August painting project "Speed Techniques"

Alright my July miniature a day project was a bit of a bust but I still finished quite a few more minis than I have on several previous months so it wasn't a total loss. Now I've decided to do another speed oriented project exploring the usefulness of various speed techniques I've encountered over the years. I'll try a different technique each week and I'll try for about five models per technique.

Dry Brushing
First up will be dry brushing. Now dry brushing is considered a very basic technique and it's often looked down on by contest and display painters but it can be a very good way to achieve quick and dramatic results. I will try to paint five models using entirely dry brushing as a means of highlighting and I will try to get the best results I can as quickly as possible.

Minwax Dip
I've never actually tried this technique but I've seen it used in several tutorials. Basically you block in the colors on a miniature then dip the mini in a pot of Minwax finish and shake off the excess paint. I think the trick to this technique is to use colors a shade or two brighter than you normally would to get the best results. I'm gonna give it a try anyway.

Emphasised Washes
This is a new technique I've never seen but it makes sense. I first heard of it on the Reaper forums in the speed painting section but the origional article was posted on Cool Mini or Not. I've not tried this one either so it will be a first. Here is the article.

Tanks and Trolls Wash and Highlight technique
I've been using this technique a lot lately although I think I've been taking it a bit further than the origional article. Still it's faster than doing different color washes for each color. I'm going to see if I can't cut back a bit and do some more like the origional article.

Miniature or more a day update.

Well sadly all good things must come to an end. I just can't keep up. I'm now four days behind and I had better quit before I burn myself out. I still managed to get quite a few minis done than I did last month and I may paint a few more by the 31st but I'm not going to push myself to get 31 done. I've just got too much going on between working full time and running a weekly game not to mention family time. Perhaps some day I'll be able to do it again and do better but right now is not the time.

Miniature or more a day 18

Well now I'm two days behind. Weekends are in reality the worst days to get minis done. I run my Serenity Campaign on Saturday and Sunday is usually housework day. Today however I went to a birthday party 15 miles out of town then make a 120 mile trip to take my mother, who was staying the weekend with us back home. I just managed to finish one mini over the entire weekend. Another Copplestone babe.

Miniature a day update

Well tonight things just didn't work out. I just had too many things to do after I got off work. I only managed to get to the wash stage but I'm going to go ahead and finish this mini up tonight and if I can finish it and another by tomorrow night then that's just going to have to do. I think I'm just going to see if I can manage to get 31 done by the end of the month.

Miniature a Day 17

Well I'm getting a bit burned out on the project which is ironic because my speed is getting better. Getting myself to sit down and paint every night is getting harder and there are other things I need and want to do. I'm still trying to stick with it until the end of the month but after that I'm going to have to do some terrain or something totally different for a couple weeks.

Here's a scavenger from Copplestone Castings Future Wars. He's begging to get written into a zombie game sometime in the future but for now he'll probably play the part of random gun toating NPC in my Serenity RPG.

Miniature a Day 16

Here's number 16. Another one barely under the wire. Couldn't quite manage to get it posted until after midnight. Sorry the photo is not so hot on this one. I don't have time to re-shoot it at this time though.

Miniature a Day 15

So here is my July 15th 11:59 pm miniature. Another Copplestone Casting Babe with Gun from my paint table with love.

Miniature a day update

I just finished tonights litterally at 11:59 on my clock. I'm still clear coating the mini and I won't be able to post it until later but I'm still on target even if only just barely.

Miniature or more a Day 14

Well I managed to get one done today. I was pretty tired from work and I wasn't sure if I'd be able to finish one. This is from Copplestone Castings again. One of the Babes with Guns from the Future Wars line.

Miniature or more in a day 13

Yes I skipped ahead. I didn't like the way I was numbering them so now I'll just use the date when I post.

Well it's the 13th of the month and I've just finished the 13th miniature. It's the last of my Alliance Militia which is cool. I was starting to get tired of them. I was going to try and finish up my fed squad but they have very similar colors so I'm just going to do up some PCs and random NPCs over the next week. I need a break from using the same six pots of paint over and over again.

I may be able to get more done today and if so I'll post them later but my studio is trashed and I need to mow the lawn so I'm not making any promises.

Miniature or More in a Day update.

Well I didn't finish a miniature tonight. I got about half done with one but I didn't finish it. So I've got 12 minis done in 10 days and it does seem like a shame just to drop the project so I'm not going to count the last strike unless my number of finished minis is less than the number of days that have passed. For instance if on Day 16 I have only 15 minis done then I'm counting myself out. I hate to change the rules but this doesn't let me off the hook compleatly.

Miniature or More a Day 8

Ok the varnish dried enough he didn't look to shiny to photograph. I only have one more milita guy to do after this one. I'm pretty happy with the way these guys turned out but I'll also be happy to work on some other minis for a while.

Miniature a day short update.

I finished another militia tonight but his varnish is still drying so I can't post pics until after midnight. I'll have him up soon.

Miniature a Day Strike Two

Ummm strike two. Just ran out of time. Had to do the laundry. Things ain't lookin good.

Miniature a Day 7

Just barely got this guy done today. I really didn't feel like painting tonight but I decided to sit down and get one done. This is another militia trooper. I only have two more and I'm going to get them done in the next two days.

Miniatuer a Day 6

Got a couple more militia done today. Just three more militia to go and I'll be done with them.

Miniature a day Strike One....

Strike one.Well this was more of a foul ball that looked like a home run but went just the wrong side of the pole. I got about 90% done with two more of my militia figs but I just couldn't wrap them up. We had a party to go to late in the afternoon and so I only had about 4-5 hours to paint. I would still have probably finished but I spent at least two of those hours playing WoW. It was for a good cause though. We had our game groups 4th of July party on the 5th. Actually it was more than just our game group. About 30 or so people were there. One of the GMs in our group has a really nice house out in the country about 15 miles from town. We had great food and drink and all the Dads had fun shooting various firearms on the property owners firing range. The AK-47 was my favorite. One of the guys in the group worked at a fireworks stand so he came with about $1,000 in fireworks. Best show I've ever seen at a private party.Anyway I should be able to finish what I started today quite easily tomorrow but I'm afraid I may end up getting another strike on Tuesday because I have to be out of town that day.

Miniatuer a Day 4

Well I got three done today since I had a day off. These three are also Alliance militia for my Serenity game. I've got five more militia then I will be done with that group. These turned out ok I guess. They are just troops after all.

Miniature a Day 3

Well I finished up the two I started yesterday. Might get another done by midnight but I need to do some assembly and stuff so I might put the brushes down for tonight.

This guy turned out alright but I rushed his eyes a bit and you can tell.

Both of these are from Copplestone Castings Future Wars line. They are civilian militia and I intend to use them as Alliance Militia for my Serenity RPG game.

Miniature a Day 2

Well I got cocky. Got home a bit early from work, went to the store and picked up a few things and still got to sit down at my table much earlier than normal. So I decided to paint three minis tonight instead of just one. Unfortunately I only finished one and he's a bit dodgy even for a speed paint. Oh well I think he's still tabletop and the other guys are 85% done so I sort of have a good start on tomorrow. Front and back pics this time because his back is more interesting than his front.

Most of these mini a day figures will be for my Serenity game. This is a GW Van Saar fig but he'll be an Alliance sniper in my Serenity RPG.

Miniature a day 1.5

Well today turned out to be one of those "or more" days. This guy is about a 3.5 hour job and he's an NPC for my Serenity game. Guess which side he fought on during the Unification War.

Miniature or more a day project!

Ok well my last couple months production have been kinda lackluster so I decided to try and see how many days I can manage to complete at least one miniature. I'm shooting for a month and I'm going to give myself three strikes which will be day's I don't finish a miniature before I count myself out. At the end of the month if I'm feeling burnt out I'm going to go back to just painting at my leasure. These will be speed paints of course 2-4 hours maximum. I'm working full time again so I won't have a whole lot time to go for a longer paintjob. Right now I have pleanty of models primed for this type of thing so it's a good time to try it. Please feel free to join me if you like. Don't count any strikes until you get your first mini posted.

Here's my day one entry. July 1st 2008