What do you most dislike painting?

[mellis1644]

All true - my age iis now affecting how much finky detail I put in 15mmm paint jobs. My horses tend to be a single colour these days - with a different (often darker) colour for the main and tail... I have used contrast paints but often just use a base and shade which in 15mm is ok as well. They rarely have socks or facial markings in 15mm.

It's not as good as what could be done - but enmass they look fine on the table.

[Smoking gun]

I struggle with irregular, non uniformed, troops. Some examples would be AK47 or SCW Militia, ACW Confederates and refugees / civilians. I don't really struggle with the physical act of painting, its the selection of colours which gives me the problem, I tend to doubt my choice of colours.

For uniformed troops it's easy enough to find a painting guide or illustrations to follow but with the above I find it much more difficult and that can stop a project.

Best wishes,
Martin, from a village near Grimsby

[Panzer21]

I find contrast paints to to be a big win for horses.

I have occasionally been tempted to go back to a way of painting I did in the 90's which was the high contrast Kevin Dallimore style. Black undercoat then 3 layers of highlights. When done well it can be stunning. A real 'best in show' method.

Then I realise

1. I'm not 25 anymore
2. I dont have the skill
3. Id never finish a unit  never mind an army!

You can achieve a similar effect by:
1) using Contrast paints for main colours
2) using Army Painter ink washes like pin washes - dark tone for "cold" colours blues, greens, strong tone for "warm" reds, yellows
3) use normal acrylic for highlights and corrections - doesn't need to be lighter as colour is now darker due to wash- just find nearest match to original Contrast
4) concentrate on flesh, shields and flags for any detail work as these are what's seen first
5) nice basing

I am currently painting 15mm using black undercoat method - to match figures painted years ago and it's much more labour intensive - I've drafted in dark tone washes to help with sloppy basecoats!

Some will be happy with just step 1 - it does need steady hands though or else you end up correcting with white and more Contrast. My method covers up the bits where it merges (usually folds) as well as those irritating white spots where the Contrast misses.

Neil

[Martin Smith]

I struggle with irregular, non uniformed, troops. Some examples would be AK47 or SCW Militia, ACW Confederates and refugees / civilians. I don't really struggle with the physical act of painting, its the selection of colours which gives me the problem, I tend to doubt my choice of colours.

For uniformed troops it's easy enough to find a painting guide or illustrations to follow but with the above I find it much more difficult and that can stop a project.

Best wishes,
Martin, from a village near Grimsby

By contrast, I find the opposite:- non-uniform I just mix paint as I go, adding whites/greys/browns to the mix. Very random, but minimal thinking needed...and being non-uniform it's never really  'wrong' 🙂

[sukhe_bator (Neil)]

I struggle with irregular, non uniformed, troops. I don't really struggle with the physical act of painting, its the selection of colours which gives me the problem, I tend to doubt my choice of colours.

For uniformed troops it's easy enough to find a painting guide or illustrations to follow but with the above I find it much more difficult and that can stop a project.

Best wishes,
Martin, from a village near Grimsby

I'm the same and since I have loads of irregular style armies they all take ages. I tend to make it worse by batch colouring - brick red to a random variety of jackets, trousers etc. across a number of units of figures so it takes longer to get complete coverage before moving onto ink washes and highlights. I spotted that film costume designers have the same issue. If you look at the 'Ride to Dubno' sequence from 'Taras Bulba' (1962) each of the Cossack hosts has a slightly different combo of basic costume colours, one mostly red, one mostly off white, one brown etc... The same goes for the 'Taras Bulba'(2009) version if you look at the siege scenes. Looking at that stuff can be quite helpful in picking up painting ideas. Then its just a question of putting in the hours...

Neil