How much area does one pot of miniature paint cover?

A standard 12 ml hobby paint pot thinned for normal use covers roughly 300 to 500 square centimetres per coat, depending on thinning and opacity. The calculator uses a configurable per-pot coverage rate so you can match your own paints and technique.

How is a miniature converted to surface area?

Each scale category has a typical paintable surface area per model — a 28 mm infantry figure is around 20 square centimetres, a large monster far more. The tool multiplies your model count by the per-model area for the scale you select to get total area.

Why does coat count matter so much?

Each additional coat repaints the entire surface, so two coats double the paint needed for that colour. Light colours over dark primer often need two or three coats, which can quadruple consumption compared with a single dark base coat.

Does this work for terrain, not just models?

Yes. Switch to terrain mode and enter the surface area in square centimetres directly. Large drybrushed terrain pieces actually use paint efficiently per square centimetre, but their sheer area means a single building can still drink a whole pot.

Should I round up to whole pots?

Always, which the calculator does. Paint pots are sold whole and matching a colour later from a different batch risks a slight shade mismatch, so buying enough for the whole project up front is the safe choice.

Wargame Terrain & Miniature Paint Coverage Calculator

Running out of a key colour halfway through an army is a real risk, especially for light colours that need several coats. This calculator converts your model count or terrain area into total surface area, applies a per-pot coverage rate, and tells you how many whole pots to buy.

How it works

The tool turns models into area, multiplies by coats, and divides by the coverage each pot provides:

total area = models × area_per_model(scale)   (or terrain area directly)
paint area = total area × coats
pots       = ceil( paint area / coverage_per_pot )

Because each coat repaints the whole surface, the coat count multiplies directly. The per-pot coverage rate is configurable so you can dial in your own thinning and the opacity of a given colour — a thin glaze covers far more area than a thick base coat.

Example and tips

Forty 28 mm infantry at about 20 cm² each give 800 cm² of surface. A light colour needing two coats becomes 1,600 cm² of coverage, which at 400 cm² per pot works out to four pots. Buy whole pots up front: matching a colour from a different batch later risks a visible shade shift across the unit. For drybrushing and terrain, your effective coverage per pot is higher, so lower the rate only if you are doing solid base coats.