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I'd like to, and I have more than enough free time and disposable income to have a fully painted army, but I really, really don't like painting and don't trust strangers enough to send my models out to a professional model painter to have him/her paint them for me.

Every time. I have enough painted armies that I can play with one while another gets finished on the painting table.

Its pretty much the only way I play, I feel that if the army isn't painted its no real difference than playing with cut out tokens.

I bought a battle force and expected to win games when I started the hobby. Everyone else had 3 years into it. Thus began a buying spree of desperation that has resulted in my collection being an absolutely pitiful mess of grey and primed and partially painted models, with some completed ones in there. Mostly big dudes.

I'm ashamed of my army every time I game but I have a household and family to pay for and upkeep, and if I painted when I felt like playing I wouldn't be playing for a year or more. I have an extremely demanding job as well. These are all excuses, but it really feels like a crushing huge task at this point and my standards exceed my skill. It takes me 8+ hours to paint anything the size of a daemon prince to something I'm proud of. I'm terrible for not giving my collection the love it deserves. I feel like I didn't spend my money wisely because I'm not treating these models like they are worth what they are. I'm not maximizing my investment by making them into something I'm proud of. I hate it, to be honest. It kills me to look at my collection. Any time my models do something cool, it's just a piece of grey plastic with nothing unique about it.

AncientSkarbrand wrote:
t it really feels like a crushing huge task at this point and my standards exceed my skill. It takes me 8+ hours to paint anything the size of a daemon prince to something I'm proud of. I'm terrible for not giving my collection the love it deserves.

Spend a few hours to learn how to use an airbrush.
That same prince will take you 1 hour to complete, and will look 500% better with a combination of blending techniques.

My entire daemon army is airbrushed. It's fast, and makes a beautiful base coat. Afterwords I hit the models with hair brushes to complete the details and it's done.

 labmouse42 wrote:

AncientSkarbrand wrote:
t it really feels like a crushing huge task at this point and my standards exceed my skill. It takes me 8+ hours to paint anything the size of a daemon prince to something I'm proud of. I'm terrible for not giving my collection the love it deserves.

Spend a few hours to learn how to use an airbrush.
That same prince will take you 1 hour to complete, and will look 500% better with a combination of blending techniques.

My entire daemon army is airbrushed. It's fast, and makes a beautiful base coat. Afterwords I hit the models with hair brushes to complete the details and it's done.

There are a number of ways to get paint down. Airbrushes are a good way of getting a lot done quickly.

I recommend obtainable goals. I try to maintain a 1-a-week goal. Although it works out to being 4 a month, really, I don’t track by the week. And I count bikes as 2, and vehicles and MCs as 4. But if you can maintain that, at the end of the year you are going to have 52 minis. Look at your average army list, even counting vehicles as 4. How many minis does it have?

Dont be intimidated by the pile of grey. Chip away at it.

Thanks alot for the words of encouragement. You've got me thinking seriously about an airbrush purchase and watching painting tutorials.

Nevelon, you hit the nail on the head. Setting attainable goals is something I don't do, when I try and get painting again I always think of the entire pile rather than the individual minis, and that just crushes your spirit. I'll pull 10 or so minis off the shelf and expect myself to work at it solidly in all my spare time until they're finished, which results in me partially painting a few and then getting overwhelmed and giving up, which in turn increases the bad feelings about my hobbyism.

Thanks again for pulling me away from the grey funk. I'm actually thinking positively about painting my models right now.

I aim for it fully painted, although for a quick match I will settle at at Base coat. I like to take pictures of matches so I try to paint at much ass possible.

i almost do actually

Always.
Always have, always will.

Not because I think it's "disrespectful" to play against someone when I have an unpainted army, but because I prefer the look of the models painted.

 chromedog wrote:
Not because I think it's "disrespectful" to play against someone when I have an unpainted army, but because I prefer the look of the models painted.

This.

Painted, but not based. I'm not sure why, but when I started I said "I'll base them later..."

Now it's later. Still just plain black bases. :(

AncientSkarbrand wrote:
Thanks alot for the words of encouragement. You've got me thinking seriously about an airbrush purchase and watching painting tutorials.

I suggest it.
I'm not that great at painting models. I can follow a formula I find online but I'm not the best. I'm also rather lazy and don't want to spend endless hours painting.

But my stuff now looks decent. The trick is that air brushes can really blend wonderfully. I just keep adding lighter colors to the paint pot and add 3-4 coats per model. Since the coats go on fast, it does not take that long to do.

These are some examples of my airbrushed daemons, and an Avatar I did. The blending is what I really want to highlight.

Holy crap that is so green!

4 Armies, one fully painted, 2 partially painted, and one straight grey, Eventually they will all be painted, if GW can stay on one codex and rule book long enough.

I must be the odd one out, since I will play with my army as soon as it's assembled and continue to paint & play until it's fully painted, then it's time to put that army away and assemble, play and paint a new army. Painting the last model is a trigger for 1 last game and then it's off to storage for at least 6 months while something else gets the spotlight for a while.

I have never, ever used an unpainted unit. I just think it ruins the whole aesthetic of the game if there's grey plastic or black primed models on the board.

I'm not going to throw a hissy fit or refuse to play someone who has the odd unit unpainted, but I'm not going to play you if you've just brought a case and unloaded a bunch of grey plastic flavour of the month models. Might as well just chuck down some cardboard markers with "CAPTAIN POWERFIST" "TACTICAL MARINE" written on them.

Between depression, real life stresses, job hunting and general misery it's hard for me to find focus.

My 30k and 40k Death Guard have a fair chunk painted.

My 'nids do as well. But sometimes there will be unpainted units. I need my mojo back to paint to be honest.

On my part, always painted all the time, I will only put down unpainted stuff if my opponent is adamant that we play at a higher points value, though even then I rarely have unpainted stuff with me when gaming these days. It's a great motivator to get stuff painted, and looks so much better.

ON the other hand, I'd never hold my opponent to the same standard, everyone has different circumstances, priorities and abilities and I'm not going to judge anyone for hobbying how they want to.

Assuming 1850ish army's
I now have one fully painted Space Wolf/Knight Army, sans the twolf riders heads..
and 5.5 Dark Angel Armies, of which 2 are fully painted, everything is at least primed and mostly base coated.

My Local GW's manager when I started was pretty hot on '3 colours if you're not a beginner or under 16 to use our tables' and it kinda stuck long after the fact - I find that painted armies are a good indicator of at least 'competent' with the game, and undpainted should then be handled as such ( no triple wyverns on my list for example).

Plus by now I have so many painted models to choose from, the only reason to field unpainted is because they're missing or damaged.

 JimOnMars wrote:
Painted, but not based. I'm not sure why, but when I started I said "I'll base them later..."

Now it's later. Still just plain black bases. :(

I put off basing for decades. At least for my 40k stuff, I did some work on my Undead. I’m in the process of doing my armies now, a bit at a time. Probably have enough done to field a painted and based army now!

I hate to admit that in my 5+ years of playing (and almost 10 years of collecting) Ive only brought a fully painted army about 3 times...

EDIT- oh wait, never been based. So no. :(

nothing is based for me.. im waiting til i have the whole chapter together.. and the whole court and the whole wolfpack flanking force's then everythings getting the same bases.

I strive to only play with fully painted, but the excitement of getting my new models on the table usually ends up getting to me. They are quickly painted afterwards.

I did have to tell a friend once that it was time to paint his after playing his grey minis for almost a year. To be honest it was probably my fault, I was being nice and waved our local group rule. 3 colors and flock/basing effect or preferred enemy on unpainted units/minis. After I told him I would start to enforce this rule he got them painted pretty fast.

I guess it just comes down to how you feel about the models being "done."

I'm not excited about a new unit until I've painted it. It's just not ready to be used until I've spend hours painting and basing.

I'll admit I've rushed a few paint jobs, especially on tanks (I hate painting tanks) so I can get them on the table, but I always regret it and end up repainting them later.

Currently: no. To date, my on-table models have been maybe 20%-50% painted.

However, since switching over to AdMech, I am quickly approaching a 100% painted army.

Fully painted if I go to a tournament or a store for a pick up game.

Casual games with friends? Mostly painted, with some new stuff I'm still working on unpainted, here or there.

If its not painted it doesnt existing....

Back in the day we used to say "2 colour minimum" so even jsut base coat wasnt enough to argue it was "painted"

I never field an unpainted model. It's a hobby thing for me. And yes, I think less of my opponent for not even bothering to at least attempt a minimal amount of paint on all of their models, because again it's a hobby thing.

If you don't want to paint, X-Wing has some great models for you!

SJ

I don't understand people who play 40K and dislike painting.

What exactly do you see in it? It's hardly got a great rule set, and the fluff doesn't require you to buy miniatures.