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Firstly, for those who haven't read my previous posts, please let me point out I am a total novice here- I haven't even started collecting an army yet but when I do, I have every intention of assembling & painting it to a passable standard.

My question is merely an academic exercise, nothing more, but your thoughts are welcome.

I'm aware that for some people who would otherwise enjoy playing 40k on the tabletop, the concentration & time needed to paint up miniatures puts them off as they just want to get straight in to playing the game.

Do you think GW producing 'ready made' models, out of the box, would open up a new corner of the market to them? An easy way of attracting more new fans, perhaps the young or pressed-for-time? Concurrently with the traditional range, of course.

It's only a thought, nothing more, and I appreciate that to many the painting process is an integral part of the hobby and that perhaps some people would scoff at the idea of removing a big part of the hobby...but I'd appreciate your view!

I think it would significantly devalue the game.

I enjoy both playing and painting. While I could do with out cleaning mold lines, I like assembling minis, building them to be mine.

If they sold pre-painted minis, and kept the old ranges, there would be no impact to my hobby on that front.

But one thing I enjoy is seeing two unique, well painted armies square off across the table. Even if they did a good job on the pre-done minis, every game against them would look the same. “Oh look, another fight vs. the snap-fit Ultras”. Yawn. I suspect it would get old fast.

(And from a personal POV, the pre-made marines would almost defiantly be Ultras, so I’d get tarred with that brush/hate. Despite collecting them since the dawn of time.)

Ever heard of AT-43?

I've yet to see anyone put out pre-painted models for any game that aren't terrible by comparison to even the most mediocre paint scheme on a 40k model. If you want them to be pre-assembled they have to be cast as a single piece, which seriously limits the sculpt detail/quality, the paint comes out awful and streaky, and they use plastic that has a tendency to come out floppy.

I'm much, much happier to see unpainted or poorly-painted models across the table from me than I would be to be stuck with pre-assembled/painted models.

At-43 and Confrontation Age of Ragnorok were not only multi-part, pre assembled and prepainted, they were also pretty good, with some definite turds, admittedly. I have 3-4 armies for each game. The At-43 vehicles were particularly amazing.

This Cobra M8 is almost exactly what the production models looked like (even the emblems. The paint chips are not on my model, I think) for less than an unassembled Space Marine Dreadnought.

Interesting question. I think if GW did prebuilt and Prepainter models they would have to change their line from we're model company to we're ..a game company.
I'm against prepainted mini's. I enjoy painting so for me it would defiantly stop me from bothering with new models. Although after 20 years of GW and mini's I'm more or less tired of building models, well more than a few at a time anyway.
Honestly there's so many shortcuts to getting models painted that are easy now days. And GW's own paint range seems to me to have been streamlined for those new to the hobby.
Just my opinion.

If you want 40K models that have been painted and assembled to the usual standard of pre-painted there are loads of them on Ebay.

That they go for significantly less than models that are unassembled and unpainted tell you how much demand there is.

Even models painted and assembled to an above average standard are rarely worth more than on-sprue.

I love painting, I think I love building a bit more, and honestly I would hate prepainted models.

Even if it wouldn't affect me, I think it takes away from the importance and awesomeness of the hobby, and that frankly only devalue those armies that are fully painted.

I finally got 1850 points of Space Wolves and Deathwach completely painted and based, and if someone fought me with a prepainted army I would be incredibly salty, to say the least.

Nothing wrong with having both as options, it would certainly go a long way to growing the customer base because a lot of people are put off by the hundreds (seemingly) of hours it takes to get an army ready for the table. Why go through all of that when you can take the latest console game home and start playing right away? It's not just price that keeps people away from GW. Some people hobby, some people game, I think more people game than hobby.

SaltySeaDog wrote:
Firstly, for those who haven't read my previous posts, please let me point out I am a total novice here- I haven't even started collecting an army yet but when I do, I have every intention of assembling & painting it to a passable standard.

My question is merely an academic exercise, nothing more, but your thoughts are welcome.

I'm aware that for some people who would otherwise enjoy playing 40k on the tabletop, the concentration & time needed to paint up miniatures puts them off as they just want to get straight in to playing the game.

Do you think GW producing 'ready made' models, out of the box, would open up a new corner of the market to them? An easy way of attracting more new fans, perhaps the young or pressed-for-time? Concurrently with the traditional range, of course.

It's only a thought, nothing more, and I appreciate that to many the painting process is an integral part of the hobby and that perhaps some people would scoff at the idea of removing a big part of the hobby...but I'd appreciate your view!

The prices GW already charges for unpainted, unassembled models are overbloated as it is, what would even hint that GW would dump the prices on premade models and how would that even attract new players?