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True,TFG is TFG whether he paints his models or not.

Ghidorah wrote:

MisterMoon wrote:Why don't people paint anymore?

It's my experience that it has always been this way. At least for the last 15 years. The overwhelming majority of people play unpainted/partially painted armies. As we all know, it's very easy to get overwhelmed in this hobby. It is commonplace to buy minis often enough to outweigh your speed at paining. Soon, you find yourself in a sea a grey plastic and boxes of unbuilt kits.

Sadly, though, sooo many people just want to play the game and don't want to paint, can't paint, don't have time to paint, whatever.

It's always been this way.



Ghidorah

Very true. In the 17 plus years I have been doing this hobby I can count on two hands (excluding tournements) the number of times I have played against a full painted army that actually looked good. As has been said earlier - badly painted doesn't necessarily add to the gaming experience either. Who here still remembers models with enamel paint on them!!!

Tyranid Horde wrote:I think its because some people think its a bother to paint them.
I'm 13,brand new to painting and I've just finished my first battleforce and I'm quite proud.Everything I paint I show to my parents,but still some people just don't like painting

Thats the spirit mate! Im 30 and i show my eternally disintersted girlfriend models i have really painted to a good standard. It makes me proud when i have worked really hard on one and it looks great. You wont grow out of showing it off, trust me!

Paint while your young before work and kids and a wife start eating up your leisure time. =)

fullheadofhair wrote:[Very true. In the 17 plus years I have been doing this hobby I can count on two hands (excluding tournements) the number of times I have played against a full painted army that actually looked good. As has been said earlier - badly painted doesn't necessarily add to the gaming experience either. Who here still remembers models with enamel paint on them!!!

Likewise, but I wouldn't just make the blanket statement about looking good. Looking good doesn't necessarily detract from anything for me. If an army is sub-par or even badly painted, what matters to me is that the painter tried. If somebody slapped paint on just to slap paint on, I don't much like it. There used to be a kid at my FLGS that painted pretty badly. Very bad color choices, colors bleeding into other areas that were not intended to be, BUT... every week he wuld come up with a new model and show it off with great pride.

He knew his stuff wouldn't win him any competitions. He knew it wasn't "good", but he still did his best and he was damned proud of it. In that type of scenario, I don't care how poorly it is painted.

Enamel paints? I had to laugh at that one. A few years back, we had a guy that we called 'Metallic Steve'. He bought a painted Chaos Khorne army off of ebay that had been spray-painted (thickly, I might add) with GOLD enamel paint. Vehicles, infantry, everything. Even the bases were gold.



Ghidorah

Chipmunks roasting on an open fire...

Personaly, I don't really care, but find that I much prefer seeing painted armies. It tends to show that people are in the hobby for more than just winning.

nathonicus wrote:I guess here's what I don't get: why pay all the money to play 40k if you like the gaming experience chiefly? There are way cheaper/less time-intensive ways to get a game on in a cool alternate world. (See Battlelore, Tannhauser, AT43, etc). I guess that is my main question. Why not pick up the latest Black Library novel for your fluff fix and then hit board game night for the competitive play fix and spend about 10% the cost of 40k?

Well let me expound on a few reasons why someone would prefer to play 40k for the gaming aspect only :

40k is the system they grew up with and are most familiar with

Friends and local gaming groups play 40k exclusively

The FLGS is a Games Workshop Store, which does not allow people to play anything other than Games Workshop related games

The person finds 40k to be a easier and more enjoyable gaming system. Remember, we all have different tastes.

The person has never been introduced to another gaming system

Hopefully, this removes a bit of the mystery for you

Then why not do the cardboard cut outs on slotta bases? Why bother buying the models?

(unless you only have your local gw to play in)

Scott-S6 wrote:Then why not do the cardboard cut outs on slotta bases? Why bother buying the models?

(unless you only have your local gw to play in)

Because everyone have their lvl of accepting what looks good enough to game or not.
You have:

Ppl that find it ok to play with: Checkers -> Chess -> Little Greenman -> Miniatures -> Painted Miniatures -> 3 color minimum -> table top standard ->character standard -> heavy metal -> golden demon

Anyone on that list can always find something to complain about whether its good enough or not.

I don't know why but I had the op's oppinion too.
All my Necrons are painted (badly) as are my sm except my drop pod which is being assembled.

Hi all.
To start I belive people should do what parts of the hobby they enjoy.
And the 40k rule set is inferior to FREE alternatives available at 'freewargamesrules'.IMO.

However , perhaps the sheer quantity of minatures that need to be painted puts some people off?

I can paint a few minatures to a 'good enough for me standard' in a couple of days to play a skirmish game .

But the number of hours spent to paint up a 5th ed full 40k army is quite an investment.And maybe this is the reason more people dont paint?

Maybe some people prefer the uniformity of bare platic- undercoat to 'patchwork' look of a part painted army?

Just a thought!
ttfn
Lanrak.

Lanrak wrote:And the 40k rule set is inferior to FREE alternatives available at 'freewargamesrules'.IMO.

However , perhaps the sheer quantity of minatures that need to be painted puts some people off?

I can paint a few minatures to a 'good enough for me standard' in a couple of days to play a skirmish game .

But the number of hours spent to paint up a 5th ed full 40k army is quite an investment.And maybe this is the reason more people dont paint?

Maybe some people prefer the uniformity of bare platic- undercoat to 'patchwork' look of a part painted army?

Man, you really have it out for GW, don't you? A simple thread about painting and you have to slam 40k's rules... lmao

Anyway, for the record, this thread isn't necessarily about painting 40k (or any GW minis) exclusively. I have so many minis from so many companies and games to paint. GW is only a fraction of my stock.



Ghidorah

I dont paint more because my time is very short and since I dont play with unpainted stuff, and sold my last armies, I have nothing finished so no game for me.
But when the moon and all planets are aligned and I finish a army I pick only people with painted stuff.
Why? because for me a painted army not only tells a story but its also a good starting point to talk about modelling.
What others do its their choice really and I respect...

Why dont other peoplel paint? Well some dont like it, others have diferent priorities, some lazy, some like to be diferent you take your pick...

Why some people paint? Well some like it, its a priority for them, some are hiperactive freaks, some like to be diferent you take your pick...

Scott-S6 wrote:Then why not do the cardboard cut outs on slotta bases? Why bother buying the models?

(unless you only have your local gw to play in)

Who says one hasnt? I seem to recall days of battletech we did just that.

Or perhaps one likes to convert a model and not paint it.

My friends and I played Battletech with the cardboard pieces until the models came out.

Then we bought a load of them, and converted and painted them, and made scenery, so we could play campaigns with a nice-looking table.

You know the more I think about this subject, the more I come to believe that the reason GW hobby games have continued to thrive while so many others have fallen by the wayside, is that the game somehow manages, if not being all things to all people, to a least be one thing to ALL people.

It really is a case of course, as I believe Lunahound put it, that some people like the hobby aspect and some don't, and it's as simple as that.

That said, it's a lot cooler of an experience if people put some time and effort into their models, even if it's just a quick coat of the base color out of a spray can, and then some Liquid Talent i.e. Badab Black over the top.

Lanrak wrote:
Just a thought!

Good lord, not only are you obsessive, but you completely lack any sense of perspective. So now this is GW fault because their games are too big and you have to paint too many models? Here's a tip: if in a thread about painting, your post is, 'go play another game!' perhaps you should stop and think for a moment what drove you to utter such a non sequitor.

Im new to the hobby myself and only got into it because of the painting. I was and still am really big into WW2 models and stuff and the futuristic aspect was really cool. I think you should always paint your minis, if your going to play a game with them. To look at a painted model and to be able to say you painted something, not something thats glued together plastic is cool.

fullheadofhair wrote:

Ghidorah wrote:

MisterMoon wrote:Why don't people paint anymore?

It's my experience that it has always been this way. At least for the last 15 years. The overwhelming majority of people play unpainted/partially painted armies. As we all know, it's very easy to get overwhelmed in this hobby. It is commonplace to buy minis often enough to outweigh your speed at paining. Soon, you find yourself in a sea a grey plastic and boxes of unbuilt kits..

Very true. In the 17 plus years I have been doing this hobby I can count on two hands (excluding tournements) the number of times I have played against a full painted army that actually looked good. As has been said earlier - badly painted doesn't necessarily add to the gaming experience either. Who here still remembers models with enamel paint on them!!!

It's an interesting thing. Around here, I've never seen anyone field an unpainted army. Some minis, sure, but never more than about a dozen in an otherwise painted army. This leads me to suspect there's a lot of variation between different countries' wargaming cultures.

Agamemnon2 wrote:
It's an interesting thing. Around here, I've never seen anyone field an unpainted army. Some minis, sure, but never more than about a dozen in an otherwise painted army. This leads me to suspect there's a lot of variation between different countries' wargaming cultures.

Birds of a feather flock together . When someone that doesnt like painting walks into a LGS where almost everyone paints , the peer pressure might eventually
force the gamer to paint , or find another gaming group where painting isnt an issue.

Nah, it probably has nothing to do with different countries wargaming cultures, as there is probably just as much variation inside of each country.

I think it's about half and half where I'm at.

(sarcasam)Because we are lazy,overweight and tactics rule.

I think this "problem" is pretty much a GW issue.
I don't know any historical or sci-fi gamers that would field anything unpainted, there's no rule at my local club and no-one is forced to paint, they just do.
Go to a wargames show like Salute or Colours, and you will not see an unpainted army on a games table.
Go to a historical tournament and you won't see one either, and the "I've painted this with a finger dipped in paint" armies are few and far between..

GW surreptitiously encourage using unpainted figures, by allowing them to be used in store (while vocally championing the painter in their mag as a false standard of "their" hobby)
This is because GW's business model is all about the arms race, and getting more money by enouraging the pocket money brigade to blow it all on the next big thing.
New army lists that superceed the old and make expensive models redundant, new bigger better characters that cost 3 or 4 times the price of a standard trooper for the same amount of materials. and new rulesets that up the ante on army size.
Making those that would maybe paint a smaller force just give up.

38mm is a skirmish scale, it was in 1st and 2nd ed. After 3rd it started going up through company, battalion and brigade sized games as the editions moved on.
In any other wargaming ruleset the scale would drop too, making it easier to field such large armies, but then GW wouldn't sell as many figures would it?
GW doesn't care if you paint your figures, as long as you keep buying them.

In any other aspect of the hobby (and its doing just fine those of you that think GW is the be all and end all of wargames) the hobby is building, painting, and then gaming armies, not just buying pewter.
GW is the only field in which it has slipped into just buying models for buyings sake.

Oh and for the record, I will never use a unpainted or unfinished model in a game. Partially because I think its looks awful, and partially because I think its a cop out.
You can start the ad hominems now if you like.

You can start the ad hominems now if you like.

Die in a fire melon-fether, I bet you like men, etc. etc.

I dunno, I can't really explain what my problem is. I work full time but I'm off Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, I'd care to wager I have more time than some people do to paint and yet I don't actually take advantage of it. I just can't get motivated I guess, I keep finding excuses not to. Like right now I can't prime anything because of the weather. I painted a test model weeks ago and I'm putting off painting the others because I can't think of a good way to paint the bases, that and despite me experimenting with paint additives my paint still came out too thick and I'm scared to paint anything else. I can't finish my army anyway because I refuse to paint my tanks without an airbrush, and I can't afford to drop the cash on one just yet. For the longest time I kept changing my mind on a paint scheme too, I've tried at least four different schemes and I've had to strip models over and over...

If I could afford it I'd just say hell with it and have it commissioned. It'd look better than anything I could do myself, anyway.

For my 2 cents- I have just noticed a trend in the gamer world in the last five years or so. When I started playing everyone had one army they liked - it was "their" army and we all basilcly Identified by the playstyle of the army and how we followed or didn't follow it. We then all had our own characters- Basicly my friend played Ultramarines so he had a Captain maned after himself...ect. We all (rougly13-15) of us had fully painted armies and would pretty much only play with fully painted- even if we weren't the best painters... As the years went on and more and more armies came out and release dates on new editions and codexes came faster and faster- slowly we would pick up a second army and some of us a third... By the end mostly everyone had like 8 armies and really had no loyalty to the armies they played anymore- then the new groups that would pick up the game saw that that is how people did it and they picked up armies- then switched over and over..with this influx of everyone playing 50 armies- there was little to no motivation to paint them since no one really did. That and there tends to be a lazyness in the newer gamers I have met- they seem to have a defeatist attitude about painting- they see something I paint and are automaticly intimidated- I will sit down with them and show them that there is very very little talent to painting minis- it is mostly skill and hard work- if you have steady hands and put the time in you will get better. They paint one thing- are dissapointed by it and then say- eh- screw it I can't paint worth a damn- A precious few will stay though and eventually become very good painters- which is always rewarding.

if you have steady hands

Damn, another excuse. I don't have very steady hands.

Why is that- medical condition, caffeine, ect?

Hell, could be all the caffeine then. I drink a lot of soda...I should probably cut that out.

You should try resting you hand on something while you paint- sometimes I have to if I have had too much soda- hahah- makes a big difference- I have seen people actually holding the model with one hand and the brush in th other up in the air- struggling- and I had to say- hey man rest them bones- you are better off resting your hand on something while you paint...

I've thought for some time that the Golden Daemon culture sets the standard too high for painting.

It's too much of a challenge so maybe people don't even start.

No-one playing historicals would expect to paint an entire army to the standards we constantly see in GW's photography. It's impossible when you need to paint 200-300 figures.