Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Minute Marines in Development

So I painted a Space Marine in about 30 minutes, start to finish. Here he is: 

He was a practice model. I am working on a way to paint, what I call, Minute Marines. That is, a method of painting Space Marines that takes minutes, rather than hours. The goal is create a process that gets whole squads done in less than an hour. I'm not sure if it is possible, but judging by this example above, I think I can come close and still have a high-quality tabletop miniature complete. 
This gentleman above took me approximately 30 minutes to paint from base-coating to completed model. I started by using the airbrush to shade and highlight the armor, then did some line highlights and painted the details. But he isn't perfect. 
I'll keep you posted as to my developments. 
Once I figure out the best way, I'll be posting a tutorial here. 

6 comments:

40K Giveaway said...

He looks really good, especially for 30 minutes! You've set an interesting goal, and I'm eager to follow along. I'm definitely in the 'Hour...Days marines" category, but would like to reduce that as well. Good luck and keep it up!

Unknown said...

Nice, I'm doing a similar thing, but, it's the 1 hour dark eldar. Each night in one hour I paint a dark eldar kabalite warrior, in ten days I will have a squad.

Looking forward to your tutorial :D

Anonymous said...

I was excited until I read "airbrush". Then, I was deflated :(

Cobalt Cannon said...

This is a tough goal to set for anyone in this hobby. Is this a personal growth goal for you Tim, or is this something that you are trying to achieve for those that read your blog as a helpful method for them to use?

Does this time frame include prep (cleaning & trimming) the mini, or just painting.

If you are planning on using your airbrush, my only helpful thought is to watch all of Les Bursley's marine tutorial videos again. Especially if you watch his Blood Angles and Blood Ravens videos, you might come up with some helpful ideas. That guy is a painting machine but I don't think he even does Marines in 30 mins.
The marine you painted really looks good for 30 mins. I would try to hit the helmet respirator and cables with black and grey when you do the bolt gun and shoulders. Also get the cables on the backpack behind the helmet when you use the bolt gun metal.
My last suggestion would be to write out your painting plan as an outline on paper. It might help you to manage your time limit with greater ease.

Tim said...

This is a project motivated first by a despite to market a commission service but I've decided I don't want to do commissions anymore haha! so now I've decided it's a service to the community to create a tutorial on this. Plus I have gobs of space marine stuff that I want to paint as a side army.

Then it's practice for this death korps of kreig army my friend and I are going paint together...with 60 infantry!

I've seen les' videos but will do so again. I'm being more selective with my use of wash as he seems to waste a lot by removing it with felt-free cloth.

I 'minstead spraying the model with satin varnish then using wash selectively in creases. The varnish helps it flow into recesses by smoothing the surfaces in the same way that army painter spray primers do for their quick shade.

next model of going to be a space wolf...probably a squad of 5.

Cobalt Cannon said...

Death Korps? Did you say Death Korps? lol Those are magic words that summon joy in my ears my friend! I can't wait to see that.

For your washes, are you using oil based washes or acrylics?

In regards to Les's videos, I thought that maybe by watching them, you might find ways to trim time down from his procedure, and in doing so, would give you some new ideas for ways to increase your personal speed to reach your 30 minute goal. I guess you already found some. Yea, I always asked myself when watching his vids: why put the wash there, if you are going to just take it off with a cloth? Maybe it's a speed factor with him, or maybe it gives him a way to make changes to his wash after he puts it down.

I am a disappointed to hear that you won't be doing any commissions anymore. I was hoping to some day send you a crisis Shas'vre, just to get something painted by you in my tau army. (the tau army that takes me an eternity to paint)
lol I'm so slow.