The fastest brush in the West!

I'm wondering how long it takes most people to complete an army? From undercoat to final dip,it takes me at least a month, scraping in an hour here and there when the kids will allow it.
I remember reading a post from David K saying how many painted armies he has, and thinking, HOLY #$&%, that's an awful lot of hours. Only something I can dream about at the moment.

[ January 04, 2003, 06:47: Message edited by: neil ]

Take heart, Neil; you have company with other slow painters. I've never really tallied the number of hours to paint a DBA army, but I can say I have some that have been "in progress" for a VERY long time. I have 36+ DBA armies, but some of those figures I painted while in college 20 years ago.

During the long rainy season here in Seattle, I probably average 10-12 hours' painting time per week. I'm doing well if I can finish eight 15mm figures or four 1/300 planes (my other painting & gaming passion) per week. I'm a good painter, but that's still probably very low productivity.

No matter: I enjoy my painting time, and, of course, what's the point of a hobby if it isn't fun, right?

[ January 04, 2003, 08:18: Message edited by: Paul A. Hannah ]

Neil,

Take heart I used to be a lot slower than I am now. There are ways to speed up. ( Of course my best way was to volunteer to paint up the lead for our BBDBA games. Deadlines have a way of getting my attention.)

First for me was accepting a level of painting that I felt was slightly below my best. I started on 25mm Fantasy and was used to doing as much detail as I could on them. And if they didn't have the detail I wanted I added it. Well for 15mm armies that is to time consuming, do the obvious detail on most and leave the best for the command stand. As you go on you will find your self redefining what needs painting and what doesn't.

Second look at how others do it and pick and choose what is best for you. I painted individual figs by hand for years( 25mm ). They had enough room on them that I could pick them up and set them down without mounting them and I had no idea there was another way. After going to 15mm I started using strips, made my own out of 1x2 stock- popcicle sticks were to light for me. Then after reading about using nails on the Resource Page, I switched to them and it cut my painting time in half or more. And it allows me to add more detail again, plus I've sped up from practice. And with the nails I stopped using washes, something I never thought came out right, and went to the miracle dip method, again speeding up the process.

Well, I hope this helps some. AND don't compare yourself to David Kuijt, he has an ability to put quality and quanity together that most can't equal. I'll never catch up with my buying habits when it come to lead but I'm satisfied. (I don't really recommend the deadline method, twice I've been painting lead the night before an 8 hour drive to Historicon.) [img]smile.gif[/img]

Mike S.

[ January 04, 2003, 09:57: Message edited by: Stelzone ]

Several years ago I discovered the best time to paint was while I was waiting for my wife to get done in the bathroom in the morning. (I did my thing first, and since we carpooled at that time, I had to do *something* ... did not take much to get me to paint.)

To get back to the topic, I decided at the same time to keep a notebook so I could figure out just how much time I was squeezing in in these little dribs and drabs, that could vary from 5 to 30 minutes. When your doing it every day, it sure adds up.

Anyway, I averaged 20 minutes per man overall, including de-flashing, priming, painting, and basing. So a Roman army at that time (IIRC, 42 figs), would be about 17 hours.

I was quite a dawdler as I remember, and have not timed myself since. In fact, I have not painted much since

It might be interesting to re-gear for painting (now that I finally have my house put back together after years of moving, renting, and remodeling) and try the time and motion study again. Especially now that I am considering the 6mm/2mm ranges.

I once figured it took me almost an hour a figure from start to finish. I'm very picky (so I'll do certain areas over again if I'm not satisfied), and do several washes, dry brushing and blacklining. I susually use the popsicle strip method but I think I'm going to try the nail head method with my next army to see if this works faster. One problem I have with the strip method is that you can't get at the most convient angle all the time.

Deadlines help (If it weren't for the last minute nothing would ever get done) so my BBDBA partner and I have the next 2-3 cons planned and in works.

Having the time helps too. With kids and a wife and a house and a job there's not much left for painting sometimes. When I was in grad school I painted a lot more but I had the time and no money. Now I have money but no time.

What material do you all find is the best for basing? All i've ever used is double ply Balsa. Easy to cut, cheap and pretty durable.
Also, acrylics or enamels?

I use something called "anniversary board" (dunno why), which is really just a hefty, paper-based, poster-board material. I get it at art-supply stores. It comes in sheets that are about 1M square, cuts easily and it's cheap. But is it any better than balsa or metal? Probably not.

Like others' work I've seen, I apply some plaster to the base, stain it brown, apply some paint and flocking (usually green), add bits of rock, tufts of tall grass and/or small bushes. --For an example, take a peek at the title page of our local DBA group's Yahoo page at... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Northg...ts_Gamers_DBA/

Oh, you also asked whether folks use enamels or acrylics. I, for one, use almost entirely arylics.

[ January 04, 2003, 11:24: Message edited by: Paul A. Hannah ]

That is a fine piece of painting Paul. Did you paint it? If only I was half as good....sigh

Yes, and thank you, Neil; you've very kind. It's Chariot Miniatures' 15mm Seleucid elephant model.

I base my figures on a composite structure: I use hotmelt glue to glue metal bases to the flesh side of 5-7 oz leather, then cut out the leather using the metal as a guide. The resulting base is very good in all respects.

Painting easy armies (Numidians, Early Libyans) I can do an army in three to six hours, counting everything, although not consecutive hours (there are sit-and-wait steps in there). That's about 5-8 figures an hour. Painting fancy armies with lots of heraldry I sometimes take as much as half an hour or a full hour per figure.

My painting speed has improved over the four years I've been playing DBA, though.