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Recently, I ran into a strange habit. I found myself hesitant to purchase more models for my army, as I had a large amount that are yet to be painted. I think this is a good effect as it pushes me to finish painting what I have before continuing. Have you guys had a similar problem? If so, what do you do? Push on and buy more models or hold off and play/paint for a while?

I hold off. It saves money, and (as you say) gives me time to paint my army.

Be patient!

I wish I had that feeling earlier. I am surrounded by unassembled/unpainted minis.

Though I have been much better of late only buying a couple things for WMH.

I'm trying to restrict my purchases to books and accessories to help myself catch up on the mountainous backlog.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:
I hold off. It saves money, and (as you say) gives me time to paint my army.

Be patient!

Aye. I recently bought about 500-700 points worth so I could compete in a tourney soon, but luckily I have about a month to paint them. I have stuff on my eBay watch list, but I just look at it now and go "Oh, more stuff to paint..."

I even have a lot of models that are more or less fully painted, but I still need to do their bases =/

It goes in waves for me. I tend to go on buying sprees, buying entire armies/game systems in one go and then when I want to expand on them I look at the huge pile of plastic and go "right, lets first paint some of this stuff". At which point I set myself some hard limits as to when I can buy again. Keeps a nice balance between painted mini's and a supply of to paint stuff.

I buy in bulk these last two years and buy nothing more until they are painted and modelled to completion. Started doing it because of FW postage costs, but it works well for me keeps me on schedule and up to date!

I have this problem only multiplied almost just because of school work and not having the time to paint. I'm also pretty lazy about painting and if I don't force myself to actually paint, I'll end up spraying a few models and then leaving them for another week or so...

 Jaxies wrote:
I have this problem only multiplied almost just because of school work and not having the time to paint. I'm also pretty lazy about painting and if I don't force myself to actually paint, I'll end up spraying a few models and then leaving them for another week or so...

I've done that. I've even assembled and primed models so I could play em without painting lol

I'm on a limited budget, so I have a mental, prioritised, shopping list of things I want for various games and factions.

If one of these things crops up on eBay, some sort of promotion, swap shop or whatever, I jump on it, because whether I paint it next or in three years time, if I got it at a good price that will always be applicable.

I'm extremely hesitant to buy any minis and I'm just starting my army, I have the money in my wallet and the minis in my hand but I can never seem to put the money on the counter. It's several shades of annoying.

It's really a function of budget and hobby.

If you have the money, and want to own a model, you might as well buy it when it comes out (especially if it's an expensive, solo model), because what happens is that they just go out of production, out of stock, or the price goes up. I find it annoying when I finally get around to an army and can't get X model, or have to pay GW full price for it because it's turned direct.

I gave up on trying to catch up painting to my models a very long time ago However, I love painting and army building -- much more than playing the actual game, which to me is just a chance to socialize and play with my collection. If I could, I'd squeeze in more painting time every day (I probably paint/model 20+ hours a week). So, it just depends on what you like and can afford

I hit the wall several years ago. I only buy models I REALLY want to paint or I REALLY need in one of my armies.

When I was in my late teens and I first started to earn a bit of money I went crazy and bought way more than I had time to paint. These days I'm more aware of my time and I only buy things if I think I can spare the time to paint them.

Though I have been known to buy whole squads just for the sake of painting 1 or 2 models, these days I do it knowingly instead of naively thinking I'll actually paint the whole squad.

 tikhunt wrote:
I'm extremely hesitant to buy any minis and I'm just starting my army, I have the money in my wallet and the minis in my hand but I can never seem to put the money on the counter. It's several shades of annoying.

Yeah, I totally agree. Sometimes it's hard to figure out the best option price-wise or whatever, especially with GW.

Buying is fun. It's also expensive, and leads to project guilt, where you have stuff in box, or almost worse, partially completed, and you know you'll not finish it any time soon.

I've been trying to paint more than I buy, but it still took a pretty massive selling effort to bring my unfinished projects down to a reasonable level.

I decided last year that I would not buy anything new unless I fulfilled painting goals. It's a fairly basic system, and it rewards me for getting things completed that have sat half-finished for years.

1. For every 10 infantry, I may by 1 blister of infantry.
2. For every 3 vehicles or terrain pieces, I may buy a single boxed set.

I make adjustments for things like characters (which count as 5 infantry) or special items like heavy conversions or super-heavies (which count as 3 vehicles). I haven't been perfect, but I've bought less and painted more, and that's sort of the goal.

Belive it or not, this become an addiction pretty fast, with the risk to end as a hoarder of plastic soldiers, the best way to evade this is to take your time to assamble, make convertions and paint the little dudes, in other words, enjoy the hobby, this will make you see the panorama and help you to enjoy more each buy you make

 jreilly89 wrote:
Recently, I ran into a strange habit. I found myself hesitant to purchase more models for my army, as I had a large amount that are yet to be painted. I think this is a good effect as it pushes me to finish painting what I have before continuing. Have you guys had a similar problem? If so, what do you do? Push on and buy more models or hold off and play/paint for a while?

Definately. I am only really satisfied with what I have when it is painted. I will admit I rarely base my models, but it is rarer that I play with an unpainted model. The main expirience for me has always been painting models and seeing them in all their glory on the battlefield. The game is nothing more than a glorified version of chess if not for the paint. Table top gaming for me is an expirience that should immerse you in imagination as much or more than strategy. Strangely enough I do not mind however bad I lose as long as I play against models I have painted myself.

I've actually ran into this alot. I've put off buying an Imperial Knight until I get my Space Marines and Grey Knights fully painted.

It's been 2 years and they're finally painted! YAY!

It's a great way to keep yourself motivated to paint your minis I find. The only real hesitation I have when buying more is the usual, "it looks awesome, but do I really need it? Will I field it?".

I never buy more until I've painted almost everything I have. I've got two armies (IG and Alpha Legion with Fallen Angel allies), so I just alternate between them so I don't get too bored. I also have a bit of scenery to paint. I just got a bulk order from FW, so I have 30 MKIVs, MKIV Command Squad, 1 FW dread, 2 DV Helbrutes, 1 IG, 3 IG heavy weapon teams (painted one autocannon), 5 Fallen Angels, and a ACW farmhouse as scenery. Only when I get down to the bottom of that will I consider buying more. It's worth noting this is by far the biggest my to-paint pile has been since I started.

In an effort to reduce the amount of unpainted plastic in my basement, I try not to purchase models unless I actually plan to use them in a list, and once obtained, I do not base them (or even assemble them fully) until they are painted. For starters, it's much easier to paint a miniature if it's not on it's base (or fully put together), and more importantly, I usually can't use it on the tabletop until I have a base underneath it.

This does lead to less games overall, but at least when I play, people are impressed with what I'm putting on the table.

yeah, definetly! got a pile of boxes of partially done models.
3 cerastus knights, another knight magaera, 4 thanatar, a mk2b landraider, a normal landraider, a legion medusa, a myrmidon secutor cult, a myrmidon destructor cult, 8 squads of phase plasma thallax, 3 techpreists, an anvillus drop pod, four cyber-occularis and 2 abeyants.

the biggest problem with a big 'to do' pile is the standard of your build and paintjob drops in proportion to the weight and quantity of models!

my modus operandi: make sure the money is actually spare and then buy in bulk early - all models I bought from FW were increased in price very soon after I bought them.

plus - you may get a mis-cast and get a duplicate sent if you complain hard enough.

Same boat as many of you, especially when saving for important life stuff. I reduced my spending considerably last year and managed to power through painting more minis than all of my previous 3 years combined. I even painted minis outside of my normal armies and took on a bit of work for a friend for some specific practice. My steam ran out around November however and still working on building it back up.

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to not buy any new minis until all my existing ones are built and at least base-coated. So far so good...

i'm hesitant because of the rapid release schedule. I cannot commit to a new army before the next release rolls around and I give that a look see!

At some point, I reached a threshold where I came to the realization that it was ridiculous for me to buy more units until my long queue of unpainted models was complete.

I may buy a unit or two to adjust to the new Necron codex, that being my first and largest army, but after that, I'm not buying anything until I've caught up.

Until I do, anyways...

 jreilly89 wrote:
I found myself hesitant to purchase more models for my army, as I had a large amount that are yet to be painted.

Stop buying, and do some more work on what you already have.

Most of us lack that discipline, hence, our Closets of Shame.

But it's not too late for you. Save yourself!

I haven't purchased a single model since before 7th. Actually, the last models I bought were the new Knight-Titan kits when they first came out.

Reason #1 - 40k is in too much flux to waste my funds on at the moment. If something new comes out that I might want because it looks awesome ... I'm still waiting, because,

Reason #2 - GW has lost my confidence as a customer, due to a long line of what I see as bad business decisions. I'm voting with my wallet, which at the moment is a vote of no confidence. When things change for what I think is healthier for the community, I'll vote with my wallet by buying into their product again. Until then,

Reason #3 - I already own 6 editions worth of models, and the armies I enjoy playing have had no new units released since 6th. No new units means no reason to drop hard earned cash on models I don't need.

That said, the new GK codex was a godsend for me! No need to purchase anything new, as I already have the models the new codex supports. Thank you Geedub for weening me off the plastic teet!

SJ

I’m trying to keep a paint more then I buy thing going. Kept that goal last year, probably maintain it this year as well.

 jreilly89 wrote:

 Jaxies wrote:
I have this problem only multiplied almost just because of school work and not having the time to paint. I'm also pretty lazy about painting and if I don't force myself to actually paint, I'll end up spraying a few models and then leaving them for another week or so...

I've done that. I've even assembled and primed models so I could play em without painting lol

When I first got my deathwing, I primed them white, splashed some sepia on them, and pretended that they were painted to be bone It took me about two weeks before I actually went back and started painting them properly. They're one of the few models you can pull that off with though, I actually need to paint anything that's green.

I'm on a purchasing freeze until I catch up. One model per day!