Painting Warmaster in bulk - advice sought!

[Draccan]

I have a ton (almost literally) if Warmaster minis I would like to paint.

How do you go about this. The Empire part is now on sticky tack to make them playable, but I guess I just have to take the army out of commission and put it on sticks of 25 cm and paint up a unit at a time. I am thinking to do 10-20 sticks at a time to paint them and finish them quicker (one army at a time).

What do you do? I dislike you have to finish them before gluing them, but I guess that's part of the fun. I almost thought of doing half size bases just to make the proces more flexible.

Also is the idea of spraying black and then highlighting with white before painting a good idea? I saw this advice a few places...

What do you do with bulk painting? Other tips and tricks?

And what about storage etc.?

[Dave]

My process is here: http://www.forum.specialist-arms.com/index.php?topic=2262.0

Glue like strips to a piece of cardboard and batch paint as much as possible. 4 units at a time seemed to be a good mix between productivity and "what's needed to stave off the depression from feeling like you're not getting anything done". I tend to prime, basecoat (most of the time with a spray) and then wash. Start with the color that will be most prominent, even if it's at the expense of being the color "on top" (and thus more prone to be touched up).

If you want something playable, then ya, base up one strip and paint it on the base (perhaps blue tack it to the cardboard).

For storage, I magnetized the bases, cut movement mats out of steel paper, and then magnetized the bottom of hard plastic jewellery trays. That allowed my spearmen to survive being turned 90 degrees on me in an airport security line. They took no damage, although my life was shortened considerably.

[forbes]

I tend to paint WM similar to Dave's method.

If you want to speed up getting troops on the table, then paint the front rank strips, and glue them to bases.

If you really want to go for volume over looks, then get a spray can of the main base colour for a unit, spray in this base colour, add flesh and weapons and armour. Then wash.

This will end up rather mono-chrome, but you will get through a lot of stuff.

[David Wasilewski]

It all depends how good you want them to look!
I like to clean up, spray, add all the basic colours, army dip and then dry brush a couple of the main colours again, to give the figures some 'bling' and to prevent them from looking too dark.

This isn't as quick as the above approaches but may give you better looking figures?

Quality vs Quantity conundrum!

Dave

[Jo]

For Empire knights there is a really quick way of painting them:
- Undercoat using Army Painter metal primer
- Highlight some details using various colors.
- Dip with Army Painter quick wash dark tone.

For the other troops I use Dave's method as well - although I don't spend that much time highlighting. Downside is that the miniatures don't look as fabulous as Daves'.

When painting these large things it might be good to have a deadline and a good planning. I started painting my O&G army for a mini-tournament with some friends. I checked how many units I had and divided them into easy to paint (like empire knights), more difficult to paint (halberdiers) and slow (characters). I used a point system per stand giving me a number of points I had to paint per week. This allowed me to keep a steady pace and not have the "rush it for 2 weeks and then give up" effect.

Good luck,

Jo

[Draccan]

Thanks guys!

[awesomeshotdude]

For Empire knights there is a really quick way of painting them:
- Undercoat using Army Painter metal primer
- Highlight some details using various colors.
- Dip with Army Painter quick wash dark tone.

I second this method, except instead of using Army Painter Dark Tone Wash, use the Army Painter Dark Tone Dip. The dip, once dry, gives an excellent and highly durable finish which I feel in necessary, especially for metal miniatures that will see the gaming table often. To remove the shine of the dip, you simply give the mini's a misting of mat varnish spray.