Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello All.

Just wanted to see peoples views on the following, so essentially, I love building warhammer models. Its probably my most enjoyed aspect. I have never been a painter, never really been motivated to paint partly due to my own skill level but also just never really found it fun in all honesty.

So I am currently in progress of building a range of 30k marines and have drawn towards the death guard legion.

However I wanted to ask as most of the models are the same per legion, bar from specific elite units or the odd model etc.

If you knew a player who just enjoyed building and collecting, and each week they was using the models as a different legion etc just to add variety, but they also purchased some of the specific units for the other legions for when they do switch it up.

Would you personally be ok with that and play games etc or would you think, Im not going to play someone who wont paint and stick to one legion.

Cheers all, feel free to be as honest as you like, just me personally Im leaning towards this aspect as like I say I dont have any intention to paint, but would love to try different legions and rules on the fly for variation.

I wouldn't mind, as long as it was clear what was what by looking at the model. I'm a big believer in painting your models the way you want, and I don't think that 30k is exempt from this philosophy. Many do disagree though and prefer the immersion of "accuracy" to the fluff.

Should probably add or make it clear, that the models would not be painted really, just built so I can play with. As I say, I really enjoy the building side not so much painting haha

I would be very happy to play with you. WYSIWYG matters to me insofar as equipment, but I've played against 40k marine armies proxied as 30k armies. The fact that your army has historically accurate models and equipment is perfectly fine to me. I can't blame you, building models is a lot of fun.

So long as it's clear what model is what, and it's not drastically smaller then the original model to claim cover saves.

I've played with and against more unpainted or partially painted armies than finished armies.
As long as units have enough 'glance value' and consistency I'm not concerned at all.

eg:
You have two units of Justaerin terminators, today they are Siege tyrants, tomorrow they are deathshroud, last week they were Justaerin.
This is fine.

I'd be concerned if one unit of Justaerin were 'regular' terminators and the other was siege tyrants though because I cant be certain which one is which.

It wouldn't be a deal breaker, i.e I would still give you a game, but to be honest I do try to avoid playing people with unpainted miniatures for three reasons

• The modelling and army personality is the main point of Warhammer for me, it is very difficult to build a cool story with someone who has put no effort into these things.

• The presence of an unpainted army kinda ruins the 'spectacle' and undermines all the effort that I put in painting and modelling my army, making thematic scenery, buying in game mat etc

• People with unpainted armies are usually focused on power gaming or finding loop holes in the rules which is not what I am interested in.

Obviously these a big generalisations and usually talking to somebody about what sort of game you want to play quickly makes it clear if you will have fun playing each other or not!
I often end up having games with people who have an unpainted unit or two that they bought and built in the shop that day, but who are still interested in the same sort of game as I am.

If I knew you had no intention of ever painting your army, I would not play you.

If I knew you had an intention of doing so, I'd play you once, and then expect progress.

If you had a painted army, I would have no issues with this whatsoever.

I wouldn't mind. Though with minimum effort you could probably paint them as Blackshields and say Well these guys are ex-Death Guard".

Thank you for the replies all, great seeing everyone views .

just wanted to clarify, I did not mean as such that one unit would pretend to be another such as regular terminators being red butchers etc.

More a case of the basic units such as mk3 Marines and quad mortars etc, these as I feel are in every legion (or majority), I can use them as varying legions when fancy trying something different.

If I was to try a specific legion such as imperial fists, I would make sure as a example I still had there unique units (the actual fw models) etc.

appreciate the comments all, great help.

Personally, I would prefer not to play against the Legion of Grey Plastic. I don't like fielding my own models unpainted because the look and feel of the game is what is most important to me, I don't think it takes that much to get a really basic paint job on some models.

I like the idea of doing a clever variable army, though. I wonder if it would be possible to create a convincing 'switch-out' army if you choose the right legions as so many are the same colour.

For example, if you had a basic force of generic marine units and tanks, all painted red with nothing more than numeric squad markings, you could then have a few squads each of Thousand Sons, Blood Angels and Word Bearer specialist units and play the army as any of them!

Or paint the generic marines black and do Raven Guard, Iron Hands, Dark Angels, Sons of Horus first company, really dark metal Iron Warriors and black-armour variant Imperial Fists. Bonus points for having a set of extra sergeants per legion to give each squad some visual clues.

You could go generic black and say they struck out there heraldry as a matter of shame, dishonour and such on regular units.

They could simply be disgraced marines, fighting but not worthy of there colours. ?

Sgts, specials and the officers in legion colours.

I would prefer any colour scheme over unpainted. Even completely invented one as long as it's not something totally silly like the "fully painted" cygnar army i saw that looked like black wash over white with blue osl. Silly as cloth, weapons, flesh all was same black...