Painting for Dummies – Just What Are You Getting Into?

Posted by Ranillon on 30. March 2009 22:50

I have a converted model and after a layer of primer my new commander is ready to be painted.  Pretty straightforward, no?  All I have to do is place the right colors in the right places – paint-by-numbers – and I end up with a finished model ready for play.

In fact, that’s exactly what I did in this case.  The picture to the left is that of my model with all the basic colors in place.  You could make the argument that I am done.  After all, it’s now a perfectly legal tournament quality model.  I could play it anywhere I like.

One of the first decisions you have to make whenever painting a model is just how far you want to go.  A basic job like this doesn’t take much time at all – maybe an hour.  However, it doesn’t make for much of an end product, does it? 

One thing you’ll discover once you take up painting in earnest is that it can take a long time.  Broadly speaking the time you need to spend on a model to improve it goes up geometrically the better the desired end result.  So, if it takes one hour to do a basic job it might take five to do a good one and twenty to do a great one.  

Just how far you want to go is a decision you’ll have to make.  In my experience there comes a point when you reach the level of your expertise where any improvement becomes so time consuming and frustrating that it is useless to continue.  However, you will likely want to stop before that point whenever the model reaches whatever you judge to be a reasonable level of accomplishment.  After all, you want a finished model and army you can play, not a lifelong mission.

How much time you want to spend per model also depends on what role it plays in your army.  A standard trooper usually isn’t worth extra time.  He’ll just be standing in the proverbial background anyway.  What does tend to attract attention are the stars of your force, usually HQ units or some impressive vehicle.  Those are worth the extra effort.  So, whereas you might just spend a few hours on a grunt a commander warrants at least ten – or even twenty.

Regardless of your choice be prepared to spend copious amounts of time on your painting if you are serious about doing your best.

More to come…