On the painting table ... Spears of Anarchy

Warhammer 40,000 – Bikes, bikes and more bikes. Right now I'm working on a really massive Space Marine commission, this includes not only a bunch of stuff that will need to be assembled or converted, but also a bunch of "budget" models that are in questionable condition. As with many of my 40K jobs this is a straight up 3-Color+ job just meant to get the army to look ok on a tabletop and meet painting requirements. As such my primary focus on getting these done is speed painting. 

To start I sorted out all the assembled primed models and took stock of their condition. Anything broken that I could find the parts for I re-glued. For the "blobby" models I tried stripping off the layers of spray paint but whatever they were painted with wasn't coming off this century. Next I sorted out anything that was assembled but not primed and got that ready for painting. With that done it's time to move onto the speed painting portion of the project.

When I'm doing massive projects like this I prefer to used the GW Foundation Paints I got a really good deal on a bunch of them the last time the line changed so it's my go to for one coat coverage with oranges, reds and yellows. Unfortunately I seem to be on my last two pots of Solar Marchaius Orange which means I need to invest in the equivalent in the new line. 

My method for speed painting is to put down the major color first quickly covering all the areas with a smooth even coat (an airbrush would help with this but I still prefer my large-ish brush). Once I get to the last model in the batch with the base color, I go back and do the next color with a large coverage area, in this case black. Next up was the gunmetal color, same process large-ish brush covering areas quickly.

Once the base coating is done I start with the detail work that will need to be shaded with the wash. In the case of these models that would be the red trim. This part takes a little longer because I need to use a smaller brush and pay closer attention to what get painted. After that is done I lay down a even layer of wash to provide basic shading. The wash tends to be the last thing I do during a session because I like to allow it to dry overnight. 

The devil in in the details and that is the final step which is the most time consuming part of my speed painting process. During this stage I pick a color and paint every aspect of the model that will be that color going down the line and repeating for each model. In the case of these models, I start with bone, follow with brown then green and finally flesh highlights and black detailing. Also during this stage I clean up and slop from the initial base coating.