ExpressBatchAlong - Mar - Apr 2024

[dusty prairie]

Paint several minis in a maximum average time of 45 minutes each. Minimum 2 minis."

STANDARD HOUSEKEEPING RULES :

You may prep your mini, this includes, gap.fill, assemble, purchase and prime ahead of time. Paint should only be applied during the time-frame of the PAL.

Anyone can join in on the fun. Just share your mini first and paint within the time frame. Request your points in the point request channel by following the pinned post on how to ask for points.

You can't submit the same mini for multiple PALs or other multiple events. And units minis can't be split among the different PALS if they are identical .

Have fun and be nice to each other. Share some wips and some laughs.

@narrow tapir @dense arrow @ember nova

[dense arrow]

I'll see how my time goes for March, this may well end up in April.

[ember nova]

ill be doing a squad of tau breachers or pathfinders, unsure yet ill be priming and pinning them soon 🙂

[sour steeple]

45 minutes, wow.

[dense arrow]

Easier to do say 8 in 6 hours.

[gritty ravine]

Can we treat this as an under 45 minutes along? I always like the speed challenges.

Had tons of fun with the 3 and 2 hour ones.

This seems brutal though.

[ember nova]

In what regards does this seem brutal?

[gritty ravine]

Painting a single mini in 45 minutes is gonna be tough.

2 hours was tough.

[dense arrow]

@gritty ravine it doesn't have to be in one sitting.

The idea is to batch paint something.

[gritty ravine]

Hard to spread 45 minutes over 2. And yeah I’ll find 2 similarish minis to paint.

[dense arrow]

For 2 you get 90 minutes

I'm probably going to do 8 or ten which will give me 6 hours.

[gritty ravine]

Might do my mannequins for Malifaux.

Probably gonna have to reprime though. I think I basecoated them maybe.

Is 45 minutes including bases?

[dense arrow]

I presume yes? Personally I would look for whatever the simplest thing you have is.

[narrow tapir]

I was thinking that the batch painting would help getting to that timeframe. So if you have large numbers of similar models, that would be a good time to get them done. I usually spend far too much time on those unsignificant plebs and I need to stop doing that. Hence the Pal idea.

But I paint almost exclusively boardgames, and they seem to often use minis with 4-8copies.

[dense hound]

Oooo I could hammer through my BT hovercrafts.

[queen otter]

I will join this one with some of a friends Battletech figures that needs to be painted

[queen otter]

I will try these minatures from BT it is 16 mechs from Inner Sphere. Going to paint them for a friend to get them to the table before end of March.

[queen otter]

Will really be a challenge too get these done within 12 hours. I generally put atleast 2 hours for a fast figure and much more if I take my normal time. Need to plan what too do in which steps here for it to go fast enough 🙂

[queen otter]

you can build and prime the figures before start, unsure if you can build the bases and then prime them? but perhaps that is allowed.

[gritty ravine]

Yes it's allowed

[queen otter]

I have based all the figures and primed them. I have 20 mechs to paint. Since i dont normaly batchpaint I am going to use 4 of them to test different colors and techniques to see what I like or not. (My friend have many more modells at home so guess it will be different colors on some of the models.) I have around 20 more unpainted mechs here and he have more at home also.

I have decied to use the first color scheme that I tried on these first 16 that I am painting. I will divide it up in diffrent stages where I think it is good enough to stop the painting. Then when i batch paint I will do all mechs to one stage and then see how much time I have left to do other stages. When I run out of time I will stop 🙂 Below are a picture of the primed figures and the one testmodel that I have taken up to the first stopstage. I have two more stages left if there is time, one will be panel lining and after that add extra details if there is time. (first stage where I am now are using airbrush with darkblue from below and lighter blue from top. Then edge higlightning with brush and some drybrushing technique. Painting some detail like, weapons, and cocpit area.)

I think this should be doable, we will see 🙂

[queen otter]

First step with airbrush done. Going to sit down and do some detailing and scratchmarks now. (with a break for some food...) First impressions it goes alot faster to do batch painting then one single miniature at a time. I have used a mixture of Phthalo blue and Turquois and titanium white all from golden high flow line. Sprayed one dark layer from the bottom and a lighter from the top. Some areas was highlighted a bit extra with more white added to the mix. (one hour of work so far, including cleaning of airbrush)

[queen otter]

I have now up to 2 hours 13 min and stoping for some time. I have since last update, painted areas that should be black, Metal and filled in all other areas that should have a lighter color by painting them white. Next step are to do edge highlights on the blue and paint the "white" areas with the correct colors. Then we will se how much time I have left. So far it feels like it is going much faster then I thought it would do. We will se how it is towards the end of the timelimit. I said 16 figures from the beginning so I have total time 12 hours, if I have calculated right. (Have 19 figures now but that will be done within the 12 hours)

[queen otter]

5 hours 12 min now and done with the panel lining. not so fun to just sit and do lines for a couple of hours 🙂

also feel that I am to slopy when doing this speedpaint and the result is so so. but still a good learning experience.

[queen otter]

7 hours into the painting, have done detailing of colorareas. (Will take better pictures later on) Now i will do the bases and then black lining, after that I think I will finish. Did some extra detailing with shadows on some energy weapon styles and the window areas. I felt i was earlier then planed so did the detailing already now.

[dense arrow]

Really well done!

[ember nova]

Nice work!

[queen otter]

8 hours in now, Have fixed the bases with some colors now. prepainted with some black,grey areas and then a wash of orange earth color over the whole base. Next step is some battle damage and after that spray the minis with clear varnish. to do some blacklining with oilpaints, then mat varnish and finished.

[narrow tapir]

Awesome batch! How long have you got left for blacklining ? Seems like a lot to do.

[queen otter]

I have now stippled some battle damage onto them so up to 8 hours 31 min, black lining with oil paints that are left will take around 1-2 hours i hope 🙂 It goes quite fast to do blacklining/ panel lining with oilpaints and just remove exxcess with a cotton swab.

Original plan with just 16 figures was 12 hours. I will stay within that limit even thou it is now 19 figures I am painting.

[queen otter]

Finished the figures, final time is 10 hours and 36 minutes of painting activities. Have tested a lot of new techniques for me in this work and learned that it actually possible to reach this kind of result. I do prefear to paint slower and be a bit more carful. But I do believe that I can paint some models faster after this but for edge highlighting take more time. also some more time in shading the model to make it a bit better. (I painted 19 BT figures)

[narrow tapir]

Congrats, that is far beyond the initial goal. You even had time to paint great cockpits !

[queen otter]

Thanks Marbull, It was fun to try this, still have more BT figures from my friends to paint. Will use some of the techniques I used now but will take some more time to them better 🙂 Have you decided what you are going to batch paint?

[narrow tapir]

Yes, I wanted to use this PAL as a motivation for the old hero quest box I found. I just need to keep a few models for other PALS but I think I will batch paint all the orks/goblins/chaos warriors at least.

I'll take a pic of the chosen ones before starting.

[pearl sail]

Mine to this along 90 mins top. 💪 Lets go!

[narrow tapir]

This is my plan...not sure if it will work but I'll try!
19 hero quest minis in 14 hours 15 minutes max.

They were zenithal primed and drybrushed with a pale sand from above for express starting block!

Will try to make the best out of speedpaints and oil washes...adding some airbrush osl glows if I have time.

I keep a few minis for other PALs like Hero quest Along, Dead along and Quick90min. 😉

[dense arrow]

Are they different models? Might be giving yourself a disadvantage batchpainting dissimilar figures?

[narrow tapir]

Yes probably! some colours are common to many of them so that might still help me (greenskins, metals, leather, wood...)
I am also planning to use similar oil washes on many of them.

If I can't make it, then I'll switch to the Ankh minis for real similar batch painting 😉

I'll keep it to identical minis when we go down to 30min 😄

[narrow tapir]

2hours in! that's only 6minutes each on average! 😄 plenty of time left!!

[narrow tapir]

Now just under 300minutes (15min per model) and they're all basecoated and roughly highlighted. Next session will be oil wash, we'll see if the magic works...🤞Edit: miscalculted, this was 200minutes so around 10minutes per mini 😄

[proven badger]

Gonna paint these six as Red Dragon Army Soldiers

[narrow tapir]

One hour of quick details and black bases tonight. Only matte varnish left to do, I will probably end in the 15 minutes zone. I am quite surprised...

[narrow tapir]

Alright, 318minutes for these 19 minis. That's 17minutes per mini on average. I don't know why I don't always do it this way 😄

[native cedar]

@narrow tapir your poking worked, I'll start these a bit after my zenithal dries

Plan is:
Undershoot contrasting tone w/ airbrush
Sketch detail+texture
Speed paints
Oil wash
See how much time I have left

[native cedar]

Aaand starting

Value sketch w airbrush

[native cedar]

Texturing done for now, onto speed paints

[native cedar]

Speed paints like 80% done, going to do the unpainted bits in purple cuz I like purple

Varnish is on and brush down so I'm like an hour 12m in

[native cedar]

Off to oil wash land I go, brush back up

12m later and they're all washed up, will let them sit for a bit

Ok back at I go

And this is where I'll take a good few hour break so the oil paints can oxidize enough to be sealed

[native cedar]

Ok gonna varnish and go

[native cedar]

And done

I think that puts me at 27min/mini

I definitely F'd up the eyes and didn't wanna spend 15 more minutes on them lol, but other than that I'm pretty happy

[narrow tapir]

Congrats, that's a nice vibrant green! Did you have fun?

[native cedar]

it was p good, I don't often use my speedpaints so it was a good opportuntity

I'll give doing faces on a rush a 3/10 though lmao

[narrow tapir]

Yeah I did not do any faces on mine so...

[native cedar]

I think I saw you dotted some eyes

[narrow tapir]

You're ready for the next pal with 30min limit

[native cedar]

😂 yeah

I think if I pushed time down I'd do slightly simpler color schemes

and I'd have to drop texturing eventually 😭

[narrow tapir]

Yeah, just washed a few with a red glaze, not really dangerous.

[pearl sail]

First 20 mins

[pearl sail]

30 mins later 50mins total.

Photo finish.

[dense hound]

10 total units (little dudes are 4 to a base.). Getting cracking with base coats.

[dense hound]

45 more down. Painting tiny little dudes suuuuuucka

[dense hound]

Little dudes look crap. Gonna do a take ii on them

[dense hound]

I was able to save the little dudes. Now I nearly have three squads and the hovercrafts who love them.

[clever viper]

primed these orks up

67 minutes later, I've got skin tones down. Still got 338 minutes to go!

[clever viper]

162 minutes in - put armor plates on and oil washed everything

[dense hound]

Skating close to the line at 3.5 hours so far. Hoping tanks or second set of hovers can make up time.

[dense hound]

Or ya know I could dick around with bases and have too much fun. 🤦‍♂️

[dense hound]

https://tenor.com/view/chris-farley-running-lets-do-this-excited-gif-328561374425154053

Alright now cruising at 5hr 40 min in chair. I think I'm gonna make it as that's over an hour left to do some detail work and 2 freehand water bases.

[clever viper]

Spent 37 minutes on some skin tones in oils. got about halfway through the squad.

a little scared about all the leather and knickknacks

[ember nova]

I am about to prime a 10 man squad of tau infantry and maybe some other things, ill start them right after it dries and provide pics 🙂

[ember nova]

10 primed lil dudes, gonna start a 450 min timer and start working on then

[ember nova]

23 timed minutes later they have white base coat, time to get out a brush

[clever viper]

got about 110 minutes left and I've got everything shaded. next steps are the fun ones - textures, blacklining, and edge highlighting

[ember nova]

i did panel liner and thought, ill just paint something else while i wait for it to dry

spent an hour on a wholle different mini lmao oh well

[ember nova]

I have 6 hours left now anyways

[clever viper]

got the bases tufted and resin poured. I just need to paint the base rims black and I'm done!

I have I'm at 356/405 minutes. I never thought I could paint like this so quickly! this has been a very cool PAL

[queen otter]

@clever viper it is a fun way to challange oneself. I also was surprised what i could manage within the given timeframe 🙂

very nice looking orcs also 🙂

[narrow tapir]

They look great. It's nice that you timed all your sessions precisely. 7 bases in 15minutes... wow!

[clever viper]

thank you! the timings are a little imprecise. I spent some of the "edge highlighting" time prepping the bases and sealing them. But I did do the resin pour and tufts in 15 min.

[clever viper]

thank you!

[dense hound]

7 hour mark so theoretically I have 30 min remaining to obsessively fix up blemishes... Or just set it all up for a shot and declare victory. 🤔

[dense hound]

Declaring victory w/ bonus crystal objective marker. 7 hours and 2 min total for 10 pieces.

[clever viper]

Here they are! About 40min each. Super happy with this!

[native cedar]

I like how the bases tie em all together

[dense hound]

One of the side effects of mixing up your own basing goop is extra basing goop. I now have a bunch of Mars/southwest us colored sand bases lying around. I even put bones in one of them for fun. ☠️

[ember nova]

How did you make those?

[dense hound]

The Base of the goop is Baking soda, PVA glue, maybe drop of paint, thin with water to taste.

Mix it in a container you don't like because it sticks FIRMLY when dry.

The paint you use determines color. I made a small dose of straight light brown dirt color you see on the blue guys guarding the tree. The rest was AK "deep brown" which lightens to that ruddy martian brown.

For the mars effect I mix in some sandbox sand. Creats the effect of little rocks and stuff. Then I sprinkle a bit more sand on top and stick various interesting features in (bones, larger rocks, logs, whatever).

Some stuff that is sticking out of the Mud/Sand/Snow I glue to the base first then sculpt goop around it.

How much you thin the glop, adding a little wash afterwards, extra grit, etc all can be played with to get the desired effect. Varnishing it real good is important beacuse those little grains like to rub off over time.

I like the goops ability to hide imperfections around the feet. 😄

[ember nova]

Ohhh i thought you made your own bases! Like woth resin or something

Thanks for explaining tho!

[dense hound]

Oh haha! No nothing like that level of knowledge or tooling. Those are just reaper bases.

[narrow tapir]

You got a really nice results. I dig the skin you got. Very nice contrast to grab the attention.

[clever viper]

Thank you! I used Elminiaturista for inspiration

went off the rails a bit, as usual

[narrow tapir]

Wouh nice one!

[ember nova]

Orange done, 4 hours left

[ember nova]

The models itself are done except for decals and matt varnish, on to prepping bases

2.5h left anyways

[ember nova]

there we go, took a big break but put them on their bases and did the bases, i have a little time left to do decals

[ember nova]

10 little dudes all based up, decalled up and sprayed with matt varnish i had about 40 minutes left in the end

[stuck helm]

Joining with some Hero Quest goblins

[devout bolt]

Redoing my Feudal Guard Infantry. Already did the first 10 to figure out the way to do it. Should easily be less than 45 minutes a model :)
Here's a bad primed photo.

[stuck helm]

One hour gone and I feel like I've barely started!

[unborn shard]

Kobolds ready for some work

[versed karma]

I am late to this party but I am working on a speedpaint dupe for my usual recipe. I inherited these grots and imma be repainting them as a speedpaint challenge

Will be stripping, ofc

[unborn shard]

Kobolds all done

[native cedar]

I think I had a friend paint my set of these, so many little dudes

[unborn shard]

I still have like 4 more to go haha

[undone dirge]

Maybe I’ll try this too with two Minis one day 🙂

[undone dirge]

Going to test some things using this two

[undone dirge]

This is what it gave me time to do in 1:30hr

[vagrant stone]

3 minis for dnd since the players always seem to break them lol. Will get to em soon

[cursive pulsar]

I need to prime those five again. I forgot to clean the mold lines…. But joining!

[vagrant stone]

About 1:30 for these 3 - contrast paint is your frieeeeeend lol

[cursive pulsar]

12 minutes left and I need to finish the bases. Wish me luck

[versed karma]

32 grot-sized babies all done and ready for basing! 14.5 minutes per model so far.

Speed paint experiment results: happy with everything except the skin and the pink. The speed pain metallics work rly well for the smaller metal bits on the grots.

• I have another skin color I’m going to try for my next boys blob and hopefully that looks a bit more dynamic. This is my own custom blend, and I’d like something straight out of the bottle.
• my usual recipe uses citadel screamer pink, and the purple alchemy is close in hue but has too much saturation. Not sure what to do about it. I can try familiar pink, but it also looks very saturated. I might need to blend it with a gray or something.

[cursive pulsar]

Finished right on time.

[devout bolt]

Not sure i'll get this done in time April is sneaking past me, but only 39 minutes for the first coat on and drying til tomorrow when i'll hopefully do the opaque sponging step.

[ember nova]

Thats alot of men

[stuck helm]

Finally got back to these guys. 2.5 hour progress then the finished batch at 4h 10min

[sweet tinsel]

I bought some contrast medium before quit buying shit along started so I decided to try slapchop

[devout bolt]

Sponging done! 44 minutes for that step.

[dense arrow]

Put together some figures for this as the month draws to a close.

[dense arrow]

Primed last night. Actual painting started. Base coat of grey - 12 min.

[undone dirge]

Im going to use this PAL to get a unit done as I believe it’s feasible. Because last unit i did in 9:09 hrs 549 min including assembly and priming. So I should be able to replicate for this my second one

I’ll do the assembly and post a photo

[undone dirge]

I’ll do these guys

[undone dirge]

Primed

[undone dirge]

33.5min in

[undone dirge]

1/2 of the ropes details (5/10 models) 36 min

[undone dirge]

Ropes and first layer nmm 1:10hrs

[versed karma]

AND TIME! Grot squads based and ready for krumpin’

[dense arrow]

Currently just under 2 hours.

I hate to say that between the grey not popping as well as I'd hoped and the guns needing a bit of love - the whole lot are going to get a mild black wash.

[dense arrow]

10 minutes, 1 blackwash. 2.10 at the moment.

Should their shoes be black, brown or stay grey?

[versed karma]

I think black would be nice. It would break up the grey and I think it would match better than brown, since you chose grey as a main neutral already

[devout bolt]

Making progress on the brown step, have had to do it in bits over a few days but Ithink i'll push through and finish it for them all today.

It's satisfying doing all 70ish at once as I line them up for each step done.

Physical progress bars are motivating for hobby success.

[versed karma]

That’s super cute

Maybe I’ll start doing that. I usually make them into a little square

But that would require me to clean my table which is another kind of motivation XD

[devout bolt]

Need to tally up the minutes but i'll do that later. Brown layer done.

[devout bolt]

140 minutes. Only 2 minutes per model on average though which ain't bad.

[dense arrow]

Did another hour and a half on these. Calling them essentially finished but will see how long the basing and brush varnish takes on them. Currently at 17.5 min per figure

Probably set myself too easy a target. I didn't want to spend too long on these guys.

[versed karma]

They’re coming together really nicely

I like how grounded the green/purples are with the rest of the scheme. Very well proportioned imo

[devout bolt]

Red layer in.

[versed karma]

Those mountains holy moly

The blue/red scheme you got there is sooooooo nice

It’s quite visually striking

[devout bolt]

Thanks :)

[devout bolt]

Got the yellow/pale layer done and onto a darkwash/base stage. Might make it!

214 for the pale step. I think I'll have plenty of time given I'm alotted 3300 minutes I think?

[narrow tapir]

Plenty of time but deadline of April 30th is approaching...You can make it!

[devout bolt]

Fake deadline ahhhhhhhh!!!

[devout bolt]

Black rimming the bases may turn out tricky. Think the bases should be dry this morning though.

[sweet tinsel]

Don't think I'm going to finish in time. I forgot that I had a work trip this week so I won't get to paint again until early May

[devout bolt]

And done, but i'll take nicer pictures later :)

[native cedar]

Sick as hell, when you do pictures could you take a pic of a singular mini as well? Curious how the sponging shows up

[devout bolt]

Sure thing, but it'll probably be next week. Gonna let everything firm up fully now before I handle it anymore. Gotta get to some not painting finally :)
Unless I try and crack out my #1207085115138773064 mini today....

[native cedar]

Nah no worries

[devout bolt]

I dunno it's a skeleton. After jiggling my rooster I think I've got the energy for it.
Should be pretty quick. Skeletons are usually :)

[devout bolt]

Here's the rooster so that that sounds less bad 😂

[dense arrow]

Last minute basing. Pva i still wet.

19 min per figure.

[devout bolt]

They can't ding us on drying times.

Painting Time : 39 minutes for Turquoise Staining
44 minutes for Turquoise Sponging
140 minutes for Brown
93 For Red
214 for Yellow
79 For Dark Wash/Base
38 For Black
58 for Dust and Rust
705/3300
Just under 10 minutes a model.