Steal it From the Pros - GMM Studios

Taking a break from my own ramblings today, we'll look at how Brandon from GMM Studios tackles large projects.

And by large, I mean your mom I mean, freakin' massive.

"Here comes a doozy. Stormcast Eternals, pretty much double fisting the whole book. 30-60 of each foot unit, 24 bird cav, 4 Stardrakes, Warhammer World exclusives, among a whole lot more. June is going to be a great month, for now time to get my glue on."


If you went to Adepticon in the past 10 years, chances are you know Brandon; or at the very least heard of him.  He is responsible for the awesome army raffled every year, and before that, he kept himself busy by sweeping up all the painting prizes with his gorgeous armies.

Besides drool over his success (I mean, you can still drool, I totally understand), what can we take from this and rock out at massive assembly.

This alone is quite a daunting task and many gamers have cried in front of much less boxes.  But the real impressive part (let's not kid ourselves, we're all degenerates and at some point we buy a lot of boxes) is that 4 days later, here's what's popping up on GMM's Facebook:

"Ready to rumble! I didn't shed any blood this go round either. Little bonus. Assembly went well. For the most part taking a whole stack of a unit, assembling the first box to learn it, then assembly lining the other 20-50 on the bench, bit at a time and batching by sprue. Mold lines are a dream on these kits. Very few and usually in the same place each time. This isn't the biggest army I have done in terms of model count, but it might be on the base to base footprint. Sitting over seven feet long. Will need to pull out all my tricks to make the backdrop work for this army, and get it all well in frame and composed. Stay tuned for that. In the meantime, I am off to paint. Guessing around 20 hours each step!"






Sweet Christmas, that's a whole lot.  Granted Brandon is a) a freakin' beast; and b) doing this all day and not working a 9 to 5.  What 9 to 5 working you and me can take away from this is the process he's using to tackle large projects:

For the most part taking a whole stack of a unit, assembling the first box to learn it, then assembly lining the other 20-50 on the bench, bit at a time and batching by sprue.

Repetition is key here.  Getting familiar with a kit, and then repeating as much as possible to minimise the steps.

Obviously, unless you are also doing 5 blocks of 50, you need to adapt a little. Start with one model, than do all of said model in a row.  The key is to compromise this repetition as little as possible.

Yes, it might look like a boring task, but so is building models 120 models anyway, so might as well make the most out of it and speed it up as much as you can.  

Of course, take more time in your heroes and fancy monsters and characters, but even then, if you are building 2 of the same, do them together, it does not compromise results, the same parts are going to be built regardless of the time you spend on it.

Until next time,
No excuses; hobby like a champion!

PS-  If you happen to be a pro and would like your method/studio/ancient chineese techniques/ugly mug featured here, drop us a message either on facebook or in the comments below and we'll get in touch!