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So I'm sure most of us find it hard to stop buying new stuff and I'd be interested in your version of the "addiction" and how you deal with it.

I've got multiple half built or half painted armies, not including all the stand alone stuff.
Now I really want to focus on one army so I can take it to my local store and start playing games.

So I was hoping I could get some advice and suggestions on which army would be good to start gaming with and also for longevity eg. Models, higher skill cap, etc.

My choices:
I currently have a lot of orks, mostly half built.
Genestealer cults built and unpainted, waiting for codex and kits.
Most of the Death guard range all built and half painted.

Which of these would be a good army to learn and grow with as I'm not the most experienced player.

Appreciate the answers and curious if you ever had problems with just sticking to one thing.

I would suggest getting a Kill Team’s worth of each army painted up, and then try those out at your local shop.

You may find you like one better than the others, or even that you don’t enjoy painting / playing with one of the factions. I love Orks, but absolutely hate painting them. I have a KT I’m working on and that’s probably all I’ll ever do with Ork models.

That said! I love playing with Orks and if painting them doesn’t make you want to inflict harm on yourself, everyone loves playing against Orks. They’ve never been at the top of the power curve that I can recall, but there’s usually at least one strong build in a given codex.

Edit: Regarding sticking to something, in the overall life of your hobby, you’ve got a lot of time. But changing your view from plastic crack to plastic fine wine might help. Try to look at each kit as something to savour. I like collecting a variety of units, so this works for me as I get to enjoy the unique “flavours” of each kit I buy and build... and eventually paint.

I'd suggest Death Guard. They have tough units that are very forgiving to a new player, and mostly straight-forward tactics. They're a bit ornate to easily paint to a high standard, but people expect them to look a bit messy.

1st;
Q:How do I handle my addiction?
A: I simply budget for it. Same amount set aside each month. And then I make sure that I don't exceed that budget.

2nd;
Go to your local store & find out what they're most often playing & at what scale. Build to fit that.
Once you've got enough of 1 army finished to play at the shop, start working on the next one.

I have an eBay account. Whatever is gleaned from t'ebay is spent on t'hobby. All else is transitory.

I handle my addiction by having a set monthly budget and by never having more than twenty minis waiting to be painted.

Before, I spent a fortune in a very scattergun way and had piles of piles and piles of awesome minis, on sprues in boxes in a trunk.

Since instituting these rules, I finished my first painted and based 2K army ever. It took fourteen months from start to finish, though I did nothing at all between March and September because life gets in the way sometimes.

Play mono marines, I'm sure losing every game will slow your purchases

This is going to be a weird...tangent response, but bear with me.

Play with painted models.

While it took me maybe 15-20 years to figure this out myself, it's not about hobby elitism or whatever crap people spout on here. Once you hold yourself to the standard of playing with painted models, it actually curbs a ton of the impulse buying, etc. Why? Because the end goal is much further than "buy it, rip it open, glue it together, throw it on the table". When I look at a new army, I don't think "How much does it cost?" I think "how much time and effort, and money will it be before I can put this army on a table, fully painted". Obviously the answer to the latter question is MUCH longer/more expensive.

Having sold tens of thousands of dollars of second-hand 40K stuff for friends (I sell used minis on commission, etc.) I see firsthand the massive amount of wasted money and time from abandoned projects/armies. It's helped reinforce my own philosophy. I'm more easily able to look at something and think "man I want that", but then realize "Do I want it enough to spend a few months painting it...or will I run out of steam in a few weeks when the shiny-new-chrome wears off?".

In the end I've been able to resist a lot of purchases, and as a result my lead mountain is smaller than many people. It's no longer about what army I think looks neat - it's about which army will genuinely motivate me to work for several months or even years to have a fully painted/finished army I can put on the table and be proud of.

A few thoughts:

1) what army you go for is ultimately down to you. That's a choice you have to make based on play style, power, what you like, lore, visuals, etc...

2) It's very easy to build up a lot more models in boxes and half built and unpainted than it is to get through them. By and large its easier and faster to buy and then end up with a guilty pressure atop you so I'd suggest a few things:

a) Clean up your hobby desk/area. Yep clean it up. Tidy away the loose bits, put the paint pots to order; clear the main desk work area. Basically sort stuff out. This helps you a lot (though you might not realise it) as reducing clutter makes it a lot easier to mentally focus on projects because the tools and items to work on are right there and easy to access and as you're working on them you've not got a dozen other halfprojects starting back at you demanding attention.

b) Put stuff you've still got in boxes to one side. Yep put it to one side and store it away. You've not lost it, you've simply put it neatly to the side to let you focus directly on fewer things at once. Again this is about helping you to focus.
If you've got 3 half built armies focus on one and put the other two away. You can always get them out again whenever you want, but by putting them away they reduce their pressure on you somewhat.

c) Keep a count. I've started keeping a written record (blogs help) of how many kits I've built and bought. I've started it at Christmas and, for me, its about reducing my "box" collection. So for me I started at 0 and deduct 1 every time I build a box of models (or if I choose to, sell/give it away) and I add 1 every time I buy a box. With my intention to own less boxes than I do now by next Christmas - so provided I remain on the negative side of 0 I'm doing well.
This isn't about stopping you buying, its about exercising a degree of control by monitoring your habits. It's more practical, I find, than trying to say "don't buy anything at all" and also allows you to vary through the year - if one army suddenly takes your fancy you can focus on them and buy up what you need.

d) I've found that when it comes to building models I like to now sit down and clip out all the bits I need from a box of models. Neatly setting down the base (upside down) and then setting all the bits for each model into its base. This way I've got a pile of models ready to assemble.
In any few moments I can reach out and select one and start to clean up mould lines and assemble it. I find it really works well for letting you get on with building in small time slots without having to pause every so often to find the sprue and the instructions and work out what you need next.
Note this only works if the models can be put in a place that won't be approached by kids/pets/adults with a mindset to fiddle. If you have such disturbances you might use some sealable plastic bags to slip the parts for each model into to keep them together.

e) Set yourself objectives and targets. Depending on your time, dedication and mental outlook this can be detailed or casual plans. Sometimes more casual ones work best because they are more readily adaptable and won't give you a mounting sense of failure that stricter ones can start to create if you keep missing or moving deadlines. IT's a hobby not a line of work.
So perhaps say that you will work on X army and will aim to get 30 models done and painted. That might be all the plan you need to stick to - no date, no timeline just a rough "this is next"
Write up the plans and tick them off.



In general its good to come up with plans and approaches to help you push forward; but its also equally important to log those progresses and results. Even if its not the progress you want, logging it helps you keep an eye on things. You can more readily realise if your plans need to change; or you can draw hope from seeing your results standing up - displaying your models helps too - seeing a whole army starting to come together visually (rather than hidden in boxes) really helps you feel good about your progress.

I'll echo a lot advice given here already:

Elbows is correct. Only play with painted models. If you don't place that standard on yourself, it is very easy to stick your collection in your transport case and not pull them out again to put the paint on them.

Have a plan on how much work/detail you plan to put on each model. Remember perfect is the enemy of good. Meaning if you plan on having each and every model painted to highest possible quality you could do, you have a very good chance of never finishing any army. It is very easy to get frustrated that painting isn't where you want it to be. Or it could be just be you take more than a decade to actually finish the army to that level. Either way, good chance the army will NEVER be completely painted. I think it is much better to develop a good tabletop standard and only spend extraordinary time on select 'center piece' units.

Have your paint station ready to paint at all times if possible. If you have to setup and break down your paint station that is plenty of inertia to push off painting for the day. Pushing off painting for one day is easy to push off for a couple of days. Pushing off painting for a couple days is easy to not really ever pick up a brush. That advice worked well when I played music and it works just as well painting miniatures.

Try to paint a little each day but don't force it. You shouldn't feel bad if you sit at you paint station and only send 15 minutes putting a single base coat on single squad of models. That 15 minutes of progress do that couple times a day/week and you might surprise yourself how much you can accomplish. At the same time, don't force it. This is your hobby not your job. You can push yourself a little bit, but do it too much and you risk burn out.

Like greatbigtree said, Play Kill Team/small point/Escalation League games until you can field a fully painted army. Kill Team is max twenty models and usually a lot less. Since Kill Team pretty much only uses Troop choices it can be pretty easy to paint team up and get playing. Getting in games should help maintain the excitement and motivation to continue painting. Not to mention with Kill Team you get to try a much wider variety of factions for a lot less time, money and effort.

Death Guard is a blast. I love fighting them and I love their kits.

 Saturmorn Carvilli wrote:

Try to paint a little each day but don't force it. You shouldn't feel bad if you sit at you paint station and only send 15 minutes putting a single base coat on single squad of models. That 15 minutes of progress do that couple times a day/week and you might surprise yourself how much you can accomplish. At the same time, don't force it. This is your hobby not your job. You can push yourself a little bit, but do it too much and you risk burn out.

I find I'm often the opposite. If I do just a little each day I'll get very little done and get frustrated with how many weeks it's taking to do a squad. OTOH, if I sit down for 4-5 hours, 2-3 days in a row, I get the unit done before I lose steam. I recently pushed very hard to get through an Eldar army over Christmas (1000 points), and recently got 20 blue + 20 brimstone horrors done in basically a weekend.

Setting a solid goal and timeline to get it done has done wonders for my productivity, though it did require allocating large chunks of time in a few days, which obviously not everyone can do.

 John Prins wrote:

 Saturmorn Carvilli wrote:

Try to paint a little each day but don't force it. You shouldn't feel bad if you sit at you paint station and only send 15 minutes putting a single base coat on single squad of models. That 15 minutes of progress do that couple times a day/week and you might surprise yourself how much you can accomplish. At the same time, don't force it. This is your hobby not your job. You can push yourself a little bit, but do it too much and you risk burn out.

I find I'm often the opposite. If I do just a little each day I'll get very little done and get frustrated with how many weeks it's taking to do a squad. OTOH, if I sit down for 4-5 hours, 2-3 days in a row, I get the unit done before I lose steam. I recently pushed very hard to get through an Eldar army over Christmas (1000 points), and recently got 20 blue + 20 brimstone horrors done in basically a weekend.

Setting a solid goal and timeline to get it done has done wonders for my productivity, though it did require allocating large chunks of time in a few days, which obviously not everyone can do.

Most of the people I have met usually say they can't find the time and often wonder how I get my stuff done. I too usually have bursts of progress, but those times are usually pretty easy to get things done so no advice is usually needed. It is the slow times that I find just doing a little bit helps out. I mean a little bit of painting is better than none at all, and sometimes you can find yourself in a groove getting more done than you expected. Even if you can't because you have to take care something else, it at very least can get you desire to try to get a little more painting done when you get the chance.

As for pushing yourself, it can work out fine and you can get more done than you thought. And occasionally it is good to breakthrough a rut. It is also fairly easy to burn yourself out if you do it too often where it becomes less like a fun hobby and more like tedious work. It works for some people, but for others it can only worsen the situation. Personally, I don't like creating deadlines for my hobby since if I fall behind I put undue stress only myself which is what I am trying to avoid in the first place with my hobby time.

Sharing painting progress with one or some felllow hobbyists helps. Whenever I finnish a squad or even just a few cool minis I send a picture of them, and similarly in return they do the same. Then we congratulate each other's progress.

This helps in a way similar to having a gym buddy. It somehow just becomes easier for me to just paint some stuff in random evenings.

And if you lack hobby friends maybe you could start a painting blog instead?

As my P&M blog shows, I go through bouts of nothing and periods of productivity. I've gone months, even years without really doing anything except just play with the stuff I've built. I've also had manic build periods, where I've built a few to dozens of models every day. Right now, I'm in a productive period, as I get my "simple" (stuff that doesn't require pinning or GS) metal minis built. I've built almost 60 models this year, which is a pretty darn good start on the year. Last year, I built a bunch of Kingdom Death : Monster.

Really, it comes down to just sitting down and doing it. To make it "easier", I set aside whatever project I'm working on, break off a piece I want to get done, dig out all of the pieces and parts ready to build, all of my tools at hand, and call out what I want to do, so I can better hold myself accountable. I've also been busy selling off everything that's new in box, just getting that stuff out of the house. I'll be selling off even more as I clean up my inventory down to a planned collection that won't grow any further. So far, I've figured out my 40k Imperial Guard, Sisters of Battle, Inquisition, Necromunda and Warhammer Fantasy Dogs of War armies. I'm currently addressing my Empire army, and will then move on to my Eldar army. Between building and selling, my backlog is smaller than ever.

As far as buying goes, the funds for new stuff only comes from the net proceeds of what I've sold. Otherwise, I'd limit myself to a budget of $20 or $25 a month ($240 / $300 per year).

In your case, I suggest you pick whichever army is "easiest" to complete and start there. Get it done, so you don't need to worry about it any more. For you, that's Death Guard, as it's built and just needs painting. So finish painting that army. Lay down base coats, and block colors, etc. Step by step, unit by unit, model by model. Get it done, and get playing. Once that's done, move on to Orks or GSC, depending on which one you can finish quicker.

Elbows suggestion to get everything painted is a good one, and I'll be doing a massive priming and basecoating session later this year to get things moving on that front.

Ive actually set a stipulation on myself: no more new stuff until i paint what i have. I actually wrote this down in my P&M blog... only exception may be to buy my legion Primarchs.

That allows me to budget any money i would have for models toward paint supplies. Besides, i need to finally get a painted army on the table; i paint bits and bobs i never use lol (i.e. my gnarlmaw)

What I have done with having way too many armies on the go:

PREFERENCE: the one army you MOST like.
You plan on painting them so you will be staring at them for hours at a time.
But! "Soup" is a thing these days, see if a combined force could play nice together.

PLAN what to build: check your codex and BRB to then complete what you think you will play.

PICK the models that will be "work" and ones that are "reward", I suggest batch painting say a squad and then have a character model to do as a reward when the "boys before toys" are done.

PLAY only with painted models so that it forces you to at the very least "block paint" the models to a tournament legal 3 colors.

So that is my "P-Quad" rules, the other thing is to "blackmail" yourself and sign up for some tournament or a game with your buddies with only tournament ready models allowed.


Bonus notes:
- I made a "rule" that certain features need to be the same for ALL models I paint so they have some common feature to them so if you play "soup" they look like they are part of the same group.
- Plasma has a green glow, lascannon or power weapons have blue, all bases are a common brown colour, all bodies of weapons are a deep red, any melee weapons have yellow and black hazard stripe (where possible), viewports or canopies are green or tinted green... you get the idea. I was very surprised how nice it was and how easy it was to remember all the special weapons since they were easy to spot. You also get far less complaints of soup armies when they all look like they belong together.

I suffer the same issue, several incompleted armies because part way through painting I thought a different army would be the better choice.

The curse is Youtube. You see a battle report for a different army, it gets you interested in it.

For all the criteria you mention, Space Marines are the better option as they will be universally useful, get regular updates and can be expanded upon in a multitude of ways.

If you want the quickest army possible painted to get into the gaming side of it, normally I would say go Necrons but I'm actually going to suggest Chaos Daemons such as Nurgle or Khorne. You won't have a particularly powerful army, but they are easy to paint, port over to AOS and 30k without need a new army and like marines, are easily expanded. Plaguebears can be done really well with just a white undercoat and green wash whilst bloodletters can be done with a Mephiston red spray, lighter red drybrush (kindleflame) and a wash of carroberg crimson.

Thanks for the replies. I'm really surprised by how helpful these have been.

I've decided to put all my stuff in boxes and just keep my death guard out. They are an intimidating army to paint and I think that's why I burnt myself out with them before. But once I have one completed army to go play with I'll feel much better and then I'll start making kill teams for the rest.

I'll use a combination of everyones tips to sort out my hobby mess. Haha

Also, might start a post for sharing progression as I tend to struggle with what I want to do and when I do start I put a lot of effort in so would be good to see what people say.

Don't most of us suffer from this? I've definietely got a lot more unfinished than completed, and a significant amount still on the sprue in the box.

I've bought into a few armies (though several can form an Imperial soup), but it's interesting that once I returned to my One True Army (Biel-Tan Eldar - which I first fell in love with in 3rd edition but somehow never actually made an army until now), my problem has changed from buying armies to just buying ridiculous quantities of models for that one particular army. So perhaps that's a sign that if you find your own One True Army you might stop hopping about so much, but then again we're all different.

It's not too bad in terms of regular model kits (I can usually leave those on the shelf without too much trouble), but I find eBay bargains and discount boxes are the killers. In the case of eBay it's very much if you want a particular lot you have to buy it now - and given that I'll take OOP metal over Finecast any day of the week it's led to buying up old metal Eldar far faster than I can paint them. Then the discount boxes - GW know exactly what they're doing in not keeping them around for too long and pulling them without warning because it generates that reaction in collectors that if I want it, I need to buy it now while I still can. You don't want to put off buying it until later, because they might pull it and you'll miss out. Combine that with FLGS pre-order discounts (I'll buy it eventually anyway, so I may as well pre-order when I can get it slightly cheaper) and the result is one huge demotivating mountain of plastic. I need to keep telling myself that it's not a bargain if it stays on a sprue in the box.

I was going to try to avoid buying more models this year, and that lasted a couple of weeks until the Start Collecting price rise was announced which led me to immediately go out and buy two. However, I think I'm now content to stop buying and keep working through them - until the next interesting new release or discount box comes out.

 Bellerophon wrote:

I was going to try to avoid buying more models this year, and that lasted a couple of weeks until the Start Collecting price rise was announced which led me to immediately go out and buy two. However, I think I'm now content to stop buying and keep working through them - until the next interesting new release or discount box comes out.

I find that cutting out the act of buying altogether tends to not always work for many people, myself included.

First up there's limited editions, end of lines, kickstarters, discounts and price rises. All those things can add a timer onto purchases that puts pressure on a person to "buy now" or totally miss out. That can feel like a kick in the teeth and be demoralising if you're a very keen gamer - esp for things in limited runs or going out of production (and thus becoming possibly very hard to get hold of second hand at best thereafter)

Secondly buying can be an enjoyable experience for many people. Retail therapy is a real thing so, again there's good reason not to totally cut out buying.


That said I think the key isn't to go cold turkey and stop; but to monitor and control it so that impulse purchases and such fit into a structure without getting out of control.

In my case I've just set myself a simple objective to own less boxes of unbuilt stuff within a year. Which means I can very much buy more things, but at the same time I'm keeping track of that purchase number and my building number and comparing them. I've found it really helps put a little bit of edge on finishing a box of models; esp when its then nicely tied to releasing pressure to let me buy more. Even if I only have 1 box less, that's still progress and it means that I've, at the very least, kept on top.

Prior to 8th edition I had a look at my collection. Over the period of 5 editions I had collected 11 different factions armies 2-3k points each. Most were unpainted mountains of plastic, and some armies had most still in boxes shrink-wrapped.

I made the decision to sell nearly all of this unsurmountable mountain of plastic and to start again with the release of my all time favourite - Death Guard. I vowed to never buy a box until the previous box is complete. It has worked quite well for me it is a much better feeling looking at a painted units and even more so when you play a game with them. I set myself goals and objectives and set aside a reward once a unit is done. E.g. "Once I finish this unit of Plague Marines, I'll buy Typhus etc"

When I get into a painting mood, I will pull out all the minis of the same troop type (all my blood claws or all my grey hunters, or all my scouts, ect) Nearly all of them are already primed the color I want the armor to be.

I then go through and paint all the white where I want bright colors, and start cycling through the basic colors picking out the basic details. 1 color until I'm through all the minis, then on to the next color.

After the final wash, I'll end up with 2 - 3 full 10 man squads painted Then I move on to other hobbies for a while until the urge comes back, then it's another 2-3 full 10 man squads.

Do you not find having 20-30 dudesmen sitting there staring at you puts you off?

I paint in a similar manner to you, but I can't have more than seven or eight on deck at any one time.

It can get daunting, and when it does I simply stop and pick up again the following day, or so.

If I try to paint fewer, then I'm always thinking about how many more I have unpainted in the box I still have to do. When I get 20 or 30 done it's like "wow, that was a pretty good chunk!"

I can see how it would be rewarding to bang out that many at once, I just don't think I could work that way.

I'd get overwhelmed at how much I had to do, walk away and not come back for days or weeks.

If that way doesn't work for you, find a different way. Do 8-10 instead of 20-30. or 4-5 instead of 8-10.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
I paint in a similar manner to you, but I can't have more than seven or eight on deck at any one time.

Emphasis added.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
I can see how it would be rewarding to bang out that many at once, I just don't think I could work that way.

Until very recently, I thought this way. Usually 5-6 models at one go was my limit - half squads of Fire Warriors, 5 Primaris, etc. I've found that with the right planning and techniques I can get enough accomplished that my enthusiasm is maintained and I can carry through. I know my second batch of Skitarri will be painted VERY differently from my first. Mistakes were made!

WightKing wrote:
So I'm sure most of us find it hard to stop buying new stuff and I'd be interested in your version of the "addiction" and how you deal with it.

I've got multiple half built or half painted armies, not including all the stand alone stuff.
Now I really want to focus on one army so I can take it to my local store and start playing games.

So I was hoping I could get some advice and suggestions on which army would be good to start gaming with and also for longevity eg. Models, higher skill cap, etc.

My choices:
I currently have a lot of orks, mostly half built.
Genestealer cults built and unpainted, waiting for codex and kits.
Most of the Death guard range all built and half painted.

Which of these would be a good army to learn and grow with as I'm not the most experienced player.

Appreciate the answers and curious if you ever had problems with just sticking to one thing.

Do you consider yourself as actually having a problem? If you are enjoying your hobby, and enjoying buying the new items, and building them and painting them (or at least some of them) then that's fine. It it's leading to financial hardship or stress at having unbuilt stuff sitting there, than that is a problem. Sell some? Share some? Bring friends into the game. Give an army to a friend / child / relative so they can play with you?

I think sometimes with this... less is more. In a way if I had just started with a little box set (First Strike) or just a single "Start Collecting" box and then painted and stuck with that for a while I'd be a little happier as I'd get some form of completion on them. Not only that, but I'd get to know one army.
So what I did was just pop all of my models into storage boxes and put them in my loft to keep them safe. I agreed on a limit of 750 points to play with (as that's a nice compromise) and designed an army on Battlescribe. I went back to my stored armies and took out the models i needed for the 750 points and then I made sure they were all built and painted to a standard. I then refused to field anything else that wasn't painted.
Now when some of the armies had sat there for a while unpainted and unbuilt, I sold a few on eBay or to local people. I ended up a bit happier with just one or two smaller armies that I got to know really well. The problem for me was choice itself!