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I need you to insert more time into a day to allow me to paint my miniatures. A 26 hour day would suffice.

MagickalMemories wrote:@Akroma06

Most of these polls and threads about this topic *are* weighted against those of us who don't paint like others think we should. You see a large number of purists in these threads who think it's "part of the hobby" and that you're doing "the hobby" an injustice by not painting.

These threads pop up 6 to 8 times a year, with the same results and the same p.o.v.'s.

Eric

Oh yeah I know and they really get under my skin.

I don't want someone to paint my army. Eventually it will all get painted but until people need to be happy with their army being painted.

I consider painting an army (or getting it painted) a form of politeness.

However, it's not a dealbreaker for me.

One thing I do want to mention to the :I tried painting once, I was bad at it" is that pretty much everyone is bad at a complex task like painting at first. it's a skill that requires practice. Is till am not a great painter, but when i come across some old minis of mine, I've definitely improved.

The most effective incentive I've seen to get people to paint are rewards for painted armies at Tournaments and Leagues.

I wonder how many would get into "'the hobby'" in the first place if all display models in stores, models in codices and White Dwarf and such were just grey plastic.

I chose other: Wind back the clock and prevent the damage in my wrists that make holding a paintbrush or pens for that matter for more than a few minutes at a time not make my hand go numb. Or wind it forward til we have Star Trek medical science that can pass a beam of light over and make it all better. I'll take Bones quipping about how he's a doctor not a whatever while doing it too thanks.

angel of ecstasy wrote:I wonder how many would get into "'the hobby'" in the first place if all display models in stores, models in codices and White Dwarf and such were just grey plastic.

When I first started in the late 1980's, there were no display models, and pretty much everybody's army was unpainted, gray metal.

Balance wrote:I consider painting an army (or getting it painted) a form of politeness.

(Respectfully)

This is a p.o.v. that I just can't comprehend. How is it rude to YOU if I choose not to paint my army? If the desire to see painted armies is your preference, and not mine, then it seems to me that the insistence/peer pressure doled out by some who are in agreement with you would be the impoliteness.


Eric

I'm another, "If I had more time". Between kids, wife, and work, there's not much time left for a lot of things.

MagickalMemories wrote:

Balance wrote:I consider painting an army (or getting it painted) a form of politeness.

(Respectfully)

This is a p.o.v. that I just can't comprehend. How is it rude to YOU if I choose not to paint my army? If the desire to see painted armies is your preference, and not mine, then it seems to me that the insistence/peer pressure doled out by some who are in agreement with you would be the impoliteness.

It's the same as coming to my house in ratty, torn-up clothes.

I'm unlikely to make a big deal about it if it's a friend, even unlikely to make a big deal if it's some random gamer in a store... but it does make a better impression, as I find a wargame is more fun with painted minis and scenery and such.

I think "I won't play unpainted minis" is wrong, but I do prefer painted minis.

Right, first off i'm not a complete non-painter, I do some painting.
A few things have always stopped me doing lots of painting though.

I've been playing 40k for 3 1/2 to 4 years now I reckon, for the first 2 years, I just didn't enjoy painting at all. I found it boring, when ever I started painting i'd give up quickly. And because there is no strict painting rules at our club, most of the tournaments we've held haven't requited painting, and the couple of tournaments I have played in that required painted armies I borrowed. So you don't do things that bore you, unless you need to, I didn't need to paint, so I didn't. If lots of people at our club refused to play against non-painted armies, I'd have just got on with it.

The first thing I enjoyed painting was a Trygon. I never truly finished, but I got a lot of it done, and now a friend uses it as I don't play Nids.
Since then i've enjoyed painting more, and have found listening to music/radio or having a film/tv show on in the background also helps.
But I still don't do all that much painting. Reasons for this are when i'm at home home (not at Uni) I don't have anywhere to leave stuff out, its a bit of a chore getting all the stuff out, and put away. The only area there is enough room to paint, is the dining room table, and I have a 4 year old brother and nearly two year old sister. Painting with them around isn't very easy. So that limits me to evenings, which is the only chance I get to watch TV and play PS3. Add that to going out, and now work 3 evenings a week leaves a limited time to paint.

I still don't find painting all that fun, I do enjoy it when i'm doing it. But its actually doing it thats the problem, I always find excuses not to.
I suppose the only thing that would really make me paint quicker/everything would be if the club I play at had strict rules or people didn't want to play un-painted armies.
I'd love to have my own fully painted army, don't want anyone else to paint my stuff, when I buy from ebay I specifically look for un=painted. There are 2/3 people at my club who'd happily paint my army for a decent fee if I wanted them to. But i'd rather do it myself, and i'm quite happy doing it in my own time.

Also what would help, is not seeing so many amazingly painted models online (and in person), its a little off-putting, I know practise is what makes you a better painter, and i'm not too bad anyway, but i just want my stuff to look good.

I don't see "ratty, torn-up" as being the same as unpainted. Can you elaborate on how you make that connection?

To me, Painted vs Unpainted is more akin to wearing KMart clothes to go hang out somewhere, while you're wearing Armani or Marc Jacobs.

I'd equate ratty, torn up clothes to something more like unassembled or partially assembled models, broken models, etc.

Eric

Sometimes I would prefer my opponents to have left it as a grey tide because of the massacre of a paintjob. Thankfully it's a rare occurance though.

My point is, if somebody doesn't have the time or confidence to paint why should they?
It's expensive getting good on all the models badly painted. Simple green can only go so far

Their choice their money their models. You have no influence nor should anyone, in campaigns or games that will have photos I would be a bit miffed if someone came with a grey tide, not in the spirit of photos really. The life isn't there....

MagickalMemories wrote:I don't see "ratty, torn-up" as being the same as unpainted. Can you elaborate on how you make that connection?

To me, Painted vs Unpainted is more akin to wearing KMart clothes to go hang out somewhere, while you're wearing Armani or Marc Jacobs.

I'd equate ratty, torn up clothes to something more like unassembled or partially assembled models, broken models, etc.

Eric

They're trying really really hard to come up with some kind of argument I guess.

pretre wrote:- A fully, crappily painted army looks way better than gray plastic on the table.

Yeah... I wouldn't be so sure about that.

I'm more of a painter than a gamer but, when i do play games at least half of my army will be a grey/shiny tide..... I like to paint all of my mini's to the highest possible standard and I just do not have enough free time to get them finished (partly my own fault for starting new projects when the last one isn't done).

I think critisising someone for not painting their army is a bit silly. Sure, it's nice to play against a finely detailed army but, some people just want to play the game/suck at painting/don't have the time/can't be bothered. I'd rather not pass judgement on someone who isn't inviting it

helium42 wrote:

MagickalMemories wrote:I don't see "ratty, torn-up" as being the same as unpainted. Can you elaborate on how you make that connection?

To me, Painted vs Unpainted is more akin to wearing KMart clothes to go hang out somewhere, while you're wearing Armani or Marc Jacobs.

I'd equate ratty, torn up clothes to something more like unassembled or partially assembled models, broken models, etc.

Eric

They're trying really really hard to come up with some kind of argument I guess.

How did you guess? Was it the polite questions, or the lack of vitriolic language? ; )

Eric

Mainly, I just have a standard for my minis. And when I mess them up, I want to strip them down and repaint them. Which can lead to months of work. So if I had somebody to teach me how to paint, or atleast like encouraged me, and gave me tips, not just negative feedback, I might honestly paint more. For me its either, 1. Well painted army OR 2.Army that is completely plastic so you can easily see what you're playing against. To be honest Ive thought about starting a P&M Blog to try and get myself into a regular schedule for my painting, I just......havent. :-/

H.B.M.C. wrote:

pretre wrote:- A fully, crappily painted army looks way better than gray plastic on the table.

Yeah... I wouldn't be so sure about that.

The first army i ever painted was vanilla marines when I was 11. I thought up a sweet black color scheme with a flame motif on the shoulders, helmet, and knee pads. So I went down to walmart and bought a bunch of testors enamels and one of those big testors brushes with the plastic bristles. Im sure you can imagine how it looked.

Eidolon wrote:

H.B.M.C. wrote:

pretre wrote:- A fully, crappily painted army looks way better than gray plastic on the table.

Yeah... I wouldn't be so sure about that.

The first army i ever painted was vanilla marines when I was 11. I thought up a sweet black color scheme with a flame motif on the shoulders, helmet, and knee pads. So I went down to walmart and bought a bunch of testors enamels and one of those big testors brushes with the plastic bristles. Im sure you can imagine how it looked.

I'm guessing they looked like blobs of shiny orange and black oil?

Yeah, it was awful. The display case in my local store had a few golden demon winning models, the guy took away one of his 'single minis' but left the trophy. So we put my old marine in front of it.

I can only describe this painting quality as 'colorblind person with no hands'

I paint, but if I weren't, for me it would be like this.

Friends encouraging me to paint and/or offering tips
- I'll definitely try painting, but if I don't wanna, I'll just keep telling them to mind their own business (in different levels of politeness).

Seeing more painted armies at my FLGS
- Cool, but why do I care, some people like painting, so what.

Strict painting requirements at local Tournaments
- That's a very good reason to do something, although I'll keep it basic and will probably not enjoy it. If I'm the competetive type, I'll try to find loopholes - spray my whole army randomly with 3 primer colors, try to sneak in with unpainted minis anyway, something like that.

More people refusing to play against unpainted
- That's the best reason of all, but in case "more" means "more than 25%", not "more than 2 guys out of 100 in this club". There's also a possibility I'll stop playing in this group, since it clearly views the game differently than I am.

More entry level painting guides in WD, online, etc
- I'll probably not read that.

Also my "Other" reason:
- I may start painting if everyone in my group paints so crappily that my army has a chance to be the best even with the little skill I have. If there's already a lot of artsy professionally-looking armies, why even try, people will just laugh at my childish creations.

BrookM wrote:

pretre wrote:

BrookM wrote:donkey-caves not running my work into the ground, yeah, that would be great.

You mean people saying your painting is poor or something else?

All the while being very classy about it, telling me to disable voting so my crap won't show up in the galleries.

Seriously??? I would love to see the one with audacity to say that.


I would stick paint brushes up their -_-

On the other hand, the best encouragement to get me painting would be, if people actually buy my painted armies, with decent price.....

I'd say tell them to go feth themselves about that Brook and keep it enabled just to spite them. Where the hell are these "concerned people" when I get bombarded by unpainted marines in the gallery?

Nothing should make someone feel forced to paint something, they should do it because they want to. An incentive to do so would help, but should not be required. If they don't want to then they shouldn't feel as if they have to just to be a part of the hobby. As it has been mentioned in the other thread this hobby of ours has several different facets to it. Some cover them all while some wish to focus on a select few instead.

I never competed a full army for the longest time (over a decade actually!) as playing with mates when I was young then stepping out of the hobby never really required it.

What changed was going to a Dakka tournament meet and being a bit older and more conscientious. It was at Warhammer world so having a painted force while not necessary would be more fitting and being in my 30's it was about bloody time I stopped only half finishing things.

Many weeks and much burning of midnight oil later it was still not finished but there was not much more time I could have squeezed out of my life (what with kids, mrs and work!). End result not complete but at least paint of some sort was on everything and a warm fuzzy feeling about the effort I had put in.

And that's what this issue is about for me - effort. For those that demean someone's supposedly substandard efforts without making the effort to actually do any thing themselves snacks rather of TFGism to me. Any paint is better than none simply because someone has taken he time and care to do something.

Ive never refused a game nor envisage doing so just in the basis of painted or not, I do prefer armies paInted though.

It's a bit like those time where for whatever reason there's no proper terrain: a plain table top with paper area terrain and box buildings is okay a proper table is what you want though.

From the OP...

Sorry if I worded the original poll harshly. I really was curious about what factors would motivate those who don't paint to paint.

Please try and curb the the "paint-or-not fight". We've already got one of those threads going on right now and I don't want this one closed down.

Thanks to those who are responding to the question asked, it's much appreciated.

Eilif wrote:From the OP...

Sorry if I worded the original poll harshly. I really was curious about what factors would motivate those who don't paint to paint.

Please try and curb the the "paint-or-not fight". We've already got one of those threads going on right now and I don't want this one closed down.

Thanks to those who are responding to the question asked, it's much appreciated.

Painters should be boiled in thier own ... paint. Bah humbug!

Time

I paint, but the GW model of army creation makes painting ungodly boring. I dislike painting the same minis over and over in the same schemes. That is why my Battletech stuff always gets painted before GW stuff. I can paint a dozen different looking items in a dozen different looking schemes and enjoy it, as opposed to painting another dozen skinks the exact same way as the previous 50.

Well the people i talk to, they are to busy trying to make money to cover their butts, so maybe the Government needs to get off their butts and fix this recession, and quit making nice for the votes, i.e. free $ for the slackers, and borrow $ from other countrys.

but thats just me

then again, maybe get off the computer, **damn, where did that mirror come from?**



Please try to stay on-topic. Thanks ~ Manchu