Slap Chop — The Technique That's Changing How We Paint Armies

If you've spent any time in the miniature painting community over the last few years, you've heard the word Slap Chop. It's been discussed, debated, demonstrated, and — for a huge number of hobbyists — completely transformed how they approach painting an army.

The technique was popularised by Rob Symes of The Honest Wargamer around 2022, and content creators like Mediocre Hobbies have since made it the backbone of countless beginner-friendly army tutorials. At its heart, Slap Chop is brilliantly simple: do all your highlighting before you add any colour, and let the paint do the rest.

An infantry model can be fully painted using Slap Chop in 15–25 minutes — compared to 45–90 minutes for traditional methods.

How Slap Chop Works — The Science Behind It

To understand why Slap Chop is so effective, you need to understand one thing about Contrast paints and Speed paints: they're semi-transparent. When you paint them over a light surface, they look bright. Over a dark surface, they look deep and shadowed. Slap Chop exploits this property deliberately. You create a greyscale base — dark in the recesses, light on the raised areas — before you add any colour. When the transparent paint goes on, it automatically shades darker in recesses and sits brighter on highlights. The highlighting is done before the colour even touches the model.

The Honest Wargamer: who coined the term "SlapChop"

The Slap Chop Method — Step by Step

1. Prime Black — spray or brush-on a black primer over the entire model. This is your deepest shadow. Anywhere the following drybrush steps don't reach will stay black, giving you natural, effortless recesses.

2. Heavy Drybrush with Light Grey — load a large, stiff drybrush with light grey paint (Citadel Dawnstone or similar), wipe off most of it, then sweep the brush across the entire model. This hits all raised surfaces and edges while leaving recesses black.

3. Lighter Drybrush with White — repeat with white, but lighter. You're now hitting only the very highest edges, sharpest details, and topmost surfaces. The model now has a full value map — black through grey to white — before any colour has been applied.

4. Apply Contrast or Speed Paints — apply Contrast paints (Citadel), Speed Paints (Army Painter), or Xpress Colours (Vallejo) in a single coat over each area. Watch as the paint automatically shades darker in recesses and sits brighter on highlights.

5. Optional: Tidy Details — eyes, gems, metallic details. The heavy lifting is done and you can spend time where it makes the most visual difference.

   
   

The Artis Opus Series D drybrush set (see Blog 4) makes steps 2 and 3 significantly smoother and more controlled. But any large stiff brush will work to start — even an old cosmetic brush does the job.

What Slap Chop Is Great For

• Infantry models with lots of texture and detail

• Large armies you need painted quickly

• Dark colour schemes — Chaos, Death Guard, undead

• Armour, robes, stone, fur, bone

Where It's Less Ideal

• Bright, vibrant colours — yellow, orange, hot pink can look muted

• Flesh tones — can go too dark without adjustments

• Very large flat surfaces such as vehicles and shields

• Competition-level display pieces

Painted by: https://www.miniaturesofdeath.com/slapchop-technique-how-to-quickly-paint-miniatures/

Recommended Contrast Paints to Start With

• Black Templar — incredible for black armour that doesn't look flat, a Slap Chop staple

• Basilicanum Grey — versatile grey that works on almost everything

• Skeleton Horde — perfect for bone, parchment, aged cloth

• Ultramarines Blue — the classic Space Marine blue, works beautifully over a Slap Chop base

• Gryph-hound Orange — rich, warm orange with great depth

• Shyish Purple — deep, atmospheric purple for robes and accents

▶ Watch: Artis Opus — "Slapchop for Infantry" →

Come Try It at the Wildlings

We use and teach Slap Chop in our beginner painting sessions because it delivers something traditional methods can't: an impressive result on your very first session. Come along to one of our sessions and we'll walk you through it hands-on. No experience needed.

Next up: Blog 4 covers the Artis Opus drybrushing revolution — why their Series D brushes and dampening pad change the results you can get. Publishing Friday 15 May 2026.