The two hour challenge

So, I'm not much of a speed painter. In fact, I would say that I'm a very slow painter. Anyway, clinicals got cancelled today, so I decided to use some of the time to see how fast I could paint. So I came up with this idea of a challenge. I always seem to work best with a deadline. So the idea was to paint 10 models in 2 hours (that's only 12 minutes a model! I think that's pretty fast), and still have pretty decent table-top quality. I chose some Dark Elf crossbows to start with. They were assembled, cleaned, and spray-primed grey in advance:

There they are along with all the paints and almost all the brushes I used (I forgot to put my tiny detail brush in this pic). I set an hour timer on my phone (can't show that in the pics because I also used my phone for pics).

So, on with the 1st hour:
I started with leadbelcher and a big ol' brush (I pre-thin all my paints to varying degrees in the bottle, then if I need to I'll thin them more on a palette if necessary. I'm not using a palette here at all. It's all straight outta the bottle.)

At 47:29 of the 1st hour, metal base is done.

(note, I only stopped the timer to take pics and write the times down.) Next step was cleaning up the greys. Smaller brush.

This took until 31:00

Now Rakarth Flesh for the skin. Small brush.

@21:33, done in less than 10 minutes.

Now I like to add tone and color with a few glazing washes. For these guys I'm going over the metals and their clothing with Nuln Oil to darken everything up. Two coats. This soaked up some time as the first model wasn't dry by the time I finished the first coat on the last model. I used this time to refill my coffee. Timer kept running though. ^.~

This took me to 6:33 of the 1st hour.

Seraphim sepia wash on the skin, as well as on the crossbows, banner pole, and sword hilts and pommels. Sets them apart from the rest of the grey tones.

At the end of the 1st hour, I was done with 6 of the 10. On to the second hour!!

Went until 56:22 to finish the sepia. Next I used a purple wash to shade the metal more. I've been mixing various color shades in my Dark Elf metals ever since I fell in love with the old army book cover.

Finished at 44:24.

Next up, highlighting the metal.

This took until 32:47, but now I was super close!

All I had left was some freehand on the champion and standard. Started with the Thunderhawk blue.

20:13.....

And a little custom french grey mix to finish off.

And... BAM! With 16:22 to spare! I conquered the Two Hour Challenge! That's a little smidge over seven and a half minutes a model! Go me! And I think they look pretty good to boot!