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So, the question is pretty self explanatory Of course, some games will have 5 miniatures and others will have 200, but put that aside.

For myself, my favorite game is 40k, and the smallest army I field is about 1,500 points. When I first started gaming, I couldn't wait to play the models, and it was probably 0-10 hours. Now, if it's a new army (like AdMech), the models never see a gaming table for at least half a year from the time I start painting the first model -- so probably the 500+ category. There have been exceptions, like Grey Knights, where the model count is quite low, or Necron, where the models are quite easy to paint.

Length depends on the game but I finish painting my army before playing. I paint quite slowly but I can paint 4 hours a day if I'm really into it. A bigger games like 40k or Bolt Action will take me months and around 250 hours. Skirmish games take about 1-3 weeks depending on how many models I have and probably around 20-50 hours.

I dread having to paint another mass battle army due to how long it'll take me. I have a lot of trouble speed painting because I always seem to end up trying to do everything on rank and file models that should just get block colours and a wash.

I have an hour max each night to hobby (work+wife and kid), so if I only played painted I would never play. In two years I've only managed to completely paint three tanks and two units of infantry. That said now that I have a 40k army assembled and at least partially painted I'll probably try to paint my second one as much as possible before I play it.

A really good question Talys, but I don't think it's the sort of thing a poll will tell you anything about.

I remember as a kid believing I couldn't field an army unless it was painted, and I shouldn't paint unless I could produce high standards. Guess how many minis I got painted as a kid.

Today I still believe that games must be played with painted minis (apart from boardgames - I ain't painting zombicide no matter what) but I don't hold myself to unachievable standards. I paint, I finish a mini, I learn and move on. Mind you, as I'm still yet to play a game since I decided to returned to the wargames hobby what do I know?

@Henry - yeah, I know what you mean We were only allowed to play painted models as a kid too, so my models consisted of basecoat, wash, a tiny bit of detail, and decal (badly applied hahaha).

I'm just curious, more than anything, as to how much time people think is "normal" to put into an army before they start playing it.

Hope you get to play a game soon with dem minis you painted

Most of the time I just assemble my army, say "I'm going to paint before I play" and then my gaming group is like "No TCL just play you'll have fun". Thus... I'd say 3 hours worth of assembly time?

However, this month I've nearly completed a whole new Bolt Action army before it has seen any table time. I'm talking models that I painted the day after I glued them together. So... in this case I'd say 20 hours.

However long it takes me to put it together. I'm so much more of a fan of playing than painting, so the sooner it's put together and I can field it, the better. I'm only painting my FoW currently because all unpainted/primed 15mm infantry look alike from tabletop distance, so I need to be able to tell units apart. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't bother.

I aim to only play painted, but in reality I'll start on an army and then use it in whatever state is in at the time (minimum is usually primed in an appropriate colour). My only real goal is to have it more painted than the previous outing, or if playing an escalation league, to try and get each level finished before expanding.

I'm a slow painter without a lot of free time, so it's just not practical to wait until something is finished unless it's a handful of minis. My WOTR probably won't see the table until it's finished, but even now it's hit the 3 colour 'minimum' commonly accepted; skin, steel and wood.

I start playing as soon as it's assembled. Nothing would suck more than spending forever to paint an army that you end up not enjoying playing. Best to find out early on if you enjoy playing the army or not.

I'm usually playing a mix of models with different paint levels. Fully painted/decaled Tacticals. Primered Rapiers and Knights. Bare plastic Bikes. If I need it for a game, it gets played - the game's the thing; the painting hobby's secondary.

I may be vastly overestimating the time I've put into armies that have been used, but I answered 21-50. Honestly, I'd probably put it at the lower end of that spectrum.

As a general rule, a unit won't get used unless it's at a bare minimum, primed. But I really, truly hate doing that.

So, more often my armies see table time and games if they are following the GW "3 color" rule. This, for me is usually no where near done, but this usually means I've painted the armor/weapon color, skin and some aspect of the uniform, even if that's just a basecoat on the uni.

While I enjoy painting, and enjoy a game where everything is painted a lot more than a game with unpainted models, I also do like to play. So if I haven't got everything painted by game time, I just play anyway.

I also paint an an asbolutely glacial pace, so if I left it until everything was done, I'd never play a game. Even skirmish games - I've been playing Infinity for nearly 3 years, and have had 4 games with an enitely painted list. 3 of those were yesterday at a tournament.

Far, far too long....

How can anyone have an army ready in under 10 hours? Clip the bits off the sprue, slap them together and call it a day?

Each to their own I guess, but given the relative quality and cost of GW models, I'd want to make sure you get the absolute best bang for your buck.

 Gordy2000 wrote:
Far, far too long....

How can anyone have an army ready in under 10 hours? Clip the bits off the sprue, slap them together and call it a day?

Each to their own I guess, but given the relative quality and cost of GW models, I'd want to make sure you get the absolute best bang for your buck.

You can assemble an army to a decent quality in under 10 hours. You'll just have to do all of the mold line work later.

 Gordy2000 wrote:
Far, far too long....

How can anyone have an army ready in under 10 hours? Clip the bits off the sprue, slap them together and call it a day?

Each to their own I guess, but given the relative quality and cost of GW models, I'd want to make sure you get the absolute best bang for your buck.

Of course, outside of a GW game where model counts are sensible, 10 hours can get you good results.

I don't really paint much before going into battle.

I've been playing the 123rd unpainted legion of khador for quite some time, I'm slow as sludge when it comes to painting.

I can generally assemble a squad in less than a few hours however.

Interesting question but not answerable in a simply enough way to work as a poll.

My first army I started playing with almost immediately. I spent about 20 hours on a weekend painting up the first 2 units that formed the core of the army, but I was playing with them primed before that (which took 0 hours because I bought them already assembled and primed). I bought them one week, played with them that weekend, then painted them 1 or 2 weekends later. That was back when you could have a decent game of WHFB with under 50 models, so I just kept building the army and playing with the new stuff as it came along.

I tend to play armies when they're small, only 1 or 2 squads, but it's so variable that I can't really answer your poll. I have a couple of armies that I have spent hundreds of hours over the course of several years that I've never played a game with and quite possibly never will because GW canned WHFB.

I only play painted. My paint style is solid table top standard and I use washes and drybrushing to max effect. Never gonna be Golden Demon but all models are painted to respectable level and based.

I've gotten quicker over the years and washes have definitely helped so assembly actually takes me the longest for most things.

Because I'm new and trying to learn whilst I paint, it varies. Before it hits the table, it has to be minimum primed and washed in ink so that my opponent can clearly see what it is.

I always ask if my opponent is okay with my using part-painted miniatures, I have a completed 1000pt army if they don't.

For a figure to be TTS for me, it varies by model.
Infantry 10-15hrs per squad
Commanders, sergeants, commissars, 15+hrs per figure (last night I spent three or four hours and a sandwich on a commissar hat)
Vehicles... I've never fully finished one, so 10+

Being that my current army is 50 infantry, plus HWS, plus a squad made purely of Commissars, a rhinestoned tank, and that blood shipwreck Aquila... Short answer is I have no idea.

I usually try to get the models painted before I play them. I got a little ahead of myself lately by buying models faster then I could paint so I put a stop to buying new models until I catch up. I'm a warmachine player so my model count is rather low compared to a 40k armies. Might take me a week to get a unit painted up if I work on it a few hours a day. I try to paint everyday but lately been painting my brothers models and don't have time for my own.

I paint whatever I field before I field them. It gives me a reason to paint them. How long that takes depends. If we are actually talking purchase to play time it can be years. If we are talking actual time on painting, I try to do a unit in about 3-4 hours.

I feel shame is my army has even 1 bolter not painted.

Depends very much on the army and the game that I need it for - if I am painting up an Ogre army for Kings of War then it does not take all that long - but longer than it will take me to paint up a starting army for Cygnar in WARMACHINE.

Painting up a full army for Kings of War, with normal sized figures... maybe a hundred to two hundred hours of painting time?

Undead take less time.

The Auld Grump

As a general rule, I'll paint up a squad, and perhaps a vehicle or two just to see how I like the look of the paint scheme on the table in a game before I proceed, painting up squads with each new game.
The escalation league a FLGS had at the start of the year was perfect for my type of style as we played every two weeks, starting at 250 points, working our way to a 2000 point army.

I'll spend an inordinate amount of time putting models together, this will take so long that the painting bit that I like feels like a drag. I also get distracted by themed terrain to go with an army. I've spent the last 2/3 weeks cleaning and preping an Undead Warmaster army. I've just about done that but rather than Basecoating the lot today I decide to hack some blue foam about to make a pyramid and some sand dunes. This was not time well spent!

 kronk wrote:
I feel shame is my army has even 1 bolter not painted.

You just paint the Bolters? What if the model doesn't have Bolters?

I try to get them basecoated before they're on the table, but when I can get games in I prioritize that over painting. But playing a basecoated army is good motivation to go home and paint too. Even a basic painted army in four base colors looks better than that.

I only paint what I am actually going to play. I play-test to determine what I'm actually going to play. So...every now and again I play some sweet grey models for a while. As soon as I'm sure I'm actually going to play a model (or models), I start painting them and try to finish them up as fast as I can (tabletop).

Every once in a while I get 40KADD and paint a model that I will never play....

I'd say if I go by my last army, about 2000 points of SoB (proxies, I'm not that rich) I spent about 50 hours on them. That is excluding one character, on which I may have lavished five hours. I was so efficient in batch painting, washing and highlighting them that is went by quite fast.

Are they Golden Daemon quality? Not by a long shot. Do they look great as an all painted army on the tabletop? Damn yeah.

As of now it takes me somewhere around the 200+ hours depending on how many models and the color scheme. I normally play 1250 points lists now and I want all my models painted before I play. My IG were about an hour per infantry, 2 hours per heavy weapon stand, vehicles take about 6 hours each and then basing will take me another 2-4 hours to finish the army.

Where as my Imperial Fists will probably take me 3 hours for each marine...

I've never really estimated my time spent. Though I confess I play with silver and grey legions. I hate it, but I have no choice if I want to play games as I take an age to get armies finished. I always try to have something on the go, either painting or assembly, but on average, it takes me 1-2 weeks to finish off a unit, vehicle or similar.

As an example of why it takes me so long: My latest batch completed, which was far too long overdue, was the final bits of my 2000 point BFG Chaos Fleet. That took me 2 weeks to finish off 3 cruisers, a grand cruiser and a battleship. They've been outstanding for 5 years now with 3 other cruisers finished 3 years ago! Also on the go, I have a load of Darklands of assorted Kindreds, Horus Heresy Alpha Legion, White Scars and Mechanicum, a veritable horde of Epic and AI miniatures of all races, Sedition Wars, Warhammer Quest dungeon monsters, Man O'War, Skitarii, Rogue Trader Imperial Guard, Elysians, BFG Adeptus Mechanicus and Dropzone Commander Resistance. However, in order to avoid boring myself, I switch between ranges when I finish a batch. So, when I finished my BFG Chaos Fleet, I switched to painting Darklands Angelcynn Duguth Warriors. After the Duguth are done, then I'll switch to a completely different range. It slows me down, but keeps things fresh and I've managed to maintain a continual painting and assembling momentum for over 1 and a half years now. It helps to have a huge pile of assembled and primed miniatures ready to be picked up painted.

A trick I find useful is to always, where possible, do a little something each day or night depending on your free time and the Mrs/Mr and Children's needs. The little something could be as little as adding a coat to a pair of trousers or the foundation for a gem. At least something was done, ready for the next stage.