Tips for Batch Painting Unique Models
How to batch-paint a commission where every model is different — group by paint and material, not by armor panel. Plus a teaser of the Man Alone Prima Materia stone dice.
The steps
Group by paint and material, not by part of the model. Every metal on every model, then every leather, and so on.
Base everything in grey. It works as the foundation for black armour and non-metallic metal alike, so one base coat serves two jobs.
Pick one model to be the focus and take it further than the rest. A commission needs one piece that carries it.
Back in the dungeon
Back in the dungeon finally. Working on Infinity. I want to talk about my methodology for commission painting — bulk mass army painting when not every model is the same. Just a little bit, since I still can’t really talk.
Where we are
It might not seem like much progress, but I’ve actually prepped almost every model for non-metallic metal. A couple still need the gray base, but most have it.
I’m using gray right now because I really like that color as the base for both the black armor and the NMM. The little kit here has black on the model already, plus a ton of metal — so the gray base does double duty.
I’ve put a ton of work into this guy specifically. He’s my main focus. Once I do the NMM, I just need to finish up the fur, hands, and toes. He’s one hard session away from being done.
Group by paint, not by panel
Here’s the actual trick. Group your models by paint color and material, not by which armor panel you’re working on.
Everybody’s staged for the next round of NMM. Look at the box art on the troopers — those gray-blue shirts read as non-metallic metal too. Not actually metallic, just rendered the same way. So I’ve staged everybody to do the next round of NMM together.
When most people batch paint, they think “I’m going to paint all this robe, then all that armor.” That works when models are the same. With unique models, think about your materials.
Instead of “I’m painting all the same shirt”, think “what is on my brush right now, and what other surfaces on other models call for that exact material?”
How it shakes out
I’ll be able to touch every model as I work through NMM. All the NMM gets done in one pass.
When I pick up the airbrush, I’ll do all the blues and oranges at the same time on the guys that need them. Big chunk done between NMM and airbrushing.
These have a bunch of leather on them and a little bit of blue I’ll airbrush — so I’ll sweep through all those at once. The guys in back have gray and blue boots, plus Maximus’s shield.
Then I do all the faces at the same time. That’s why Maximus still isn’t done — I want all the flesh and faces in one session.
So even though the models are different, you’re still doing the same thing as classic batch painting. You’re just thinking about what’s on the brush, not what panel you’re on.
That’s all I got for today. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be on the not-being-sick side of things and can get back to making real videos. I want to start streaming more, too — I did one stream and it was a lot of fun. Just very painful to talk while losing my voice.
Reading Prima Materia
If you’re still here — I’m reading through this. It is amazing. Very dense right now, so I want to read through it before I really put it into use in Kal Arath.
These are the Prima Materia dice from Man Alone and Dice Nest. Very high quality. They might not look like it because they look almost like plastic, but they are very thick, solid stone. An oracle system using alchemical symbols.
I’m going to make a whole video on this once I have a better idea of the system. This is an amazing product — I just want more time to make a true review.
Full transcript of the video
What’s up? Back in the Back in the dungeon, finally. Um working on Infinity. Uh I wanted to talk about my methodology to painting I want it to commission, but like bulk mass army painting when not every model is the same. So, I’m going to I’m going to walk you through it.
Uh just give you a little bit cuz again, it’s still can’t talk really much. But, let’s Let me show you what I’m thinking here. Okay, so here This is where we are. Uh and it might not seem like we’ve done a lot, but I have actually prepped almost every model for non-metal metallic uh that I’m not going to airbrush. There’s like There’s a couple of I think this guy I still need to do.
But, the other people I I have this uh this gray. It’s a number I’m using Stynelrez gray right now on these cuz I really like that color a lot. Uh to do all the non-metal metallic. So, I’ve kind of I’ve grouped the models up into the actual paints I’m going to be using. So, so this uh this little kid here has actual black on the model that I painted in, but also has a ton of metal.
So, I just I’ve just painted the gray that’s going to serve as the the base for the black and the base for the non-metal metallic. I’ve actually I’ve put a ton of this guy work into this guy. He’s in my main focus. So, uh once I do the non-metal metallic, I’ll just need to finish up the fur and and like the hands and the toes and this guy will be done. Uh so, the non-metal metallic on him and the face uh like I said.
Uh there’s still a lot to do, but he’s like he’s like one more session like hard session away from being done. Uh so, I’ve grouped everybody into the paint color and the types of materials I’ll have to paint. So, I have everybody here staged. And like these shirts, they’re they’re gray shirts like a bluish gray shirt, they’ll they’ll be painted like a non-metal metallic. Like if you look at the box art, the way the shirts are painted is is they’re non-metal metallic shirts.
You know, it’s not really metallic, but just the Oh god, the way that they’re painted is non-metal metallic. So, I’ve I’ve staged everybody to do the next round of non-metal metallic. And I’m saying non-metal metallic a lot. I don’t know why. But, I’m staging them not to do like like how if you’re batch painting, you’re painting like I’m going to paint like the this row.
Like how how I did the desk. Like I’m going to do all of this step, all that step. It’s the same thing, but you just have to think of your materials differently. So, instead of painting all the same shirt or all the same armor panel, you’re thinking of it like what What am I actually painting paint-wise, and what is going to be on my brush? Oh, I got to glue her arm back.
Oh, god. What What is actually going to be on your brush? Because I’ll be able to touch every model as I’m working through non-metal metallic. And I’ll have all the non-metal metallic done. Uh when I pick up the airbrush again, I’ll be able to airbrush the blues and the oranges on these guys, and then that’ll be a huge chunk of them done between the non-metal metallic and the airbrushing.
Same thing here. These have a bunch of leather on them, and he has a little bit of blue that I’ll airbrush. So, like I’ll I’ll sweep through all those at the same time. These two back here, uh a lot of the bottom is like is the gray and and the blue boots. Uh and then Maximus’s shield, and then I’ll do all the faces at the same time.
So, that’s why Maximus still isn’t done cuz I want to do all the flesh and all the faces at the same time. So, you even though the models are different, you’re still really doing the same thing you would do with batch painting. So, that’s all I got for today. Uh Hopefully, after tomorrow, I’ll I’ll be not being sick anymore, and I can get back to making uh more real videos. And I I really want to start streaming more, too.
Uh that was fun. Like Like I think I did I did one stream now. Uh that was a lot of fun, but it just uh very very painful to talk. Losing my voice. Uh so, see you all.
If you’re still here, I’m reading through this. Uh it is amazing. It is very dense right now. So, I just I want to read through it. I want to put it into use uh in Calradia, actually.
I’m going to probably I’m going to put in these in everything cuz it’s awesome. These very high quality they’re stone. They might not look like it because this is such high quality stone and it looks like it’s plastic, but they are very thick, very solid, very nice stone. So again, I’m going to make a whole video on this after I really kind of get a better idea of the system. It’s an Oracle system that uses the alchemical symbols by Manalorian and Dice Nest.
So stay tuned for that cuz this is an amazing product. I I just I want to spend more time with it to make a true review of it.
More for Infinity
Painting References: Maximus (Infinity)
Reference photos, box art, and painting guides for Maximus, Optimate Hexadome Legend from Corvus Belli's Infinity.
Painting a Leather Belt
Day one of taking painting seriously—following Richard Gray's leather belt tutorial and discovering that competition-level painting isn't as impossible as it seems.
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