Painting Time

As my retail business winds down I have started painting a few display samples for Ian at Fighting15. I'm now on my fourth batch. Here's a sample from the first batch:

As these are commissions pieces I decided to fill in a time sheet every time I worked on them. I was really curious to see exactly how long it took me to paint a batch.

The table below shows the results for the first three batches of eight pieces/figures with cavalry counting double:

Painting Time / Batch
Process	#1	#2	#3	Average
Research	00:10	00:12	00:00	00:07
Preparation	00:31	00:38	00:18	00:29
Priming	00:05	00:19	00:14	00:13
Painting	09:31	12:37	12:52	11:40
Varnishing	00:30	00:05	00:05	00:13
Grand Total	10:47	13:51	13:29	12:42

This means it takes me an average of one hour and thirty five minutes to produce one foot figure and three hours and ten minutes for a mounted figure! I knew I was a slow painter but even so I was surprised by these figures.

This was partly because the figures in each batch were very different and it wasn't possible to use batch painting techniques. However some of the figures in batches #2 & #3 were both fiddly and had complex shield patterns; many involved striped clothing.

I suspect I am somewhat quicker with "simpler" figures like those in batch #1, although why it took me 30 minutes to varnish the 8 pieces/figures in batch #1 is beyond me.