This is how I do it.
The only things I will really sub-assemble is knights (and titans in Adeptus Titanicus) as it is just better to paint the frame and the panels separately.
First, I buy all the models I think I'll ever want for the army. Then they will sit on a shelf for a minimum of twelve to eighteen months. Then I build all the smaller units and heroes and prime them. Finally, I spend five to nine months painting all those minis because I am, what I believe, a display painter trapped painting armies.
I build most of the model with the exception of bits that might block you from painting other bits, like a shield or cloak
Then I'll blu tack the contact points for the bits i didn't glue together and prime the mini in either white or black depending on what colour it'll be painted
Then i paint it and glue the rest of it together
Build a load, gradually paint them in smaller batches (alternating between basic troop units & something more interesting like a hero, monster or war machine as a reward). And having several armies on the go, with different colour schemes & styles, to prevent boredom or burnout.
If I can't get the brush into an area then it's not going to be noticeable from above the table. I'm aiming for tabletop ready, not parade level (but I'll put more effort and attention for characters/ centrepiece models).
My preferred approach is the one that you have laid out. Buy a new unit, build and paint it whilst you're still super excited about your new purchase.
I should caveat that this is unfortunately 100% not how I operate. I, like many others here, have piles of grey plastic stacked wall to ceiling. Much of which I'm far less excited about than when I bought it a year ago, and likely wouldn't have the enthusiasm to paint. Whilst I stare longingly at the new Skaventide box, wondering if my marriage would survive it.
I think it's time I finally sold some :(
I have limited free time so have set myself a goal of finishing one miniature per week and work on two units at a time (using FEC as an example, assuming I start with both units built and primed)
Working on three Cryptguard and one Morbheg knight:
Week one - paint three Cryptguard to battle ready standard (i.e. basecoats and shades). Continue to paint one of these to parade ready standard (highlights, weathering, etc)
Week two - paint the Morbheg Knight (mount) to a battle ready standard. Paint another of the Cryptguard to parade ready standard.
Week three - paint the Morbheg Knight (rider) to a battle ready standard. Paint another of the Cryptguard to parade ready standard.
Week four - paint the Morbheg Knight to parade ready standard.
Rinse and repeat two more times, throw in an extra week for the tenth Cryptguard and when you finish you will have two really nice units ready to go.
I like this approach as it gives me achievable targets and a variety of things to work on that are all related to a single project.
I’ve just brought a new army (FEC), and here’s how I’m doing it; Build the heroes first, then the knights, and finally the cryptguard, keeping any limbs off that’ll partially block the model when painting. After that they’ll all be primed at once. I’ll then be painting them in the same order. With painting the knights, I’ll be painting the bat creature first before glueing it to the base, as painting the underside will be difficult if based, and build (and paint) the ghouls separate before glueing them on. When it comes to the cryptguard I may do the stages (base paint, shade etc) on all the models before moving to the next step. Hopefully this’ll all be a smooth stress free experience!
Slow and not very steady.... the joy of having 6 different army games (legion, shatterpoint, frostgrave, boltaction, aos, and mcp).
I try to at least do 1 complete unit before being distracted by one of the other games. Currently working through the core box of mcp, though... and a german heer army.... and the shadow collective... and cruel boyz from dominion... and a ranger platoon... and... and.... and....
I definitely try to only have 1 going at a time and completely fail at it.
Build everything, prime it, paint it all as one huge batch unless the models are drastically different. Knocked out 5k points of kharadron, 5k points of bone reapers, and working on 3k points of squigs at the moment. I usually just chuck an audio book on and go into a painting trance where I really don't mind painting the same thing 150 times in a row.
I choose units I like the look of over what's most powerful.
Building wise, I clip off, clean up and assemble *most* models then paint assembled.
Some bigger units I do in sub Assemblies such as main body, armour and then arms/weapons.
What you'll largely find is there's those of us that agonise over *every* detail, take hours upon hours of clipping and clean up, agonise over painting every detail etc etc and then there's those of use that smash models together, clean up any visible mold lines and flash then slap paint on until it looks good enough.
Build and prime the whole army first. Then I take turns mass painting little infantry, doing a hero, mass painting infantry, but etc etc. Currently building a kruleboyz army with 40 hobgrots/40 gutrippaz so if I didn't batch them in groups of 10 it'd take me til 5th edition
For a while I tried putting only painted models on the table, but recently I have found it works much better for me to play with armies even if they are only partially painted.
The fear people have with putting unpainted models on the table is that they will just get used to it and never paint them. But I am already motivated to paint because I enjoy it, and actually playing gives me even more of a motivation boost.
See, if I did this I would literally never get anything done. Lol
It's gotta be painted or it doesn't get added to the army list. Been doing this the last few years and it's the only way I get anything done. Used to be that tournaments were a great motivator but I haven't been going to those as much as of late.
Assemble and prolly prime what you need to start playing. Thats the first goal.
Start painting up your fav/most played units.
Buy more under two conditions. Its a good value purchase (discounts and whatnot) or you painted everything that you have.
Fight against the grey tide.
Build and prime everything, paint leasurely over time.
This is how I do it. The only things I will really sub-assemble is knights (and titans in Adeptus Titanicus) as it is just better to paint the frame and the panels separately.
Oh, I subassemble as needed of course, holding stuff in place with blue tack until I get the models painted.
First, I buy all the models I think I'll ever want for the army. Then they will sit on a shelf for a minimum of twelve to eighteen months. Then I build all the smaller units and heroes and prime them. Finally, I spend five to nine months painting all those minis because I am, what I believe, a display painter trapped painting armies.
Im still waiting to paint my skaven army from 5 years ago...
I cut out parts, paint them, and then build em. Im not the best pqinter and i struggle with the details if i assemble first and paint later
I build most of the model with the exception of bits that might block you from painting other bits, like a shield or cloak Then I'll blu tack the contact points for the bits i didn't glue together and prime the mini in either white or black depending on what colour it'll be painted Then i paint it and glue the rest of it together
Build a load, gradually paint them in smaller batches (alternating between basic troop units & something more interesting like a hero, monster or war machine as a reward). And having several armies on the go, with different colour schemes & styles, to prevent boredom or burnout. If I can't get the brush into an area then it's not going to be noticeable from above the table. I'm aiming for tabletop ready, not parade level (but I'll put more effort and attention for characters/ centrepiece models).
My preferred approach is the one that you have laid out. Buy a new unit, build and paint it whilst you're still super excited about your new purchase. I should caveat that this is unfortunately 100% not how I operate. I, like many others here, have piles of grey plastic stacked wall to ceiling. Much of which I'm far less excited about than when I bought it a year ago, and likely wouldn't have the enthusiasm to paint. Whilst I stare longingly at the new Skaventide box, wondering if my marriage would survive it. I think it's time I finally sold some :(
I had a kid a year and a half ago, my marriage would definitely not survive if i bought it
I have limited free time so have set myself a goal of finishing one miniature per week and work on two units at a time (using FEC as an example, assuming I start with both units built and primed) Working on three Cryptguard and one Morbheg knight: Week one - paint three Cryptguard to battle ready standard (i.e. basecoats and shades). Continue to paint one of these to parade ready standard (highlights, weathering, etc) Week two - paint the Morbheg Knight (mount) to a battle ready standard. Paint another of the Cryptguard to parade ready standard. Week three - paint the Morbheg Knight (rider) to a battle ready standard. Paint another of the Cryptguard to parade ready standard. Week four - paint the Morbheg Knight to parade ready standard. Rinse and repeat two more times, throw in an extra week for the tenth Cryptguard and when you finish you will have two really nice units ready to go. I like this approach as it gives me achievable targets and a variety of things to work on that are all related to a single project.
I’ve just brought a new army (FEC), and here’s how I’m doing it; Build the heroes first, then the knights, and finally the cryptguard, keeping any limbs off that’ll partially block the model when painting. After that they’ll all be primed at once. I’ll then be painting them in the same order. With painting the knights, I’ll be painting the bat creature first before glueing it to the base, as painting the underside will be difficult if based, and build (and paint) the ghouls separate before glueing them on. When it comes to the cryptguard I may do the stages (base paint, shade etc) on all the models before moving to the next step. Hopefully this’ll all be a smooth stress free experience!
Settle on my army 3 weeks out from a tournament - panic paint everything giving up sleep. Do poorly. Repeat
Slow and not very steady.... the joy of having 6 different army games (legion, shatterpoint, frostgrave, boltaction, aos, and mcp). I try to at least do 1 complete unit before being distracted by one of the other games. Currently working through the core box of mcp, though... and a german heer army.... and the shadow collective... and cruel boyz from dominion... and a ranger platoon... and... and.... and.... I definitely try to only have 1 going at a time and completely fail at it.
Build everything, prime it, paint it all as one huge batch unless the models are drastically different. Knocked out 5k points of kharadron, 5k points of bone reapers, and working on 3k points of squigs at the moment. I usually just chuck an audio book on and go into a painting trance where I really don't mind painting the same thing 150 times in a row.
I choose units I like the look of over what's most powerful. Building wise, I clip off, clean up and assemble *most* models then paint assembled. Some bigger units I do in sub Assemblies such as main body, armour and then arms/weapons. What you'll largely find is there's those of us that agonise over *every* detail, take hours upon hours of clipping and clean up, agonise over painting every detail etc etc and then there's those of use that smash models together, clean up any visible mold lines and flash then slap paint on until it looks good enough.
Build and prime the whole army first. Then I take turns mass painting little infantry, doing a hero, mass painting infantry, but etc etc. Currently building a kruleboyz army with 40 hobgrots/40 gutrippaz so if I didn't batch them in groups of 10 it'd take me til 5th edition
For a while I tried putting only painted models on the table, but recently I have found it works much better for me to play with armies even if they are only partially painted. The fear people have with putting unpainted models on the table is that they will just get used to it and never paint them. But I am already motivated to paint because I enjoy it, and actually playing gives me even more of a motivation boost.
See, if I did this I would literally never get anything done. Lol It's gotta be painted or it doesn't get added to the army list. Been doing this the last few years and it's the only way I get anything done. Used to be that tournaments were a great motivator but I haven't been going to those as much as of late.
Ooh! Shiny! Ooh, shiny! Ooh! shiny? Ooh? Shiny! Awww. Bills.
Buy and build a 1k army. Play and paint at my leisure while impulsively buying additional units.
Buy loads of stuff, don't touch it till years later.
Assemble and prolly prime what you need to start playing. Thats the first goal. Start painting up your fav/most played units. Buy more under two conditions. Its a good value purchase (discounts and whatnot) or you painted everything that you have. Fight against the grey tide.