From Crazy Idea to Finished Army: Painting 1,300 Minis

 

 

What started as a wild holiday project turned into one of my most rewarding hobby challenges yet—over 1,000 miniatures painted in less than a month. 

 

Last summer, back in 2024, I somehow convinced myself it was a good idea to start painting over 1,300 miniatures in 1:100 scale. Yep, you read that right—one thousand tiny soldiers.

The original plan was to tackle the Hannibal Epic Battles set, but since it wasn’t in stock, I wandered into my local hobby shop and came out with the Push of Pike Epic Battles starter box. Not a bad trade-off—it covers the Thirty Years’ War, and Croats even fought in it, so I felt like I had some skin in the game.

Now, painting 100 minis is already enough to test anyone’s patience. Painting 1,300+? That’s just asking for madness. But I had a secret weapon: SpeedPaints colours. Without them, I’d probably still be staring at grey plastic today.

Day one: painted a single sprue (miniatures from one sprue).
Day two: doubled it.
Day three and onwards: four or five sprues a day. Suddenly, the impossible started looking… well, possible.

At this point, you might be wondering—did I sleep at all? Did I eat? Did I skip the beach with my family? Relax—I still enjoyed the holiday with them. I just cut out some “non-essentials”: no TV, no afternoon naps, and slightly less sleep at night. (Okay, maybe my family thought I was a little crazy… but hey, better that than grumpy!)

Once I figured out the routine, the whole process felt almost mechanical. Wash, prime, dry brush, SpeedPaint, wash again, base, done. Rinse and repeat.
Here’s the workflow that kept me sane:

1.      Snip minis off the sprue, clean them up, stick them on temporary bases

2.      Wash in warm, soapy water → dry → prime black (Vallejo)

3.      Dry brush with white

4.      Slap on SpeedPaints

5.      Light dry brush with a brighter Citadel shade

6.      Army Painter washes

7.      Quick detail touch-ups, then glue onto bases

8.      Add fine sea sand with white glue

9.      Paint bases in earthy browns, yellows, greens

10.  Attach and weather the flags

Steps 8–10 actually waited until I was back home from holiday—sand and glue don’t exactly mix well with beach trips.

In the end, I did it: in less than a month, over 1,300 painted minis—infantry, cavalry, artillery, and even a bit of terrain.
What began as a ridiculously ambitious idea turned into something not only doable but fun. (Okay, “fun” in the way only fellow hobbyists will understand!)

Here are some photos to prove I wasn’t completely out of my mind…

 

 

 

TomZG 2025-05

Ritterlich im Kriege, wachsam für den Frieden

Deutsches Afrika Korps on the Table… 

Last weekend I painted 18 DAK infantry for Bolt Action (BA).
Below are the painting steps and the list of paints I used… in case anyone likes it 😊

1.    I primed the figures with Earth Green (Early) (Vallejo).
2.    Did a dry brush over the figures with an old, worn-out brush using Pale Yellow Green (Ammo).
3.    Painted the uniforms with several colors – Yellow Green (Vallejo), Deathworld Forest (Citadel), and a mix of those with a little Sand Yellow (Vallejo).
4.    Faces and hands painted with Barbarian Flesh (Army Painter).
5.    Webbing painted with Iraqui Sand (Vallejo).
6.    Boots, shovel pouches, ammo pouches, and weapon straps painted with Red Leather (Vallejo).
7.    Ammo pouches highlighted again with Khaki (Vallejo).
8.    Canteens painted with Flat Earth (Vallejo).
9.    Areas between boots and trousers painted with German Camo Beige (Vallejo).
10.    Applied a slightly heavy dry brush of Desert Yellow (Vallejo) over everything.
11.    Wooden parts painted with Light Brown (Ammo).
12.    Helmets and gas mask canisters painted with Sand Yellow (Vallejo).
13.    Tops of grenades, canteen caps, and future metal parts of weapons painted with Black Grey (Vallejo).
14.    Belt buckles painted with some kind of Metallic (Vallejo).
15.    Scarves painted in several shades – Blue Green (Vallejo), Troll Slayer Orange (Citadel), and Mephiston Red (Citadel) as the base.

16.    Applied a wash made from a mix of several bottles:
•    3 parts Military Shade (Army Painter)
•    2 parts Sepia Tone (Army Painter)
•    2 parts Strong Tone (Army Painter)
•    2 parts Speedpaint Medium (Army Painter)
•    2 parts water


Let everything dry for about 2 hours.
17.    For metallic parts I used some Vallejo silver paint stored in a Citadel bottle.
18.    Gave the webbing a light pass with Pale Yellow Green.
19.    Added small dots/spots on helmets with Iraqui Sand (Vallejo).
20.    Applied Tanned Flesh (Army Painter) to faces and hands.
21.    Then covered faces and hands with Darkoath Flesh Contrast (Citadel).
22.    Finally, touched up faces and hands again with Barbarian Flesh (Army Painter).

The figures are finished, though there are still some small fixes left…
Basing – Decorating and Painting the Bases…
1.    Applied white wood glue to the bases and sprinkled on fine sea sand borrowed from the Adriatic 😊.
2.    Once dry, painted the sand first with Earth Green (Vallejo).
3.    Strong dry brush on the sand with Pale Yellow Green (Vallejo).
4.    Then a lighter dry brush with Sand Yellow (Vallejo).
5.    Final layer is a mix of Sand Yellow and White (both Vallejo).

Drying takes about half an hour at most, then I glaze the bases with contrast…

Contrast mix:
•    Agrax Earthshade (Citadel)
•    Gore-Grunta Fur Contrast (Citadel)
•    Nazdreg Yellow Contrast (Citadel)
•    Rust (Vallejo)
•    A little water

Dried overnight, then photos for the blog…

Haiku:
Stari kist leti,
Prolivene boje plaču,
Prljave ruke 

TomZG 2025_04

Silent steel and weary faces, waiting for their next battle...

 

Another project fresh from the painting desk… veterans and an old Panzer IV.
 
Warlord Games will financially ruin me :)

I already have plenty of painted German infantry for Bolt Action, but now the Veterans are arriving...
I really don’t see a reason not to assemble at least two squads of infantry… that was the plan. With my hobby friend Marko, I split the cost of a box—ending up with three-fifths of the figures, 18 out of 30.

I also picked up the new book for Germans (v3) and a few blisters (HQ, Support, Weapons…).
Shipping from Germany is expensive, so I ordered a bit more in one go, but at least FantasyWelt
delivers quickly.

I enjoyed putting together different combinations, trying to use every option to avoid duplicate models.

As for painting—I won’t say too much; this is my third entry in just a few days, so I don’t want to repeat myself. Let’s just say I didn’t do any touch-ups on the SpeedPaint colors, so the models are sitting on the shelf exactly as they turned out :)

The bases got a few bricks, mostly painted in bright red. I cut and shaped the plastic sprues from the new army kits—those became my bricks, my walls. Beside the bricks I planted some grass, scattered a bit of sand, and weathered everything with layers of paint.

Alongside the veterans, I painted an old Panzer IV, a late-war resin model with a badly cast gun barrel. I tried straightening it again and again until it finally snapped, leaving a bump in the middle :( The tank received side skirts (Schürzen), but I didn’t bother with turret skirts—too many fiddly bits. Honestly, I’d sooner learn to dance with two left feet than glue those properly :)

The Panzer IV is painted in green, its side skirts carry an improvised camouflage that still waits for decals and inspiration for repainting.

I spent several beautiful spring mornings on these models, and I don’t regret a thing. There’s nothing better than coffee on the balcony, cats by my side, and the quiet morning air keeping me company—perfect for relaxing, meditating, and painting some well-cast plastic :)

Besides, the paint dries quickly in the gentle breeze—barely 5 km/h, carrying the scents of pine and lavender through the air. I believe these Veterans will soon see the battlefield—at Kex’s game room. There are enough of them for most lists, maybe ten order dice worth. Perhaps one day I’ll even write a battlereport :)

Now I’m off to photograph the Veterans, and I just noticed—I *did* glue the turret skirts after all. No idea when that happened… time to cut back on the beer :)

 

 

 

Haiku:

U ruci kist je,

tišina govori glasno

prolazi vrijeme.

 

TomZG, 2025_03

Battle of the Bulge (BA)

 

 

Finally got back to the hobby after a break — this time working on the BA Battle of the Bulge set. Here’s how it went. 

 

I’m quite sure that in my last hobby package (sent to my old address) there was also the BA Battle of the Bulge box.
But just because something arrives doesn’t mean it’s first in line for painting… The sprues stayed untouched for months, still like new, apart from a bit of shifting things around in the box. What I can’t figure out is how everything I take out never seems to fit back in—like it somehow grows once it’s out in the open :)

After moving, I set up a hobby room of almost 2 square meters, bought a balcony table, and waited for the weather to improve. One chilly morning, I finally sat down and picked up the hobby again. Once more, I’m trying to bring a bit of history to life by assembling and painting minis.
For at least a year (or maybe two), I’ve been starting the same way: black primer, white drybrush… and then just following wherever creativity leads :)

This time I used last year’s Speedpaints. Since they’re not really intended for WWII, I had to do quite a bit of mixing and experimenting. In the end, I also needed some regular paints to make it all look right, so there were touch-ups here and there. Still, I was happy with the speed. In the meantime, during those months without painting, I had to start wearing glasses… Probably the “fault” of moving—20+ km east and suddenly worse eyesight. Definitely not because of age ;)

I left the ruins and the armored vehicle for the end.
Why the M20 instead of the M8? Because I already had the M8 from before.
The bases were kept simple—just a little snow on the grass and that’s it.
I know the US helmets and gloves turned out too bright and really catch the eye; maybe I’ll fix that one day. The winter coats were also too red at first, so I weathered, repainted, and adjusted them several times…
The box itself is very nice, with enough models to keep you busy assembling and painting for a whole month of weekends. It would be great if every starter didn’t always include the same terrain pieces, so there’d be more variety—but that would raise the price, and then there would be complaints again…

Here are a few photos to finish off.

 

 

TomZG, 2025-02 

Island assault box (BA)

 

 

 

 

I walked into the store (C.M.) just to grab some plastic glue.
I walked out with a big box of Bolt Action figures – to be precise, I bought the Island Assault box 😊
Luckily, my wife was waiting outside the store, so I didn’t have time to buy even more stuff.

Lately, I’ve been working a lot. I leave the apartment before 6, get back after 6 – in the evening.
So yeah, I treated myself with something to build during my vacation…
While everyone gives me weird looks for gluing and smudging paint on plastic, and here I am – past fifty.
Of course, part of the blame for the purchase goes to Rašo, too – he gave me a discount 😊
He gets me like that every time 😊

That evil transparent wrapping stopped me from tearing the box open right in front of the store and digging into that beautiful plastic… even though I knew exactly what was inside.
A few days later, I’m in Dalmatia… the sun just came up – perfect for clipping plastic off the sprues and assembling mighty warriors who look like they fought over Pacific islands back in the 1940s… of the last century.

…food, sea, beer… repeat a few times, and suddenly I’ve got 48 fat little warriors in front of me.
Since I’m also a bit heavier than my knees would prefer, I don’t mind that heroic scale.
The Chi-Ha’s built, later on the M3 half-truck too… black primer, white dry brush… time flies…

I’m already back in Zagreb… mixing the best paints I have, trying to hit the fine details with a brush.
That’s not going well – the tip of my cheap brush keeps bending the wrong way… there’s some fixing to do.
Can’t just slap on white glue and sea sand… got to treat those fine grains with shades of brown and yellow…
I need to bring in some jungle foliage…
I’ve got some dried lichen I picked up in the woods a few months ago…
I glue it on with superglue – gluing my fingers and the desk too – it holds great and burns a bit when peeled off the skin…
Drying, painting in matching tones, dipping in contrast and speedpaint washes…
Some of it falls off, sticks to my slippers…
The cats are loving it, the wife’s losing her mind…

I’m putting markings on the vehicles.
Trying to follow the instructions, as if the guys from Warlord really know which exact symbols were used.
They’re just looking at old photos – same as me.
The markings are clean – I hate it when they’re smudged after all that effort and then you can’t see a thing.
Maybe it’s just a phase, and one day I’ll mess them up with pigments 😊

I finished it all in two weeks minus a day, took some pics on the balcony and now I’m wondering:
Will this pumped-up squad ever see battle, or just show off in the box?

Here are a few photos too – gotta brighten up the post a bit…

 

 TomZG, 2025_01