A mini an hour, an hour a mini - Fantasy

[Bobbo]

So I've come to a realization when prepping for the Lead Painters League this year (which I wasn't able to enter because I didn't have the minis completed).  I have very little time for hobby stuff.  I've got three kids under 3 years old, I work full time and I'm taking masters courses in the evening. 

So I decided to start painting in a new way.  My new method I'm calling A Mini an Hour, an Hour a Mini.  Basically, it works like this...

A Mini an Hour - I will paint a single miniature every hour that I paint.  The only batches that I do are figure prep and basing.  All painting will be done on individual miniatures. I will also do my best to only paint when I have a spare hour and to stop when my hour is over.

An Hour a Mini - The mini will be completely painted at the end of the hour.  Obviously my painting standard will be lower, but if I want it to increase then I need to learn to paint better faster.  After an hour I put the brush down, so it had better be at a place where I'm not embarassed to have it on the tabletop.

So far, I've painted three miniatures like this.  It has been really liberating actually.  I stop worrying about getting every layer just right (which I never can get and just frustrates me anyways) and focus on speed.  I feel a lot more free to try new techniques.  I don't get stuck working on a mini that I'm not excited about for multiple sessions.  Everything done in an hour.  Here are my results so far...

First mini - painted in 57 min 27 seconds



Things I learned. 

My normal method for painting leather won't work for painting in an hour.  I use too many layers and I just ran out of time, so the browns are flat. 

Layering metallics isn't working for me.  I need to try something new.

Second Mini - 43 min 52 sec



Things I learned.

I didn't listen to myself and tried the leather the same way.  Still a flat result.   

Metallics are still weak.  I tried a basecoat, highlight wash this time which was quicker than three layers, but my wash was too weak and didn't add any shadows.

I need to be more careful when painting.  I can see spots on the boots that I missed.  The time constraints mean that I can't always go back and correct mistakes, so getting them the first time is important.  It was hard for me to leave this one the way that it was after an hour since it is slightly ugly, but them's the breaks!

Third Mini -
From this...


To this in 59 min 44 sec



Metallics are looking better.  I tried using Reaper Grey Liner as a wash and found that I need to water it down first.  There was a panic moment when it covered all the metallics that I painted.  The quick repair works alright.

Leather is still weak, but getting better.  Using a new color combination, but you still can't really make out the highlights.  I need to pre-mix a brown and grey/black wash so I don't have to mix it while painting. 

This was extremely close time-wise.  Looking at it again in pictures and there are still spots that I missed and lots of room for improvement, but I'm happy with it for the time that it took.

[Za Zjurman]

Hy Bobo,
being a father myself I know all about the problem of having not enough hours in a single day . I also tried different methods (Dipping with mixed success so I quickly stopped this method) and I finally found a method witch suits me just fine.
Step 1: give the whole model a basecoat.
Step 2: I always use a mix of devlan mud and badab black (50/50) from GW and give the model a good wash. I have several pots pre mixed. Imo the best washes around.
Step 3: a quick highlight mostly using the same colour as the basecoat or a slightly lighter colour.

I get good results in a fair time (it also works really well on metal).  

Nice result btw.

regards

[Braxandur]

You are doing pretty well. While I have more time, I did also find out that I did not have enough time. I tried had to change my goals from having everything perfect to having models finished and being happy with them. The citadel washes really do help a lot.

While I can understand the 1 hour per mini approach, might it not be better to sometimes take two miniatures and go for two hours, maybe even spread over two days? This way you could make much better use of washes and inks, that normally can take some time to dry... and so absorb most of your painting time.

Also, If you want to be quick, I recommend starting from a black undercoat, as anything you miss will be harder to spot.

[dijit]

You are doing pretty well. While I have more time, I did also find out that I did not have enough time. I tried had to change my goals from having everything perfect to having models finished and being happy with them. The citadel washes really do help a lot.

While I can understand the 1 hour per mini approach, might it not be better to sometimes take two miniatures and go for two hours, maybe even spread over two days? This way you could make much better use of washes and inks, that normally can take some time to dry... and so absorb most of your painting time.

Also, If you want to be quick, I recommend starting from a black undercoat, as anything you miss will be harder to spot.

Some good points, though I disagree about the black undercoat as it takes more layers to get strong colours, especially if they're reds or yellows. White undercoat and black wash I think works best. I've also moved to a similar style of painting (though buggered that when I decided to try my hand at NMM  - next project will be back to metallic paints), as time as you say isn't always easy to come by and it's better having painted minis than none at all.
Duncan

[Blue in vt]

I applaud your efforts and wish you the best of luck...you are off to a good start.

If I can make a suggestion about metal...my system is super easy and pretty fast...I think.  First off...I prime everything black...paint the armor and weapons with bolt gun metal....highlight with mithril silver...wash with badab black...done.  For gold...again black prime...base coat brown...paint gold...highlight with gold/silver mix...wash with gryphone sepia...done.

Also if you find yourself waiting around for washes to dry I would pick up a hair dryer (preferably with a low setting) at a garage sale...rig up a bit of a stand for it...and use that to dry you washes while working on another figure.

Keep us posted on your progress.
  
Cheers,

Blue

[Za Zjurman]

Also if you find yourself waiting around for washes to dry I would pick up a hair dryer (preferably with a low setting) at a garage sale...rig up a bit of a stand for it...and use that to dry you washes while working on another figure.

top tip I also use the hairdryer technique it really saves a lot of time. I nicked mine by the way . My wife wasn't to happy about it 

[Bobbo]

While I can understand the 1 hour per mini approach, might it not be better to sometimes take two miniatures and go for two hours, maybe even spread over two days? This way you could make much better use of washes and inks, that normally can take some time to dry... and so absorb most of your painting time.

I normally do work on two minis at a time, and finish both in two sessions, but I found that I would often not muster up the steam for the second half.  I have as many half painted miniatures lying around as I do fully painted ones.  If the style that I land on requires the split session than I'll do it, but so far the single session painting as resulted in no half painted minis, so I'm going to stick with it for now.

Step 1: give the whole model a basecoat.
Step 2: I always use a mix of devlan mud and badab black (50/50) from GW and give the model a good wash. I have several pots pre mixed. Imo the best washes around.
Step 3: a quick highlight mostly using the same colour as the basecoat or a slightly lighter colour.

If I can make a suggestion about metal...my system is super easy and pretty fast...I think.  First off...I prime everything black...paint the armor and weapons with bolt gun metal....highlight with mithril silver...wash with badab black...done.  For gold...again black prime...base coat brown...paint gold...highlight with gold/silver mix...wash with gryphone sepia...done.

Hmm... two votes for some badab black.  Next time I'm in the game store I'll have to see if they stock it...

Thanks for the recipes and the tips.  Blue, I love the way your metallics come out so I'll have to give it a shot.

Also, If you want to be quick, I recommend starting from a black undercoat, as anything you miss will be harder to spot.

I think that I will start on a black undercoated mini next time.  I agree with dijit most of the time that the black undercoat is harder to get a nice coat over, but I can certainly give it a shot.  Worst case scenario it costs me an hour...

[Faust23]

I'm with dijit on the white undercoat and such.

I'm glad to see you made this decision.  I spent far too many years painting art pieces when I should have been painting playing pieces.  I'm at the playing pieces stage of life now and I'm getting much better at fast production without loss of quality.

[phreedh]

Bobbo, I can't stress how much you need those GW washes. They're really really useful for quick jobs.

Gryphon Sepia for blonde hair, parchments, off white wrappings etc.
Ogryn Flesh for caucasian skin (and other stuff).
Devlan Mud for darker skintones, wood, bone and almost anything.
Badab Black for greys, blues, dark metals.

Seriously, anyone trying to cut the time spent on a mini need to try those four washes. The approach Za Zjurman uses is pretty much the same I use, with a little layering and drybrushing here and there - but the basic idea is the same. Basecoat, wash, basecoat again and work it up to a highlight. You could get away with a basecoat, wash and then just the basecoat on raised areas and get much better results with your browns!

Another great tool to use is the old GW Chestnut Wash, still available form Coat D'arms - bear in mind that it's much more pigmented than the current GW washes and is more of an inkwash. It also dries rather glossy, while the current GW washes dry quite matte.

Have fun! =) And oh, just wanted to chime in on the white undercoat - which you're allready doing. Black works fine for fugly GW plastic armies in huge blocks.