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I have been thinking about building an Imperial Guard army for the past couple weeks and I have been writing down some notes and estimating how much time it would take me to build a playable force of IG and from what I can gather (since I am a slow painter) it will take me like 6 months. Is this a normal amount of time to collect, build and paint an army? How long did it take you to collect, build and paint your current playable force?

Ahahaha, 6 months? Nooooo, it will be muchhhh longer.

Over a year later and I'm still trying to build what I got let alone paint it all.

To focus your efforts make some army lists and figure out what you need. Build what you are using and then paint what you use most often.

To get my first playable force took about a year and a half between deciding I was going to start the hobby, and having a 2000 point army (my initial objective), granted I collected models and stuff at a slow rate. If I had all of the materials in front of me, I could probably assemble and paint my force over winter break, which is like a month, or three months while in school.

It took me a week to assembel and paint 1500 points of IG and CSM when I started, granted it was not a epic paintjob but it looked alrigth and I enjoyed the process, time is not a issue when your stuck at home with broken ribs and bruised body.

I collected my first army secondhand of Bartertown and eBay, and it was mostly built and partially painted when I got it. I painted it over the course of my first league, ~2 months or so. Painting an army isn't very difficult if you work assembly-line style, and use techniques like color spray basecoating, washes and drybrushing to speed up the process. I would paint about a squad an evening when I really got going, which makes the process pretty quick.

Trondheim wrote:It took me a week to assembel and paint 1500 points of IG and CSM when I started, granted it was not a epic paintjob but it looked alrigth and I enjoyed the process, time is not a issue when your stuck at home with broken ribs and bruised body.

Ohh, I can only imagine what it must of been like when the carpet gremlens steal the tiny bits that fall on the floor.

I only get around to painting/building once or twice a week and I try to have good quality models (a bit too much effort to get rid of all the mold lines, cammo pattern on the infantry) and had a few months of doing nothing with it all. So if you're like that it'll take a while.

It depends ENTIRELY on how complicated your paint scheme is. I run probably the most difficult to paint guard army I know of (12 colors), and paint them to the high end of "tabletop" quality, so for me it took a fair bit of time.

It also depends on how much time you are willing to spend per week on it. What you do for work or school will probably have a big impact on how long it will take, as well as any other social things to take into consideration.

But if you want specifics, I started my guard army in June of 2005, and, after a bit less than two years of painting and playing, I got my 1,000 point list up to this level of completion:



Of course, I kept on painting while I played, which brought new stuff in, and occasionally kicked some painted stuff out, although the latter didn't really happen until after I finished my 1500 point army.

Anyways, at roughly the beginning of 2008, I stopped playing for awile, but kept on working. In june of 2008, three years after I started, I finally got my 1,000 point army completely painted:



After this, though, I struggled to get back into the game, which didn't happen until two years later at the beginning of 2010.

During that time, I made a HUGE push (especially in the preceding 8 months before I played again) to get my army up and proper. This time it was a leap to 1500 points fully painted, with a bunch of new options like special and heavy weapons that I could swap in. After a LOT of painting and modelling (and selling plasma), I got my army up o 1500 points.



Once I started playing again, I of course kept it up, being able to extend to the first time up to 1850 points with the addition of some scratchbuilt ogryn. It was during this time that I really fleshed out the options. I had commissars, and sergeants both with and without power weapons. I had at least a half dozen of each type of special and heavy weapon. I had basically gotten to the point, by the time I was done in april of 2011 that I could add in basically anything I wanted (infantry-wise) with only a relatively minimal amount of effort required, as I already had most of everything, and could easily make those few models more for what I hadn't.

As such, I'd say that to get a properly running infantry army that could consistantly play 1850 points while being able to excersize most options I'd actually care to with little extra effort, it took me about 5 years.

Of course, during that time I also graduated from college, got married, moved far away, and had to deal with a lot of real life problems. And I have a very complex color scheme. And I focused mostly on infantry.

I've been doing some more work the past couple of months to get my army prepped for 6th ed, and I'll have a little more work to do as I replace some near-proxy models (dudes with chainswords being sergeants, but without sergeant stripes, etc.) with proper models. I still have a little bit to grow with infantry, and I certainly have a LONG way to grow with vehicles, which means I'm not "done" with my guard army.

... yet.

Here's 1250 points of Valhallans, mostly infantry:

I started this army 3 months ago as of tomorrow, and I've painted that much, a bunch more infantry who weren't in use (probably a bit over a dozen) and just today I finished a Basilisk. I am a very quick painter though, and I've been at it a very long time.

My advice; I wouldn't paint stuff until you've gotten several games in; no point in painting that griffon you built if you decide not to field it.

Takes like an hour a squad for assembly, and painting above tabletop standard takes a couple hours a guy. At least for me.

I took a week to paint a single character to the best of my ability.

5ish hours to paint each Paladin and my Dreadknight. Another 5 to do my Interceptors. 5 Paladins, Interceptors and a Dreadknight in a week.

Painted a full marine squad in a day. Have a number.




Usually I take between a few days and 2 weeks per session, depending on the level of quality and how interested I am. My Mawloc took a week, while each section of and Aegis Line takes a day, simply because I am bored.

If I have lots of models or very little it takes the same amount of time, as I have a production line system. So painting 10 marines or 50, their armour takes the same amount of time for each step.




Basically what I am trying to say it that I am a very fast painter and usually run out of unpainted stuff within a few weeks or months of Christmas or birthdays. Actually, by May, as my birthday's in February so I restock then lol.

When you can get your speed up to half an hour - an hour per guy with good results, then you're good to go in my book!

I have had my army for 4 years, I am no where close to done. They are just primed still. I suck at painting, so I put it off as long as possible.

I'll try that actually. Most of my time was spent literally watching paint dry. I need to wait at least 10 minutes between coats to ensure dryness. Habit after an incident involving some snapfits. Waited only 2 minutes and went straight for the second coat, only to find the first wasn't dry.

I used a 4 collor scheme, but I had the sense to baecoat them properly. So I saved time on that, I also had no reuierment s to attend school so that is why it only took me a week.

ZatGuy : Yes definitly. That was when I learned the value of having bit boxes ready

Mannahnin wrote:I collected my first army secondhand of Bartertown and eBay, and it was mostly built and partially painted when I got it. I painted it over the course of my first league, ~2 months or so. Painting an army isn't very difficult if you work assembly-line style, and use techniques like color spray basecoating, washes and drybrushing to speed up the process. I would paint about a squad an evening when I really got going, which makes the process pretty quick.

I have never liked assembly line style, just seems too mechanical. I work one model at a time, generally whenever I am bored. If I am sitting by my PC and get bored, grab a guy and model on some armour, or grab a guy and start painting him. Gets done fairly quickly, with about a squad a day being an easy accomplishment.

I started my IG back in 2002. I am still not done. My army list changed a hundred times, at least, I've gone through three codices. I also got sidetracked by Space Marines, Vampire Counts, Tau, Warriors of Chaos, Empire, a scratchbuilt titan, Chaos Space Marines, Daemons of Chaos, Dark Angels, to finally be back to them... as soon as I finish a 1000 pts of Deathwing (which shouldn't be too long)

Lets see... Its been about 3 years for me and i would say i completed my first 2000pts in about a year and a half mabey? My first goal was to complete my Ork hoard/ walker army. I finally called it done after about
- 200 boyz (120 Sluggas and 80 shootas)
- 3 deffdreads
- 3 rokkit kanz
- 3 kmb kanz
- 3 grotzookaz kanz
- some 40+ Nobz
- A looted wagon
- 2 bigmeks (KFF)
- 3 warbosses
- 20 Stormboyz (with Zagstrukk)
- 10 Burna boyz (3 Meks with bigshootas)
- and a stompa

Ever since i have finished them I have been trying to make necron allies for them for apoc... Going very slow tho...

And yes i did start necrons with the old codex ( i miss indestructible monoliths )

Mannahnin wrote:I collected my first army secondhand of Bartertown and eBay, and it was mostly built and partially painted when I got it. I painted it over the course of my first league, ~2 months or so. Painting an army isn't very difficult if you work assembly-line style, and use techniques like color spray basecoating, washes and drybrushing to speed up the process. I would paint about a squad an evening when I really got going, which makes the process pretty quick.

Should have mentioned; the most recent army I did using the techniques above took me just a couple of weeks to get to tabletop level. These pics are not really finished, per se, but every opponent I've faced has seemed perfectly happy to face them:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/429369.page

For doing mass infantry armies, finding a scheme that you can bang out quickly while still looking good is key. The basic Cadian colors are, IMHO, the best looking army when done on a huge scale. It is a dream of mine to own 2500 pts of foot Cadians one day.

Take a look at the army painted sprays. if your color scheme has a basic color that you can find in a spray can, you will save hours of work by simply spraying the entire army and picking out details.

For vehicles, especially IG, you can find historical tank colors in a spray that will be a boon to your painting time. I personally use Battlefront(Flames of War) British Armor for all my OD(olive drab) needs, be it bastions or tanks.

I got my 1500 pts of space marines up in a month or two, but PA is easy to paint. The guardsmen that I had as the PDF to the marines took a little longer but not by much.

-cgmckenzie

Ailaros wrote:It depends ENTIRELY on how complicated your paint scheme is. I run probably the most difficult to paint guard army I know of (12 colors), and paint them to the high end of "tabletop" quality, so for me it took a fair bit of time.

It also depends on how much time you are willing to spend per week on it. What you do for work or school will probably have a big impact on how long it will take, as well as any other social things to take into consideration.

I would add a third factor - how focused you can be. If you spend a whole Sunday building/painting you can get a huge amount done. If you mix that with xbox, internet, tv, etc it can easily dilute productivity enormously.

This is why I love my Ravenwing. At it's core, it's just 4 colours (Black, white, red and silver) with various drybrushes and washes. I can bang out a tabletop quality biker in ~15 minutes.

I have been collecting SM for 6 months now and i only have about 1500 point of an army and im not even done with them.

to get a 2k point army should take your around 10 months to a year (Unless you have a lot of money to buy all the models at once)

Thats the time that it would take the average person to buy the models and paint them. assuming you spend about and hour on each model

Cerebrium wrote:This is why I love my Ravenwing. At it's core, it's just 4 colours (Black, white, red and silver) with various drybrushes and washes. I can bang out a tabletop quality biker in ~15 minutes.

A simple, yet appealing paint job is key. All of my armies are based around only a few colors so as to make army painting easier.

I have been playing IG for about a year or so now. I got lucky buying a large number of pieces for cheap to start off with. I also converted a lot of pieces too. I have about 75% of my army painted and about 50% of its vehicles painted. I have changed color schemes on some figs a few times. So, all in all, it is still taking me a while to finish.
But, you still have fun playing a newly painted piece/s for your friends to see and hear them say ohhhs and ahhhhs.

A; how long does it take? A; how long is a peace of string?
A proper Guard player is never finished, all we do is add to the vast ranks we have. Make More amour than we can ever field. More troops that can make even Orks green with number envy.
Chin up and keep going, that said I've had about two IG army's, the first I sold off, the second I had stolen from out the back of a van (with my beloved 2nd edition Blood Angels and Eldar). My current army has taken about 3 years to build and paint (something like a squad or a tank evey few months of saving)

It took me 17 years and then I just gave up on it.

Shortly after, I gave up on 40k.

MY marine army took me 20 years to get finished (as in I had a goal, and got to it, then stopped. This is the hard part for gamers, as a lot of them exhibit OCD or other obsessions and/or compulsions (see: hoarders).).

My Eldar army took about 17 years to get to the point where I stopped.

Since I no longer play 40k, I no longer need to add more to the armies, and am now going through the piles to see what I want to keep and what will just get dumped into a skip.

Concerning an Imperial Guard army...i f you're me... it's been a year and I have 4 models painted.

I've been playing since 2001 and have only played guard (until a month ago). I've got about 8500 points. One thing I will note is that is was astronomically easier to choose one play style and stick with it for chaos than it was for guard. I had planned on only having 3000 points but that blew up 5500 extra when I changed the way I played twenty times. So be aware of that.

But you will have a long process of painting ahead of you. 6 months may be a little low though

Got 2,000 points of Guard complete with all kinds of force category. I'm not a very good painter, and it's taken about 3-4 months.

Uhh, actually, my Imperial Guard are mostly unpainted or simply primed. The vast, VAST majority in fact.

Mainly because I'd rather play World of Warcraft or chat on forums, rather than paint models. Most of the time, anyways. I just find painting models to be so... bleh... For special projects involving a few special models, I enjoy it, but painting a whole army? Not my cup of tea, to be honest.

Don't get me wrong, I love the look of painted models, I love to play with them, to show them off, to see them as a collection... I just don't like painting. I have the spare time; I have nothing BUT spare time... but... don't like painting.

I do quite enjoy assembling and kitbashing and the occasional conversion, and I usually enjoy gaming, even if it does become an unpleasant thing most of the time. Not because of the gaming itself, but because I play with my mom, in the spare bedroom, and of course the household pets want to be near the people, and so they come in, and we can't just shut the door and leave them out, because my mom can't stand to hear the dog whining at the bedroom door. Then of course the cats come up onto the table, and my mom pays more attention to the dog and cats. And then the dog decides to lie down completely in the way and he growls if you step anywhere near his head. And the room's so cramped that the lights and the people and the animals provide so much heat that the room gets warm and I get warm and my back hurts from leaning over the table and I'm all hot and sweaty and my knees are stiff from being locked for so long from leaning forward constantly. And we can't play in the much cooler basement because when my brother has his friends over for a party they have all that booze and they treat the gaming table like any other table and they put their laptops and their clothes and their drinks on it and the models are completely unsafe. Can't play in the dining room either because of course we need that space in case company comes over and we can't just put the stuff away we have to keep it all out of sight...

Ya know, it's a wonder I like this game as much as I do.