Steps to Being a Better Miniature Painter – Part 9 - Batch Painting

Hey Everybody,

hope your summers are going well. As you are probably aware, I am now doing my weekly challenge for painting. This week, I (perhaps foolishly), gave myself a week to paint an entire 10-man squad of paladins. Seeing as it took me 5 weeks (on and off) to paint the first squad, a week is perhaps a little too crazy of a challenge. But hey, what can you do? As tomorrow is the half way mark in my painting challenge, I will be posting pictures of my current status. Prepare to be... well... you will see.


So, this challenge reminds me an important topic in the miniature painting game - BATCH PAINTING. This is when you are painting a squad or group of miniatures at once. Batch painting can be a real time-saver, depending on the circumstances. When batchpainting, I really recommend writing down the exact order of colours you want to paint the miniatures with. Then, I typically line up all of the miniatures that I am going to paint and go 1 colour at a time. I will not make sure that each model is done for that colour then move on the next. When you are done with that colour, you can put it away and not have to worry about missing any spots. This is especially important when batch painting models that are not at the same stage of painting when you begin.  However, that leaves the question, when is it a good idea to batch paint?

Good Idea - It is a great idea to batch paint when you have a group of miniatures that are similar or identical in colour or painting steps.  For example, if you are painting a horde army (e.g. tyranids, orks, imperial guard), batch painting will save you loads of time.  Same goes for when you are painting a squad of space marines. 


When is disadvantageous to batch paint? - I do not recommend batch painting when you are painting individual important models like Hq's or monsterous creatures. Sometimes when you batch paint, the individual detail can be lost, as you typically do not allocate as much time to each model. For these important models, it is good to keep the detail in the model, since they will stick out in your army. Also, I would not recommend batch painting if you are painting a set of miniatures with drastically different colour schemes. Typically, if you try batch painting, you will find that each model may require a different order of colours (if you paint outward - refer to other post), which could confuse you and slow down the process.


Well, that is all for now and I will be posting pictures soon.


Sincerely,
J