Painted 100 miniatures in a year and everyone said I was rushing, but I disagree completely

I hit 100 painted minis last week after exactly 11 months (and 3 days of nonstop work). People in my D&D group keep telling me I should slow down and focus on details, but honestly I think the opposite is true. Those first 20 minis looked awful, like a toddler dipped them in glue and glitter. Around number 50 I finally stopped caring about perfection and started enjoying the process way more. The last 50 came out cleaner and faster because I wasn't second-guessing every brush stroke. Has anyone else found that hitting a big number actually improved your quality instead of hurting it?

2 comments

2 Comments

annabennett14d ago

Oh man, this reminds me of my buddy Mike who got into painting Warhammer last year. He was so nervous about making everything perfect that he spent like a month on his first squad of space marines and they still looked kinda rough because he kept going over the same spots. Then he decided to just blast through 50 minis in two months for a tournament prep challenge and it totally clicked for him. His brush control got way better without him even noticing because he was just focused on finishing. By the end he had some genuinely good looking models and he swore that speed painting taught him more than agonizing ever did.

paige_martin14d ago

Totally get that. I've seen the same thing in all kinds of hands-on work. People get so locked up trying to make every little thing perfect that they just spin their wheels and don't actually learn anything. There's real value in just pushing through and making a mess sometimes.