Masspainting 300 gants!

[nackanid]

Hey everyone!

I need some quick advice for a mission I'm prepping. I've got about 300 termagants to paint for various parts of the board. Any suggestions for a fast, yet cohesive color scheme that still looks good? I'm thinking drybrushing might be the way to go for speed, but open to any other ideas too!

[hivefleetkerrigan]

Some people swear by contrast but I find I paint faster and it looks better if I prime in a color similar to the majority of the model. I've found I can have issues wedging my brush in between the arms to reach parts of the body so there will still be some primer showing through. With contrast, that's a bright color like white. It stands out and looks bad. If I prime in the majority color, I can't notice mistakes I've made if they're on the table. The contrast also did not apply well on the older gaunt modes as they had less texture in my experience. If you have an airbrush it'll go a lot faster. If not, get a rattle can in the color you want.

My advice is to limit the number of coats of paint you're doing, limit the investment in details, use faster techniques (dry brushing for highlights as mentioned), and to not sweat small mistakes. Basically, pick 2-3 color combos and apply them across the model. You can ignore things like vents and eyes as they'll be lost in the sea of gaunts. If you have time and energy, you can do them later. For each color combo, I'd recommend a base coat, a wash, and a dry brush highlight. Additionally, if you can do one wash over the whole model it will save time.

If you're all about speed, maybe the following could work:
Prime grey
Carapace and weapons: prime black, wash brown, dry brush a grey or a brown
Skin: touch-up grey, wash brown, dry brush a light grey (could be applied to the carapace as well)
If desired, make the weapons a dark red to make them pop. OR, just splatter some blood effect on the weapons and the front of the model as it will make them pop.
For basing, slap some textured paint down and call it done.

Basically, choose a light color, a dark color, and a color that pops and the scheme should look good.

I'd recommend doing a test model or two in a couple of schemes and timing how long it takes. Make sure you're happy with how the scheme looks before committing to it. If you hate it but can do it fast, there's no point as you won't like the look on the table. Spending 2 extra minutes per gaunt to get the scheme looking good is worth it in the long run in my opinion.

I'd also recommend NOT batch painting them all at once. Priming all at once? That's fine. Batch painting 300 gaunts could be miserable. Break it up into comfortable chunks so you can get some models done. I've been trying to break up my painting so I can get one or two coats done each session. That way, it feels like I'm making progress towards a goal and means I'm not leaving something partway done (harder to put it down mentally, and more planning for picking it back up lol). So, time it out. If you paint for 30 minutes each time and it takes you 2 minutes per coat, then do 15 gaunts at a time would be my recommendation.

Breaking it up comes from personal experience. I made the stupid decision to try to batch paint all my custodes infantry to a high standard and hated painting them that way after 6+ months of them not being done (they're an art project army to me). They're still not done after 2 years as I need to finish the weapons. If I had broken them up into squads, I'd have more done and would have enjoyed my hobby time more for that year.

For me, my nid scheme takes about 15 minutes per gaunt. I timed it once when I did 30 in a batch paint.
My scheme:
Prime purple (krylon purple. It's gloss but it works well)
Base the skin purple - reaper mini gem purple
Wash druchii violet
Dry brush a light purple (genestealer purple or citadel dry purple)
Paint the carapace a dark brown
Base rims dark brown
Base the weapons in a light brown
Wash weapons with agrac earth shade
Highlight carapace by tapping a bright orange in lines on the edges (looks like growth lines). This takes the longest out of any of the coats but is worth it.
Dark green in the vents
Light green to highlight the vents
Tap yellow in the eyes
Brown textured paint on the base
Dry brush brown on the base
Add flocking and rocks to taste


Hope this helps!