As you probably guessed, this might be a strange topic for me after my last TWO posts.
But, I’ve recently finished a commission that caused me to work to specification within a designated deadline.
The end result was painting 52 minis within 60 days.
Well 53 days, the delivery arrived a week late.
So, how am I approaching this?
February ended up being a VERY busy month and then March came and went as well!
I’m not going to comment on the current pandemic, other than wish for everyone to be safe and well.
If you are like me, you have a great opportunity to tackle some big projects!
March was a very special month for me because my internet alias (shameless plug at the bottom of this post) turned 2 years old. Now I am looking at commission painting as a way to paint new things while also earning some money to support my hobby.
I wanted to write a little something about it because it’s not something I would normally do. My previous posts have been more about practising techniques and painting without target numbers or KPIs (Key Perfomrance Indicators See; That New Years Feelin’. Your approach changes when somebody is paying for your time and services.
How the heck am I going to build and paint a whole box set in two months, when it just took 2 weeks to paint 1 mini!
First thing I did was use an easy to replicate paint scheme to on one mini as a test, and then applied it to the entire unit.
These looked pretty good. Spending a week per unit isn’t going to leave much wiggle room. Doing the maths of seven weeks until the deadline produces the below schedule:
- Week 1- 5 Man Squad and 4 of the Zombies
- Week 2- 2nd 5 Man Squad and another 4 zombies
- Week 3- 3 Space Marine Characters, the 3 man jump squad and another 4 zombies
- Week 4- Final 5 Man squad and 4 zombies
- Week 5- 7 Man Death Guard Squad and 2 Zombies
- Week 6- Tank and Foetid Blight Drone and final 2 Zombies
- Week 7- 3 Death Guard Characters and Basing.
Bearing in mind that, normally, I spend a couple of weeks on a single mini (I really want to get better and taking time really helps), this is going to be quite stressful when I normally have a maximum of 3 hours a night to paint if the baby goes down and my wife doesn’t mind me hiding in the man cave.
It was really important to remain organised throughout this job. I used sub-assemblies to ensure everything was properly covered. This brings us to the next stage, which was the hard part.
After the first week, I made some good progress. The squad and zombies were done on time. But I was knackered and really didn’t enjoy myself.
As you may be able to tell I try to get everything perfect. Things were going smoothly and I have time and a plan on my side…
At least I thought so, until I was ill for a week. That didn’t help me to get things done. Luckily, I managed to build and clean everything. What I needed to do was get as much as possible with my trusty *Ahem*…not so trusty airbrush…I think the only reason it’s still working is that I pledged allegiance to a magical being.
Getting the basic blue tone and over a zenith highlight followed by careful use of washes and glazes resulted in some really good looking minis real fast.
So 3 weeks in I had sorted out all of the Ultramarines. It was quite exciting to move onto the Death Guard (Nurgle is a good buddy of mine you see) and also paint something different.
Taking the same approach really helped because I was able to focus on getting colours blocked in and weathering out o the way before going and tidying everything up.
The weird part here was that there were more Death Guard than Space Marines and each of the Plague Marines all individual sculpts unlike the Space Marines which, had a lot of repetition.
Normally this would take more time, but I was in the swing of it now and the process I had applied made things so much easier allowing me to smash these out in just over a week.
I was laughing because now all that was left was a tank and the bases with 10 days to go!
I mean the tank took a week in and of itself to paint just because weathering vehicles IS SO MUCH FUN!
The bases were quite simple in the end just some drying time and dry brushed we were good after a couple of days so then it was just to pin bases in add tufts and photograph them for my records.
This was quite an interesting experience for me. That single mini approach was out the window very quickly and I realised I could get a lot more done by applying block colours and pre-shading. I have been inspired by reading a fellow hobbyists blog (check out Nathan’s Quest here: The Road to 350 )
BTW I’m on 114 so far :P
I think if you are looking at getting a lot done quickly getting all the same stuff done as you can is important. Planning out how the project will go helps you see the end instead of just painting what you feel like.
Since completing this I have managed to get 2 armies started consisting of 45 minis in total within 2 weeks which has been another learning curve because painting armies is a different approach to single minis or small groups.
What have you been up to lately?
How do you plan your large projects out?
If you are interested in what else I have going on have a gander at my other outlets and celebrate my 2 years of painting cool stuff :D
