Have you ever wondered how the painter you admire does their magic? How long it did take them to get the finish or is it even worth it to you spend a long time on a paintjob? Well, I have and I think about it quite often. 

 My main hobby is painting, not playing. But I also find myself thinking about time wasted and potentially not gaining enough “profit” on a paintjob that lasts too long. In this series of three blog posts I´ll paint one miniature in an hour or so. Next one will be around five hours, and the last one will be ready when its ready. They will be the same model, same basing and same paint scheme to really show when the time but in really starts to show diminishing returns on quality. I will try to keep the paints to minimum (and easy to acquire) so you can follow any of these paintjobs would you so desire. I will also give you suggestion on replacement products.

The model I have chosen to paint three times is the original XV15 stealth suits for the Tau empire (Warhammer 40k by Games Workshop). I wish I had them in pewter, but I must condescend to Finecast. It will be a hellish journey to me, but I hope it will be of value to you dear readers.

This is the XV15 stealth suit.

Disclaimers first. I am not a world class painter, but I try me very best. English is second or third language so spelling mistakes and weird words will pop up.

I started by washing the miniatures still in “sprue” with warm water and dish soap. Some good scrubbing with an old toothbrush and plenty water to wash away the soap. While they were still wet, I started to clip away the parts and scrape away the mould lines. At the same time, I noticed quite many air bubbles that need to be filled with a putty of your choice. I used greenstuff. Applied with silicon tools and patience. After application I assembled the dry parts with gel superglue and superglue activator. I also gessoed the bases and but some cork pieces on them. The acrylic gesso will be enough to hold the cork pieces in place, so I did not need to glue them. After I checked that there is not anything I want to fix on the models anymore, I left them to dry in peace. 

The paints I used to create this little guy are mostly from Army Painters Fanatic line of acrylics. I used flow improver from Windsor and Newton and any good burnt umber will do you fine. You can also use any liquid acrylic medium here. I just prefer Kimera Kolors satin one.  I used Scalecolor artist line version of burnt umber.

But first we prime our miniatures grey. I used airbrush because it will give me an unsurpassable advantage over anyone else, and because I have one.

After the grey primer I covered everything in burnt umber (with an airbrush). Trying to leave some lightness on upper parts of the miniature. After that I airbrushed Replendish red from AP. I did not want to make a fully opaque layer as I wanted our under painting to show through.

Now we move to brush work. I start by diluting Burnt Umber to a wash and then carefully panel line and dark line where you see fit. After this step I fix any over opaqueness of the Resplendent Red by glazing down some shadow areas and panels than don’t receive so much light. 

I checked my clock and had been painting for 30 minutes or so when I was done with this step. So I decided to hurry it up in the next face.

Edge highlights are done by Resplendent Red—Angelic Red—Inner Light+Matt White (2:1)

Edge highlights are done in places of biggest impact and sparingly. We are not going for ´Eavy Metal style here. This step took me about 20 minutes. But I had to paint the barrels of the machine gun, lenses, gold bits and of course the Tau empire logos.  I quickly painted the metallics and let them dry while painting the lenses and sculpted logos. Greedy gold for the gold bits, Gun Metal for barrels, Hydra turquoise as a base coat for the lenses and some little drybrush of Marine Mist.

Matt black for the black its of the logo and Matt white for the white parts of the logo. Then I used the burnt umber shade still on my palette to wash the metallics.Then After about an hour of painting it was time to freehand the Farsight Enclave logo badly on the left shoulder pad. Matt white as a base. Matt Black to draw the symbols, very diluted with water and satin medium from Kimera Kolors. Draving straight lines and stipling curved lines. And after some corrections easy shapes are done. The red dot was done with Resplendent Red diluted with medium and water. Then stippled on. And of course I corrected my mistakes with Matt black. This paint job took me about 1 hour and 20 minutes. With better airbrush control I could have skipped a big time sink of a step.

Paints used:

Burnt Umber Scalecolor artist, Resplendent Red*, Angelic Red*, Gun Metal*, Greedy Gold*, Inner light*, Matt White*, Matt Black*, Hydra Turquoise* and Marine Mist*.

*From Army Painter Fanatic line.

And Auxiliaries: Kimera kolor satin medium. Windsor and Newton flow improver.

Check on in two weeks for a new post from me and I will let you on the colours I used to create the base. And of course, how I tackle the extra time I had in my hands. Maybe I will even teach you to paint small and simple free hand markings?