"How fast do you paint? (and what scale)" Topic

I paint 15mm French by Old Glory, sometimes some Battle Honours.

I recently changed up my painting process a little so I am re-calibrating how long it takes me to paint a given unit.

At there moment there are 45 line infantry on my kitchen table (3 battalions of 15), I'm going to try and keep a rough track of hours.

How long does it take you to paint a unit?

Please note scale and type (including brand might be interesting too).

Cheers,

The Bandit

At on etime I was paiting sbout 12 15mm French an hour. But that was after painting 3-4,000 figures for a friend.

10-figures, 28mm, complete with shade, highlight and base color and finished bases in 6-7 hours. Doesn't matter the manufacturer but I prefer plastics (that 6-7 hours includes prep time – assembly, filing mould lines and primer).

24 15mm British infantry in about 4 hours.
1 28mm mini in about 4 hours

I collect and paint mostly Perry Miniatures 40mm Nappys and each one takes me around a week to finish.

in 28mm i can paint a standard 2-tone infantry uniform( french line, Russian, British, Hungarian etc) in about 4-6 hours for a unit of 16.I can do 20-24 Austrian-germans in about the same time. add an hour for basing.

a unit of 8 cavalry i can generally get done in about the same amount of time, except hussars.
from May 2007 – May 2008 i painted over 1000 infantry, 30 guns and about 160 cavalry. 2/3rds of that was may-september. it's sort of what i did as a summer job.

Wow. I think the fastest rate I've painted at for Napoleonics is probably 100/month. When I painted ACW I'd do a 25 figure regiment in a long day. Now, I'm thinking these 45 French line will take me a week or so, in hours I'm guessing 20-24 of solid painting or so.

Some of you are darn fast.

What quality level do you achieve at those fast rate? (sample pictures welcome and encouraged).

Cheers,

The Bandit

Ionce calculated about 15 minutes per 15mm infantryman-provided it is a production line unit where all the figures are in the same uniform. Mixed stuff like Vilings etc… take much longer.

Graham

96 x 6mm Irregular Napoleonics painted and based in 8-10 hours painted to this standard:

link

2 – 2/12 hours for 48 6mm infantry or 18 6mm cav. That's just painted. Based and flocked takes longer but I don't always do them at the same time.

At my peak @ 120 15mm a day. Cavalry takes a little longer. But then again my "day" could be spred over several months.

Curious, I find cavalry paint notably faster for me.

A 6-8 figure cavalry regiment I can do in a short-average morning.

Cheers,

The Bandit

When I was painting Napoleonics 25/28mm I would average a 24 figure unit a month. No speed demon here.

mjc

Good point, my earlier post assumes I have 8-10 hours spare.

I started my current unit of 96 men about 7 days ago and they have yet to be finished.

2 to 3 weeks per 16 man unit (Foundry 25mm), including base and flags. But I almost exclusively paint on week-ends, so I would say one unit per actual 4-5 days work.

I would have to time myself to say how much hour that takes me.

Of course, that's all relative; it takes me a lot more time to paint a unit of French Hussars than a unit of Austrian line!

I can crack out 200+ 6mm figs in a week no problem. Baccus style black undercoat, drybrush, detail method. Includes prepping and basing and maybe one hour a night in th week and a couple of hours at the weekend. Call it ten hours.

10 x 15mm figures in about 3 hours

28x15mm painted, based, flocked and dull-coated in about ten hours. The trouble is finding the ten hours!

unit of 10 28mm minis in about 2 hours not counting basing and building and or modifying any of them

Wow I paint slow.

This is really interesting to see though.

Cheers,

The Bandit

Our group did a timing test. I painted up 28mm OG Greek Hoplites, including basing and LBM shields, it was 28 minutes per figure. Arm holes for arm and sheild had to be drilled as well as holes for pike in both hands.
I painted 54 figs, which equates to 25.2 hours of painting.

Right now I'm painting Napoleonic Austrians, haven't timed myself on these yet.

I can paint 100 figures in 10 hours (15mm) and here's how:

link

I have since stopped painting armies. So now I paint very slowly and send most of my stuff to painting services. My WW2 stuff I buy on E-bay already painted.

I'd say now a 25mm takes me 2-3 hours of work, a 15mm 30-45 minutes.

Mark "Extra Crispy" Severin
Owner, Scale Creep Miniatures
scalecreep.com

And check out the new rules directory!
DeepFriedHappyMice.com/html/rulesdirectory.html

link

I really don't time myself,

but I have painted a old glory 28mm 48 fig austrian btn in one night, already base coated white, I done flesh, weapons and equipment, gaiters, then inked and then highlighted, all up probaly six hours paint work, I then based with sand, next morning painted base, then allowed to dry, then drybrushed and flocked, and added flags. all up about 10 hrs I guess.

As I am off this week, I will pull out some British AWI light infantry I have been meaning to do and time myself.

I guess it depends if you are familar with the uniform, so you don't need to check references etc.

cheers
matt

One figure a minute if I'm cranking them out quickly and it's not a complex subject, ranging up to three minutes a figure if I'm REALLY taking my time for best effect. Add 50% to these times for cavalry.

All in 6mm. Two weeks for a complete army of 500+ including basing.

Speed painting 15mm ancients it works out at 10 minutes a figure including basing, varnishing, etc.

That is painting in batches of at least 50 at a time.

Mike

I am currently working on twenty French marines for F&I skirmishing. The minis are 28mm Old Glory. As I am trying to build a force rather quickly, and this particular line of OG minis don't really merit lavashing TOO much attention on, I am working to a good tabletop standard; individual minis aren't terribly likely to 'wow' anyone used to seeing nicely painted 25's, but hopefully the overall effect of the minis will be rewarding.

So, after a reasonably careful basecoat, I will brush on my own mix of 'magic wash', then briefly tidy up and pick out some highlights. A simple painted sand (and the odd stone) flocking, and no eyeball details or anything. I estimate maybe twenty minutes a mini. I had actually intended to time myself (odd that this topic should come up), as I am trying to refine and streamline my needlessly slow process, and spend less time 'going back over' sloppy mistakes. It's one of my New Year's resolutions.

Oops, I opened this page before work, and forgot it was Napoleonic! Anyway, the process will be pretty much the same for my Austrians in 1898 helmets on the workbench!

here are some pic of my stuff, for bandit. hte pics don't always do justice, especially the highlanders.

link

Steve

Steve,

Quite nice!

Cheers,

The Bandit

I can normally paint and base a 12 -16 man unit ready for use in a week, – well 5 evening sessions of 60 – 90 minutes. That's 15mm metal or 20mm plastic. The system is based round overall affect (some would say cutting corners) and it does depend on type. I've used this for Peter Pig Sudan, RCW & WotR armies.

Day 0 – Clean figures, and glue to painting stick (piece of flat wood about 15" long by an inch wide) with hot melt glue gun. Undercoat in black. (Short session, – depending on how many sticks done. Try to do four or five sticks at a time. Max 60 minutes)

Day 1 – Block in all main colours. Painting under a light with acrylics I can normally paint on cross belts and so on. Allow to dry overnight. (Session takes between 60 -90 minutes depending on detail needed. Important thing is to finish this in one evening with no carry over where possible).

Day 2 – Coat figures with Ronseal Antique Pine Quick Drying Varnish. This will dry in 20 minutes, so you can detach the figures from the painting stick and glue them to the bases. Time, – probably one hour in total, excluding 20 minute break for tea/coffee/beer.

Day 3 – Glue to precut bases. I now normally use PVA wood glue and let dry overnight, but you could hot melt and do Day 4 now. Time, – probably not more than 15 minutes

Day 4 – Coat bases with tetrion and sand. 20 minutes

Day 5 – Paint bases & dry brush. 20 minutes.

So that's about 3 hours in total for 16 figures. They key thing is the routine, however, breaking up the process so I don't ruin my eyesight or make my back ache too much!

BadgerBorg

Depends on what I am painting and how detailed I am going to be.
Currently painting British Front Rank: 24 figure battalion or 12 figure regiment of cavalry in a month for 28mm if using shading. Probably works out at somewhere between 25 – 40 hours, including priming + basing etc. I don't generally worry about how long they take but how they look when finished!

Makes you wonder how any of the painting services in Europe/USA make any money unless they ship work out to Asia.

Pete

Well, I completed my 45 French Line Infantry.

They were primed when I started and they still need to have the stands flocked but they are glued to the bases. I'd say it was between 16-18 hours spread between three long evenings.

Interesting note, I can't do a 15 figure battalion in 6 hours, but it seems I can do three 15 figure battalions in ~18 hours … scaling is ever important to find that sweet spot.

Cheers,

The Bandit