Bolt Action - Speed Painting Japanese Models

Old Man Morin here.  Lets be honest here…  If you listen to the shows, you know what a pedantic, slow as molasses kind of painter I can be. I’d like to say that my final products look good (and I think they do…) but do they look as good as the amount of time I put into them would imply? 


Honestly… probably not. 

How can I address this when I want to run large infantry based armies?  Going old school of course! In the old days…  I used to crank out armies for 40K  using a  limited palettes, a few painting tricks and sheer dumb persistence… It also helped that my job back then took up a hell of alot less time than my current job does. Time to try one of those tricks that the kids seem to be using these days...  Applied dip.

First, I chose a model.  I went with a bro from  The Assault Group’s Japanese range.  As I can only have a few dudes with swords in my force and I seem to have a lot of models kicking around with swords…  


Let me present, Taro the test model: (Front)

  And from the back…  As you can see he has lots of great texture to collect the dip (as I am trying out Lachlan’s Army Painter dip strategies).

    As promised, I stuck to a very limited colour palette. I may have to replace the foundation paint (as much as I love it) because GW has stopped making it and I am down to the dregs of the bottle!. Though I have traditionally stuck with GW paints, now that I am playing BA I have found that some colours (Japanese uniform colours for example) are better represented by colours made by other manufacturers.

  Man that bottle has seen better days!!!  Anyway, now that our little friend is base coated, it is time to give him a dip.

Now, many people swear by the dip and flick method.  I am not that guy.  I used an old brush to apply a thin layer of Army Painter Strong Tone to Taro before leaving him out to dry for 24 hours.  Here he is from behind:

I generally despise the “wet” look that dipping leaves so I also tried out the Army Painter Matte Spray out.  And this is where I ran into a few problems!

I got the dreaded FROSTING!!!  And if you look closely… CRACKING!!!  ^&*%#&%&^!!!!!!  

I might have sworn quite a bit at this point.  Then I chilled out and thought things through.  I waited a few hours until Melbourne’s weather warmed up a bit before applying a thin coat of the same spray.  I also shook that can for the recommended 5 minutes before doing so.  I think the weather, combined with a thicker than it should have been  coat, combined with a hang over combined with…  you get the idea.

As you can see… Patience won out in the end and Taro came good.  I based him up and he was ready to take on the West!  

Being a slow painter, I was shocked at how quickly this process was in the end . Perfect if you want to turn out waves of the IJA's finest in a short period of time. Let us know on the forums if you have had similar spray experiences or if you know of troops whose colour schemes lend themselves to the speed painting process.