I hate Painting Free Guild

[Congratz]

I have a huge free guild army, unpainted for many reasons
1. I can't decide on a colour scheme, really like Altdorf, Averheim and Talabheim
2. I can't make the models paintjob look nice
3. It takes long time

Do you guys have anything there could help?  

 

[dynamite8100]

1. My advice would be to choose something not overly complicated- if you're unable to make it look nice, make it hard to ****** up. Keep it bright, but simple, maybe different colours for sleeves and  tassels, etc, with a nice bit of dry brushing added before that- maybe look at some of the ones in the 'firestorm' book for the free cities, I like those, and they're nice and simple.

2. See my advice above, keep it simple. Look up tutorials, thin your paints, use drybrushing, use shading, keep it simple, don't try to paint the cloth one half a different colour, that's a recipe for disaster.

3. Again, keep it simple, keep it safe, and that's how you'll be able to paint an army quickly. Make sure you have good brushes, good paints, and you're good to go.

[someone2040]

I painted my Freeguild fairly simply, and while there are some bits I absolutely loathed about painting them, I think they came together quite nicely in the end.

 

For 1.

Sometimes picking a colour scheme can be the hardest part in starting an army. It's important though that you ultimately pick a scheme you're going to be happy with. One of the great things about Freeguild is that there are many different options.

I originally started out thinking my entire army was going to be white and blue. It was a scheme that looked great and I was happy with it. However, I picked up some second hand units part painted and also wanted to repurpose some units from my old army, but didn't want to repaint the entire miniatures to do so. Additionally, I found that sometimes in game it was hard to pick out my Crossbowmen from my Handgunners when they were right next to each other. So this led to the natural evolution of many of my units changing the white into a different colour (but still with the blue).

Lastly, some people decide they want a united Empire or Dogs of War type look, where each unit has completely different colour scheme. This can look great as well, but you need to be a bit cautious and make sure the army still looks cohesive. Basing goes a long way to this, and I think as long as the 'tone' of the army looks similar you'll be fine. That means you probably don't want to paint one unit in very garish and bright colours, yet have another unit in very natural and earthy colours.

 

For 2.

Just choose something simple that meets your desired level of quality. When I was painting mine, I knew I was going to have to paint a lot of infantry. So I made sure that at the very least, to get the basic details on my process was very simple.

I base-coated my miniature with the colours (Which generally was blue+white+skin+leather+steel+gold+(wood)+doodads), ran it through an aggrax earthshade wash, and then started picking out the details with varying number of highlights.

Generally for me, I probably ended up doing a minumum of base+wash+base+highlight on most areas of the model, but on some areas you could get away with not re-layering the base coat and on other areas, I would've done 2 highlights as they were more important (Skin for example).

 

For 3.

I think in a way, this echoes back to 2. Make sure you have chosen paints and painting techniques that mean you're only spending as long as you want to on them. This may mean that you ensure that your highlights don't need to be mixed as mixing will slow down your painting if you need to do it each time (or you can make a pre-made mix and put it into an empty pot if it's a colour you're going to use a lot of).

That being said, I think they probably do take longer than average. This is a consequence of generally having 2 primary colours on the uniform. I kinda see that as both a pro and con, yes it takes longer as you need to quarter your uniform or alternate colours on the puffy parts, but it also looks cool when it's all done and dusted.

They also have all these annoying swords and doodads on the models which make them a bit more frustrating to paint. I hate for example, the hourglasses that show up, as it's just one more thing I have to consider what colours I want to use on the model.

 

Lastly, I think most importantly you just need to sit down and just do it. Starting a project is always the hardest part. Have a think about what you want to do, maybe paint a test model or two, but just get cracking.

[Sharkbelly]

 

35 minutes ago, someone2040 said:

Lastly, I think most importantly you just need to sit down and just do it. Starting a project is always the hardest part. Have a think about what you want to do, maybe paint a test model or two, but just get cracking.

I totally agree with this. How huge is huge? I've painted about 150 free guild soldiers (back when they were Empire) and it just takes time and patience.

[MacDuff]

I took this problem in a different direction. I decided that the Free Guild were the remnants of once-proud armies in the Age of Myth, but as Chaos tore things down they became rag-tag forces dressed in rags and armed with rusty weapons. This let me paint them quickly in browns and greys, with heavy brown washes (think Skaven). This gave them a nice underdog feel while immensely speeding up my painting time.

[Nin Win]

Gloss varnish and then the gloss shades can be your friend if you go with bright colours.  If you basecoat them and then put on a light layer of gloss varnish and then use the gloss shade, it won't stain the paint darker and will flow well into the recesses.   You will have to make sure you don't allow it to pool too much.  Then once it's fully dry you can give it a coat of matte varnish.  Make sure to let the gloss varnish fully cure before applying the shade, not just dry to the touch.  Sometimes a varnish can get reactivated by moisture if it's not actually completely cured.

You can also keep a damp cotton swab/q-tip near by and after you shade the model, wipe the raised details to make sure they're totally clear of the shade.  You'll need to work quickly as as soon as the shade even slightly dries it'll get sticky.  The dampness (not running wet) will help avoid this though.