My roomie and I are biting the bullet and hopping into Legion.

We both do loads of 40K, but have been putting this off until now.

That said, any tips you all have for quickly painting up Stormtroopers? I really (REALLY) despise working with white, so I want a as no-muss-no-fuss way of getting my troopers painted up quick. The fewer, but highly reliable, steps is preferable.

As can been seen below, I'm no nooby to the hobby, but the Stormtrooper white scheme admittedly intimidates me. White is so bloody finicky to work with.

I think the fastest way would probably be...

1) Prime white

2) Base coat the non-white stuff (weapons, joints, portions of the helmet, etc.)

3) Thin a dark wash a good bit and apply it selectively to the model

4) Highlight the edges and focal areas back up to pure white

5) Any other details you want

I tend to agree that Stormtroopers can be intimidating to work with... everyone knows exactly what they look like, the armor is *perfectly* white on film, etc. I’ve only been painting again for a few years and while I’ve gotten (what I feel is) much better since I started back up, I find the thing that makes the biggest impact on Stormies looking good is time and layers.

But that approach is what I’ve done to get what I feel is a good looking Stormie on the table without taking what feels like at eternity. Even if I spend as much time shading and highlighting other models, there’s just something about working with white and white alone that makes it feel more time consuming.

45 minutes ago, KalEl814 said:

I think the fastest way would probably be...

1) Prime white

2) Base coat the non-white stuff (weapons, joints, portions of the helmet, etc.)

3) Thin a dark wash a good bit and apply it selectively to the model

4) Highlight the edges and focal areas back up to pure white

5) Any other details you want

I tend to agree that Stormtroopers can be intimidating to work with... everyone knows exactly what they look like, the armor is *perfectly* white on film, etc. I’ve only been painting again for a few years and while I’ve gotten (what I feel is) much better since I started back up, I find the thing that makes the biggest impact on Stormies looking good is time and layers.

But that approach is what I’ve done to get what I feel is a good looking Stormie on the table without taking what feels like at eternity. Even if I spend as much time shading and highlighting other models, there’s just something about working with white and white alone that makes it feel more time consuming. 

Yeah, and depending on the brand, it can be such a temperamental pigment.

I suspect I'll do something like you mentioned. Prime in Skull White, block in the body glove with black, add Mechanicus Grey details and highlights, some dark metallic highlights on the blasters, and shadow some of the seams with thinned Nuln Oil. Then clean up and light dry-brushing with Skull White.

My roomie does Tau like this by basing black and painting the plates Mechanicus Grey and THEN white. Could try that, but I'm not sure it fits my painting style. He swears by it, but it seems laborious to me.

Spray paint them dark grey. Drybrush them white. Twice. Paint guns, holsters, hands, and the knee on the DL-19 guy black. Blacken in the eyes using fine detail brush. Lightly drybrush grey on guns and hands. Paint commander's shoulderpad and bases how you will. Do any little white fixups as needed at the end.

Once the spray primer is dry this probably takes 30 minutes of brush time per squad maybe.

For my scout troopers it was the same but, more black detailing. The bikes were spray painted black, and key parts were drybrushed brown.

2 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

Spray paint them dark grey. Drybrush them white. Twice. Paint guns, holsters, hands, and the knee on the DL-19 guy black. Blacken in the eyes using fine detail brush. Lightly drybrush grey on guns and hands. Paint commander's shoulderpad and bases how you will.

For my scout troopers it was the same but, more black detailing. The bikes were spray painted black, and key parts were drybrushed brown.

Sounds similar to Sorastro's approach. Been pondering it.

2 minutes ago, Deathseed said:

Sounds similar to Sorastro's approach. Been pondering it.

Similar but less time and from 3 feet away they look the same. I've painted stormtroopers for 3 different games now plus own factory painted ones. I've taken all level of detail from none to lots. But from tabletop distance? They all look alike to me. I would be remiss if I didn't link to a Litorco painting video but I put in less time than this. I painted my core set just for demo games so I wasn't too worried about them. Then recently, in preparation for generic officers, I painted a 3rd squad just to have the required corps for a not-Hoth empire army.

9 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

Similar but less time and from 3 feet away they look the same. I've painted stormtroopers for 3 different games now plus own factory painted ones. I've taken all level of detail from none to lots. But from tabletop distance? They all look alike to me.

Aye, table quality (even for my Necrons above) is typically my goal.

My old art teachers always told me to hold something at arm's length, and if it looks good there, you're probably done. Goes even more so for massed troops in war games.

And yeah, I checked out her vid last night. It's a bit dry-brushy for my tastes (and this is from a guy that drybrushes the crap out of his 40k minis).

29 minutes ago, Deathseed said:

Aye, table quality (even for my Necrons above) is typically my goal.

Back when they were more awesome, GW actually recommended this. You'd hit the point in the painting guide where the whole model was nicely colored in, and they'd say "at this stage the model is ready for the tabletop" then they'd go on to show you how to add highlights, shading, eyes, complex unit markings, and so forth but with caveat that "you'll probably want to reserve this level of detail for characters".

5 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

Back when they were more awesome, GW actually recommended this. You'd hit the point in the painting guide where the whole model was nicely colored in, and they'd say "at this stage the model is ready for the tabletop" then they'd go on to show you how to add highlights, shading, eyes, complex unit markings, and so forth but with caveat that "you'll probably want to reserve this level of detail for characters".

Yeah, I started back in the oldest of 40k days (when it was just one book, Rogue Trader), so I pretty much grew up with that philosophy.

Character models get the most love. The rest get whatever brings them to the table with a bit of flair.

Their modern washes are soooooo good now though. Even troops get a lot of bling with just the washes doing the grunt work.

^magic in a bottle^

27 minutes ago, Deathseed said:

Their modern washes are soooooo good now though. Even troops get a lot of bling with just the washes doing the grunt work.

^magic in a bottle^

And is about 100,000,000% markup compared to buying a big thing of matte medium and a few colors of Liquitex ink at AC Moore using their half-off coupons! I still use many commercial miniature paints, but swearing off them for just a year and sourcing everything from art supply stores changed my world.

As an old 40k player, have you used Foundry paints? I have about 40 brand new Foundry paints that I'm excited to try out but I want a specific project to limit myself to their use on, maybe my 28mm New Kingdom Egyptians. I hear they are very similar to the old Citadels.

Course I also hear that Coat d'Arms is selling the exact formulation of the original circa 1990 Citadel Colour too!

1 hour ago, TauntaunScout said:

And is about 100,000,000% markup compared to buying a big thing of matte medium and a few colors of Liquitex ink at AC Moore using their half-off coupons! I still use many commercial miniature paints, but swearing off them for just a year and sourcing everything from art supply stores changed my world.

As an old 40k player, have you used Foundry paints? I have about 40 brand new Foundry paints that I'm excited to try out but I want a specific project to limit myself to their use on, maybe my 28mm New Kingdom Egyptians. I hear they are very similar to the old Citadels.

Course I also hear that Coat d'Arms is selling the exact formulation of the original circa 1990 Citadel Colour too!

Can't say I have.

I'm modestly made of money, so I just bite the bullet and pay Citadel's ridiculous prices when I'm not buying Vallejo or Army Painter pots.

Though I've given serious thought to doing this.

10 minutes ago, Deathseed said:

Though I've given serious thought to doing this.

It's a lot of fun to mix up your own washes from soap, medium, ink, and water like a mad scientist.

A buddy of mine is going to give me some of his unused stormtroopers to start on, so I think my first attempt will be based in Codex (or Mechanicus) Grey and painted in Skull White and Chaos Black (or whatever they call those now). Some highlights with my homebrew dark metallic, and a little Nuln and Agrax where desired for weathering.

Essentially what you've been doing with some tweaks.

Assuming the grey takes the white as well as my buddy swears, that will probably be a good method. Grey is a neutral color, so it should work. There's a reason they prime cars grey.

Also, your 30 minutes per squad is good turnover. That'll be my goal.

15 hours ago, TauntaunScout said:

And is about 100,000,000% markup compared to buying a big thing of matte medium and a few colors of Liquitex ink at AC Moore using their half-off coupons! I still use many commercial miniature paints, but swearing off them for just a year and sourcing everything from art supply stores changed my world.

I bought one bottle of Agrax Earthshade a year ago for $8.00 and it’s still more than half full. I’m sure I could lay out $25 and get ten times as much home brew shade but I don’t know what I would do with it. Plus people never account for the full expense of things - like getting a bottle to put all this stuff in. So, if you are doing commissions on 2,000 models a year you can probably save money doing this. But spending more money on huge quantities of supplies (for which you have to fuss around with the formulation) is not really economical for most people.

48 minutes ago, BigBadAndy said:

I’m sure I could lay out $25 and get ten times as much home brew shade but I don’t know what I would do with it

It's more like $25 for hundreds of times as much plus you make any color you decide to later on. My pre-mix storage containers are scrounged for free from things like empty spices, empty paints, etc.

Since I also use other shading washes/inks/etc the $25 limit would rapidly be surpassed on Citadel and I'd have a lot less to show for it, and I wouldn't be learning much. Mixing a few primary and secondary color inks to make your washes is like learning to play your scales instead of learning how to play one song.

10 minutes ago, TauntaunScout said:

It's more like $25 for hundreds of times as much plus you make any color you decide to later on. My pre-mix storage containers are scrounged for free from things like empty spices, empty paints, etc.

Okay let’s break that down. Ten times as much that I don’t use or a million times as much that I don’t use makes no difference. Also, for each color of wash you make you need an ink. What do the inks cost? If I’m spending $5 on ink to make a gallon of purple wash that I won’t use then I’m happy to pay $5.99 for a 15ml dropper bottle instead.

42 minutes ago, BigBadAndy said:

Okay let’s break that down. Ten times as much that I don’t use or a million times as much that I don’t use makes no difference. Also, for each color of wash you make you need an ink. What do the inks cost? If I’m spending $5 on ink to make a gallon of purple wash that I won’t use then I’m happy to pay $5.99 for a 15ml dropper bottle instead.

Depends on your armies and your painting style. I think I paint more miniatures/year than some hobbyists.

My Liquitex inks come in a 30ml screw top glass bottle with a medicine dropper built in. I have like 6 colors. I pay $4 per ink, $7 for medium, it comes in a 250ml plastic squirt-tub thing, it's Galeria not Liquitex my mistake. I always used a lot of the old Citadel inks, now I don't, these are cheaper and better. $4 for 30ml with a medicine dropper built in is awesome, partly because I don't spill any. I could get cheaper refill bottles and save my medicine droppers but usually the rubber bulb is wearing out by then. Each bottle lasts me about two years depending on what projects I have going on. Brown and black are my most frequently exhausted colors but I also have a green, red, yellow, and blue that can take hard hits depending on various army color schemes. My snowtroopers wound up settling on a homemade wash that uses a lot of yellow.

The thing is this goes way beyond bulk cheap Agrax Earthshade etc. For example inks are extremely pigment-dense: I can make my own colors of paint with these inks and acrylic medium. The fun doesn't end there. Ink is so pigment dense, I can use it to noticeably alter the colors of my model paints. If I want a rich vibrancy for say, a knight's heraldry, a drop of red ink into my red model paint will do the job. Also by adding a tiny drop of the color-opposite ink to a paint I can pretty much always come up with the perfect color for a shading wash. See also: using one of those spinning cardboard color wheels saves me so much time and money!

I don't need one ink per wash. I have black, the 3 primary colors, a commonly used shade each of green and brown. I mix everything from those. I won't buy purple to mix a purple wash, I'll use red and/or brown, and blue.

Oh, almost forgot. For virtually all my not-Legion minis, I use a brown wash on the bases. So I eat up a lot of brown wash. A LOT. Legion is very much a tertiary miniatures pursuit for me. My primary one being Ye Olde Nostalgic Minis, mostly off eBay, though at this point my basement is about as well stocked as a 1990's FLGS so I don't buy much for that anymore. Secondary one being presently available historical minis, and then Legion.

Miniatures overall, in turn, has to share my available hobby time with reenacting. When I have a lot of sewing projects or whatever, my painting/playing takes a hit.

I've made my mind up that my core of stormtroopers and scouts are gonna be painted as shadow troopers and shadow scouts.

I prefer working with blacks, greys, and metallics anyway.

Besides, I have an unopened bottle of Citadel black primer just sitting around.

Though I had an idea of doing a grey scheme and calling them the Grey Legion. I was contemplating giving them a backstory of being a penal legion.

On 1/15/2019 at 4:39 AM, Deathseed said:

A buddy of mine is going to give me some of his unused stormtroopers to start on, so I think my first attempt will be based in Codex (or Mechanicus) Grey and painted in Skull White and Chaos Black (or whatever they call those now). Some highlights with my homebrew dark metallic, and a little Nuln and Agrax where desired for weathering.

Essentially what you've been doing with some tweaks.

Assuming the grey takes the white as well as my buddy swears, that will probably be a good method. Grey is a neutral color, so it should work. There's a reason they prime cars grey.

Also, your 30 minutes per squad is good turnover. That'll be my goal.

It can be helful to have a dedicated drybrush for only light colors. Old flecks of reds and blues hiding in the bristles can ruin your white and yellow paintjobs.