Hi,

Most of the time I paint units in uniforms, from romans to WWII going through napoleonic eras.
For some monthes I am working on celtic tribes, so each mini in a strip is different.
I tested several ways painting them such as :

- selecting a range of colour, preparing them all on wet palette and then fully painting 4 strips by 4 strips (being glued on a unique paint stick).
- Choosing colors one by one, then painting various pieces of random miniature on a important number of paint sticks.
- A lot of intermediate methods between thos two principles.

I am currently not satisfied by any of them. It is extremly time consuming, costing at least 4 times more than uniformed miniatures.
So how do you address such painting for warbands, antics or medieval varieties of clothing and shields ?
How much colors do you use  per minis as an average ? (ie. for current galic warband I use between 6 and 8 colors, including shields - it has some variety, but they look a bit like "christmas trees", so not really happy of them in fact).
Any hint welcome !

my ''none' uniform troops take longer than  uniformed ones ,but not by much ..., although I do not yet have many Dothrak yet  ( soon to be rectified  :-D

 I prime mid brown, then dry brush randomly  with tones of brown, colours ranging from hull red to light tan , every now and again adding a very small touch of white or yellow ochre,  works for me,  but unlike yourself mine are shieldless

I try to avoid drybrushing the same area of  each figure so I do not end up with  say all the figures having tan left arms  for example...  

but this works for me,maybe not everyone elses style, just thought id share :-D

I do it numerical patterns. So if I am doing a unit of 36 (9 strips) I will pick a colour for the tops, say red. I will paint one red top per strip, randomly picked between the figures on the base. If the colour is suitable for trousers, then I will do the same again. Same for shields. Then switch to next colour. Each unit will then have 4-8 main colours. These colours are selected in advance to work together.

I work similarly to Whirlwind in numerical patterns. I'll start with many more strips ready to paint than I would if I was doing uniformed types, but actually production overall isn't that much slower.

I'll also choose a colour palette for each particular unit - usually one to three brighter colours, but mostly duller earthy tones doing double-shift. Excluding flesh and metallics 6-8 colours usually covers it. This gives an irregular feel but still an identifying colour-set for each unit.

If I'm doing flamboyant irregulars (mostly asiatics), I put in a scattering of extra-bright colours and highlights to represent patterned cloths and silks - sometimes no more than one or two per unit. This might double the number of colours I use overall.

Hi,

Thanks for your answers.

I am currently working on celtic warbands, so from your insights  it sounds logical that it takes more time than uniformed minis : Each shield is different, I use randomly plain colours or striped colors (gallic feel of braies and top clothes or cloack), each shield has a different decoration (stripes, circles, minis celtic patterns) in different colours. So definately, to be longer is somewhat logical.

In my last tests I sticked to painting a restricted number of strip (from 4 to 8) at a time. I can then see the result sooner and it is not harming motivation. In those tests I used about 12 different colours (excluding metallic/flesh/balck/white) all prepared in advance on the palette.

8 strips are done in about 8 hours, from base coat to final varnishing, excluding basing.
As a comparison, a napoleonic batallion of 36 miniatures, so 9 strips (bases are 2 ranks of 3 minis) is done in less than half that time.
So by sticking to this method, it seems that I loose less time than before, and yes, I confirm that simpler units such as slingers, javelins, and other are really fast to paint.
 

Usually for warband type figures, I would group them for painting differently than I would group themfor basing. So you might have 4, 6 or 8 similarily painted figures or maybe in your case shields, grouped together for ease of painting, then paint their cloaks in different numerical fashion... say every 3rd one gets a green cloak, every 4th yellow pants etc etc until it's all covered, In you case I  guess I would keep the most complex, the shields together in a group, so you can paint them, but them split them up when basing. that wa you break up the regular lines, not something the celts seem to be famous for anyway :)
Hope that helps

Hi Rittmeister,

Thanks & Yes, that helps. I did not thought about it...
It can be applied when using multiple individual miniatures that do not have specific formations as based (i.e. skirmishers, hordes, etc...). Not sure when talking about units that have well ordered formations, so that are based with full strips (ie. Vickings shield walls or regular medieval units), as I do not plan to detach any single miniature from an ever "in line" strip, but could be investigated.

Hi Philemon
In the end you have to decide wether to streamline painting or basing.
For warbands I always preferred to not have too regular lines, so as to contrast with their oponents, usually Romans or other regular infantry. Basing individuals in lines is not as horrible as it sounds. But in the end i guess its, what you save at one end (painting) you spend at the other (basing), so up to you :)
 

Despite knowing that even regulars in Ancient times weren't that uniformed, I've stuck to giving my Celts tribal or clan colours so that I can easily identify specific units or groups on the table.

I tend to paint my civilians in similar colours for a batch but mixing tops and bottoms along a row before basing them in a more random fashion.

For my medieval armies I pick several main colours and apply them to the majority of the figures, e.g. dark blue will appear on almost every strip, one tunic, one breeches, one cloak but none on the fourth figure. Then scarlet but make sure I dont have the same combinations on a stand. Then use a combination of neutral colours; various browns, unbleached cotton, grey, khaki to fill in the gaps, and it looks best if nearly all the figures have only one bright colour combined with one or more neutral shades. Any missing bits get random colours at the end for a bit of variety without it being too dominant.

Shields, flags and silver blades/spear points are deliberately bright to draw attention while flesh is toned down so it doesn't stand out.

I find this works especially well if you mass your figures into large units so individuals blend into the mob. For that reason I ignore details like belts, scabbards, shoes etc.