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I really get annoyed at the hate all over Dakka about gray armies. I would LOVE to have a nicely painted army. However, I have NO talent. None whatsoever. The few things I have painted turn out looking worse than they did gray, with nice details of the models being washed away by the soup of fail that is my artistic ability. I have watched my friends (who are excellent painters) I have watched tutorials, I have tried tons of techniques. I just really suck at it.

I'm a really pleasant person I like to think. I give all my friends rides to the gaming store, and even some players that I don't know very well at my LGS have gotten a ride from me in the past. At my LGS having a gray army is "lame" but it definitely isn't considered a sign that some one is a bad person as it seems to be on Dakka. I know the responses to this, I've read that before. "Just pay some one to paint it." Unfortunately, the only painters who paint up much better than my crappy painting are either too busy to do my paint job or charge more than the models themselves to do so.

Here I also get the response that "40k is an expensive hobby, if you don't like it don't play the game." Which I think is the largest amount of garbage that I've ever heard. I love 40k. I've read every codex that I could get my hands on, played a lot of the video games, and read multiple Black Library books. I love 40k so much that I'm working on a novel for the Black Library, as I could think of nothing better than to work on 40k and fantasy stuff for a living.

My point is, having a gray army doesn't make you a bad person or gamer. I lack the talent to paint it myself, and I lack the cash/opportunity to have some one else paint it. I just hope maybe this message reminds people that a gray army doesn't mean the person is evil.

I think you made a great point. Gray armies are "lame" but anyone who lets that get in the way of a good game is just a butt hole.

Is it time for this thread again?

Personally, I like seeing painted armies facing off and usually play with painted forces, but I completely understand those who just like to play the game. Contrary to popular internet whining, 40k is actually fun to play and can stand alone without the fluff and paint... but if you mix all of those in too, it just makes it that much better.

You know that nobody starts out good at painting, right?

It's not a valid excuse to say "oh no, i'm not talented enough to paint my first model and have it win a golden daemon"

You aren't a bad person for not painting your army, you are just really lazy. Stop making excuses.

If you don't want to mess up your army, get a handful of models and practice.

If I were you I would just spray paint my army white or black (depending on what look you want), at least your army isn't grey and the spray paint often settles to keep the detail easy to see.

I don't have time and talent to paint all my armies so I buy painted ones.

Ah... I forgot to add "inb4urlazy".

Seriously though... not painting is a conscious decision... no one has a genetic predisposition for painting skill. If you don't want to paint because you are busy or would rather play games than paint, that's fine (and not lazy). However... saying "I want to paint but I'm no good so I'm not going to try" IS lazy.

ph34r wrote:You know that nobody starts out good at painting, right?

It's not a valid excuse to say "oh no, i'm not talented enough to paint my first model and have it win a golden daemon"

You aren't a bad person for not painting your army, you are just really lazy. Stop making excuses.

If you don't want to mess up your army, get a handful of models and practice.

Gornall wrote:
Seriously though... not painting is a conscious decision... no one has a genetic predisposition for painting skill. If you don't want to paint because you are busy or would rather play games than paint, that's fine (and not lazy). However... saying "I want to paint but I'm no good so I'm not going to try" IS lazy.

I disagree. I have been working on my SW for over 7 months. It's really bad.
Just because you have the ability to paint nicely doesn't mean other people are capable of it.
I cannot physically do it. My hands shake a lot when I concentrate hard and I ruin my models more than I paint them.
I keep working at it, hoping that I can improve, but I haven't yet.
I'm not lazy, I'm not making excuses.
There's no reason to be rude.

I'm glad you started this thread. While I prefer playing painted armies, I don't understand why people hate grey armies so much.

I would prefer to play an army painted to a basic standard than bare plastic, but bare plastic is better than some of the horrible painted models i have seen- at least you can see what the model is.

If your recieving a lot of comments about it maybe you could try a really basic scheme. it's hard to go wrong with 3/4 colours and a basic wash.

Congratulations, you've met the diametric opposites of the WAAC gamers: HAAC gamers.

HAAC gamers are just like WAAC gamers. They'll look down on you because you don't embrace their chosen facet of Warhammer 40k.

Treat them like WAAC gamers: Don't listen. Play how you want, and do so with reasonable people who will accept how you enjoy the game.

I just use sprays and dips.

It's really quick and easy, and gets good results.

I did this lot in one weekend.

Yeah, I mean I have a TON of fluff in my army. I have written a 5 page bit of fluff about my Space Wolves army as well as for my Dwarves army. I'm currently working for one on my Empire army as well. I just hate that people think that I don't appreciate 40k and all its greatness because I can't paint. The only thing keeping my army gray right now is that I hate watching my beautiful models get their details melted by my crappy abilities.


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That actually looks really cool. Dipping is the one thing I want to try and haven't been able to yet. I've just seen so many beautiful paint jobs that I hate to get a dipping system and find out I suck at it too. I've spend over 100 in GW brush and paints just to watch them sit in my modeling box or let my friends use/have them.

I'm pretty sure a bad paint job is better than a completely unpainted one. Even just primed is better.

I work a full time+ job(as in 8 hours minimum 5 days a week, often more). I live on a rural property and we own a lot of animals that have to be taken care of, some of which my wife can't take care of on her own. I have interests other than 40k that I enjoy doing. I spend one night a week actually playing 40k, which is the part of the hobby I actually really like.

How, pray tell, am I supposed to fit in the huge amount of time required to first actually learn how to paint models and not make a complete mess(if that is even possible due to the fact that I have the artistic ability of a slowed monkey), then actually paint them? Nor do I have the money to double what I already paid for my armies to pay to have them painted.

I'd love to have painted armies. I really would. I think well painted armies look awesome. Between a lack of time, talent, and money it just isn't feasable for me to get all of what I own painted.

I disagree. I have been working on my SW for over 7 months. It's really bad.
Just because you have the ability to paint nicely doesn't mean other people are capable of it.
I cannot physically do it. My hands shake a lot when I concentrate hard and I ruin my models more than I paint them.
I keep working at it, hoping that I can improve, but I haven't yet.
I'm not lazy, I'm not making excuses.
There's no reason to be rude.

I apologize for painting with too broad of a brush. (Pardon the terrible pun)

Some people don't have a physical capacity for whaterver reason to paint and that's obviously understandable. That didn't seem to be the OP's situation though.

I actually do play with them primed. I just considered this "gray" as it's so basic.

But if that makes people happy, then I'm good. lol.

Khisanth Magus wrote:I work a full time+ job(as in 8 hours minimum 5 days a week, often more). I live on a rural property and we own a lot of animals that have to be taken care of, some of which my wife can't take care of on her own. I have interests other than 40k that I enjoy doing. I spend one night a week actually playing 40k, which is the part of the hobby I actually really like.

How, pray tell, am I supposed to fit in the huge amount of time required to first actually learn how to paint models and not make a complete mess(if that is even possible due to the fact that I have the artistic ability of a slowed monkey), then actually paint them? Nor do I have the money to double what I already paid for my armies to pay to have them painted.

I'd love to have painted armies. I really would. I think well painted armies look awesome. Between a lack of time, talent, and money it just isn't feasable for me to get all of what I own painted.

I'm a huge proponent of doing what you enjoy. At the end of the day this is a game with little plastic men. But at the same time, everyone is busy these days.

I prefer to paint painted armies. I'v played against gray armies with no problem, though.

However, I do advise you to at least put a modicum of effort. Give it a coat of spray paint. Maybe even invite a friend over to do some basic detail work; you do the broader, easy bits and he adds a touch here and there so that at least the guns are a different color.

I was horrible when I started. Thankfully, I was helping my friend with his ultramarines army and most of my early mistakes happened on his smurfs. If my army looks decent now, it's because some of his tacticals had to b redone.

You can't afford everything that you'd like. part of that is not having the time or ability to paint an army. I'd like to sing in musical theater. I have a great speaking voice, I can act a little, but I can't sing worth a crap. So I don't participate.

Now, 40k is a broad hobby, and lots of folks don't mind unpainted armies. God knows I've never busted balls over it. That said it's part of the hobby and if you can't or won't fully participate, you can't be too upset when you aren't fully accepted.

Given that there are techniques that are incredibly simple that will at least do something to the models, its' hard to argue that it's impossible to make the models look better. They may not look like what you'd like, but there are ways to do neat monochromatic washes and stuff over white primer that pretty much anybody could do.

Another technique is to clip and trim all the parts. Spray paint them separately, then assemble them with super glue, dob in a few details, wash and varnish, or magic dip.

This can work well with SMs because you've got legs, torso, arms, head, pauldrons and backpack all as separate pieces. Once assembled you only need paint the guns and a few bits of detail like markings on the pauldrons.. You can use transfers on the pauldrons to avoid fiddly detail painting.

The thing that puts a lot of people off painting is that they see these fantastic looking models in the Gallery and think every figure needs to be a Golden Daemon winner. It is far too high a standard for tabletop gaming.

You want your figures to look good en masse viewed from three to six feet away on the table top. Concentrate on a neat colour scheme and overall effect.

if anyone gives you s**t for a non painted army, screw em i like seeing players go out and play painting is a bonus and if ur broke just substitute your models, cant paint who cares playing warhammer is what keeps it going.

Thanks for the advice everyone .
Is there a good dipping system with clear instructions people would recommend? I'd really love to buy one to help me out when I can afford to.

Khisanth Magus wrote:How, pray tell, am I supposed to fit in the huge amount of time required to first actually learn how to paint models and not make a complete mess(if that is even possible due to the fact that I have the artistic ability of a slowed monkey), then actually paint them? Nor do I have the money to double what I already paid for my armies to pay to have them painted.

You don't have to be an artist to get good results. Just sit down, base coat red/blue/green, pick out the major details in silver/tin, and some other details in gold. Then spraypaint all of your bases with a green primer. Bam, fully painted and based mini.

Want even better looking guys? Prime them whatever color you want (UM Blue, for example) wash with brown or black, then detail. Takes less than 20 minutes per model.

I am not a good artist by any stretch of the imagination. But I have a decent looking CSM army using just the above methods.

I've since learned to highlight, WOO!

Just search dipping. There are a lot of wood stains that work like dip (that's basicaly all dip is) and cost about a tenth of the price.

You can also do the same thing with GW washes, but this tecnique gives you a bit more control as you can use multiple colours. Just paint it a lighter shade of the colour you want then splash wash all over it.

it honestly isn't that bad. space marines are one of the easiest models to paint IMO. Just buy a new box of marines. paint one to the best you can do. Learn from that one what you did wrong what you want to do next. Paint the next one.

I went from

Basic out of the jar 5 paints
- started adding washes to my next models
- started adding highlights
- started watering down my paints
- started dry brushing.

I recently started free handing camo schemes on my IG army.

If you feel overburden with detail, then just stop at the very basic colors. Such as only painting the armor.

Spray paints. You can actually get them in just about any colour you can want. Space marines are the best for this, as the majority of the model is a single colour.

Awesome. I'll keep trying. Hopefully I'll be able to necro this thread with some pictures that aren't "look at this insult to the Space Wolves chapter on attempt 2000".

I like gray, I'm not even gonna lie. Grey and silver. I'm actually angry I painted some of my DE. The ones I left bare look way cooler. I'm not a bad painter, but looking at all these guys in bumming me out Too dark.

Could always do what I do, and use predominately black army schemes, makes it easier.

My problem is I am actually a decent painter, and have spent in excess of 5 hours on a single terminator librarian 0_0

Painting takes a hell long time, but it pays off. But if you cant thats cool, I like looking at grey models, it makes it simpler to identify their wargear and shows detail better. I wouldnt mind at all fighting a grey army.