I asked her if she wanted to try painting some, and we've been working together on them for three days straight. You can see her painting a spearelf here:
A few essentials before you let your beloved toddler run riot on your (almost) equally-beloved models. I used a small bottle (like travel-size shampoo) and blu-tacked the model to the top, so she can easily hold it and paint. I do the same thing myself when I'm painting now, it actually makes it a lot easier. I'd recommend a painting smock like you see in the picture, acrylic paint stains won't wash out of clothes. She will ruin brushes quickly (she often dips the brush too far in the paint so paint gets into the brush heel) so I only give her super-cheap or really old brushes to use. I prepare a small egg cup with watered down paint. It's absolutely essential to keep some wet wipes close by and clean any paint that gets on your child's skin straight away - before it dries it comes off easily. On the first day I let her get kind of paint messy and later found out that scrubbing off Games Workshop paints is a LOT more difficult than kids finger paints.
She's 3 and a half, so at this age fine detail is out of the question. What she is very good at is base-coating followed by a main colour. After she has coated the model I give it a quick follow up brush over, filling the gaps she missed and more importantly smoothing out any built up 'gloops' of paint that could obscure detail.
She did the white base coat on twenty models on the first day, then a coat of gold on the same models on the second. You can see her work in the pictures above. It's not 'Eavy Metal quality by any means, but it's easy for me to touch up and add a few other colours and details, as you can see on the model on the right in this picture.
She absolutely loves painting these models. It seems to make her incredibly relaxed and happy and she wants to do it every day. Unfortunately now I don't have any unpainted models left...but I do have a wonderful reason to buy a whole load more...
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