Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I don't get to play as often as I'd like but when I'm gaming, or even just wandering through an event I figure it's prolly about 50% complete painted armies about 25% partialy painted armies and the other 25% are grey or only base coated.

Friendly games generally 3 colored. Tourneys at the Memphis battle bunker are minimumed 3 colours with some consistency, some conversion work for a bonus. Yes, it is the main store for America. Yes, it's going through a rebirth to be like GW world in the UK.... No bugman's bar. So yes, they hold their competitive players to a higher standard. And in a up side to painting the store manager and the art manager are golden demon winners so getting painting advice is easy.

Not everyone has time to paint their armies where I play, and that's ok. We encourage players to paint their models. Me, I have a mostly grey primed guard army that I would love to paint..but there's always more waiting to be assembled. There really isn't enough time in a day. When you have horde orc players who have to spend exorbitant amounts of time converting tanks to looted wagons or something interesting into more orc crap, you have to realize that not every army is a 40 model space marine army. The problem at my FLGS is that all the players are older and have jobs, so meeting up is hard enough. Being paint nazis will only hurt matters in a game that is hard to keep players as it is.

I guess 100%. Every time i go to the local GW i see people play with fully painted armies. But i've been there like 5-10 times now XD.

My FLGS has probably 70% painted armies and Im surprised so many other people have much lower numbers. I get some people are just getting into the hobby or buy their models "in bulk" so they have a lot to paint, but really, what is the point of getting into the hobby if you're not going to paint it! You might as well just be playing chess or some strategy video game where you can play without worrying about looks.

I think about 20% at my FLGS have their army painted. Sadly I'm part of the 80%. It's just hard to find time to sit down and paint EVERYTHING. there are some guys that have had the same stuff unpainted since I started playing back in March. My goal is to have all my stuff painted by Christmas.

Very few armies are fully painted no matter where I go. Mine included!

My usual group of friends has all painted armies, but I tried playing with some guys at school (back in HS) and there were a ton of unpainted models, it's not as fun to play against an army of gray plastic, or an army of black spray paint.

My 40k one is, but I am ashamed to say that my VC are rather lackluster. I have the big stuff donw just not the core troops.

It's sad, but only 2, mine and another, out of about 30 gamers armies are painted in my area.

1 and its mine :( i play with competitive donkey-caves that only care about what models to run, not how cool there stuff looks :/
I take that back, there is one other guy that shows up maybe twice a year that has 3 or 4 fully painted/based companies of Ultramarines. last time he came we played a 6k game with one restriction: models must be completely painted and based...for reference, i play with about 30ish people in 2 separate groups.

Thats one thing i don't like about my FLGS, all the armys are black and primed, no colour

Altough most guys at my FLGS don't have FULLY painted armies, almost everyone is on their way to get their minis painted. Hey, you want to play a few good games, but you don't want to spend every last minute of spare time you have on it for a couple of weeks, then go ahead. But at least show your opponent that you actually are painting your army. At my FLGS, no one plays with totally unpainted models.

I was surprised at the low painted results of this poll. The store I play at has a lot of painted armies.

The majority of the armies are painted, and there's little proxying...

I'm a slow painter/assembler... so I tend to play almost the same list over and over... too embarrassed to play unpainted models ><

888th vote, HELL YEAH

I joined a Wargaming Club years ago and it was the best thing I ever did in the hobby. We are based at a FLGS, but everyone and I mean Everyone, (and we have 50 members) has painted armies. We allow primed armies, but you never seem them more than twice because everyone gets them painted in double quick time. Most of us have 4-5 armies plus in many different systems.

So the bottomline is, if you like playing games with like minded people, and you like painted armies join a Wargames Club, rather than just playing at a FLGS.

I find for most players in my area that armies are like artwork:

Never finished, just abandoned.

Most armies are 50-75% painted, but hardly ever get finished as the owner moves on to a new project.

The only armies that are ever truly fully painted are all commision work.

One of the guys at my local store has a really fun house rule he likes to use: "All fully painted squads have the Hatred USR against any squad that is not fully painted"

makes it nice since that means it is usually 2 fully painted armies which make it a much better game IMO.

Counting all the games played, next to none.

I'll never field a fully painted army. I've got 9 armies for 40k, 7 for Warmachine, Infinity, Pulp City Heroes, Malifaux, 4 Blood Bowl teams, Dreadball, and 4 for WHFB. I don't even know how to play WHFB. I've also got minis to paint for Super Dungeon Explore, and Zombicide. I've got Relic Knights on the way, and plan to start Arkham City miniatures game, along with Vikings for Saga, and a sick gladitorial game that I saw on facebook. The flames of war crowd are trying to pull me in to that too. I'm in the playtest group for Shadowrun:Sprawl Gangers, so I'll get that when it comes out as well. So, yeah...never.

Low numbers is not necessarily mean people don't paint/field painted armies (it does say FULLY painted armies, not a fully painted army used)... At my FLGS, almost everyone who does have large painted armies are also fielding new units, finishing up new conversions, redoing counts as and adding in a new display level model, etc. Its pretty rare for any of use to field an army without a couple WIP/new models on the field.

Heck, I have 9 main armies: Almost two battle companies of Ultramarines 13K+ points (85% painted above a table top standard), Dark Angels successor 3K+ points (90% painted), Black Templar 3k ish (fully painted), Grey Knights 1.5k (50% painted), Tau 4k+ (75% painted), Pardus Armour 2.5K (fully painted), Tanith 1st (0% painted), Orks 4kish (10% painted), CSM 4k+ (80% painted), Space Wolves 1.5k (fully painted).

So of my nine, 3 are painted (33%).... yet you want to tell me that owning 28,200 points of painted models is bad for the hobby and I'd either laugh at or slug you depending on the situation.

In my FLGS it would be about 10% if that. This is due to a varriety of reasons:
-too many armies for one guy to paint
-beginner/ just getting into the games system
-not sure how to paint something
-army is constantly growing and so always has unpainted unit/model
-never paints anything
-borrwoing models from somewhere else as proxy for another model

I can see the validity of many of these reasons but it cna be a bit depressing to see your (crusade painted to the best of your abilities) charge into a sea of grey plastic and lose. I mean people call me lazy 'coz my BT army barely reaches the 3 colour minimum in our local GW but no paint on any of your miniatures is a disgrace. I can see why people don't have fully painted armies but an apocalypse battle report with loads of unpainted models isn't as cinematic and cool as one with all painted models. This is why I have my own club with 30 or so like minded individuals.

 chromedog wrote:
I don't play in a store when the people with unpainted armies are around.

Everyone I play with in THAT store, though, has a painted army.

Such an elitist statement that makes me feel sad.

A lot of us that paint our armies and bring them to tournament really influences other players with non painted minis to get theirs up to speed. Sometimes you got a new army you want to try out but you dont have the figs painted yet. its ok to take your time IMO. I care less about painted armies when I'm playing the game. More about the fun of the game itself. I paint for my own pleasure and game for my own pleasure and let others get theirs how they want. To be such elitist bastards as to refuse to play with others because they lack the speed, skill, or desire to paint their own like your somehow better than they?

Turn up your nose at someone vs inspiring them to do more is strait crap.

When i see just a spray primer army i don't think "yay gonna have a battle" i think "my army is going up against mannequins?"

It depends on your gaming group. Take Reaper Warlord, for example, due to their liberal policy, you will not find more than 10% painted. In another group for HGB, since the requirement is an fully painted army, everyone brings an fully painted one, either by burrowing or being commissioned.

My FLGS only boasts about 25-50 at any given point. We have a few vets that have had the same painted army for years and many of us just started playing/painting just a year ago. I have had a few painted armies but have sold them off. Now I keep acquiring new things and picking up new games here and there so being able to focus on just one task is somewhat difficult (shiny new model syndrome). Some of the locals have also started asking me to paint some of their things so finding the time for mine is tough. I also found that when I moved from an area that was mainly 40k to an area that is exclusively WHFB the desire to paint my own stuff went down since finding a 40k player here was like finding a leprechauns pot or gold strapped to a Unicorns back.

Since I only go to a GW since it's one of the biggest battlebunkers in the country, I find about 50% have there armies finished. I myself will never play a game without a 100% fully painted army, I feel half the fun is having that army wonderfully painted, but I never feel happy with my models when there painted :( I always feel like I could of painted them better ect.

Battles with two (or more) fully painted armies are the best! People should ask if its ok that they play unfinished (glued/painted), most players won't be jerks about it.

its just like "dude fething paint your guys"

My Slaanesh marines and some guy with Iron Warriors are the only painted armies out of basically everyone

It is a bit sad to see so much not painted at the local store <25%.

For me models at home to fully painted is around 3% but I manage to have enough fully painted for 2500 pts of marines. I am in no position to complain due to my collection problem.

I feel it important to see opponents there and comment on changes getting those models that next step closer. It is nice to see the evolution of the army (preferably not the stagnation).

One guy has Grey Knights and he got the etched brass and a few FW parts. His painting is so clean you could cut yourself on it. I hate him so, but it is pure hard work and HOURS he spends. I point to him as the brute force approach that works.

I think that well painted miniatures go a long way in enjoying the game rather than "toy models" being pushed around. It adds to that immersion. I said it before and will say it again: pure thinking and tactics game in abstract is chess, 40k is a "fluff" game where using approximate (proxi-mate? pun..) miniatures hurts the game. Chess or checkers I can replace pretty much anything and is no big deal.