHTING doing more than 3 is agony so i often run into burnout.
#1 If I have more than 5 models I work on, I just don't do it. Sometimes I only do 2-3 at the same time. Otherwise I go nuts and into a painting hiatus.
#2 THIS!!! Took me a while to grasp how thin paints need to be to suit my paint-style. I am a glazer, thanks to Vince Venturella, duh.
#3 Huge issue. I am a perfectionist. I recently tried to convince myself I can get away just with using one-coat paints to do my armies, but no. It does not give me the joy I am looking for when painting miniatures.
#4 Patience is a virtue and meditative. That's why I love painting miniatures.
#5 I noticed getting quicker the more I paint deliberately slow. Practice the craft makes better craftsmen.
Commenting just to say I really appreciate the title of this video. So many of these videos have titles like “Five painting mistakes YOU’RE making”, which puts the viewer on their back foot. This one is saying you, the instructor, still make mistakes, which puts the viewer at ease. Just speaking personally, it makes it a bit more pleasant to watch. 👏
Very true
A big issue can be putting everything away after each painting session. I'm way less motivated to come back and finish up a model if I have to get things ready all over. I recently bought a plastic bin to set over my painting area when it's not in use so I can leave my set up without a nosy cat running off with a brush.
A dedicated hobby space, even a small one, definitely helps to get things done.
Yes, this. If I'm batch painting, I leave the paint bottles, water cup, and brushes I'm using next to the models so I can pick them up at random times and add a coat here and there.
Yes, cats can be jerks. 😺 That’s why I don’t let them into my hobby room. Thanks for watching!
I have a dedicated hobby space, and for me this problem has flipped, if I don't clean up and put things away the work space gets too cluttered and chaotic which will have a demotivating effect. Keep your hobby space tidy!
One of my bigger mistakes is painting for too long in one setting. There is a point of diminishing returns and I now recognize when it's time to put the brush down and walk away. I get sloppy and impatient after a given time and need to let things rest for fresh eyes.
As a noob to mini painting (been doing it less than a year) and an inherent perfectionist my biggest mistake was putting too much pressure on myself to produce high quality results too soon in my journey. Thanks to the kind advice from yourself and Vince I have (mostly!) overcome this tendency and have learned to become more comfortable with and accepting of my competency level. At this stage I don't feel I make mistakes as such - I treat each hiccup as a learning experience: what did I do, why did it happen, what effect did it have and how can I do better next time? It does still take me ages to paint my minis (about 2 weeks so far for six Burrows and Badgers minis) but I only get a couple of hours per day to paint and I go to what I guess is tabletop+ standard or maybe display (at home) quality.
The first point is something I realized recently. I use to try and do a whole big line up if models. But recently I have been finding that painting 1 or 2 things at a time I get them done better and quicker and don't lose focus. Thanks for the video!
If you have spare models to test stuff, I'd try to see how many colours do I really need. Start with a single colour miniature (of course, you can shade and drybrush), but then try another one with two colours, three and more. You'll learn which details are important, which go under and where your time is best spent. Even a monochrome army can be impressive if the right bits are highlighted correctly.
I have a squad of old beat up cadians that I try out new paints and paint schemes on and it is a super useful resource.
To your point about it taking some time - I think people get an unrealistic expectation when they watch a RUclips video. They see some regular looking guy sit down with a primed miniature, and within 15 minutes, he is showing off a competition worthy figure.
We don't get to see how long those steps actually take. We also don't see the out-takes and editing that makes that paintjob look so simple. Way back in the 90s, when we had regional GW Battle Bunkers, I got to sit next to a former Golden Demon winner and watch him work on some of his figures (while I was doing the same.) He was very practiced, and highly skilled. And it still took him a lot of work.
Pixel peeping my painted models is the #1 mistake I use to make. For those that are not sure what I mean by "Pixel peeping" this is when taking pictures of your finished models and then zooming into the details. This pretty much always results in seeing "mistakes" or missed areas. Sure they are there but if I cannot really see these "mistakes" when just looking at the models normally no one else will either.
My biggest and most consistent mistake is trying to use old/dry paint. Sometimes the paint on your palette has indeed been there too long and you just need to put some fresh paint on there. Messing up your paint job because you're being stubborn is much more frustrating than wasting a little paint.
Tip 5 hits the nail on the head. One of the things that I do when I feel like I'm bad at an art process, is watching timelapses from professional artists and take note when I would have called it "done" and then note how much longer is left in the timelapse. Part of it is experience knowing what to change to make it better, and part is taking the time to actually make it better. There is a reason why the great masters didn't finish an oil painting in 2 weeks, and it isn't (just) because of the drying time. Since I started doing this, I pushed myself to "keep going" when I thought it was finished and my results improved markedly.
Since,I’ve come across your channel,there’s so much I’ve learned. It was because of your wet palette video,I actually made my own.
I think one of the biggest mistakes I made was not knowing what different types of paint were supposed to do. I didn’t know the difference between washes, base paints, technical paints, and glazes which led to some wasted paint and weird looking minis. I love your channel, by the way. It’s a great resource no matter where you are in the hobby.
Needed to see this today. I've got 34 models in the same army, and i've basically been doing one color all the way through (say German gray for the weapons) and then coming back with another color for the gadgets/gear, and then another color for ____ and after 4 passes i'm kinda done... so hearing this is helping me figure out my own "meh". Appreciate it!
I'd add over-correcting a paint job early. All miniatures seem to go through an "ugly duckling" stage that can be discouraging and cause a painter to correct mistakes that aren't even there or abandon a miniature part way through. Trust the end result and enjoy the process.
Great video and advice as always.
The assembly line question is interesting. I wonder if Historical players/painters just have a higher tolerance for this due to the nature of what we have to do to get those blocks of infantry on the table. When my city's endless lockdowns kicked in and I turned to commission painting as a way to make up the shortfall in my income I found myself batch-painting armies of up to 150-ish figures. "Today is boot day" was a thing - grab a pile of albums, que up some good podcasts because you are painting 150 pairs of boots today, and at the end of the day there will be 150 pairs of boots but not one finished figure. And tomorrow is pants day and so on ad infinatum. But it's a bit like the Zen masters thing about "sweep the floor, carry the water, chop the wood". If you have been at this for a while maybe you dont need the reassurance of getting progressive "wins" day by day because you have the confidence that it all comes together in the end. That said, what I absolutely do in smaller batches is "sign off" units in small batches - check everything, do minor touch-ups and so on.
We're also not following breakneck model release cycles and rules metas, so some armies are decade long projects with large breaks in between.
I have a friend who has a list of things he needs to get done for that day. If things change and he needs to move something to tomorrow's list or move something forward he does and his day is done when he completes the list. I've long maintained that this is proof that he is an alien.
@@ausaskar True that. I have a pet theory that on a long enough timeline everyone ends up with an ancient Roman army either through painting or buying one or a combination of the two. At this point in time there are probably more miniature roman legionaries than there were flesh and blood ones.
This is likely true. I almost ALWAYS paint all of the figures for my historical units. I paint 25/28mm American Civil War units of 35+ models. My record is 72 Mordor Orcs at once.
After batch painting 20 night goblins I decided to go with 5 at a time for the next unit - this way I make less mistakers, miss less places and see more progress done faster, which is also quite important, I think
I think my biggest thing is "trust in the process" i always find myself getting demoralized when i am at the 30-50% done a model stage, things are messy, lines are everywhere, there is bleed and mistakes ..... but in my brain i know if i just keep going, its all easy to clean up i just have to do it. Overcoming that "it looks bad now" hurdle is so hard but its always worth it to just keep putting the effort in till the project is done. Models look bad when you are only done 50%, ya just gotta keep pushing.
Also dont worry about perfection, perfection is the enemy of great, if you try and be perfect you will never be happy
What helped me satisfy both finishing models quicker AND improve painting technique is a sort of battlefield merit system.
If I'm painting for a game, I paint a force to be table ready. Basic stuff, no frills. Then, if they kill something, survive an onslaught, etc... Before the next game, that particular model gets an upgrade: more layering, more highlighting, weathered leather, trim on a cape perhaps.
It does take longer, but you can get models to the table and have a good reason to come back to them later to try more advanced techniques.
That's cool.👍👍😉
Good idea! Are you "varnishing" in between?
@@philippk2 depends on the next step that I'm doing. Most of the time no, but if I do things like oil wash then definitely.
Great idea!
Dude that's awesome and the creative side of my brain loves it! My non creative side would explode if I did that in a squad based game 😂
The 'leave parts along' rings true with me and one thing I'd add to that: know which areas of a mini are less visible when playing and what is worthwhile to prioritize / put extra effort into. Adding details (usually more contrast) into areas that are less important for the overall look / less visible can result in a lot of extra work, since you now need to the same for the other areas of the model or it'll look unbalanced. Even worse if you screw it up, the increased contrast puts extra focus on it.
As such before deciding to add any more details I'd always take a look at the mini from a distance at an angle that is similar to the viewing angle when playing. Eventually you don't need to think about it too much. In the beginning something that helped me was taking a picture and painting details in Photoshop (or similar software) to visualize its effect. Knowing how to reduce a paint job and keep it still consistent with the models you spent more effort / time on is really useful. In short spending time on details that result in a lot of extra work with little benefit for the overall look is something I try to avoid.
I just wanted to compliment you on the quality of your audio. Very clear and easy to understand. Not only is that good by itself but it makes for really good closed captions. Many time I have to turn on CC to figure out what someone is saying, and even CC comes out wrong. Thanks!
painting is one of those really strange things where someone can tell you 100 times "two thin coats" or "thin everything" but until you get it just right yourself, it doesn't stick. I've been painting for decades but I only just figured out how thin I need paint and how much I need on the brush for it to look like it's not actually painted. Also that I was wayyyyy to heavy with my highlights so I'm with you on that one!
I used to try and batch paint 10 in a row and I hated it and thought I just sucked at painting because that's what everyone told you to do at the time. Now I appreciate my limit.
Anyway great vid as usual and some really useful tips! ❤👍
It depends on the brand.
@@Sorrowdusk That's my point. But in order to know how much to thin your paints you need to know the consistency you are aiming for. Some paints need a lot more thinning than others (I'm looking at you citadel!) whereas some brands don't need thinning at all (pro acryl etc). Finding that consistency is something you can only do "in person", not via youtube or other tutorials imo.
Knowing when to leave well enough alone is definitely one of my problems. So many times I have finished a model, cleaned my area and as I went to go wash my brushes got a visit from the “idea fairy,” which resulted in me spending another 2-3 hours fixing my great idea.
Another mistake I made in the past was model selection. I thought I needed a variety of different minis for different game scenarios and I was biting off more than I could chew. I didn't even actually like some of those models. Having the feeling that what you're painting is super cool is that biggest thing that will fuel your drive to painting completion
The assembly line note is so true. I’m starting out and wanted to do 6 Blood Bowl Sauruses. It was aggravating and felt silly to take a break after 4 or 5, but by 6 I was rushing and my eyes hurt. They turned out great in the end. My stamina is building, but my rhythm of working and taking breaks is improving as well. Thank you for the video!
Once again, good advice without presuming that you are teaching the "one CORRECT way" to paint!
great advice thank you!!! it might come across silly, but when I started I also believed the paint went straight from bottle to model, and giving that advice is super relevant, it makes total difference on y our end results. Also I painted some bolt action army recently in production chain and I got super burntout you are totally right, better to have less quanity and more quality.
is that a photo of RoboCop paying Nixon a visit in 1971 after he took us off the Gold Standard??? XD
"You took us off the Gold Standard creep!"
I used to used paint from the pot when I first got started in the hobby mostly as a drybrush style basecoating until I added a drop of water to thinned them to improve one of my first mistakes. It was one of the Citadel Foundation paints I did a one coat over the miniatures, sometimes two coats.
Most models when I start an army or small squad I take my time to decide which colour I'll go with before I paint them in the colour scheme I'm happy with.
It was so encouraging to hear you talk about your first Black Legionaries taking forever. As those are my first ever miniatures I’m painting right now and I feel like I’m taking far too long to get a couple painted.
I used to paint squads somewhere between 6 and 12 models per batch. And that was OK back then when tabletop level was good enough for me, cause playing the game was the important part of the hobby (and all I could pull of anyways cause RUclips miniature painting channels didn't existed back then. Nobody I knew ever considered thinning down a paint). I even got 20 skaven clan rats at once, a bit tiring but not exhausting.
Nowadays I favour quality over quantity as I like pretty miniatures, and I have, thanks to y'all content creators, all the technical knowledge to do so. And since a mini is meant to be painted only once, better do my best on the first try.
I usually go for 1 or 2 minis at a time, maximum 3 because if I do more I get bored and start to rush things to get to the next step quicker. And while I was happy with an hour or two per model in the past, I feel like 3h is the bare minimum I have to spend on any 28mm mini to get "acceptable" result, 5h being a more reasonable timeframe to get to an end result that I'm happy with.
Pay attention to your posture when painting! Don’t sit like a prawn, you’ll get horrible neck and back pain.
I really enjoy painting with a friend or chatting on the phone while painting. I would also add have an oblective for that painting or modeling session if in the build phase. Breaking up parts of the project are helpful, which goes along with batch painting size. For me it can vary, 3-5-10 models. Depends on the unit and complexity of the model. And i would say probably the most important for me is learning to like the process or at least figure out the way you like to do it. For me i hit a point about halfway where i can start seeing the paint job come together and its looks nice. Once i finish the base the model really comes together and the details i may have been stressing over seem to melt away as a whole. Lastly a new thing for me is holding the model at arms length and seeing if i like the colors or even notice the detail. Oh the last two for me would be define your standards for table top in your own way and write down the paint recipes
The thing i have learned from painting for the last two years, is to learn how to turn a mistake, into a success. I have painted a total of three boxes. The warhammer 40k recruit edition, the elite edition, and a box of Mk.IV marines. And I am currently painting the wrath of the soul forge king box minis.
And being so new, whenever i would make a mistake it would really bum me out, because i want them to look good. I don't have anyone to play warhammer with so i just paint them for display currently, so my goal is to get them looking good.
But whenever i make a mistake, i try to turn that from a mistake into an opportunity. I bought a speedpaint set for this new box i am doing and was painting the cultists, i wanted to get a decent skin tone going on them but was having trouble. It seemed like no matter what i did i just couldn't get it right. So i decided to use the white paint, which really is grey especially on primed black models, to give them a pale skin. And it looked pretty good. They pretty much looked like harkonnens from dune, big pale skinned brutes. But i wanted to add something to them, and i wasn't quite happy with the overall look i had. So, since i now had them pale toned on the skin, other colors could go on much better.
So i sat and thought for a while about how i could turn this around to get something i really liked. And then i thought about what they are, chaos cultists, with little horns and tentacles or other corrupted parts on them. So i decided to dive into the corrupted look. I painted them in the army painters speed paint: purple alchemy. It turned out fantastic. The combination of the black primer, covered in white, then covered in the purpleish pink of the purple alchemy, ended up making them look exactly like i envisioned them. After several planned skin tones all failed, the combination of trying several things finally ended up with something i really liked.
So when things just are not looking how you want, try and think about how you could use your mistake to build up to something good. Had i never struggled with skin tone i would never have painted them pale, and if i never painted them pale, the color i did end up with would not have looked as good as it does.
The big mistake I make way too often is not being satisfied with a layer I just put down and trying to fix it while it’s still drying. This inevitably tears the paint, leaving a strong outline of the “mistake” and an empty interior that will require many layers to properly cover up again.
Just let it dry, and come back to it later
My two biggest mistakes that I learned from 1st dont count how many guys you have left to paint in a hoard army got discouraged, painting them for a bit because didn't seem like I was making progress. 2nd, remember who I'm painting for and doing this hobby for stopping when I'm happy. Yes, you can always add or do more, but dont take the fun and relaxation out of it (one of your videos helped with that cant recall which but its something I try to pass on to other hobbies and kids/friends)
I love the "Pachow"! It's become sort of your thing!
Thank you for the tips! You got yourself a returning customer
Your #3 I like, mainly because Ill get a model in a unit to a certain level of completion, and move on to the next, feeling pretty content with it. However, what I end up doing is going back to my models some time later. I further their completion, with added highlights or shadows on any number of models I feel like doing at the time. I keep a list of all of the completion rates of models in my necron army. Mainly my HQ and characters are fully completed, and when Im pushing those models to my painting limits I will occasionally grab a few random mostly finished Necrons and use what paint I have left and complete them.
I found the sweet spot for a guard kill team was 5 & 5; based with sand and coffee grounds and zenithal primed all ten at once, then base layer painted the first five followed by some very, very simple highlights.
After giving the first five an umber oil wash I began base painting the second five returning to the first now and again to adjust the recess shading with thinners and make-up sponges as the oil slowly dried.
Eventually all of the models began to reach a similar stage of completion with the first five receiving pigment powders and weathering with a soft (6b?) graphite stick followed by the second five an evening later. Finally everything got a dusting with a matte rattle can of lacquer about a week later.
Anymore than ten models at a time and my attention and ability to complete the project gets sorely tested.
I'm so glad you said this b/c I don't paint for armies to play with, and when I try to assembly line paint it feels like it sucks the fun out. I a feel a lot better that it's not just me.
Sometimes when i watch this channel, i feel like i have to look for hidden cameras around my house, because someone is doing a parody of my life. Of course my life is boring as heck and no one would spend the time and money doing that, but this list is incredibly personal to me.
1) assembly line. went from trying to do a regiment (20+)to 5. starting painting the whole 20 in less than half the time when i bit it off in 5 model chunks.
2) for years, i "knew" this and still did it anyway because i was impatient..Especially near the end of a model. PRESTO! cakey flesh tone on the most detailed part of the model!
3) *hides face in shame* I am soo much better at walking away instead of trying to "fix" things than I used to be.
4) see #2. that is why i love speedpaint so much!
5) this is why i paint alone. painting around other painters who paint fast ruins your day.
thanks as always for the reinforcement. I love this channel!
I go straight from the pot when I do skulls on the ground. The chalkyness looks great. I let the white dry, Nuln oil it, after that drys then I get to drybrushing over top and it helps sell that sunk into the soil look.
There's a hidden #6 that you missed. One of the biggest mistakes in painting... is not painting. I'm guilty of this. I'll spend way too long debating on color schemes, or just getting sidetracked with other hobbies and don't put paint to model nearly enough.
These days, I paint vicariously through Twitch.
I'm almost the same. I'll meticulously plan paints and layers, and then start painting, take ages doing it, but then everything is awful and I hate it, and I'll get demotivated from painting, and not touch a brush for months (last disappointment put me off for about 2 years), negating any practice I might've acquired. And it's not like I can just go buy other miniatures: I've hyperfixated on 40k, and that shit is expensive. "Oh, you can just strip the paint." Bitch, I barely have enough will to breathe, let alone dunk, scrub, dunk, scrub a model over and over again.
Fortunately, I've got a friend that has offered to strip the paint off of my disappointments and give them a decent primer for a change, and will guide me through the process of painting my plastic men again, so maybe I'll be able to actually make something decent.
@@duartecruz5635 hang in there bud.. i know your situation.
At this moment, still early in my painting journey, my biggest mistake is giving up on models too soon. My CTRL-Z is to give up as soon as I am unhappy with my painting, then remove the paint completely and start over. If I already know I will strip the paint, I may as well continue with the model and just practice: brushstrokes, layering, paint thinning, etc. Plus, I may actually be happy with the final result. Good video. Subbed.
Because of the weirdness of metallic paint, I will generally do big batches of silvers and golds, I’ve been painting Ultramarines here lately. I’ve noticed before that the flakes will stay in brushes and cleaning water and can show up in other non metallic paints. Once done with metallics, I clean everything really well and move on to nonmetallic paints.
thanks for this, i'm going to start painting a new set of mini's with my younger brother. this is all gold.
🤔I usually felt good not thinning Reaper Colors too much (and sometimes 👀not at ALL. That's why I liked them)
My first mini was an owlbear, and I was just starting to test a gold paint. The bottle was clogged and burst onto my table, and part of my owlbear.
I was frustrated and soon had the idea after immediately cleaning as much of the paint off my table to use it as gold feathers on my owlbear. Now, I'm always looking at accidents and mistakes as an opportunity to fix and improvise.
Contrast paint has been my blessing and curse for painting. At first, it was fantastic! I got SO many models done in so little time. The problem was that they were a bunch of characters for a Skirmish game and as I played with them and looked at them more....I was unsatisfied with the sloppy paint jobs. And since I only need a handful to play...there was no real reason to rush ALL of them (besides some small glimmer in my pile of shame...) So I am aiming to go back, maybe even fully redo some of them. And when I go back and even add some basic cleaning and detail, it feels GOOD. I do want to finish, but, at least for the big skirmish stuff, I think I need to slow down and take it all in.
Very true - all of your points! Happy painting!
My two biggest painting "mistakes" both apply to planning:
1) not having a deliberate plan when I start. Whether it is a large centerpiece model, or 10-20 deep on some infantry, a basic plan of how I will prime, base, layer, and finish the model is key to me maximizing my time, effort, and enjoyment.
2) becoming too reliant or "stuck" to the plan. Plans are not instructions, they are a loose guideline. As I continue through my one or many models, I may determine that the layering scheme I was going for does not work with where the model is headed, and may adjust my plan to match what I now see as a finished model. Sticking too closely to the original plan as step by step instructions has created some painting fatigue (get bored or frustrated) or just altogether stopped me in my tracks. Being flexible allows me to stay fresh and stay engaged.
Don't make the mistake of being afraid to try something new. I recently painted a bit of free hand stuff that actually came out good and the boost of confidence I got was huge. It made my mini look even better and now I'm trying other free hand stuff that I probably would have avoided.
This is all great advice and most of it strikes pretty close to home for me. Especially the batch painting number. Not too long ago I was painting the xenos for Zombicide Invader. I was painting the workers and hunters in batches of about 18 models each. These are simple models to paint and I was mostly airbrushing them. When I got to the "tanks" which were much more complicated to paint (more colors, and those damn tentacles...) I had to stop and cut my batch size down to 6 or I was just going crazy trying to paint the same stupid tentacles over and over again LOL.
BTW, I haven't commented on one of your videos for a while, but I wanted to say i enjoyed meeting you at Adepticon this year. Keep producing great content like this and I hope to catch you next year again 🙂
the most I painted as assembly line was 35 goblins and 30 T'au. for me, 10 is a good number. 4-6 is best.
I always track the amount of time I spend per model. 4 hours to paint 4 models is one hour per model. however, painting 10 models in 4 hours is 24 minutes per model.
if I can get the same result of tabletop ready, it's a success. I'm not trying to win awards. if that was my goal, I would never get thru my mountain of gray!
I can't batch paint in groups larger than 10. By the time I get to the brush on my Marines, I've airbrushed the white zenithal over black primer and then airbrushed the main armor color over pretty much everything (AP Alien Purple). All the brushing is the secondary stuff, so I'll get the first coat of wraithbone on the areas, then move to the next model while the first one sets up properly. By the time I get to model 10, model 1 is totally dry and I can put the next coat down. When I tried to do my Votann (>70% contrast), I tried to do 20 Warriors in series and nearly went insane. I had to break them up into 10 man squads.
Something that really sped up my Necron Army was deciding to prime them in a dark silver metallic then douse them with nuln oil and say "i like this, we don't need to do anything else to the body" so I could focus on one or two armor panels and the weapon.
Painting mistake I've made in the past: priming on sprue. I thought it would be a neat simple way to speed up, but now I dread clipping the parts off, sanding the mold lines, and undoing all the priming. I have a kit of CSM Raptors that I don't think I'll every be happy getting off the sprue (though at some point I'm just gonna have to do it and work with the mistake)
Though if you've found ways that this has worked for you, please lmk!
When I'm working on a squad or similar I usually do about 10 at once. Maybe a little more if it's a Blood Bowl Team, or fewer if it's cavalry or light vehicles. Big vehicles I'll do one at a time.
1: Got a pretty high tolerance, painted some 30 Bloodletters at once. However, can't stand painting terrain. Many small are better than one big.
2. I tend to avoid this because of drybrushing.
3. Amen, when I started out I kept a list of everything I "should" go back and fix. Too much anxiety, stopped that fast.
4. This was the reason why I never had anything that "popped" on my first models, plasmas, demonic swords etc, just looked like everything else. I needed some more experience.
5. A good lesson, like many people I tried to do both when starting out. Now I've realized that playng is more fun than painting. I mean, even when I put a lot of time into a model my opponents didn't even pay attention to it until I mentioned it. I mean, I was proud of the work I did, but if you paint to play then everyone involved will be more busy with tactics and rules etc instead of looking face to face with a model.
I think my two biggest mistakes i still repeatedly fall for:
#1. Don't bite off more than you can chew. It would be easy to get one unit and paint it up as i go, but why do that when I can mass purchase a 2k point army in one fell swoop? And... now I've got to paint them all.
#2. Getting frustrated when your painting skill level doesn't meet your expectations. It's easy for our imaginations to think up something that looks similar to the box art or other amazing models we see shared by pro painters. The tutorial videos make it look SO EASY that we sometimes forget that painting is s skill you get better at with practice.
Simple, but help me a lot. Still have some quesions though. Should I apply metallic paint directly from the bottle to the model when using it? Do I need to wet the brush or put it on a wet palette?
I Just finished batch painting with a brush 1 Marshall, 43 Skitarii, 15 Sicarians and 3 Ironstriders (I was doing several other characters too, but stopped painting them at the highlighting stage). It was too much to do at one time. Small things took a long time. And I got pretty sick of it by the end.
I think 10-12 infantry is a good number. And that goes down as the model becomes more complex.
I'm planning to paint 12 Serberys dog riders, but I will do all the dogs first, and then all the riders. So essentailly 12 models at time in 2 batches.
I follow rule one with one big exception, which is necron warriors. I batch paint them in groups of 30-40 because it's kind of meditative and is just drybrush metal, paint tube on the guns.
#2 was very good to hear, because I'm just beginning to branch out from my initial army selection, which was... Necrons.
Don't get me wrong, I'm really enjoying doing odd things to and with my Necrons! But the paint thinning thing hadn't really come up yet, except in places where I put down white as a layer before Tesseract Green to get a different look.
Thanks for the video.
My personal biggest mistake is when I don't respect my paint-to-play ratio.
I enjoy painting, I like practicing a practical skill, I like conquering my grey mountain, but if I get stuck painting for over a month without playing, the intrusive thoughts creep in.
"What am I doing, why am I doing this, nobody cares, I'm wasting my time, I'm wasting my life" and that can be extremely demoralizing.
After I get out and play a game, I'm always fired up to get work done and bring more models to the table for next time.
I don’t know if it’s a “mistake” as such, but I was over-reliant on the old Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade for a while. When I dialled back on the washes, and in many cases, dumped them entirely, I really found my own style and felt happier with my work. I now work much more in the “triad” style.
The biggest mistake that slows me down, is not listening to my gut and erasing something RIGHT AWAY if I don't like it. Coming back and 'fixing' it later is way more work than repainting it right now, while the color is there on the wet palette, and you're working on that area!
For batch painting, I've learn to keep the size of the batch proportional to the time I have for sessions. If I can't complete a step across all the minis in that batch in one session, then the batch is too big.
This helps to keep me motivated, as I know a step is done and every new session is something new, even it's painting the blue bits after finishing the red.
You can save a lot with a wet q-tip if you're fast enough. You just need to act immediately _before_ the paint dries.
My biggest tip: before a batch paint session, try out your colour scheme on a test model/leftover bits/even just the sprue itself.
Nothing is more frustrating to hustle and pump out a dozen models only to dislike the colours you chose.
A test model adds more time to the process, but it ensures that you will like the end result.
dont know if its a mistake per say but one that can kill momentum is thinking you need different browns for each strap, bag, belt and boot. If each is getting their own brown then that is at least 3 color mixes you are going to need when you throw in highlighting and shading for each item. much easier to do everything with one brown or at most maybe have 1 for straps belts and bag and then 1 for boots.
Knowing when to stop is my personal challenge. Gotta get al the details highlighted etc. One other thing i will add about painting mistakes, is that folks should have more haste and less speed.
Worse case example for me was finishing a lovely Klingon battlecruiser, from star trek the motion picture, reaching over to what i thought was a rattle can of varnish and then spraying what was actually a rattle can of black primer over it........ Sad times indeed and I learnt that lesson a hard way (I did end up repainting the model, but 1 mistake cost me a huge amount of time).
Been painting my Leagues of Votann guys right now and the assembly line rule is such a good point. I tried to do all of them assembly line at once and it was driving me mad. Now I just leave them at 5 at a time.
Love the t shirt! Isn’t that when Robo-cop wanted to be an undercover rock n roll star?!
When it comes to assembly line painting I find my limit varies depending on the model. If I'm painting Necron Warriors, I can paint a thing of 10-20 in a single painting session (well 2 due to oil washes) due to their simplicity. However if I'm painting a thing of Ork Boyz the max I can handle is 3-5 due to the different details. I usually like painting 2-3 at a time if it's squad, and of it's a character just the 1 (though I did paint my Techmarine and Chaplain in 1 session, but that's a rarity )
Taking time and reviewing minis within spans of several days between crucial steps is kinda my best looking quality receipt. So rushing and doing everything at once is a mistake.
Thank you so much for these tutorials!
Batch painting varies for me. My word bearers? Five at a time because of the trim. My anvils of heldenhammer? Ten at a time. Whenever I assemble a squad of either they get stuck to a paint stick. My word bearers are hit with army painters chaotic red and boom! Base coat done. Same with my anvils. Army painters matte black. Spraying is so much faster and easier than hand brushing each one at a time
So I’ve batch painted in an assembly line 20-40 miniatures at a time. However, I am finding my patience for doing that is waning. Especially after having so much fun working on small characterful minis, doing a big batch becomes creatively mind numbing.
Also, what is hard is trying to apply assembly line batch painting to units that are similar but not uniform. I was doing some early medieval guys, and they all used the same pallets, but they were slightly different, so each color was going on a different part of the model, etc. once I got to the weapons and armor it wasn’t so bad, but the tunics and trousers in seven different plaids… kind of annoying.
Great video as always. Solid info, thanks Uncle 🙌
The batch painting limit: One thing that affects it for me is the method. I've batch painted four guys and felt like I'm going insane with that shit. I was painting them with layers and adding simple highlights.
But just last week I finished a batch of 13 and I was having fun all the way through. This time I was using contrast paints.
Testing techniques and different approaches to painting your minis will give you a max limit on each. It's a good idea to see where your limits are on a whole lot of things, so you'll know to adjust expectations depending on whether you need to paint 3 heroes or 60 rats.
Still not sure about the »2 thin coats thing«…
I just don‘t have the time and will to paint everything minimum 2 times. You double the amount of minis you have to paint, theoretically.
Thin paints, and if they don‘t cover up well (yellow for example) go for a second coat. Sure. But painting a black armor with contrast paint doesn‘t require 2 thin coats. Set some »shadows« unter the contrast paint, maybe with some dry brushing over the highlights and you are good to go.
A normal space marine does not need 2 thin coats to look good. Nobody will notice anyway if the model is on the table with 20 other guys standing around him, ready for battle.
Assembly line is extremely effective for me. That being said, my cap is around Uncle Atom's at about a dozen. Any more than that and it becomes a grind, isn't enjoyable for me, and isn't enjoying it the entire point? I spent last Winter finishing about 7k of WHFB High Elves using assembly lines for pretty much every unit. 100% recommend.
I tend to buy and build in big batches. Trying to paint in that bug batches is extremely daunting. Especially for someone like me that does not enjoy painting in general.
I've recently decoded regardless of how many are built and prime to paint a single "box" amount at a time. I also have decided to paint only a few hours (usually 2) a day often on the weekends
As a new painter this was an amazing video thanks
I actually do 1 model at a time now. I started doing batches of 10 or so. I'm still working on a batch of 66 poxwalkers. its been years. now I just do one and now I like painting!
When doing "assembly line" painting do you finish the models in your group first before moving on? Like finishing 5/20 to completion before start on the next 5?
Do the whole thing. Unless... You can't.
Generally, yes. Or maybe everything but the bases, and then do all the basing for all 20 models at once at the end? Thanks for watching!
Im a n00b and the main problem I have is I can never get a brush tip small enough!! Ive went through so many 000 brushes as I seem to 'blunt' them and its like painting a space marine with a wall emulsion brush. Whats the best brand with the smallest sharpest points??
Oh! I made this mistake! Try using a size 1 brush. The size of the brush does not equal the size of the tip. A larger brush can still have a small tip and it keeps the tip better and lasts longer. Use your small brush only for the tiny details.
I'm sorry I can't pay attention to this video while you're rocking the coolest shirt I've ever seen.
Your videos are great. Always a must watch for me.
The one trick that has given me peace is that I take a painted model and I put it on the table and look at it as if I was playing a game. If it looks great at that distance, that is all that matters. I think the Internet medium has skewed what a decent looking model looks like because they tend to be close ups. By all means go for that extra step if you want to, but also don't let perfection get in the way of good enough.
Number one hits home. It takes me two days to paint 4 models of good quality for PCs in my RPG game, but I'm staring at these 60 orcs have taken like 3 months and counting. Burnout is real.
Great tips, as always! Thanks, Adam.🎉
Batch painting works for historical as well as figures with the same uniforms. The size of the figure also matters too. When I did 15mm Soviets I could do 24 at a time. However; Star Wars Legion storm troopers slowed me down to do seven at once