The PAINting Tier List - Ranking Every 40K Faction by Painting Difficulty

[@thepoorhammerpodcast]

The Q&A Community post can be found here: kzbin.infoUgkxA32PzAockYEu07GOEz3RVLcqo8Mdj5fD

[@fernandozavaletabustos205]

Thank you for making this well-tought tier list!

[@priestking8636]

Everyone talk about hard to paint models until they start working with a Doomsday Ark. Everytjing is fine and easy but it is very hard to get inside the ribs!

[@TheOneTrueMar]

I'm a newbie who started with necrons. One of the core reasons for picking them up was that they were meant to be easy, so my start with the hobby would be easy instead of smashing my head against the wall

[@Night_Haunter]

I play mechanised guard now my life is easy. I used to paint thousand sons my life was hell

[@naoway336]

While I agree spaces marines are total B tier, I do think Space wolves and Dark angels are B+ tier

[@hpenvy1106]

Listening to this while painting Cadians. The new models have an insane amount of detail and 20 minis are just 130 points. The brush broke before the guard did.

[@FelipeBudinich]

Guard is so cool, but if I ever comission an army, it's going to be guard.

[@hpenvy1106]

@@FelipeBudinich I am not willing to sink more money than I did already.

[@FelipeBudinich]

@@hpenvy1106 wasn't implying that you should-huge respect for undertaking that project 🤟 I was implying that I am lazy 🤣

[@isaiahaguilera7710]

It means you don't have enough Vehicles XD, This coming is from a guard player who advised me how to build out my army

[@cousinzeke4888]

Can relate, battle sisters are dripping with detail and they're each 11 points.

[@JCLegendary]

You could say Harlequins are actually the most painless faction to paint, because the only people who would even try are already psychotic. Can't lose your mind if you're already crazy.

[@necromemer9523]

Crazy? I was crazy ounce...

[@oogbah7218]

They put me in a room a rubber room

[@redrix1787]

​@@oogbah7218a rubber room with rats

[@cryptex8398]

a rubber room with rats.

[@tylerchadwell1267]

And rats make me crazy.

[@wdeborde]

"You paint one heldrake and you're changed for life." Truer words are never spoken. When I painted mine, I didnt paint again for 4 months.

[@squiginjr]

Is it really that bad? Always wanted one.

[@spiderbat411]

The helldrake is fun till you get to the trim then it breaks you spiritually

[@Name-yo6lf]

@@spiderbat411Just did mine, I will never look at gold the same again.

[@tellumyort]

If I ever get a Heldrake my plan is to have black primer be the trim, paint the panels, and put it on my shelf forever because flyers suck.

[@TheOddOrigin]

@@spiderbat411imagine doing the trim NMM hahahahah :(

[@sarinat3101]

I love how the description of the team's admech player is so lore-accurate. He performs the most mind-numbing of repetitive tasks with ease, astonishing his human companions while only being annoyed at his own minor imperfections.

[@dnte666]

I swear this hobby does this constantly.

[@Fireflies1024]

Only worse thing than painting them is paying for them, one of them reached 0.75 points per dollar

[@overdog1574]

I’m 120 models into my imperial guard army and have never been so tired of painting

[@edibaber5525]

Well done! You're about 10% of the way there

[@overdog1574]

@@edibaber5525 I painted an entire world eaters army as a fun little “break” from the guard

[@benpusey4717]

Godspeed Spiderman

[@haraldhardrada3282]

Almost ready for your first combat patrol!

[@peterclarke7240]

I've just started mine, based on the odst colour scheme from Halo. I've worked out a ninja speed painting method: black undercoat, grey zenithal, lighter white zenethal at a higher angle, army painter speed paint over the armour, uniform and gun, pick out the details (flesh, metal, pouches etc), quick wash to bring out the grimdark, job done. I'm not winning any prizes, but they look cool from a distance.

[@gaelenzettle1325]

As a Grey Knights player, hearing "hello no, they are 90% covered in chachkies" warms my heart.

[@basedeltazero714]

It's spelled 'tchotchkes', inexplicably.

[@darkapostle1]

That's honestly why I love painting Grey Knights. I don't need many models as I collect Terminators and Paladins instead of regular squads so I can really take my time with each model. It's way more enjoyable than my Word Bearers though 🤣.

[@emzetkin1100]

​@@basedeltazero714 I believe that word is Yiddish in origin

[@seanm7349]

Remember, orks don't paint straight lines or within the lines. I painted them "perfect" but they took too long and looked "wrong." I started painting them sloppy and dirty and they look much better and are my favorite army to paint now.

[@thatlonewolfguy2878]

Orks are my "getting back into tabletop 40k" army of choice both because memes and cause they're easy to paint, I hate painting intricate details so knowing I can just get like one paint for their skin and maybe a wash then like black and silver for armour and weapons depending on what colour scheme I pick is just delightful, I kinda wanna go pure memes and do a green tide kinda list so I'm hoping I can get a super easy paint scheme for those

[@auntradiance1398]

Ork player best friend is a sponge and a drybrush

[@Maladjester]

:Ork with paintbrush hears you talking about painting Orks and looks up from his work *_"First fing to remember, Da boyz don't give a toss an' neither should yoo! Second fing to remember, dere is no second fing to remember!"_* :resumes slapping paint every which way

[@aprinnyonbreak1290]

@@Maladjester Fird fing ta member, da Orkz get ta lootin, an ain't nobody az good at yuzin' prawksez an unufishul bitz as us. Meet da new Meka-Dredd, Char WAAAAGHznable, 'e's in da big red komit-dredd, 'e sez.

[@TheEyez187]

Yuh don't like it, blame the Paintboyz!

[@cassetticons4651]

A lot of armies can answer the question if "Are they difficult to paint" by using the same answer as "Have they had a large range refresh since 2016?"

[@AuraXars]

Didnt sisters get one and still a pain?

[@daryanguy]

@@AuraXars I think its all the new models that are worse

[@RocketTheMinifig]

In a lot of Thousand Sons lore in Tzeench’s Palace of Fun and Torture™️ theres a lot said about how “time can move like second and feel like years,” so I’m pretty sure he just forces you to paint ONE rubic marine.

[@DemonLordRaiden]

God forbid he really either likes OR hates you, because then you have to paint one SQUAD.

[@Poolehful]

This mother fucker with his XV25 trademark. I love it.

[@colonelturmeric558]

Or if he really really doesnt like you, an exalted sorcerer

[@RRed19]

Would be an interesting way to demonstrate your loyalty.

[@bigbrowntau]

As a Tau player without an airbrush, I can tell you choosing your paints is really important. Vallejo or AK interactive make for brush stroke-free results far easier than GW base paints. I also play Guard, and have about 120 Cadians. I had a bunch of Mormon missionaries paint some of them for me! They'd come around to preach, but kept seeing the sea of grey on a side table. They volunteered to help paint them, because they missed painting mini's back in the UK. I didn't convert, but I did appreciate their efforts.

[@xXCigarXx]

They have Mormons in the UK?

[@Jebu911]

I really dont think painting my tau army was that hard and i just did it with my brush. Pretty much just as easy as it is to paint a space marine. Alltho my necrons were so easy to paint i never even bothered to talk to anyone about painting them. Its easy but somehow satisfying to paint those space tomb kings. Too bad didnt have any mormons to paint my minis.

[@bigbrowntau]

@@Jebu911 oh yeah, necrons are great to look at. I just found with all the big curved panels of hammerheads and devilfish, I got better results using AK, and Vellejo.

[@matthewmatthew981]

Remind me to move to Utah so I can get my armies finished.

[@Fullmetalnyuu0]

​@xXCigarXx You can find Mormons literally everywhere, they're like cockroaches or bacteria

[@captianbubbles4674]

There was a reason I picked necrons... It wasnt because of how easy they were to paint, but once I realized that fact, I am forever grateful I did pick them

[@danielbaier3717]

Funnily enough, them being super simple to paint is what made me not pick them

[@JavierEscuelIa]

​@@danielbaier3717just paint some really detailed Nihilakh, you'll hate yourself afterwards, I know I did.

[@reddragon4482]

Same as me. The onlyt things that are a bit tricky at the start are the lights of the energy weapons and some of the characters. Everything else is easy as fuck.

[@thedingleberrybush6076]

There’s some nightmare models to paint. DDA/GA is a dastard to sub assemble and magnetize and the less said about the flayed ones loose bits, the better.

[@zeroakira584]

For me I see adjusting necron units 's metal surface to look like metal without being shinny is hard as f***. But getting energy effect parts are fine to me.

[@Dylan-em4wi]

Hello! Dedicated Thousand Sons player here, have about 4k points painted and they were my first well painted army. Helpful tip for painting TS - prime them in GOLD, and only GOLD. If you do anything else, you will hate yourself. Then just fill in the blue parts & wash / highlight. I also recommend using contrast paint for Tzaangors.

[@hellsing154]

The one thing about death guard that makes it harder to paint is also why they are enjoyable to paint. With every model for the most part having a unique sculpt it doesnt become tedious painting.

[@biffa2987]

Couldn't agree more. I started DG as my army to enjoy painting. They look good at green, trim and a wash but then adding all the details makes them all pop and so unique

[@IcaroMendonca]

It is fun, but you have to go into ir knowing they have tons of small details on everything. It WILL take much mere time to paint a DG army than a generic space marine.

[@EnginesofNurgle-ku9ug]

Easily the most tedious miniatures I’ve touched no contest but it’s not like it gets repetitive or anything, so great models for painting overall.

[@Teh_Duck]

DG were my intro army and it started off good, then as I got more and more paints the time per marine spiked. When I painted my blightlords they took maybe 4-6 hours each.

[@dylancrozier84]

Would them having a unique sculpt make it more tedious? As someone who's got like 6 Rubric marines plus almost a whole Tsons combat patrol waiting for him, I can't imagine that.

[@synergy8879]

admech fragile bits is horrific, a friend clogged his vacuum with over 5 broken servoskulls, 2 little symbols, 4 larger symbols, 9 gears, 5 little incense things and 7 little thin sticks that completely fucked the vacuum

[@atthatguy1]

I started painting Slaanesh demons and I was okay with how they came out. But I thought they could be better. I repainted them and they were great, but I started seeing how I could do better. Soon the warm rays of the sun meant nothing to me. My eyes burn in phantasmsgoric images. It is never enough.

[@kekrops1095]

very slaaneshi actually

[@dylankersten3383]

​@@kekrops1095lore accurate Slanneshi cultist

[@aaabbb-zc7sx]

bro is lore accuarate

[@somanymodsithurts8637]

Slaanesh cultist recruiting

[@KantFromEC]

Necrons are a treat until the first time you pick up a fucking flayed one and it explodes.

[@DominatorLegend]

Unpainted grey tide? No sir, you see, this my custom Blood Axes Clan where the Orks have completely mastered stealth and it's represented this plain grey color all over the place...

[@ubrot7995]

grey stealth Orks? Whats wrong with you? The only real way to do stealth Orks without painting is by buying a big purple paint pot and dunking your models in. Cause only purple gits are the stealthiest.

[@DominatorLegend]

​@@ubrot7995Ah, but you see, they are purple, but when the invisibility kicks in you cannot see it anymore.

[@chrisrains6470]

I read this in ork

[@oldman1111]

The gray horde

[@damnits2200]

You see, the paint was actually purple so when it came into contact with the ork mini, it became invisible

[@kosmickosm771]

My first and current main army were the Ad Mech, they were a ball ache at first, but they basically made anything else a breeze to put together and paint, so i definitely learned a lot from diving in to the hardest army, i loved their lore and how they look so I went with them and never looked back. Long live the adeptus mechanicus *insert inaudible human speech here*

[@johnythefox100]

Praise the Omnissiah!

[@wineandforgive]

Genestealer cults are worse in my opinion But that might be because I dislike the cults

[@DefconLives]

Same, started Admech. The only thing that kills me about them is the amount of cablework and maybe the ornaments on their guns but damn those guns look good

[@Philtopy]

01010100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01000110 01101100 01100101 01110011 01101000 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110111 01100101 01100001 01101011 00100001 00100000 01010000 01110010 01100001 01101001 01110011 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100001 01100011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100101 00100000 01100111 01101111 01100100 00100001

[@dalemark45]

Just ordered a skitarii unit (along with the speedpaint 2.0 starter set) as my first mini painting project, we'll see how it goes

[@deifiedtitan]

I miss the old tan box colours for T’au. XV-88 is an under-appreciated paint.

[@pitmatix1457]

Currently painting up some Votann using the Tau Sept colour scheme. Works well on them.

[@Pixel22-fs3tt]

​@pitmatix1457 fits well with the lore as well since there are Votann have that allied themselves with the Tau

[@Philtopy]

Totally agree. White is already plenty around in the model range. XV-88 was unique to Tau and it was way easier to paint than white. And it makes so much sense that the Tau, a pragmatic tactical faction, is adopting a low profile tan colour as their main theme. The white is totally contraproductive to their entire concept.

[@crimsonknight7011]

I remember back in like 2012 at Adepticon there was a guy playing Drukari. Due to how many people are there the players are really cramped togather. While he was trying to move his army from one match to the next one, someone bumped him and he dropped it which resulted in at least a third of his army breaking into pieces. Sadly he had to forfeit the last 2 rounds because there was no way to repair his army that day.

[@holdencross5904]

Oh goooodddddd

[@chrisrains6470]

I don’t take my models anywhere without a decent sized bottle of thick super glue. I don’t glue any of my models together with plastic weld and use a light application of superglue. They fall apart from time to time but break and I can have them back together in 30 seconds. That is a tragic story that totally reinforces my OCD EDC.

[@jakegray1723]

Playing Knights, as surprisingly durable as they are, keeping glue on you is necessary

[@icycoatl3185]

I’m still learning to paint, not on warhammer models mind, and I haven’t gotten far yet but it’s given me a lot of respect for anyone who can produce a fully painted army.

[@T0mm3n]

Everyone is still learning to paint lad, even the Darren Latham's of the world are still learning.

[@robtibbetts890]

You can paint a whole army right this year with some spray, drybrush and wash, and they’ll look better than any gray plastic.

[@AndrewFishman]

Time and patience are the biggest factors in that finished army. I have quite a few. From many games. Some are harder, some more satisfying, others just plain boring, but the one thing in common, time and patience. And an appreciation of the development of your own skills. You are never in a contest against anyone other than yourself. Keep your first models, and be proud of them. As you improve your skills, they may start to look a little jaded, but do not repaint them, keep them as they are. Then YOU can look and see your own improvements. Have fun and good luck getting that first painted army out!

[@Nicolas-Cage-]

Firstly, love the video, it was intro for some such as me who just started my collection and finished painting my necrons. You see, as a “paint licker” I didn’t look up painting videos and found out what dry brushing is AFTER all of my painting so, yes. It is difficult to paint necrons if you are a 40 IQ barbarian such as myself. Next Army, grey knights. Pray for my success…

[@Mensch777]

Drukhari in Painless tier is mad! There kinda needs a tier of "you can get away with contrast and ignoring bits" for Drukhari, Deathguard, Orkz, Tyranids and Chaos Daemons IMO.

[@honoratagold]

There's definitely a "you can get away with an imperfect/messy paint job" tier of models.

[@kyrridas1573]

yeah, are they crazy? try painting 6 boats. 3 raiders, 3 ravagers. those things have so many freaking details and hard to reach spots. not to mention 2 dudes on each raider and _7_ on a ravager, if you build them with the hangers-on (which i did)

[@honoratagold]

@@kyrridas1573 Yes. The guys weren't too bad but the boats have been rough.

[@IBPaintsppp-wt5ou]

Yeah, I think I'd put drukhari a tier lower than Space marines and Votann instead of a tier higher? Airbrush check doesn't describe them perfectly, but the raider/ravagers are an air brush check for me. I owned the boats for over a year until I figured out a decent way to paint the boats without an airbrush.

[@Kourosmenis]

Yeah his take on Drukhari is WAY off. One of his reasons was, “You don’t need to paint all the bits…” well, by that logic, everything is either B or Painless… ridiculous. Perhaps he they should have made some baseline stipulations…like we’re assuming that we would paint the ENTIRE model.

[@dragonsmith9502]

"paint a heldrake and you're changed for life" Listen, I didn't click on this video just to be called out like that. The heldrake is the FINAL MODEL I have to paint for my Black Legion army, I just don't know if I have it in me after painting ten warp talons over the course of a day. CSM trim hell is where I belong for now.

[@dragonsmith9502]

Also I suppose the other two main armies I play are death guard (almost a full 2k points painted) and Adeptus Mechanicus (Omnissiah help me) so I am in HELL when it comes to painting, but I love the factions so I don't care.

[@Doggcow]

Necrons are the easiest to get "good" but I find they're WAY hard to get to a really high level because they're so simple and really showing off is hard

[@theotv5522]

Necrons? The big boys are so hard to paint for me. I find Tyranids much simpler. Especially the Termagants.

[@impguardwarhamer]

tbh i really think the more effort you put into necrons the worse they look. The coolest necrons are just boltgun metal with a black wash and the old transparent green plastic rod that the old kits had.

[@dronel1637]

@@impguardwarhamer THAT! i mean, i'm a noob, but my first necron i painted (just the super basic painting tools set with one brush) to this day looks as good as the ones i put a shitton of effort into. the necron colors are all super pretty, but at least in my experience the models are so tiny and finicky with all the spikes and ribcages that almost everywhere where you try to work with layering, it'll look like shit.

[@impguardwarhamer]

@@dronel1637 at the end of the day if you want to put a lot of work into your painting you need to pick another army. Necrons are great if you want to have a good looking army without a lot of effort, play into that.

[@dronel1637]

@@impguardwarhamer i am probably a weird oddball, i came into the hobby from the books and wikis - i paint everything for the joy and relaxation of painting, not really for armies. i started with the ultramarines vs necrons boxset and just always go for cheap models so i can paint more lol

[@ethan6322]

I love the fact that each death guard model is unique

[@Kockabe]

I actually got into death guard after your last paint video. The more i painted DG the more i realized you guys were dead wrong, the correction you made cause your DG told you its problems was a satisfying "now we agree" - feeling.

[@knightsljx]

24:37 pro tips for painting Heldrakes: 1) get an airbrush and do a reverse wash, ie gold lacquer then black enamel and wipe away the black on the trim or 2) get yourself a hobby metallic marker in the colour of your choice for the trim

[@splinky159]

Brad should buy a box of death rattle skeletons for AOS and re-evaluate what spindly bits is

[@adamorr6589]

Bro Nighthaunt is the worst about it! You look at it 1mm off and you completely ruin your paint job and the models breaks

[@DarkRavenGuard]

what about all the branches from sylvaneth catching on everything

[@AFnord]

If you want true suffering, get the old multi-part regiment box of skeletons. The one with a few metal bits for champions, banners and musicians. The bits are not just spindly, the models are also top heavy and have a metal to plastic joint which is very fragile (and small). Sure, some more modern models are more spindly, but few are as painful than those.

[@br_a1n161]

That kit is a shambles 😅

[@byzantinebyron6947]

Oh my God. Painting 20 of those nearly broke me and for me 95% of the hobby *is* the painting

[@bigchungus1888]

With the addition of Leviathan, i now have over 120 termagants, and i really do need to reconsider the original plan of batch painting ALL of them in one giant batch. Doing 20 at a time and enjoying a carnifex or hive tyrant palatte cleanser seems like a much healthier plan. After that, I'll be at a fork in the road: do I choose the 4 boxes of Gargoyles, or the 4 boxes of Hormagaunts that I've had in the bin since 5th edition? There's always the upcoming refreshed Termagant kit with new weapon options, maybe a nice even 200 gants is the right number to land on. See you all in 18th edition!

[@9woah1horses60]

I'm at 180 termagants because people keep giving them to me because they keep forgetting how much they hate them. I can paint gaunts all day. Batch painting g them in 20 and 30s has made me a LOT better with airbrush control

[@wamspride]

I started painting CSM as my first army they looked terrible but by the end i could do trim pretty well

[@beanman853]

Just dry brush it

[@icycoatl3185]

I suppose in that vein one could make a case for taking, say, genestealers specifically as a horrible trial by fire learning project.

[@KingBobbito]

@@beanman853 chaos trim is all fat enough that you can't get a good coat with just a drybrush, but thin enough that it's a pain to individually paint it all

[@beanman853]

@KingBobbito not in my experience

[@KingBobbito]

@@beanman853 I feel like it *can* work on shoulders but struggles to get everything else

[@MrAevans3]

the key to CSM, at least black legion, is dry brushing all the trim first, then filling back in the panels...black templar contrast works well for this. after these two steps there's not to much else.

[@rattlesnek3847]

Not only do sisters have a lot of infantry, but there are tons and tons of capes and cloaks. Depending on your style it can be a huge time sink

[@colonelturmeric558]

Even for me, a guy who just slaps one colour and a wash on cloaks/tabards, its still difficult. Lots of models have very small gaps between the cloth and a leg or arm, meaning assemblies are often needed to reach certain spots before gluing.

[@Bitch_Vio]

I paint sisters and the capes are HELL, especially if you don't do them as your first thing. Mostly with the heavy weapon squads, their weapons are right in front of the cape and it's IMPOSSIBLE to get your paint where you want It to be.

[@adamjmorgan]

“Chaos Trim Zone” sounds like a place I visited a few too many times as a younger man. Sometimes you learn your lessons the hard way.

[@FOB777]

For space marines it’s also highly dependent on the chapter. As an imperial fist shill, I have been suffering with yellow for many weeks now lol

[@aunderiskerensky2304]

i feel your pain in white scar, my first army was bright orange. both hell. cheers brother, PAINT ON!

[@jaredgriffin2155]

Don't feel too bad. I was painting Lamenters like a psycho. Short version is I did a good enough job I sold them in like 2 days after posting them. So that's nice. Now I paint my own successor chapter and avoid checkerboard, white and yellow like an evil ex girlfriend. I will NEVER make that mistake again.

[@FOB777]

@@jaredgriffin2155 hahaha. Yeah I think my next 40k project will be Templars or something completely opposite in terms of color. I like to do orks to decompress from painting yellow.

[@jaredgriffin2155]

@FOB777 don't fall for it. The black on white is a trap.

[@t.m9341]

I'm interested in white scar color schemes a lot. How do you know what paints to use and what primer is the right one ?

[@Xhantoss]

Oh boy, the comment about Necrons limbs reminded me of how my Trazyn model lost his legs at least 3 times so far. The 1st time was just picking up the miniature after applying the initial base coat. The base stuck a bit too hard to the cardboard and the legs snapped right off.

[@Anonymous-mp2ln]

I play Thousand Sons and my trick for the trim is to just use metallic gold primer then fill in the flats of the armor with blue. You still need a few other colors for details, but that's 90% of the model.

[@dylancrozier84]

Tbh I tried that before just painting them all blue and doing the trim and I prefer to just do the trim. I don't mind painting the trim, not as much as I dislike filling in blanks with Thousand Sons Blue, it doesn't cover as well as other citadel colors. If it works for you though then more power to you! I just personally don't care for spraying gold first

[@chrisrains6470]

Only two people talked about this in the comment section and they completely disagreed with each other. The two presenters completely disagree about how they like their goblins to look. Somehow, we all still come here to learn from each other and share. I swear, nerds are the last vest of real humanity left. By the way, I am going to try this idea with my iron hand space marines. I am doing an iridescent purple for the trim and black tinted and highlighted with a graphite silver armor. Having that trim color as my basecoat might create all kinds of cool effect in the black pearlescent, graphite silver armor. The time it would save… mind blown.

[@L3GHO5T]

Man this was absolutely brilliant. friends having fun laughing and joking around about something they clearly love…. Count me in!

[@Noctis198]

Honestly gotta say that your channel is one of the best Warhammer channels on KZbin bar none. You two actually talk about stuff that the average painter/player cares about. Keep up the great work!

[@kingsting12]

Strange comment perhaps but I really enjoy the format of your channel. You have great chemistry and the editing is on point and not too much or too little.

[@whalesequence]

Finishing a thousand sons army is more of a rite of passage than an actual enjoyable task

[@alexscholz3438]

My Thousand Sons are sitting on the table next to me, begging to have their trim done, and now I'm scared

[@whalesequence]

@@alexscholz3438 The fear is real, I know what you mean

[@AndrewFishman]

@@alexscholz3438 That was your first mistake. Paint the model Gold, then fill in the blue bits.

[@alexscholz3438]

@@AndrewFishman My first mistake was using colourshift paints actually, because I can't do that with them 😂

[@AndrewFishman]

@@alexscholz3438 You can just base coat those areas white over the metallic.

[@SlightlySouthrn]

I do like the Ad Mech A LOT lore wise and I wanted to play as them as my first army but thanks for the heads up on the painting, they never seemed easy to paint and now I have proof

[@bellportbattlebunker4682]

So true the comment about "if your current army version is good enough, don't redo it". I love the new cadian models but my 120+ OG cadians are good enough! Thanks for sharing!

[@JohnDoe-jc5kt]

2:12 Oh man that transfer gave me a heart attack lol

[@TheGammabomb06]

The space marine characters mustache vs intercessor comment is 1000% accurate

[@TheAurgelmir]

I do a "trim first, then the color" scheme on most Chaos Marines, and it honestly makes them quite fast and enjoyable to paint. What I do is base coat the model in the trim color, wash it, dry brush it - all the things you need to make the trim look good. Then I fill in the panels. This is usually a lot faster if you have a paint which covers well, but is still of a good consistency. Painted a LOT of Black Legion marines that way.

[@caboose759]

I would love an episode on kitbashing/conversions. Maybe talk about some that you two or your playgroup has done, some more common conversions that just so happen to show up. Or, even how to to screw forgeworld and convert a plastic kit into a forgeworld model. Like buying a box of Canoptek Wraiths and building them into a Tombstalker, Tombsentinel or some Acanthrites.

[@sonicwingnut]

My current favourite easy forgeworld cheat is if you have a plastic Sicaran and Whirlwind Scorpius just magnetize the turrets and you can put the Scorpius turret on the Sicaran so now you have a Sicaran Arcus (and a rhino I guess).

[@Driftingsiax]

Genestealers look really hard, but they also have some pretty hard drip. Pro painted GSC is some of the coolest looking minis I’ve ever seen.

[@IcaroMendonca]

I remember being a wee lad looking for my first army. I liked the nurgly tanks of Death Guard. I was scared of painting. I listened to a podcast from my trusted content creators, which said Nurgle was easy to paint. Confident, I bought about 1500 pts of Death Guard. It's the easy to paint faction, how bad could it be? I started to paint. Holy shit, painting is hard! And this is the easy one! It has tons of bits and bobs. Every time I look at a plague marine I see I new maggot. How do I paint the horns? Is that a skull growing out of a knee? Why does everything drip slime? And this puke green base color is so bland when I do it, how do I make it less flat? Volumetric highlight and recess shading? Oh god! I'm spending one and a half hours for every plague marine, this will never end! Cut to me yesterday, painting my space marines and listening to this. Yes, brad, not shit your DG player had words with you. I painted my first 500 pts of space marines in less time than it took to paint my first 30 poxwalkers, and they look better.

[@gealgain2420]

Oh the Admech, i feel that one. Add on magnetizing. i magnetized the bigger antennas to add a nice shear point because i knew they'd break off. I've been painting orks as a palette cleanser between painting neon daemons.

[@hendrikrasmus]

Lots of Custodes detail is in their armor plates and can work with just wash over gold to make it look good.

[@xcircle9879]

With Heldrakes I highly recommend Paint Pens. I got my trim 90% done in like 15 minutes it was awesome.

[@Axquirix]

I decided on Sisters for my "Real deal" army. different colour inner and outer robes, metallic green armour, full leather and marble details, really ornate bases, the works. Consequently so far I've painted a Canoness and nearly finished three headless battle sisters, and picked up about 1500pts of Necrons to have an army I can actuall play with who're getting a metal spray, a metal drybrush, a dip wash, their torsos and guns gone over with a contrast, and then an aquarium-plants-and-mud-texture-special base. Not because I specifically wanted jungle world necrons but because I have the basing materials left over from Seraphon. Speaking of Seraphon, they're like fantasy Tyranids except they hold weapons that you can, thankfully, get away with blocking in gold and then going over with black contrast and Agrax Earthshade. The really big monsters can be totally different colours to your main army theme for a nice pallette cleanser like Chaos Daemons, there's a bit of simple grey or sandstone palanquins in there for some flat panel stuff, a bit of wooden beams or cloth, they're a great army. I turned my first Bastiladon into a Venusaur and it sitting in the shop window for a couple of months geniunely brought people into the store; my second will be Blastoise and a friend is making theirs into Torterra. But back to first point, Sisters have one massive problem: shgoulder pad gaps. Every. Single. One of them. Has a huge seam directly down the middle of both shoulder pads. If you're going to collect this army you NEED to know how to gap fill. And yes, faces can be an issue especially because you're The Pretty Girls army; thankfully every Sisters kit has a full complement of helmets and a lot of them can get away with a one-coat contrast face and then a lot of details put into their hair instead. I'll be doing faces in batches of fives or tens after I'm done getting bodies fieldable, but I'm aiming for about 2/3rds helmetted which can just be done at the same time as the armour.

[@walmartian422]

Yea I just left the gap in their shoulder pads there I didn’t have any filler so I just didn’t care.

[@blah007001]

As someone who has played Thousand Sons since 4th edition, I've found that metallic sharpies are the perfect way to do Chaos trim. Just do a wash over the sharpie marks.

[@davidtrujillo1689]

After painting almost 3000 pts of black Templars infantry I will say a couple of things. Edge highlights start feeling good after your 15th marine (be sure to have an audiobook while doing it). Tabards are cool and chains are the bane of my existence.

[@PopcornGunner]

That "yeah" at 19:02 finna make me act up

[@demon_slayers1016]

As soon as a open comments I hear the moan and read ur comment 😂

[@goldenplattcaesar]

you need to be stopped

[@linus3977]

I'm painting a CSM army right know and I actually enjoy it. The trick is to fill in the panels instead of doing the trim. I play black legion, so black primer, bronze drybrush to catch the trim and filling in the panels with contrast paint works just fine. Painting the trim on normally seems like madness to me haha

[@gallusdomesticuskfptechpriest]

the actual sculpts for CSM being A+ helps imo, they're fun to look at

[@timunderbakke8756]

Similar concept to my Thousand Sons - prime in the metallic trim color, and carefully use contrast to fill the armor panels.

[@AndrewFishman]

I go with a black undercoat, a metallic base coat over this, bring the trims up, wash to show the recesses and then paint in the panel colour. This idea of painting the individual trim seems like madness to me. I am just finishing up Deathguard and Magnus's trims took me a few minutes. Easy. His cloaks took longer with wet blends and highlight building lol.

[@klotis92]

@@timunderbakke8756 I chose to truly torture myself with my thousand sons: Gold trim and white armor panels. I tried the "paint trims first" approach, but painting 1 million layers to get from gold to white was not fun (not even at gunpoint tier fun), so back to painting trims it is.

[@sdswood3457]

I had the joy to assemble most of my Crons in 6th edition where there weren't models for all the Crypteks. Lychguard/Praetorians and Immortals/Deathguard came with allllll the spare parts, and you get to go crazy hobby mad scientist making your own lords and Crypteks. I spent the time to do (IMHO) fantastic paintjobs on just about everything but the warriors

[@mnakai1]

Hell yeah, love that the underrated podcast is becoming less underrated.

[@newst1179]

I paint primarily AdMech and I find them to be okay. I hand paint the trims on the coats and it is the hardest part, and the spindly bits are definitely annoying, but I find the paint job fairly easy and fun. They’re similar to Necrons sometime in the sense that for Skitarii all you need to do is paint the metal and wash it, and then it’s just highlights on the coats and pants

[@gasknight]

I just gave up on the trims of their coats. My favorite model out of admech is Cawl. He is the first time I used an airbrush and Although he is nowhere near my best models now, he is special to me because I got him when me and my dad went to Warhammer World and although he knows nothing about Warhammer, He asked me who is the leader of admech and I said Cawl, and he bought it for me.

[@newst1179]

@@gasknight that’s awesome, I always love those sentimental models you really care about Really cool that Cael has that much sentimental value for you!

[@SocialisedMedicine]

I'm proud of what I painted, but I really wish someone told me that white paint was a nightmare to deal with. Painting Tau in their white, black, and red colour scheme has been an experience. (I'm very glad I had an airbrush for that...)

[@AndrewFishman]

Just before you go on to paint Imperial Guard, yellow is a bitch also.

[@BloodyJMF]

i fricking love my Necron! Never had such a breeze nocking out minis while having them look amazing.

[@wailmerpail]

Honestly when i first started painting admech i was a little intimidated, but after awhile its actually way easier then it looks, because leadbelcher and nuln oil makes everything look good

[@lv100Alice]

admech is also just a marvel of sculpts

[@gasknight]

@@lv100Alice It is just a shame they get no attention ingame. I love them but they are just so bad to play even with all of their fun little shenanigans. And it isn't like they have a big range so you have to take the bad units like skitarii.

[@cpt.marder2125]

I have a great enjoyment listening to yall! I am currently making a Death Korps of Krieg cosplay and have listening to you makes it even more enjoyable. Also, i appreciate the advices on these videos

[@Rex73777]

Necrons are so easy to paint, I find myself trying to think of steps to add to my paint recipe for Necrons, rather than remove like other armies.

[@dylancrozier84]

Honestly, if I wanted to get someone into painting minis, I would let them paint some Necrons. There's absolutely no way you can mess them up, they're simple, small, and quick to paint

[@dylancrozier84]

Necron Warriors have to be one of the best entrance-level miniatures to paint. They're small and have simplistic designs, mostly one color all over, and there's just enough detail to serve as a little challenge for a new painter. I wish I would've painted my Necrons from my first kit before I did the Space Marines.

[@tomdeneen4880]

I started painting deathguard thinking "oh if they are sloppy it's fine" but I had to quickly learn how contrasts work to make the individual unique bits look good. I then moved on to Votann and half way through the army I started doing a zenithial drybrush and contrasts. Sooooo much more fun and so much better looking too!

[@lukemathewson900]

I’m actively painting my gsc neophytes as Im watching this, and I couldn’t agree more. Painting neophyte hybrids is so incredibly draining

[@iryanmadayana1904]

The only army I have is Tyranids, but I fully agree with your placement. Little horde gribblies are fast to paint, big models are fun and rewarding, plenty of elite infantry models that are in-between, and while you CAN go super basic and easy, you definitely have room to add extra complexity and challenges if you wish. Very glad with my choice!

[@8-7-styx94]

I really should make a video on this one day but I have found there is actually a very painless way of doing checkerboards or decals on models and it involves practically no paint. First paint the area your base color, white( or grey if you value your soul). Then grab a piece of paper a little bigger than the size of the area you want your decals/checkers and draw 'em out or print them, whatever is easier. Smother the entire image you want to show with pencil lead, flip it over and RUB ONE OUT on your model. Then you clear coat when you got enough on there and your done. My old Imperial fists logo was done this way and I didn't need any paint at all to get it looking dope af. Checkers would be even easier than that monstrosity was.

[@pontiusporcius8430]

I remember wib from snipe and wib draws the checkerboard pattern on with pencil and uses that to guide his brushwork.

[@chromarush1749]

or you can get a set of fine tipped drawing pens and draw right on the model, yeah.

[@sonicwingnut]

​@@chromarush1749that's how I do text on scrolls etc. You have to find the most ridiculously fine-pointed sharpie out there but man does it make it easier.

[@tarkusvontortellini1877]

Spent most of this episode McGuivering my custodes arms to his body, covering my failures with pauldrons, becasue i used the wrong ones on a previous model and now have no matching arms for a 2 handed halberd dude. Luckily i was able to finish painting him by the end though.

[@Lilybun]

My first army is Tau and I wanted them to be white... after 2 drones I bought an airbrush. This tierlist is very validating lmao

[@scottredford4801]

I'm new to warhammer, but its those openers that keep me going through your entire history of uploads.

[@JackBess-j7y]

I'm painting Sisters in their sacred rose scheme. The chaos trim zone is an understatement to me

[@Presus1599]

In my opinion, as someone who only started painting 3 weeks ago, I actually feel like the DG could move up one spot or two, they just fit right inbetween. The unique sculpts really do make it feel like you paint something different every time, but in the same time it feels like one cohesive and enjoyable experience that is also very forgiving on the bigger parts like the armor where you can easily say that its battledamage or that its just the way it should be if you go a bit too wild with your paint. At this point i painted the whole combat patrol and a Blight-Hauler and it was so much fun and easy to do, while yes, it took some hours, those really felt like nothing. As a sidenote, my local GW shop is very impressed by the fact that i already painted them all, as he too thinks, that it should get a bit more tedious. Also, yes, Agrax Earthshade is a very great tool too.

[@floraphore]

I'm getting into Warhammer from your podcast, and this episode was the first time that I actually shed a tear. Hearing you two talk about painting and learning with the hobby reminded me of the true, deep feeling of playful satisfaction that comes from calmly engaging with your passion project. Thank you.

[@rotmgpumcake]

Genestealer cult was my second army ever when they dropped in 2016, i was barely in the hobby for less than year at that time… was fun at first but once i was done with 1 squad i realized i had 8 more

[@aidenisakronk5953]

I have recently just painted 96 Termagants in 3 days, I no longer have a will to Finnish the rest

[@LordTzeentch]

I joined Warhammer through Age of Sigmar as Orruks. Not just because of the playstyle which is “SMASH WAAAGH!!!” But also the painting is beginner proof. Accidentally painted some of the ork blue? Then you can say they tried to paint themselves to make them lucky. It’s the only faction that rudimentary and unconventional painting is the trend.

[@TheHutcharmy]

As someone who is new to 40K but had painting experience from AOS, doing my Tyranids has been pretty painless. I’m definitely going too hard because my brushes suck and I make a lot of mistakes and I’ve still cranked through like 600pts without getting bored

[@chestercooperpotscha]

So you’re telling me I picked the most expensive and hardest to paint army as my first ever. Guess I really should’ve started listening to this podcast six months ago.

[@MGPW]

I tried painting a small squad of Genestealer Cultists and oh boy, it was brutal. I had previously painted some wyches and scourges, and even with the trouble keeping their wings on, I would still rather paint each of those every day for a year than paint GSC once again.

[@tikiwiki7428]

I've painted 80 gsc models in 2 months and I'm doing them in yellow I brought this on myself but I know a level of suffering no one else should

[@luispereira3704]

So for anyone else who has some thousand sons rubric marines a neat little trick you can do to speed up the painting procress somewhat is to prime them with a base coat of gold ,THEN add the other colours in its much easier to paint them this way since the trim will already be coated and you can just paint the much easier to paint surfaces around them. Also instead of using the recommended green by GW for the eyes , just use a small amount of warboss green it looks great after a coat of nuln oil wash ( you can make your own oil by simply mixing onepart of black acrylic and 3 parts water/thinning medium)

[@LeSpade72]

As a dude who had gotta paint around 100 guardsmen its painful

[@Spartan536]

I just got into Tabletop 40k and am making my own custom Space Marine Successor Chapter under the Dark Angels. I completly agree with Space Marines being "B Tier", there are times where painting the intercessors is painless and other areas of detail that require a steady hand and a "psycho" paintbrush from The Army Painter. However it is more than do-able and I am just starting out. Thankfully most of my Space Marine army is Leviathan Siege Dreadnoughts, a few eliminator sniper squads, invictor battle suits, and terminators, a quick and easy way to get a 1500 point army that is brutally effective.

[@bjornhjorvardssen2336]

Can you guys do a video on how to make the crappier detachments for every faction actually competitively playable?

[@TheLoneBards]

Man, I remember when I played back in 4th... 5th edition? I started with Orks because the GW store didn't have any Necrons in stock. (Back then Necrons had a nasty case of "Almost as forgotten as Squats"-itis.) and everything you said about Genestealer cultists, applied to them. Here's 90 boyz, there's 8 sculpts and every one is wearing a shirt, pants, 3 kinds of armour, 11 belts, and accessories. Every time you drop a new episode and I think of when I can get back into the hobby, I default to Orks and remember the hell of painting htem compared to everyone that would come later. (Plague marines, necrons, black templars, literally every Malifaux crew that had been released into 2013.) I also remember an even more hilarious version of the lyche guard problem from the first iterations of Malifaux. They were all pewter back then, and some genius decided to have all the rotten belles holding open parasols... Which were too heavy for the handles of said parasols. So everyone was running around with these bent-drooping models that were too heavy to support their own weight.

[@The-Magnus]

I love how all of my armies are at the bottom of the list. I think that I may be more of a masochist than Brad

[@sailingdutchman1049]

im fucking scared to paint my admech

[@avaius]

​@@sailingdutchman1049I'd never painted a mini before and started with admech, not realising they are one of the worst to start off with. I don't think they turned out that bad honestly

[@zoltanlukacs5059]

Necrons breaking is a real pain. Funny is I never had problems with my Lyches and Immortals, but there hasn't been a single tournament where one of my Canoptek units hasn't suffered any damage, especially the Wraiths :D Oh, and the Silent King... Broke once in half, broke off the staff, the cloak and the body more then once, and his little stairs broke off a grand total of 6 times before I had enough and just magnetized the thing.

[@Michaelkayslay]

Just noticed the bottom right and left man glow when you're each talking. Thats some editing

[@Daemon7942]

The omg im done you guys mentioned with Marines is soo true. My Leviathan Infurnus marines hit me that way after 1/2 of the unit. AND ITS 10 MODELS, not even that many!!

[@kapitankapital6580]

I think the thing with the Guard is that they're hard to do well, sure, but they're really easy to do passably. Just base them in whatever you want their main colour to be (I went with black) then paint the skin and metal, and you've got an army. They're not super high detail models and the big advantage of large model number armies is that you don't really see the details on an individual soldier anyway. In fact this works especially well with the guard as the uniform look and the fact that they are literally toy soldiers (who are traditionally single-colour) makes it much more acceptable to the eye than something like the Nids.

[@KingBobbito]

I would argue the opposite, that the goal of painting guardsmen is that you don't want them to look like single color army men so that your $5 toy soldier is distinguishable from a 5 cent one.

[@kapitankapital6580]

@@KingBobbito if you're playing a match, the soldiers are too small for the details to be clearly visible, especially among the dozens of other identical soldiers. If you're focusing just on painting and how your individual models look, then you don't need to have a massive army so all the drawbacks of the Guard are irrelevant.

[@Stepdave]

Thanks, i got in to 40k half a year ago. This was really motivating, knowing that astra militarum is really difficult to paint😅

[@veedros]

Out of curiosity, think you guys would ever be interested in doing a list like this for age of sigmar armies? I'm mainly into 40k but i also pick up some AoS from time to time since they have great sculpts over there.

[@Infinity_Coda]

The one struggle of painting Eldar is if you're doing lore friendly aspect warriors, it means doing eight color schemes that are only on a single unit each and are completely unique from every other unit and each other. Still haven't been able to bring myself to paint those six shining spears haha

[@Tremadog102]

If anything I find a fresh squad of Aspect Warriors in a separate colour scheme to be a reward after painting the tedious black and bone of my Ulthwé army.

[@Infinity_Coda]

@@Tremadog102 I get in a rhythm once I nail down a scheme, so the Aspects are basically starting that over. It can be fun, though, loved painting the Banshees and Reapers in particular.

[@Tremadog102]

@@Infinity_Coda that's fascinating. I know people have different methods for painting but we have opposite outlooks to the same army. Being able to get into the zone and just crank out the "main" part of the army sounds really useful.

[@basstedson]

This is why I chose them as a second army after space wolves. The full spectrum is a real treat after painting field grey power armour for so long.

[@TheSpoegefugl]

I am late to the game, so maybe there won't be an answer, but I still have a question that I would like to ask regarding some of the considerations: You put aeldari and drukhari quite high on the list for being easy, but do that with the caveat of ignoring the extra grenades and pouches, and it becomes easier. Why are these the only armies where you allow this caveat? I feel like some of the armies you described could be placed higher on the list, had you given them the same considerations, but it seemed it was only considered for these specific armies.

[@rickrivers2021]

Orks have lots of details and you're painting a ton of models I agree that fun makes them relatively painless, but it should be noted you'll be taking a whole lot longer with Orks than with a lot of armies

[@carlosarvizu7044]

I agree! I just finished some Stormcast in silver armour and YES I can't believe how easy and fast it was. I finally get what they say about painting Necrons. I've painted many Death Guard minis in the past and while fun it took forever and also was it took me several iterations to find a formula I liked for horns, tentacles, worms, guts... I've also painted CSM, Thousand Sons, a few marines, an eldar vehicle, lizardmen...so yeah.

[@SubtleAmbition]

1:15 #ImwithEric