How Long Does It Take to Paint a Miniature?
Realistic time estimates for painting a tabletop miniature at tabletop, hobby, and display quality — and where the time actually goes.
Time varies enormously with skill level, model complexity, and target quality — but here’s a grounded range based on what each standard actually requires.
Tabletop standard: 1–3 hours
Base coats, one wash, and basic edge highlights on the largest surfaces. This is the standard most players paint their armies to, and it reads well from across a table. A single infantry-scale model at this standard: 1–2 hours for an experienced painter, 2–4 hours for a beginner working through each step carefully.
Hobby / parade standard: 3–6 hours
Adds proper layering across most surfaces, more highlight steps, basing details (texture, static grass, small props), and cleaner line work overall. This is what most painting competitions’ lower tiers expect.
Display standard: 8–20+ hours
Wet blending, non-metallic metal or object source lighting, freehand details, advanced basing, and multiple correction passes. Display-quality single models are frequently a multi-session project spread across a week or more.
Where the time actually goes
- Drying time, not painting time, eats the most calendar time — washes and layers need to fully dry between coats, so working on multiple models in rotation (batch painting) is far more time-efficient than finishing one model start to finish.
- Indecision costs beginners the most active time — not knowing what color to reach for next. Working from a planned scheme rather than improvising color-by-color cuts this dramatically.
- Base coating is usually the single largest time block since it covers the whole model, while highlights and washes are comparatively fast once you know where they go.
Plan the scheme before you start the clock
Most of the time beginners “lose” is spent deciding what to paint next, not painting it. Upload a photo of your miniature to PaintMini and get a full scheme — colors, placement, and step order — planned out before you open a single pot, at whatever complexity level matches the time you actually have. See wet blending vs. layering if you’re deciding which techniques are worth the extra time.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take to paint a full 10-model squad?
At tabletop standard, roughly 1–2 hours per infantry model once you're past the beginner stage — call it 10–20 hours for a squad, though batch-painting shared steps across all models at once is faster than finishing them one at a time.
Does batch painting actually save time?
Yes, significantly. Doing one step (e.g. base coat) across an entire squad before moving to the next step avoids constantly re-mixing paint and re-reading instructions, and lets earlier steps dry while you work on later ones.
Why do my models take so much longer than the estimates I see online?
Estimates usually assume paint is already thinned to the right consistency, drying time isn't rushed, and the painter isn't second-guessing color choices mid-model — all three add real time for beginners.
See it painted before you touch a brush
Upload a photo of your miniature and PaintMini renders a finished scheme plus a step-by-step guide, free for your first design.