The Slapchop Painting Technique Speedpainting Miniatures Fast 

I think this is the best model you've painted so far. You really nailed the details on the face. 😎 Okay so for people wondering about who came up with this method of painting a.k.a Slap Chop/Grisaille/under painting/Veneda/Verdaccio/dead layer/whatever you want to call it: This is the traditional way of painting because it's useful for making smooth blends, it's easier to draw then paint, and it's cheaper. Paint used to be really expensive. A lot of the names for colors come from the materials they were made from. "Cobalt Blue" is named so because it was literally made from cobalt. Imagine you're in Italy during the 1500s. In order to make Cobalt Blue, you have to get cobalt mined in sub-Saharan Africa and wait for it to be shipped by sail boat from the Gulf of Guinea around the coast of Senegal/Sierra Leone/Liberia, up to Morocco and the Canary Islands, before it finally goes through the Straight of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea. Then you have stuff like Crimson Red or Vermillion, which (during the Renaissance) was made from drying out dead insects and crushing their scales before mixing it with white chalk. Some hues could only be made this way. Cochineals were used like this, and they only come from one place: Central and South America. Attempts were made to import and raise them to Ethiopia and Australia, which failed. So our poor Blood Angels players would have to wait for a harvest of cochineals from the Aztecs, who were at war with Spanish invaders, and then peel the scales off these bugs to dry out to make pigment. Which brings us to under painting. Rather than use expensive, hard to get paint and mixing different pigments together to get the values you wanted, it's much easier to use do your painting in black, white, grey, and maybe another color like yellow or green that could be made from readily available materials. Artists would use Carbon Black or Burnt Sienna to do most of the work. Just go light some wood on fire, turning it to charcoal, then crush it up to make black. Or grab some dirt, toss it on the grill, and use that. Or crush up some lead and mix it with chalk. Then, once you have your under painting done, you can just glaze over it with the expensive pigment bought for you by the Pope worth more than your house. You get the effects seen here in the slapchop method, without using a literal boatload of paint. You could also make paintings by drawing out the whole thing using oil-based crayons. Since they used linseed oil just like oil paint, it would bond to whatever you painted over it. Much, much easier process than trying to paint those really fine details using a brush....which was also expensive because the hairs in it came from weasels in Russia. Better to avoid unncessary wear and tear on your tools by simply shaving down an oil crayons into a point. Draw out all of your fine details, then you can just glaze over the black and white with whatever hue. The shavings can then be used to make more crayons, so you're not wasting material. We're spoiled as fuck in today's world where a lot of this stuff is now made synthetically. You can still get pigments made using traditional methods, but most people prefer the $10 tube of synthetic blue to the $100 tube (no, really) of Cobalt Blue. Plus, changes in shipping have drastically lowered the cost of goods that exist far away. A lot of miniature painters have typically just bought five different shades of blue, then used those to build up their layers, because that's the method we all used to learn how to paint since we had to learn it from gaming magazines and rule books. tl;dr--don't get upset over who invented what, because you're wrong unless you're arguing over artists from the 1200s.

Pro-tip for when you're struggling to get him off the painting base at 12:00: the easiest way to break a superglue bond is to pop the model in your freezer for a few minutes. This makes the glue far more brittle and you can just crack it apart without worrying about damaging anything.

We used to use this 'zenithal, drybrush technique back in the eighties on historicals but we didn't have the contrast paints in those days so we used watercolour paints. Weird how it's come full circle again!

I messed around with the undercoat for the slap trap method a few weeks back. From what I can tell, you can get different effects with different colors. At the time I used dark red as a base coat with a mint green on the highlights. After I put on some skin tones the results looked raw and infected which worked pretty well for what I was working on.

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Love the look of this technique regardless of speed. It has a real antique look to it too .... brilliant stuff.

I've actually found it pretty effective and time saving to prime a miniature grey, go over it with a thin black wash and then drybrush highlight white on the raised edges. Helps if you plan on batching a group of 30-50 minis.

I never thought about drybrushing before applying a contrast paint. Thanks for introduceing this idea to me. I have always struggled using contrast paints and now I can see why.

That helped.... I just bought a bunch of speed paints - and I did not dry brush enough... not by a long shot.. Can't wait to get home and give another go on other models.

The algorithm sent me. That's a great technique. I haven't painted figures for 35+ years. I would have killed for this technique even though I loved painting them. Cheers!

Beautiful model and a cracking, simple but effective paint job! Nice one!

I hit upon this technique in the 80s, but we didn't have contrast back then. Had to water everything down. Never went anywhere with it. Nice to see it's rise to prominence in this age.

It's not a pile of shame, it's an altar of aspiration.

Awesome! Thanks for sharing. This has inspired me to get my plastic painted as I always found it so daunting. You have given me that confidence to give it a go. Thank you.

Man, I have painted several models with Slapchop recently and it is saving me so much time. As well as looking pretty solid.

Mini looks great! And thanks for the run down of this method. Been painting casually for years now and never heard of this method! Will have to try it out soon.

I can not wait to try this. I have been struggling to get my bad guys to look like bad guys and I think this is going to help so much. Thank you for showing you paint labels so I can go get some of these to try and recreate what you've done and learn how to do it with other models. Slap Chop method dry brushing... I've already learned so much lol.

Wow. Very impressive paint job. I have been on the fence when it comes to speed paints. You might have just helped me make a decision to purchase them. Great video!

This is pretty cool. Thanks.

Really impressed with the end result, looks amazing

Love your videos. They're an inspiration for me...!

Just Amazing 🔥no more words needed 👏🏽

This model really makes this method shine!

Really nice technique, simple and efficient.

looks amazing, great job.

looks great...obviously!

I'm a new painter, and your videos have e been Sooooo helpful. I'm watching you from the little island of Guam by the way. Thank you sooooo much for your explanations and tutorials.

Nice. Thanks!

I love your videos. I always learn so much.

Awesome technique must try it myself Jon

That is incredible- at a glance I would think that was 20-40 hours or work to get that shading! Great work, and thank you for sharing!

Looks awesome! So happy to hear you’re enjoying the painting now 😊

I’ve been using this method for about 6 months now. Definite improvement in quality of my work and faster. Means I get to play more!

Slapchop has been around for a while, but the speed paints have helped a lot of people to have better looking minis. This is pretty cool to see.

I really glad you showed how to do this with a brush for the initial drybrush. Everything else I have seen uses an airbrush and I don't have me one of those.

Thanks for the great video

Fantastic looking paint job there:)

Thanks for using the big model! It's great to see how this method works. Nicely done!

Job's done! Love it

Nice work. I’ve been using this or a zenithal primer technique for about six months now. I love it. Been able to plow through loads of townies and other NPCs recently acquired through Kickstarters. With SO MUCH plastic, this method has saved me a ton of time.

I love the model.

Great stuff friend 👏 👍

Good work!

AWESOME !!! I really like it ! Regards

Obviously this was a great video.

Great tutorial! Obviously! Already convinced a few friends to try this with me! Fingers crossed.

Great work, obviously

I can totally relate at the end of the video with you. I am to faffy, spend to much time on a figure and I'm now scared to even try and paint after all these years. After seeing this though you inspired me and I will try the paints you suggested. I also lost heart with the airbrush breaking and clogging up with paint. I will try this out, it looks great by the way!

Great video :) I'm excited about the Frameworks. Hope to get one myself soon, and I'm enjoying the the slapchop method keep up the great work

1) youtube late, 2) it isn't just the technical side that is getting better, it is you. 3) I still think the hollow figures should have a metal skeleton not only to magnetize, but to give heft and a place to hold fiddly bits.

Good to hear you’re starting to enjoy the painting side of the hobby. I find it difficult to find the time needed to really get my miniatures to look how I’d like them to so the new speed paints are a huge boon to my painting style. 👍🏼 I’ve also re belled as the RU-vid’s seem to have turned down my subscription. Keep up the good work sir.

Looks great!!

Wow, thank you for those awesome tips! Really love the cartoony aspect it conveys! +1 sub

What a fantastic video! Well done paint job sir.

Brilliant 👍

I love the result! Makes me want to paint :)

I love using clear bases too.

Love the video man. My projects for October are for possessed cultists squad and some ASoIaF minis so I think I will try this on those.

I first tried this method on the indomitus launch neurons and couldn't believe that it looked so well and saved so much paint also. thanks to your video I'm going to try this with the other kill teams im making.

Well, your method as convinced me.

Great video!

Nice job on the model, the end result is good!

That is an awesome painting technique, obviously!

Thank you.

Nice job

Good informative video

Looks really good!

It's nice to see someone showing the slap chop method with Speed Paints!

Yeah, he did come out really great looking!

I recommend using colors other than black as the base layer. You can use contrasting colors. Green as a base with white over it will give flesh a palid sickly tone. Red will give it a richer tone. maroon will make it look more realistic etc.

For some reason I had to smile when you were doing his toenails. :)

obviously, obviously, obviously, obviously LOL Nice tutorial

Quick tip, the Tamiya White Putty is way easier to use than green stuff for filling gaps. Just squeeze out of the tube, paint it into the gaps, and let it dry. The Tamiya putty does shrink a tiny bit, so green stuff is better for wide gaps. I find the shrinking totally unnoticeable on mold lines though and it actually works to your advantage as it pulls in a bit from the inevitable over fill.

Looks great! Such an awesome technique! What size of brushes do you usually use for this? I'm a new painter & not sure what to get. thanks!

I’ve got an ogre to do from reaper minis. I’ll try this out this afternoon. Looks super good.

I just painted a big mek using this technique, man was it easy and way better looking than a flat primed contrast painted model. 😎

Reaper Minis has a line of "super washes" they're testing. There are still some of the Alpha test batch still available on their website. (Good video, I've just got the Super Washes and the AP Speedpaints that I'll be trying out within the week. This gives me a good basis to start from. Thanks!)

The wash at the end is a brilliant tip. Thank you so much! If it looks too glossy I hit the model with a light spray of dull coat by Testor.

1:31 I prefer to call it the "Pile of Potential."

Really appreciate the tip on lights for skin tones.... I'm a newbie and currently trying slap chop on my ork komandos.. Been experimenting with light and dark primers...and digging this method alot! Cheers!

mate that is awesome

love the drybrush done here. does it matter what grey and white you use? any normal acrylics? i heard some like the armypainter airbrush for drybrushing. wondering if i gona try that.

The army painter blue-grey colour does a pretty good job of reading as metal when used to paint those parts :)

cracking work mate the hill giant is my tied favourite with fire giants. they are fun full jolly lads.

Fantastic work. What do you use (if anything) to seal your paint? I'm always afraid speed paints are going to come off on my hands so I blast my minis with clear-coat through an airbrush to lock it all in shortly after im done.

Great vid and awesome end result +1 Sub 👍🏼

you got a new subscriber

Great video. I havnt painted for years! Is the contrast paint the same as what we used to call a wash in the 80's? And what's the difference with what you called the wash at the end, and the contrast? Thanks

Thanks for the tutorial! Would you recommend starting with slap chop for a complete beginner, or is it better to start with more traditional paints to build up painting skills?

I really like to use the runic grey from army painter as an alternative for metallic paints over a grisaille. It works really well on shiny swords imo.

I belive using grey primer and light grey drybrush would be more benefitial as the constrast between base na highlight is to drastic for SpeedPaints to show their full potential. Drybrush is a basic technique but takes time to master. That is my advice. To use more gentle colour transition.

Love the look been meaning to try this method myself, it has been around quite a while. Are those speed paints straight out of the bottle ?

Yes, in 20 minutes. as a slow painter. And that includes all the drying, the preparation, the paint swaps, and speeding up 5x in the montage, and skipping most part, for a full 10 minutes video. Nice.

Your painting got so much better over the last few years 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

I'm a novice painter and I think my results are really good for my skill level. But I needed something faster for goons. Since I have Zombicide Undead or Alive waiting to be painted. And there are a lot of "8x" of each zombie. Can't wait to get the "horde" painted with this method!

I have to say I learned something today. I used to paint (going to get back into it later this year) and the black primer with light drybrush then speedpaint - gives a better looking miniature than I ever did (other than dragons) because I could never get "flesh" to look right.

looks fantastic but clear basing sends shivers down my spine.

Well done. How do you think it'd look if you'd used a brown base coat instead of black?

Thanks for making this video, I’ve been wanting to step up my painting game. What do you do if you make a mistake with the colors? Since the intent is to make them semi transparent against the slap chopped monochrome basecoat, it’d seem like you can’t just paint the correct color over it until it’s opaque.

Very impressive m8 nice I’ll need to get the army speed paint