Beowulf03809 wrote:
One thing that may help is getting an army that has a little more variety to it. Moria Goblins, Uruk Hai, Warriors of Minas Tirith and a few others are really pretty much one-scheme and can get tedious quick if you're spending a lot of time on each model. Orcs are a nice option because they are pretty rag-tag in their gear. You can set aside 2-4 colors for skin, a couple for hair, a few for cloths, a couple browns and black for straps and boots, and a couple metalics). Also grab a black and brown wash.
After you have cleaned and base coated a bunch of models just put them in a big bowl and randomly pull out four to six. Pick your first pallet from those (one skin, one hair, one cloth and one metal color). Paint this little group with those colors and then give them a wash. You can add a little more "variety" here by washing different parts of the model with brown vs. black, or washing a few in one and the rest in the other. It is a subtle difference only but does help. Then put those guys aside to dry completely. I find when working with six models by the time I finish the skin on all of them the first are done and I can start on the cloths, for example. So it goes pretty quick.
When the first batch of six are drying, mix up your color pallet colors and grab another six models from the bowl and do it again. Doing it this way does help break up the monotony as well as helps ensure that when you look at a big group there's not much "pattern" to it. And you can get through a dozen models in an hour at a reasonable pace (paint a whole box while watching a movie).
After you have a bunch of them that have fully dried then go back thru and add some extra details to some, but not all. This can include some dark red blood here and there, buckles, a red-eye on a shield, etc. Again, if you have 24 Orcs done up to this point you can detail them up in maybe 30 minutes.
Then spray them all down with a good dull-coat protection and an hour or two later you're ready to play. You can obviously do this even easier with uniformed forces like Goblins/Uruks/WoMT, but it sounds like the lack of variety and the repetition of the Goblins is driving you nuts. I used to spend a lot of time on my Wood Elf army back when I was painting the models for SBG (where you didn't need very many), but that pace was killing me for growing to WotR size. I use a method like this now and can grow the force by another box pretty quick when needed and not dread the process.
One other thing that helps a lot is to get some special models and use them as a reward. For example, finish up 4 Companies ( 32 models ) of Orcs, and then paint a Captain and Banner. These special models can be treated with all the time and care you want to give them, highlight you talents as a painter, and give you some needed leaders for your army. Trolls, Named / Epic Heroes and generic command forces are all good examples of "reward" models.
Thanks for putting all your time into writing down this information with me and I will definitely take it into account, infact I will use it on my remaining eight goblins models, start my diorama, which may take me quite a few weeks, and then begin other things.
Just a note, I only get £25 a month so you can see that once I buy a box set i'm down to £5 which is just not enough for two pots of paint. So you can see the need for me to shop around for cheap models.