August painting project "Speed Techniques"

[Ironworker]

Alright my July miniature a day project was a bit of a bust but I still finished quite a few more minis than I have on several previous months so it wasn't a total loss. Now I've decided to do another speed oriented project exploring the usefulness of various speed techniques I've encountered over the years. I'll try a different technique each week and I'll try for about five models per technique.

Dry Brushing
First up will be dry brushing. Now dry brushing is considered a very basic technique and it's often looked down on by contest and display painters but it can be a very good way to achieve quick and dramatic results. I will try to paint five models using entirely dry brushing as a means of highlighting and I will try to get the best results I can as quickly as possible.

Minwax Dip
I've never actually tried this technique but I've seen it used in several tutorials. Basically you block in the colors on a miniature then dip the mini in a pot of Minwax finish and shake off the excess paint. I think the trick to this technique is to use colors a shade or two brighter than you normally would to get the best results. I'm gonna give it a try anyway.

Emphasised Washes
This is a new technique I've never seen but it makes sense. I first heard of it on the Reaper forums in the speed painting section but the origional article was posted on Cool Mini or Not. I've not tried this one either so it will be a first. Here is the article.
http://www.coolminiornot.com/go.php/go/articlephp/aid/257/page/2?

Tanks and Trolls Wash and Highlight technique
I've been using this technique a lot lately although I think I've been taking it a bit further than the origional article. Still it's faster than doing different color washes for each color. I'm going to see if I can't cut back a bit and do some more like the origional article.
http://www.tanksandtrolls.co.uk/speedpainting.htm

[Captain Blood]

Ironworker, you are a true pioneer 
Good luck with that. Don't use any minis that you really love will you? 

Seriously though, I've never really used anything other than the layering method, although if I'm honest, this involves quite a lot of dry or semi-dry brushing of the base colours, over which I  then build up the subsequent highlight shades.

There's no doubt about it, I need to get through my lead mountain faster - but once you know you can paint figures to a given standard, it's tough to go back to painting them to anything less than the best you possibly can, just for the sake of speed... 

At the end of the day, I guess I'm resigned to painting fewer miniatures and try to get them as good as I can, rather than the large numbers I'd really like (and need) to paint, to complete all the many projects I have sitting on shelves...

So, good luck with your experiment. If you hit on a method which gives good result without sacrificing too much quality, I might just give it a go.

[marrony]

Blimely charlie.Good luck!I tried speed painting some ww2 german paras........truely awful they turned out ironworker!I'll watch with great interest and bated breath because i love seeing and learning new skills and tips.Full steam ahead and once again best of luck with the new project.

[Rhoderic]

Good luck to you, for my own part I'm in a phase where I'm specifically trying to graduate from drybrushing and washes to "proper" layering. I've drybrushed for as long as I've been painting miniatures, but I've always found myself wishing the miniatures had turned out a little better. I have less of an issue with washes, but I don't want to become dependant on some particular range of inks that might not be around forever, so I'm trying to quit the inks before the inks quit me.

[Ironworker]

There's no doubt about it, I need to get through my lead mountain faster - but once you know you can paint figures to a given standard, it's tough to go back to painting them to anything less than the best you possibly can, just for the sake of speed... 

At the end of the day, I guess I'm resigned to painting fewer miniatures and try to get them as good as I can, rather than the large numbers I'd really like (and need) to paint, to complete all the many projects I have sitting on shelves...

I use to feel this way too and I think all miniature painters go through this phase.  A lot of them burn out on this phase.  However I've come to the conclusion that I like playing games with painted minis more than I like to have a few display pieces.  If I really enjoy a mini I can always speed paint one for the table then buy another to do a display job.  Now of course some minis go out of print quickly so this isn't always practicle but a lot of the time I can just get another copy if I want to do a fancy one later.  Of course that doesn't work so well with squads but I've rarely felt the need to do display squads and very I've finished very few squads to my highest level anyway.  I usually only do what I consider display level one mini at a time. 

[DrunkenSamurai]

I use the 'Dip' method quite alot.  It is one of the quickest ways to get large numbers of 'table-top' quality figures done.  I have used it for all of my LOTR stuff.

http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/search/label/Lord%20of%20the%20Rings

I do a little more than just simple block painting but not much more.  I have also used this technique on most all of my WW2 stuff (figures anyway).

http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/british-paras.html

http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/1940-french-infantry-squad.html

http://dspaintingblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/more-germans.html

My friend Tom has done a short tutorial on dipping on this blog.  He uses almost exactly the same process that I follow.  The key is NOT to dip, but rather brush on the stain.  You have much better control.

http://ponatowskislegion.blogspot.com/2008/05/dip.html

The last step that I will do is to dull coat the figure.  The dull coat also allows you to go back over the figure and do any detail work you think it needs.