Greetings, everyone.

When I first began painting miniatures, I painted everything one at a time, doing the absolute best job that I could on every miniature (which was not very good at all, to be honest!). Then, I realized that I needed to speed up my process if I was ever going to field a painted army, so I began experimenting with batch-painting. I have tried many different size batches over the years and have arrived at the following method:

Step 1 -- Clean, remove mold-lines and assemble
Step 2 -- Glue sand/ballast/basing materials to base
Step 3 -- Prime

At this stage, some miniatures will languish for years, but I consider them "useable" on the tabletop at this point, although I much prefer to play with completely painted forces.

Step 4 -- Warriors are painted in batches of six. Cavalry in batches of six riders and then six mounts.

At first, I tried batches of 24 (as that was the size of the boxes), but found it too overwhelming. Then I tried groups of three (because most blisters came with that many), but that was almost as slow as painting them individually. When the War of the Ring supplement was released I began experimenting with groups of 8 to correspond to the tray sizes, but even then it was not quite right. With the warbands rules, I tried groups of 12, as I was attempting to paint 1 warband plus a hero to lead it. But that was too overwhelming for the small snatches of time that I am able to set aside to paint. Finally, I have decided that with six, it gives me just enough time to allow paint to dry before circling back around, and breaks it down into small enough chunks but I still feel like I'm making some progress.

Step 5 -- Complete basing and seal with varnish.

I try to reward myself with a hero or monster between batches of grunt warriors, just to keep things interesting.

My question is this: What method do you use and why? With a lot of new/returned hobbyists I thought this might be a useful topic.

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Respectfully,
Jonathan

Do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly

Battle Companies

I always do 6 warriors at a time: half a sprue.

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"make me lunch... worthy of Mordor"

I'v been batch painting groups of 30 recently but would only advie this on plastic rank and file.

I base everything once the paint job is finished so i don't have to think bout bases until the miniatures are ready to be based and finished. I clean and prime and then go at them with paint. The key to large batches is try not to look at the bigger picture. Concentrate on the miniature you have on the end of your brush at the time and think of nothing else (especially not the other 29 of them staring at you) break the models into stages for instance

1.Paint and complete all metal sections of the models.

2.Complete all hair on models.

3.Any fur now is the time.

4.Now all the messy bits are done paint the clothing.

5. Paint the skin, faces

7.Details, eyes freehand etc

Remember these key words throughout and peridically repeat them to yourself.

"It will be alright in the end" LOL good luck!

Overall - take your time, its a hobby we're supposed to enjoy it.

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Commission Availability : BOOKED SOLID (again lol)

More of my work at

www.ShadowandFlame.co.uk

I once did three boxes (72) of goblins in a batch. Pretty rewarding in the end. they were divided in sub-batches though, but I had painted the skin on all of them before the first were finished.

I switch between batches of three, or six, or eight, or doing them one at a time. I really try to only paint when I want to. (to keep it a hobby and not work (DMS... ))

Keeping this in mind sometimes painting figures one at a time is faster, as I stay interested and want to keep going because I get rewarded with finished figures. I have a ton of half finished figures languishing about, so now I try to keep the batches small, and finish them off quickly.

I usually stick to warbands. It is a bit too much but it realy depends on what you are painting and how much good music you have on your ipod.

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You would of had me crawling on all fours like a BEAST!

I will arrange my models in groups of around 6,
Then say im doing hobbit goblins

group 1 - wash 1
get bored....
group 1 wash 2
group 2 wash 1
get bored...
group 1 wash 3
group 2 wash 2
group 3 wash 1... rush and do wash 2
group 2 wash 3
group 3 wash 3

At the most I stick to 3. but then again, I'm really not the batch painting type...

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'Though my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior'
-John Newton

I usually make use of a method similar to DMS- after they're all ready and based, work one area on all models until done, then move onto the next area. The amount is determined solely by what I have at the time, though I do tend to do all of one type of model at a time, if I can. Bases are always last.

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"...in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

When batchpainting, I paint all the models taht use the same colour scheme at one. For instance at the moment, 54 Goblins, 2 Captains, GRinnag, the Great Goblina nd the Scribe all at one. However, before taht I onl did Groblog and 2 Shamand because that was the entirety of that scheme. I say, there is no such thing as too big a batch. One batch = all models requiring one scheme. 2nd batch adifferent scheme and so on.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
-FSM.

In the last twelve months I've painted nine models. When I've done batches I usually end up messing them all up and wasting a whole lot of paint because I get so sick of painting one colour for hours on end. My batch painting plans for the future would see me paint no more than 4 models at a time.
I also always do bases last.

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http://bdhobbymadness.blogspot.co.nz/

May the wind under your wings bear you to where the sun sails and the moon walks!

4. Usually, I'll try to stick to models with the same armaments. I usually get about 12 miniatures painted per session, if I have enough time.

I tend to work on 8-12 figures at a a time depending on how many of them I have, for me this is a good number to look back on once they're done and feel like you're getting somewhere. If I'm working on one of the plastic sprues I've normally got 24 so I'll paint three batches of 8. Whereas if I'm working on metal blister packs I'll have multiples of 3. Hence I'm currently working on 12 Feral uruks. Personally I find 12 a bit much to maintain my interest but it's just about manageable, like others have said, good music and letting your mind wander is the key. With characters I normally like to do a few at a time so that you can spend more time on them but also give the paint time to try, so, once the ferals are done,my next batch is an Uruk captain, banner bearer, shaman and Vrashku.

I also like to put on documentaries on iPlayer to feel like I'm learning something as well, I tend to find this more interesting than just listening to music. Audio books are good for this too, I've listened to every Sherlock Holmes book whilst I've been painting so that broadens my knowledge base a bit. I also like to ring people and catch up, I'll put my phone on speaker and chat away to someone for an hour or so. Again, this makes me feel like I'm getting twice as much time from my day.

I think I'm a pretty slow worker too, I've worked out that I generally get one batch (12 warriors/6 cavalry) painted per fortnight and I get about an hour's painting time a day, normally around 10 PM when the missus goes to bed. I think all told it probably takes me about 60-90 minutes per figure and probably more for characters. Really wish I was quicker!

Good topic, really interesting reading about other people's styles.

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Finished 2nd in the 2014 GBHL. My Wife's so proud

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Same here, it's nice when you look at your paint station and see that your swords, spears or bows are now complete...

Although currently i have 24 Galadhrim sitting under my desk so i will be painting 8 at a atime, which leaves a lovely amount of time between models for layers to dry so means i can continuosly paint which helps me maintain my enthusiasm for it, once i stop thats the killer....

I will be putting on FOTR and doing some painting this saturday afternoon hoping to complete first half of my swordselves (swordsmen doesn't sound right on elves) in one afternoon, leaving just the armour and skin to complete them....

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Veritas Vos Liberabit