Crazy like a fox, or Mad as a Hatter?

Well, as you read this, I am embarking on a mad plan! I’ve been bitten by an old bug, my Tyranid Genestealer army, to be precise. I want to have an army to take to tournaments, and this is it. My Dark Eldar need an update on their paintjobs, and, since I donated all my Wyches to a good cause, they’ll need some reforming as well. My Deathwing, while a fun army to play, haven’t been all that competitive, and I don’t think I’ll be good enough with them in a short amount of time to really compete with them. Finally, my Tyranids need a lot of work. Most of my models don’t yet have my updated paint scheme, so I really need to get them going. I’m going to attempt to paint roughly 1100pts of Tyranids over the next week, while still working and doing other things. Hopefully, if you have unfinished or unpainted models (and who doesn’t?) this may inspire you to get on with it!

Now,I've got a plan in mind, which is what makes this even remotely possible. I know that this paint scheme goes on quickly and achieves a good effect. I'll be using the paint scheme from my GT army this past year. I know that it looks pretty good, as it got good marks from all my opponents, and I also got some pretty good comments from spectators. Ultimately, it does handle almost all of the standard painting criteria, between detailing and washing and conversions and the like. Given the Rogue Trader painting scoring I used the other day, it should receive a 12-14 out of 16, depending on a couple of subjective calls. While it won't really compete for Best Painted, it's a pretty solid scheme that I'm pleased with. I have a little bit done already, but not a lot. All the models are assembled, with 9 of them being fully painted and about 1/3 being base coated. The remainder will need to be base coated and get trim color and a wash and almost everything needs to be flocked. Here’s how it breaks down:

Flying Hive Tyrant: Done

2xVenomfex: 1 needs a Talon and a VenomCannon, both need paint.

3x Lictor: 1 is done, 2 need paint.

49x Genestealer: 7 are done, an additional 9 have been basecoated, the remainder need paint.

The Plan: Basecoat the remainder of the models red, then use a paint pen to speed up the black carapace and claw process. After the black goes on, I plan to flock the bases, since the next step gets sticky. Then I’ll wash them using my Minwax Polyshades mixture, then add some detail color with Jade Green. Finally, I’m planning on making some squad markings for them, though I don’t have a specific plan for this at the moment.

More specifically, if I break it down to about 8 Genestealers per day and then both Lictors on one day and the two Venomfexes plus the last two Genestealers on the final day, I think I've got a pretty reasonable workload. Each Genestealer should take about 10-15 minutes, tops to do the black bits. After that, the flocking and wash together should take maybe 2-3 minutes, then another couple to do the Jade Green details, gives me about 20 minutes per Genestealer. That means about 2-2.5 hours per day, and probably more like 1.5. Much of it is also fairly easy to do in small chunks. (I don't have to paint all 8 Genestealers at once, for example, I can do them in between other things) Much of the work also is easily adapted to an assembly-line style process, which speeds up things like the wash or the flocking by simply having a pattern to doing the repetitive motions, making them faster to do.

After writing the above, I actually went and got started. Here's the beginning of my painting diary:

Day 1: Ran into a snag getting the correct basecoat color. Went to a local hardware store and picked out the closest possible match. Tried it. The paint is very thick, but I managed to spray lightly enough to avoid ruining the details of the models. Sprayed basecoat of red on all models.

Day 2: Came up with the idea of painting in small groups as an incentive to keep going. If you paint your models assembly line stile, you may be missing that sense of accomplishment that you at least got something completely finished, rather than having to wait until you finish everything to see the resullts. Painted black on 9-10 Genestealers today. Tongue, Toenails, Tail-Tip, carapace, talons/claw fingernails. Did not get the opportunity to flock and wash them, but pleased with progress so far.

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