How Consistant is Your Painted Army?

When painting an army with a large model count, one must ask themselves a simple question, how consistent does your army need to be?  As a person who plays Orks, I always find myself wondering how consistent the painting level of the army needs to be.

The painting level on the HQ choice is usually at an above average standard compared to the rest of your army, because he is more interesting than your average troop.  But what about the rest of the army? How far can you distance the painting level before the army becomes inconsistent?  How far is too far?

When faced with the confronting challenge of painting 50+ troops, people tend to stray from their average painting level.  Although this is the easy way out, the entire army looks may look as if it is painted by two or more people each with different painting standards.

There are three options that can be considered when trying to solve the problem of an inconsistent army:

• Change the HQ (and other high standard models) to the standard of the troops
• Paint the Troops at the standard of your HQ (and other high standard models)
• Find a painting level in between

The best and most obvious solution is the third: Find a painting level in between in order to create a more consistent painting level for your army.  This task may be difficult, but it is definitely not as difficult as repainting your entire troop choices to a high standard (especially when working with identical models such as Ork boys or guardsmen).

 Personally, I cannot settle for an inconsistent army, it bugs me.  I try and keep all models in the army at the same standard.  I am slowly working through my 50+ Ork boys, its hard work, but in the end, the results will be much better than if I were to rush them.

So, what is your take on painting consistency?  How far can you stray from your normal painting standard before your army becomes inconsistent? Please feel free to share.



Max (CheeseFace)