We’ve all made plans to knock out our entire army projects quickly—Thomas even accomplished a sizable Mechanicum army in a weekend once! For most of us, though, reality often has a habit of getting in the way. Life, work, or even just overly large ambitions can quash our army before it builds up enough steam to roll over the finish line by our self imposed deadline.
Troy, from Sonic Sledgehammer, was having none of this, though! Having recently started experimenting more with the OG star of The Army Painter, our Quickshade Dip, he set himself an ambitious goal and finished it in style. 3,000 points of Horus Heresy Death Guard from Games Workshop, built, painted, and based all within 30 days. That’s a lot of power armour, but he was undaunted, and luckily for us, he documented the whole process!
Troy: Going into a project like this, I knew things were going to be much faster and easier to keep track of if I had a plan. When you can lay out all the colours you'll need and go from one to the next without having to think too hard about the next stage, you'll speed up the process considerably. I find it helps to think in terms of what paints will cover one another as I'm working to act as a tidying stage between each colour. An example on these guys would be laying down the trim with Hoplite Gold Speedpaint, then being able to tidy any overrun on their shoulder pads with the Warpaints Fanatic Camouflage Green for their livery, which quickly covers any rogue splashes of gold.
I started by painting a couple of test pieces first, trying to keep them simple and thinking ahead about how a unit would look. The temptation is usually to paint a test miniature to a far higher standard than the actual army will be, which can be demoralising. Once I was satisfied, I had my plan of attack. Priming with Matt Black Colour Primer, before a layer of Brainmatter Beige Colour Primer, gives some of the armour a little shading before painting. Being able to prime in the off-white Brainmatter Beige meant I was still able to use the Speedpaint Metallics, which was an absolute godsend. I think that legions like the World Eaters or White Scars would benefit from a similar approach using Matt White Colour Primer. I knew that the Strong Tone Quickshade Dip was also going to tone down that Brainmatter Beige to a more bone-like colour, which suited what I had in mind perfectly.
Applying the Dip using the 'splash on' method means that there's less waste of Dip flying around when you shake it off, and it also means I could apply it with a nice, large brush for the Dreadnoughts as well. While it can seem intimidating to work with an enamel product, it's much more forgiving than people expect; keeping your thinners nearby while working means you've even got an undo button if things get out of hand while you're applying it. It also acts as another layer of varnish on your work, which in this case wasn't really a huge draw since the entire army is plastic, but I've definitely chosen the Dip in cases where I'm painting metal miniatures or armies with a lot of metal in them, like WWII weapons teams and similar.
Another really handy thing about the Dip is how it settles and shades a little more intensely than a wash would, depending on how you apply it and where. On these Death Guard, there's a ton of detail on them, such as the undersuit visible through certain parts of their armour or parts of their packs, which I simply haven't painted except by letting a little more Dip pool there and calling it done. Finishing touches like the chipping and rust effects add more texture and visual interest, as well as being nice and fast. Inspired by how video game textures imply more detail than actually exists on flat surfaces, a mix of Warpaints Fanatic Dark Rust and Fresh Rust helped quickly break up some of the single areas of colour without having to highlight them at all.
A few small details, like skulls and some equipment, were picked out using the new Speedpaint Markers, which were handy to have nearby when I realised I'd forgotten the skull on some random dude's belt. It’s just a quick shake, uncap the marker, and I'm done with no clean-up necessary! Using The Army Painter’s original product with the very newest just feels neat to be able to say, too. It can be hard to maintain motivation with such a large batch of miniatures and nothing really finished until the very end to maintain enthusiasm. Rather than having a few small wins along the way, you have to delay that gratification right to the end of the project... but oh, man. When you're done, you've finished that last base rim, and they're all arrayed on the table? That's when it all comes together and feels great.
