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I just came to a sad realization today. It has been almost two years since I started my 12 man Fire Dragons squad, and they still aren't done. I keep buying cool stuff and painting the new stuff I get as the first priority. At this rate, I'll be around 65 before I have all my Eldar painted.

How do you stay on task and paint the boring stuff without being drawn to that new model that you must buy and paint.

Thanks! Mez

I currently have 3 armies that are all mid paintjob and I'm still looking to get another army! I'm no help at all.

1.) Plan a cheesed out, tournament competitive WAAC 1.5k army for the codex of your choice. Just the "tournament standard" amount of points wherever I am. This points value is arbitrary, but I suggest you plan around the "tournament standard" amount of points wherever you are.

2.) Then, buy those models, and only those models. Include bits and pieces for conversions or whatever that you plan to do. Plan, of course, and go for the cheapest route. Under no circumstances are you to buy models that you are not going to use in your army.

3.) Build and paint the entire army one unit at a time. Don't even open or bother building the unit that you're not working on at the time. It helps to set a deadline for each unit. From box open, to tabletop/game ready. One week. (Be reasonable of course. Don't expect to get a phantom titan ready in a week. But for a unit of Fire Dragons, or even an Eldar Tank, 1 week is very achievable.)

4.) Only when you're done with your entire army do you play with it. Do not use models you've not painted up. Play with that army for however long you wish. Don't bother buying new models or anything because they're not going to see play and hence; are a waste of time, money, and effort.

I started 40k maybe 2.5 years ago. I purchased, built and painted my 1.5k army and literally haven't bought anything since. I've been using the same armylist for the 100 or so games I've played. You might say its very "boring," and that I have "no variety," but honestly, how many of those "on the whim" units that you buy actually see play?

Not only does the above method get things done, its also the cheapest route, most future-proof route, and in my opinion, most efficient route to starting 40k.

I know I'll have my eldar all painted before I have grandkids.

I can't have kids, so that's a good start.

Aerethan wrote:I currently have 3 armies that are all mid paintjob and I'm still looking to get another army! I'm no help at all.

5 armies started.

like 7 more armies that are unassembled/primed.

5 armies kind of finished.

Mezmaron wrote:I just came to a sad realization today. It has been almost two years since I started my 12 man Fire Dragons squad, and they still aren't done. I keep buying cool stuff and painting the new stuff I get as the first priority. At this rate, I'll be around 65 before I have all my Eldar painted.

How do you stay on task and paint the boring stuff without being drawn to that new model that you must buy and paint.

Thanks! Mez

You train your grand children to paint for you :3

Worglock wrote:

Aerethan wrote:I currently have 3 armies that are all mid paintjob and I'm still looking to get another army! I'm no help at all.

5 armies started.

like 7 more armies that are unassembled/primed.

5 armies kind of finished.

I'll never understand this... unless you play 12 different TT games, you only need 1 army per game system to play the game >.>.

My enemy and his painted army allways gives me the evil look for every unpainted model I field. That's enough motivation to paint the standard models and vehicles too. (Man... painting vehicles is just plain annoying)

LunaHound wrote:You train your grand children to paint for you :3

ROFL !!
Same situation here..

I took a year to paint my Seeker Captain, and she is still the only painted model in my army that's "finished" (I say "finished", because I catch myself wanting to go back and make her highlights more obvious ). I have a ton of models I am redoing all over again since I did them when I was just starting out, so it really does seem like I've achieved practically nothing since I got into the hobby 10 years ago. :(

Dedication, patience, and music, for me at least.

edit:patience*

I currently have 5 armies in for retrofit. RETROFIT. This means they were finished at one point, and I decided it wasn't good enough. Now I'm dealing with 50% customsation across entire armies and repainting everything. At the current rate of progress, ill be finished in about 4 years.

I also picked up eldar. Right now they are being stripped before I do anything with them....

Don't you worry, you will finish painting when you finish painting. Should you decide to stop with the hobby, congratualtions, you've just finished painting.

Depending on how much time you have to paint and amount of money can also determine what you should do. I used to paint 8 hours a day for each squad....then last month I started working 40 hour weeks and only have an hour a day max . There are plenty of commission painters who are willing to do base colors and ink (most charge 15% more than what you paid for the box), allowing you to

A. Add the final basecoat and highlights of each model

or

B. Use the paintjob they did to field your army and have it look painted.

Im going to aim for A with my Necron army. If I couldnt finish the job, why would I have someone help me on it?