I have never considered myself to be a "good" painter of wargames figures, however, over the ten years that I have been painting, I have learned how to paint them to an average wargames standard very quickly, having done approximately 10,000 figures over that time period.
There are a number of important points in regard to painting lots of figures in a short amount of time, the most important of which is motivation. I find it difficult to retain motivation to paint on a consistent basis unless I can finish a batch of figures every day or so. Thus, I set schedules for myself. The best way to describe this technique may be to give you a brush by brush example of my latest painting efforts.
I recently had to paint 116 25mm British Colonial Line Infantry (Ral Partha) before my Isandhlwana game as the three companies of 36 figures each had to be completed for the game. I dread painting crossbelts, especially white on red coats, but had no choice. I primed them one evening with R9 primer from Railroad Colors, woke up the next day and put on a white water-color overcoating prior to going to work, came home that night and literally splashed on their red coats not bothering to worry about where else on the figure the red paint landed. By the time I had finished the last of the coats, the red paint had dried (an advantage of watercolors over oil) so I took a deep breath and splashed on the blue for their trousers, only being careful where the coat joined the trousers. Within a 24-hour period, I had put on two primers, the coat and trousers on 116 figures requiring under two hours of painting time or less.
I then separated the figures into three 36-man units and painted the black boots, again being careful only where the trousers met the boot. Since this was fast work, I was able to do all 116 in one sitting. I wasn't able to paint the stand at the same sitting because the black paint hadn't quite dried and is very dominant over the sandcolor I had planned for the base. The next painting session I did the bases, another quick job, and let them dry. The white crossbelts were then tackled, however, since I hate crossbelts, I painted in groups of a dozen and set a schedule of a dozen each day. My painting time is essentially quite limited to forty-five minutes before leaving for work, and approximately thirty to sixty minutes after my daughter goes to bed. I try to be fairly careful not to get too much white on the red coat, but, I am not fanatical about it as I go back later to retouch as I will discuss later. When the last crossbelt and haversack (both are white) was done, the first one was reasonably dry so I gripped the figure by the headgear and painted the canteen and rifle stock at the same time in several swipes, not being overly concerned about getting brown on the red coat. This takes only a few minutes so I added on the hair color brown for this dozen perhaps black for the next twelve which will be done at the same time I do the black boots. When the hair color goes on, I do it quickly as I will be doing the collar and headgear later so I can paint over any overlapping.
Since the brown is still wet, I grab the second dozen and do perhaps six of their crossbelts and haversacks. By this time, the Brown on the first dozen is dry so I rather carefully paint the collar and epaulettes, and then quickly do the cuffs. The face and right hand on the rifle stock is then done with flesh color quickly. The bayonet is gripped and the sun helmets are finished along with the other six crossbelts of the second dozen. The paint has dried on the face and right hand of the first dozen so I grip the figures by stand, as the sun helmet is still wet, and do the rest of the rifle. I then return to the second dozen and do the canteen and butt of the rifle and then do the bayonet and top of the rifle in gun metal. This is followed by painting the sling white and putting on a dab of white or each eye after which a black dot is placed in the middle. I then take red paint and touch up any overlapping colors on the coat which does not take up much time. The left hand is painted as well as the faces and right hands of the second dozen. The first dozen are completed within perhaps slightly over an hour with the second dozen requiring less time due to the fact that they were worked on while the paint was drying on the first dozen.
This method entails the following principles: (1) painting carefully only when you really have to; i.e. when re-touching; (2) utilizing your painting time effectivelyand efficiently ie. working on a second group of figures while the first is drying, and painting items of the same color on the same figure at the same time; and (3) setting a schedule for yourself and sticking to it. Using this method I have completed over a hundred 25mm figures (Zulus) in one day, and nearly 1100 over a two month period without completely ignoring my family or job. For individuals who like to field large armies in a relatively short period of time, it should work out quite well. If anyone else would like to share their painting experiences, please feel free to do so.
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© Copyright 1985 Hal Thinglum
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