The best basecoat is the one you apply to your brain

Ancient Proverb

If you’ve been around the hobby for a hot minute you might have heard a term called “batch painting,” which is a way of taking a large group of models (let’s say 20) and on every single one of those models you paint all of the red bits until all 20 have their red bits done, then you start back at the first and do all of the gold bits until all 20 have their gold bits done, etc etc. Until finally the last batch is to do 20 Abbadon Black base rims and call it done. Painting an army is best done utilising some kind of plan and personally I always find myself back to doing some version of batch painting.

Why Batch Paint?

The easiest answer is that it lessens the cognitive load of the process. Without having to change colour palettes, brushes, or general plan you can just pick up model by model and work through a section. If you only have reds on your palette laid out from darkest to lightest, you can just smash through the base colour all the way up to the top highlights on those reds without having to change or modify your process and materials. You generally always want to batch in similar model type so your batches are allowing you to paint the same material with the same colour in the same general way. Grabbing any 40 models and randomly going between doing red cloth, then red armour on a different type of model to red fur on another model requires more effort than just smashing through 20 models with red cloth, 10 with red armour and then 10 with fur. It requires a bit of planning to succeed, but if you plan right, it will be the most consistent and easiest pathway to a painted army.

How to Make Your Plan

So even before I get into batching I want to paint a test model of that model type or something very similar. I want to see where maybe I’d have a brush stroke overlay a previous layer, or have difficulty reaching with a colour so I can make my plan intelligently. After I do that tester model, my plan is going to aim to be:
A) Start at the deepest parts of the model. If your model was a map of peaks and valleys, start in the colour valleys. Things like pants, cloth under the armor, etc. are probably going to be the first things that get painted. Then maybe the armour, the skin, then finally the weapons. Every model will be a bit different.
B) If something is faster to do by being a bit messy and then to cover up the mess, do the messy thing first and cover up any errant brush strokes with your following processes. Example: if you’re drybrushing some metal and the drybrushing catches the edges of a cloak, do that drybrushing section, then when you’re batching the cloaks with layers of paint just cover up the bit of metal drybrush with your highlight layers. Or if you have a lot of texture on a base and use a big brush to get into all the nooks and crannies, paint the base with that big brush then come back and cover up the bottom of the model with your future layers.
C) Indulge yourself to help move the model out of the ‘shit phase’ faster. There is a point where every model looks like a bloated corpse sitting in a pile of dung. That’s just our intrusive thoughts trying to kill our motivation a bit, “Ah yeah mate that sucks, just give up”. Fight those thoughts by doing a little thing here or there like a wash, a highlight, something that’s kind of out of step but brings the model together in a way where you feel a bit more proud of it. Sometimes I’ll just base the metal bits of a model so I don’t have to stare at the basecoated weapons and armour and instead I can see cool metal basecoat. (It works for me, big fan of metal).
D) Dangle a Carrot that helps you get the process completed. Make the best out of behavioural psychology and operant conditioning and work into your plan a reward / accountability plan. i.e. “After I paint 20 Bladegheists, I get to paint a Hero. Or I get to play a new video game. Or I get an ice cream bar.” Whatever the goal carrot that works for you, do it. If the goal is just to have a painted unit at the end of this batch, then you should be well motivated to see it through without external rewards. If you want to stay accountable, it helps to find a mate who needs some motivation and go in on a timeline you have to stay to. Maybe that includes buying your mate an ice cream bar if you don’t hit the deadlines. Include this in your plans though, write something down to keep yourself accountable.

Executing the Plan

Now that you’ve got your plan and you’ve got the models, there’s a few assurances you can make to attain victory:
A) Keep it Simple. Only put paints on the palette that you are going to use in this session, but make sure you have enough on the palette for what you are doing right now.
B) Set up your space so everything you need for ‘this batch’ is right in front of you. Pots of paint, brushes, paper towel, water cup, the models, somewhere to put the wet / drying models, somewhere to keep models that are yet to be painted. Make sure there is space for everything, and all the materials are there before you start. If you can leave your space set up all the time that’s ideal, but just take the 5 minutes to prep your space so you don’t get distracted before you really dig in.
C) Hack your own plan. If I’m doing a batch of 5 models at a time, I’ll grab 2 models from another batch and do something on them, maybe just a base coat, or a wash or something that just gets them half a step or a full step ahead, so when I grab them in my next set of 5 I’m pleasantly surprised at what past Sean did for future Sean. Paying it forward to yourself is always nice.

Example of a Plan

Wanted to give a full example of what my plans look like for my Nighthaunt, since it’s the project I’m currently working on, batching and getting progress out of all that. I have various different batches I do, and sometimes I finish a model beginning to end, but I always use the same processes. Batches get me through the big units though. I lay out my paints, my process and then how they lock together.

Basecoat:
Vallejo Black Primer Basecoat
GW Mechanicus Standard Grey 75% Anti-Zenith
Vallejo White 33% Anti-Zenith

Contrast:
GWC Baal Red 40% from Bottom
GWC Black Templar 40% from Top
GWC Flesh Tearers Red 30% Middle Blend

Base Blue:
GW The Fang Basecoat
GWC Black Templar Wash (Mix 1:1 Contrast Medium)
GW Temple Guard Blue Layer
GW Baharroth Blue Layer
GW Blue Horror Layer

Base Green:
GWC Terradon Turquoise Wash
GW Sybarite Green Layer
GW Gauss Blaster Green Highlight
GW Abbadon Black Baserim Layer (Final)

Base Skulls:
GW Rhinox Hide
GW Zandri Dust
GW Ushabti Bone
GW Screaming Skull
Scale 75 Gobi Brown
Scale 75 Ardennes Green

Base Graves:
GW Mechanicus Standard Grey
GW Dawnstone
GW Administratum Grey

Red Cloth:
GW Mephiston Red Layer
GW Evil Sunz Scarlet Layer
GW Wild Rider Red Highlight
GW Fire Dragon Bright Edge
GW Lugganath Orange Spot

Black Cloth:
GW Dark Reaper Layer
GW Thunderhawk Blue Highlight
GW Fenrisian Grey Spot

Skin:
GW Corax White Basecoat and Highlight
GWC Gryph-Charger Grey Wash (Mix 1:1 Contrast Medium)

Silver Metals:
Scale 75 Black Metal Basecoat
GWC Garaghak’s Sewer (Stipple Wash)
GW Mournfang Brown (Stipple Wash)
GW Skrag Brown (Stipple Wash)
Scale 75 Thrash Metal Highlight

Brass Metals:
Scale 75 Decayed Metal Basecoat
GWC Akhelian Green (Stipple Wash)
GW Sybarite Green (Stipple Wash)
GW Gauss Blaster Green (Stipple Wash)
Scale 75 Victorian Brass Highlight

Gold Metals:
Scale 75 Necro Gold Basecoat
GWC Gulliman Flesh (Stipple Wash)
GWC Gryph-Charger Grey Wash (Stipple Wash)
Scale 75 Elven Gold

Sequence:
Basecoat Full
Contrast Full
Base Blue Full
Base Green Full
Base Skulls Full
Base Graves Full
Basecoat All Metal Sections
Black Cloth Full
Red Cloth Full
Basecoat Skin
Weather All Metal Sections
Wash Skin
Highlight Metal Sections
Highlight Skin
Base Rim

Goals / Checkpoints:
40 Bladegheists, 10 Craventhrone, 10 Hexwraiths, 3 Spirit Hosts, 4 Myrmourn Banshees, 2 Chaingheists, Krulghast, Guardian of Souls, Spirit Torment painted by 8th September
Minimum of 12 Models every 4 weeks
Max 20 models of same type before swapping to maintain motivation
Fail to meet deadline on any month means Hearthstone / Marvel Snap uninstall on phone until project completed

It might seem like a massive undertaking, and to be honest it probably is, but this is how my painting plans look and I’ve worked them out for me. I don’t often reference back to this after I write it down unless I’ve been away from the project for a while, but having this full rundown allows me to pick up a project in 2 years and know everything I need to work on it, and the general process I need to use to get a similar result. You can batch a plan like this in two ways: any of the full sections you can just do a session where you do that to 20-30-50-100 models of that. Or you can sit down with 5 models and go section to section to completion in a batch. Choice is yours, but here’s a framework.

Why Not to Batch?

I don’t have heaps of answers because I always end up back in this place. I know some people worry that their quality fades when they batch but I don’t blame batching for quality loss, I tend to blame rushing processes for that more than anything. Batching is associated with speed and ruthless efficiency, and I think you can paint an award-winning army utilising the batch framework and techniques. It just might not work for you to have a bunch of partially painted models in front of you constantly though, and that’s okay. Do one model at a time and maybe just batch some bits, like airbrush / rattle can basecoats and brushed basecoats or whatever. This is your hobby after all, do it how it makes you happy.

Onwards Champions

Take everything in here and digest it, think on it and create your plan to act. If you have 2, 5, 10, 100 models you need to get done I think there’s a plan you can concoct with this information and generate success. In the future I will release a workbook that has preformatted pages to put down painting plans like this, so be on the look out for that. You can follow along my painting batches on the Twitters: https://twitter.com/seanzor21

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