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It doesn't look like they're getting much love at all, at the moment. I'm not a fan of this idea, although it would let GW sell to people put off by the P&M aspects of 40k.

I despise this idea.

To me, having a painted army (especially a great one) is a badge of honor, a testament to your skill and dedication to the game.

Without the painting, 40k is nothing but a little boardgame, Its no longer a hobby.

Even with hundreds of Boyz in my eventual army lists, I plan to spend the same (or even greater) amount of time on each model.

There's quite a split between the pro and HERESY camps.

My idea, which is much better than pre-painted, is that GW should mould the sprues in different colours.

I mentioned it before but here is a quick recap.

It's possible with modern technology not only to mould plastic in different colours but also to mould a single sprue in several colours. You can see this in the high-grade Gundam kits (which are much cheaper than GW kits.)

An army like SM would easily be moulded in a variety of colours:

Head
Shoulder pads
Torso
Legs
Arms
Weapons and bits

For example, Shoulder pads could be moulded as a separate sprue and available in 8 different colours, or they could be included with a 'Chapter' sprue containing the official colours for a codex chapter.

Thanks to the web ordering system, GW could offer any combination of colours you liked. Design a heraldry for your chapter, order the colour sprues you need, and build it!

Most 'little johnnies' buy SMs. This system would let them build a nicely coloured army very easily.

Buy. Strip. Repaint. Invoice GW for paint stripper.

Painting is one of my favorite aspect so I would dislike prepainted mini. not to mention most prepainted mini tend to have bits missing and bad coverage.

NOOOOOO cause warhammer is a hobby and a game and if you take away the painting they will have to be already assembled.

Taking the painting stage away would ruin the hobby for me. I never play a game unless every model is fielding is painted. Having the fully painted army is a feeling of great achievement for me. Its that simple.

I think that we should have the option of a model being pre-painted (for a small price.) The lack of color in models has left a few of my friends away from the hobby, since they can't paint very well (and of course they're embarrassed about that fact.) I think we can all agree it's okay to have the option of pre-painted models, as long as it doesn't take over.

Well, i wouldnt buy, the painting is what I enjoy the most. But Id be more than happy if they offered them as an alternative - I mean Im not going to refuse to play someone because they got a painting service to do their whole army, so why any different with a GW paintjob?

No problem with pre-painted if it gets more people into the game. I myself would not get them as I like painting.

Humm.. Well I dont think pre-painted is really a good idea.
Personaly, without the effort to build and paint my mini's, I would have zero connection with my army. Where is the fun in putting an army on the table that is in no sense yours. You didnt build it, convert it, design it or paint it, so how can you feel anything about it.
Plus you know they wont have 60 diffrent paint schemes. you would be lucky if they have 2 or 3. Now all the tables are filled with the exact same looking armys literaly.
No I dont like the idea of it at all...

I picked other. Which means, I would buy a full army that is already painted from someone. Most likely an army that I want to play with by requires too much effort to complete it myself, so Id much rather buy one thats painted from someone looking to get rid of one.

I rather enjoy the "and tolerate their existance" portion of this vote. It made me giggle... then the guys in my class were all "why is she laughing" and I was all "hahaha TOLERATE" and they told me to shut up and stop being a Warhammer cigarette and I yelled at them and now you can see I am frustrated and ranting...

I am not the target market for the snap fit figures, and I would not be the target market for pre-painted miniatures. Although, for me the "and tolerate their existence" part of the option should be "and blissfully let anyone who wanted to buy and use those do so".

The unspoken fear for producing pre-painted figures is that the army lists would have to change to suit the pre-painted boxes. Ask the next cynical forum goer how much of his army he would expect to be able to still use after the purge, I mean codex update.

No way painting is half the fun and painting yourself makes it unique

Pre-painted?

Look at what Rackham has done with Confrontation! They had some of the best quality metal minis, but they stopped the production to release pre-painted minis with the painting level of a arthritic chimp!

Die, pre-painted! Die!!

40K is more than just a board game like hero-clix. It is a total hobby so if you remove the modeling and painting then it would really devalue the game. I would be pissed to go to a GT and have a pre-painted army in front of me that looks like every other prepainted army....

If they were cheaper and I could strip them....

I voted no but tolerate, as I'm not the greatest p[ainter in the world by a very very large stretch of the imagination, but they're my mini's, and I like to paint them. It gives a sense of achieving something.

I can see something like Space Hulk being prepainted. It isn't really part of the hobby so much as a gateway, and an even nicer presentation would only help.

The "side" games would probably do a little better prepainted, especially Epic.

To me, an army is a very personal thing. I don't like even borrowing my friend's models if I can avoid it, so I much prefer to have all of my models painted by myself. I don't have anything against people who do use them, and admire those who paint and sell them - must be a great way to make a bit of money - but would never use them myself. While my own painting style is miles away from pro, it's still my style and I like it =)

Strip 'em, re-paint em. Always good fun to pit yourself against some internet yobbo.

I was torn between "tolerate" and "hate". I would for the most part tolerate their existence, especially on the part of a brand new player just starting out. But I would expect to start seeing some "non-prepaints" as they bulked out their army, and preferably see them repaint or replace the pre-painted ones. Maybe it's because I'm an old (and old-school) fogey, but like many others, I see painting as part of the hobby. If all I cared about was the wargaming, I'd play RTS's online. I've never seen pre-painted minis that looked any better than third-rate. Mass production doesn't work here. I'd rather see someone drop a crappily painted army on the table than a pre-painted one, because then I at least know they might care about something besides just winning.

My other reason for despising the idea, is it's just a short step from offering pre-painted minis to only offering pre-painted minis. Then it's "starter" boxes and "booster" packs. Then it goes downhill from there and you can only field these "pre-painted" minis in tournaments, which will probably show up as a rule about the same time Commisar Yarrick and Eldrad Ulthuan become "rare" minis that only show up in the occasional "HQ booster" pack. The rares will get more powerful, you'll have to spend four times as much to get anything besides a "horde" army of any type and soon after that, the only way to build a competitive army is to take out a second mortgage and compete for those "special" minis on eBay. I will also freely admit that this may be nothing more than an overly cynical "glass-isn't-half-empty-it's-bone-dry" viewpoint brought about after watching MtG fall prey to the hovering vultures of money-motivated "collectors" and all of the "Clix" evolve-or-die games, where evolve = shell out tons of money for more powerful minis.

Will I tolerate them? Yes. And if were to start seeing GW start dropping unpainted minis from their product line, I'd probably sell my rulebooks and armies and "get" while the "gettin' was good". But I'm a pessimist and you can probably disregard this entire rant.

Most of the fun is building and painting them yourself, playing the game is just an excuse to showcase your work!!!

im not a great painter so i hate buying awesome models and 'fething em up' so to speek.
so i wouldnt hesitate to buy then

NEVER EVER EVER EVER!!! why would you play 40k if you didnt enjoy placing your own customized company down on the table and having a little story to all of the minitures... also it would feel very second hand if they were painted

I collect to paint , i only game 2-3 times a year or so ..

So i would strip them for sure..

i fully understand this, my armys is extremely story based but tere ust be some benefit of buying these

My god yes I would buy pretty much pre-painted 40k stuff if it was avaliable. I despise assembling and painting these damned minis.

I am a fantastic painter, and it is my favorite part of the hobby, so i would not buy pre painted minis.

Also, i wouldn't want a bunch of 80 year old chinese women painting all of our warhammer and trippling the price. Those of you who know about Rackham will undersatnd what i mean.