I suppose for some folks out there ‘cheap’ might not necessarily be about money, but has more to do with time spent. On the odd occasion that I build and paint something from Games Workshop, I normally go for the ‘cheap’ speedy option.
My Thousand Sons tutorial is one of the most popular pages on this blog:
https://deathzap.co.uk/2022/11/11/speed-painting-thousand-sons/
This time however I went for the equally infuriating Adeptus Mechanicus, starting out with a Skitarii Vanguard squad. The Mechanicus are newer and highly detailed, with open robes covering their lower halves so you need to paint the inside of a robe, while avoiding robot legs. I avoided this headache entirely by removing their robes.
If you remove the robe you end up with a couple of issues. The back of the bodies has the remains of the robe jutting out, but this is easily cut down and smoother over with a little plastic glue. The legs are the bigger problem, as you’ll have legs with bits missing, where the robes made contact with them. I covered these parts with the tubes that dangle from the backpacks in the kit, and a few spare ammo pouches and entrenching tools from the numerous WW2 kits I’ve had over the years.
Robes removed painting was quick and easy. I started by stippling on dark silver.
I painted in what clothes remained with blue.
Then I was on to picking out smaller details. I did the pouches in a darker blue and used a flesh toned wash over the dark silver to create golds.
I did a little more detail work settling on red as a good ‘spot’ colour.
I then put a black wash over everything and started highlighting, adding in a little white to my original colours, but adding yellow to the red instead.
The orange in the eye slits on the helmets and weapons was done with one coat of an artists acrylic ink.
I really like how they turned out and am looking forward to slowly expanding the force!
Deathzap 
Very effective. You could have painted the robes separately and then glued them.
again, fantastic paint tutorial
Speed painting is a handy technique,
if for no other reason than it wards off the demoralisation than a lot of unpainted models can inflict on a painter’s enthusiasm,
but you make it sound fun too! 😁
I found a tutorial online as I was painting these guys that did exactly that, but it was already too late for me then lol. I think I prefer the non-robed look for the Skitarii Vanguard. I think if I do any Rangers I’ll keep the robes and paint them in subassemblies.
Thanks!