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Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




I’m sure there must be plenty who love it but why? I love painting first and playing games second but assembling models just seem like a weird puzzle with instructions. I don’t enjoy this. Plus I’m not a delicate person and always break something from applying to much pressure unintentionally. I would prefer models come mostly assembled with extra bits to customize. What satisfaction is there In gluing sprue piece 3 to sprue piece 28 per instructions?
   
Made in us
Grim Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain






A Protoss colony world

I love putting the models together! Especially when I get the chance to kitbash something and be truly creative.

My armies (re-counted and updated on 11/1/23, including modeled wargear options):
Dark Angels: ~15000 Astra Militarum: ~1200 | Adeptus Custodes: ~1900 | Imperial Knights: ~2000 | Sisters of Battle: ~3500 | Leagues of Votann: ~1200 | Tyranids: ~2600 | Stormcast Eternals: ~5000
Check out my P&M Blogs: ZergSmasher's P&M Blog | Imperial Knights blog | Board Games blog | Total models painted in 2023: 40 | Total models painted in 2024: 7 | Current main painting project: Dark Angels
 Mr_Rose wrote:
Who doesn’t love crazy mutant squawk-puppies? Eh? Nobody, that’s who.
 
   
Made in us
Longtime Dakkanaut




Totally depends on the kit. Some kits are fun to assemble, some are absolutely terrible. Some are worth the effort even if they are tedious, others are not.

For example, kits like the harlequin troupe kit or the rubric marine kit are not necessarily fun to assemble, but they are worth the effort, because of the customization possibilities they include.

Really bad kits are ones where they are both tedious to assemble and not worth the effort because you just end up with something that is mono-posed anyway, especially when they're badly put together. An example of this is the eldar support weapon kit, which is tedious for no real gain, as well as being massively frustrating because GW was too lazy to make a custom torso to go with the seated guy, so it doesn't fit right at all.

Fun is a subjective thing, but I recently had fun taking a single Nurgling kit (normally 3 bases) and turning it into 11 by combining it with some tentacles, for my new chaos army that has an underwater theme. Now I have a bunch of nurglings sitting on top of tentacles, or hiding behind them, like clownfish in anemones. The playfulness of the nurglings fits perfectly with the tentacles - they look like they're having a grand old time - and I saved a ridiculous amount of money.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/09/11 01:35:38


 
   
Made in us
Imperial Guard Landspeeder Pilot




On moon miranda.

I enjoy assembling many models, though not all. Give me a box of 28mm scale infantry sized models and I'll be thrilled, especially if they're metal. I'm currently assembling a buttload of Heavy Gear models that scratch this itch, and finished a grip of 3E Grey Knight Terminators earlier in the year. However, despite the fact that I own 27 of them, I don't look forward to building any further Chimera-hulled vehicles. I've done *one* 28mm scale vehicle model period in the last 5 years I think (a Shadowsword).

Ask me to do a metal Thundefire cannon? Nope. Did that once, never again. Anything that requires pinning? Nope. Does it have small fiddly breaky bits? Hard pass. A box of old metal Terminators? Oh yes...

IRON WITHIN, IRON WITHOUT.

New Heavy Gear Log! Also...Grey Knights!
The correct pronunciation is Imperial Guard and Stormtroopers, "Astra Militarum" and "Tempestus Scions" are something you'll find at Hogwarts.  
   
Made in us
Hacking Interventor





You nailed it early; Some people like puzzles, and it is one, albeit with many solutions, and the solutions you choose have meaningfully varying outcomes.

Do you solve it just with the included pieces? Do you just have one marine dual-wielding bolters for the hell of it? Do you twist the head on the landspeeder Meltagunner to be looking judgingly at the pilot, who is tilted back and jubilantly shooting a bolt pistol into the air? Do you 3d-print bits for your Chaos Marines so that you have an army of Slaanesh furries wielding dubstep guns from Saints Row?

LIMITLESS POWER.

"All you 40k people out there have managed to more or less do something that I did some time ago, and some of my friends did before me, and some of their friends did before them: When you saw the water getting gakky, you decided to, well, get out of the pool, rather than say 'I guess this is water now.'"

-Tex Talks Battletech on GW 
   
Made in us
Regular Dakkanaut




Deleted

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/09/11 01:42:34


 
   
Made in us
Last Remaining Whole C'Tan






Pleasant Valley, Iowa

Grimlineman wrote:
I’m sure there must be plenty who love it but why? I love painting first and playing games second but assembling models just seem like a weird puzzle with instructions.?


Assembling the models is the only fun I have left in Warhammer. I find painting to be an unpleasant chore, although I do so. i certainly don't do it to play the game, because I have not played a game of Warhammer outside of Space Hulk in about a decade.

Why? Well, like you said - it's like a puzzle, and people like puzzles. 20 puzzles are sold every minute in the US this year.

There is a sense of satisfaction in taking a nearly 2D sprue of gubbins and turning it into a 3D representation of something. And, of course, for me there are usually problems to be solved - customization, magnetization, kitbashing, 3D printing some replacements or upgrades, the works. Like CEO Kasen, it's rare that I build a model 100% to the box - I am tweaking at least something on every single one, usually.

I also am good with delicate tasks, so I never break parts, or make messes with the glue, or anything like that, so I don't have that piece of your frustration to overcome.


This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2020/09/11 01:48:01


 lord_blackfang wrote:
Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.

 Flinty wrote:
The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
 
   
Made in us
Steadfast Grey Hunter





 Ouze wrote:
Grimlineman wrote:
I’m sure there must be plenty who love it but why? I love painting first and playing games second but assembling models just seem like a weird puzzle with instructions.?


Assembling the models is the only fun I have left in Warhammer. I find painting to be an unpleasant chore, although I do so. i certainly don't do it to play the game, because I have not played a game of Warhammer outside of Space Hulk in about a decade.

Perhaps try Gunpla? Bandai's engineering puts GW to shame and the kits are fantastic. I especially recommend the Real Grade kits as they're pretty close to the much larger and more expensive Perfect Grade kits. Super fun to assemble and they usually have impressive articulation and gimmicks like transformation into flight mode or lighting kits...
   
Made in ca
Discriminating Deathmark Assassin





Stasis

yukishiro1 wrote:
Totally depends on the kit. Some kits are fun to assemble, some are absolutely terrible. Some are worth the effort even if they are tedious, others are not.

For example, kits like the harlequin troupe kit or the rubric marine kit are not necessarily fun to assemble, but they are worth the effort, because of the customization possibilities they include.

Really bad kits are ones where they are both tedious to assemble and not worth the effort because you just end up with something that is mono-posed anyway, especially when they're badly put together. An example of this is the eldar support weapon kit, which is tedious for no real gain, as well as being massively frustrating because GW was too lazy to make a custom torso to go with the seated guy, so it doesn't fit right at all.

Fun is a subjective thing, but I recently had fun taking a single Nurgling kit (normally 3 bases) and turning it into 11 by combining it with some tentacles, for my new chaos army that has an underwater theme. Now I have a bunch of nurglings sitting on top of tentacles, or hiding behind them, like clownfish in anemones. The playfulness of the nurglings fits perfectly with the tentacles - they look like they're having a grand old time - and I saved a ridiculous amount of money.


Those Nurglings sound ADORABLE!

213PL 60PL 12PL 9-17PL
(she/her) 
   
Made in gb
Walking Dead Wraithlord






Building and converting are by far my favourite parts of the hobby and I do all of it (audiobooks, play games and paint)

Personally, minatures hobby is all about getting creative and telling stories with your models. SOme very subtle only you will know about others very obvious. And it only stops where you want it to stop. The build stage to me is the stamp you put on that its "Mah dudes!" . Be it with basing, conversion, simple head swap etc.

I can twist the torso slightly here, snip off a grenade pack and put it in the left arm and voila. My bog standard Eldar guardian now looks like hes frozen in time in the process of throwing a pack of plasma grenades. (Then when I'm playing a game I might leave him on the board in order to remember I have grenades )

Everyones different though. This is just me.

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/772746.page#10378083 - My progress/failblog painting blog thingy

Eldar- 4436 pts


AngryAngel80 wrote:
I don't know, when I see awesome rules, I'm like " Baby, your rules looking so fine. Maybe I gotta add you to my first strike battalion eh ? "


 Eonfuzz wrote:


I would much rather everyone have a half ass than no ass.


"A warrior does not seek fame and honour. They come to him as he humbly follows his path"  
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka




NE Ohio, USA

Overall, yes.
But it also depends upon the kit. For ex; I love the Corax(?) cultist models from AoS. But the designers have sliced these things into so many ridiculous pieces that after #5 I just gave up. The irritation just wasn't worth it. Plus they don't particularly add anything mechanically to my army that a less annoying to build kit can't manage.
Also, the more customization a kit has built in, the greater my enjoyment of it.
   
Made in us
Last Remaining Whole C'Tan






Pleasant Valley, Iowa

ccs wrote:
But it also depends upon the kit.


For sure. As Vaktathi noted, one metal Thunderfire Cannon is enough for a lifetime.

I also am not fond of the growing trend of difficult to convert monopose models from GWS (Most of my stuff is not super new). Building for me is an outlet for creativity, and a lot of the really new stuff stifles that.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/09/11 03:05:20


 lord_blackfang wrote:
Respect to the guy who subscribed just to post a massive ASCII dong in the chat and immediately get banned.

 Flinty wrote:
The benefit of slate is that its.actually a.rock with rock like properties. The downside is that it's a rock
 
   
Made in us
Ultramarine Chaplain with Hate to Spare






Older kits have been more fun than my experience with the new kits. The new mono-pose kits are kind of a pain, and hunting for numbers on the sprues is tedious. Older kits were much less specific and more free-form to build. I hadn't needed to look at instructions for years until nuilding models from Indomitus.

And They Shall Not Fit Through Doors!!!

Tyranid Army Progress -- With Classic Warriors!:
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Made in au
[MOD]
Making Stuff






Under the couch

Grimlineman wrote:
What satisfaction is there In gluing sprue piece 3 to sprue piece 28 per instructions?

Some, in watching the model take shape.

Although, for me, there's more enjoyment in throwing the instructions over my shoulder and finding out what happens when I instead glue sprue piece 3 to sprue piece 9 and maybe sprue piece 14 from a completely different kit.



And yes, multi-part white-metal models are sent to earth to test us. Do not want.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/09/11 03:11:55


 
   
Made in gb
Walking Dead Wraithlord






By equal measure one could ask why minatures/wargaming/models kits as a hobby to be part of if you don't like building models??

One can use statuettes/busts/toys that don't require assembly for painting.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
 insaniak wrote:
Grimlineman wrote:
What satisfaction is there In gluing sprue piece 3 to sprue piece 28 per instructions?

Some, in watching the model take shape.

Although, for me, there's more enjoyment in throwing the instructions over my shoulder and finding out what happens when I instead glue sprue piece 3 to sprue piece 9 and maybe sprue piece 14 from a completely different kit.



And yes, multi-part white-metal models are sent to earth to test us. Do not want.


I have some wraithguard with their midriff facing the wrong way for that exact reason...

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/09/11 03:16:51


https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/772746.page#10378083 - My progress/failblog painting blog thingy

Eldar- 4436 pts


AngryAngel80 wrote:
I don't know, when I see awesome rules, I'm like " Baby, your rules looking so fine. Maybe I gotta add you to my first strike battalion eh ? "


 Eonfuzz wrote:


I would much rather everyone have a half ass than no ass.


"A warrior does not seek fame and honour. They come to him as he humbly follows his path"  
   
Made in us
Ship's Officer





Dallas, TX

depends on the kit/faction/ and your personality. I rather dislike the newer almost mono-posed kits/easy to build kits, its ok for characters if you only need 1-2 of them.

as for instructions: if you're an ork player, there is no instructions! I vote for GW to leave out the instructions in all the ork kits.

I'm mainly a IG player, so painting 100's of cadians is tough, so I mix and match heads/gear from other IG and or suitable kits. The only part I find is a chore is mold line cleaning, I wish I have a monkey clone of myself that do just that 'cleaning mold lines and any other similar tasks'.
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran





Interesting take, because if I had to choose between modeling and painting I prefer modeling. Modeling is where you can really make something unique if desired, even if just slightly. I used to bend the arms on the old metal terminators just to give them a little different pose. Painting to me is fine, but it's more like a necessary step to finish the process of making a model yours.
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran




The modern kits are gorgeous but horrible... just making someone else's statue? Feh.

But the older kits? Creating all SORTA of Ork models? Building up unique marines with pieces form a half-dozen kits?

Dude.

DUDE.

That stuff is AWESOME.

Painting on the other hand. Aie.
   
Made in us
Ship's Officer





Dallas, TX

 amanita wrote:
Interesting take, because if I had to choose between modeling and painting I prefer modeling. Modeling is where you can really make something unique if desired, even if just slightly. I used to bend the arms on the old metal terminators just to give them a little different pose. Painting to me is fine, but it's more like a necessary step to finish the process of making a model yours.


I disagree, it depends on your respective skill level. Painting a model brings them to life whereas converted but unpainted is still a sculpture. There are some aspects of painting, such as skin tone/tattoos/hair/Unsculpted unit markings, a unpainted miniature cannot fulfill. Some also can be said of well painted models but the miniature itself are clones of each other in mono pose or the person likes their models vanilla like the box art.
   
Made in us
Fixture of Dakka




NE Ohio, USA

 insaniak wrote:

And yes, multi-part white-metal models are sent to earth to test us. Do not want.


You've not built an AoS Corax Cultist, have you. They'll make you wish you were building a 3e metal Deff Copta.
   
Made in us
Dakka Veteran




Assembly I don't enjoy. But modelling.. Thats almost an addiction at this point. I consider myself a modeler first gamer second and painter last. Used to be different but is what it is.
   
Made in us
Nasty Nob





United States

I enjoy putting them together, it took learning to magnetize to get me over an anxiety I kinda had about ruining models with bad load outs but I am over it now.

I balk at painting models because I don't want to look like Goff orkz but have to explain "These gitz are bad moonz, these gitz are speek freekz" because those klan tactics are better or sumfin.

I am the kinda ork that takes his own washing machine apart, puts new bearings in it, then puts it back together, and it still works. 
   
Made in us
Resolute Ultramarine Honor Guard





Assembling rarely lasts long enough to enjoy or dread for me. Painting - I enjoy the middle. Getting started is a chore because I think about the time commitment, finishing is too because the last few details always seem to take forever especially the transfers. But the middle is fun, you can get huge strides done in a short time.

My WHFB armies were Bretonians and Tomb Kings. 
   
Made in us
Terrifying Doombull




Assembling is probably my favorite part.
Painting gets to be a chore too quickly.

But bringing the pieces to order is an entertaining diversion for the hands and mind while watching/listening to something.

The part I don't particularly like is clipping and trimming all the sprue joins down to smooth surfaces. That gets a bit excessive, especially with small bits.

Efficiency is the highest virtue. 
   
Made in us
Ancient Venerable Dreadnought




San Jose, CA

I'll echo what others have said, it really really depends on the kit.

Recent Astartes boxes are great with what you can do with the posing.
Primaris kits(other than Tacticus armour units) are a pain since it takes a ton of work to make then do anything different. But if you kitbash Primaris infantry w Astartes they look great.

Bandai stuff kicks ass, so there's always that.

But for me, I consider myself a modeler/painter first with gaming as something cool to do with my minis, besides sitting on a shelf.
   
Made in pl
Longtime Dakkanaut




I like it. The reward of finishing is quicker than with painting and there's more personalisation possible with kitbashing or conversions.

If you think you're not delicate while assembling, try being more delicate!
   
Made in fi
Longtime Dakkanaut






I aim to convert every model I have from 6 mm up in some fashion, because they are mine. I want my dudes to look and feel different from someone else's because there is artistic pride to be had in creating something unique. It also reinforces the idea that fictional worlds are big and no armies of even same factions ought to look exactly alike.

I enjoy all facets of hobbying, but would probably rank the main three as assembling > gaming > painting (loving the painting too, it's fun to push your limits further). There is something deeply satisfying in breathing life and narrative context into a pile of bits.

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Made in gb
Slaanesh Chosen Marine Riding a Fiend





Port Carmine

I find assembling, converting, and magnetising immensely satisfying...probably my favourite part of the hobby. I can't specifically explain why.

VAIROSEAN LIVES! 
   
Made in se
Willing Inquisitorial Excruciator






Assembling is my favorite part of the hobby. I feel like it lets me be the most creative. I usually kit bash or convert models in various ways. In my guard army of 150 or so models almost every single model has a conversion. Holding a knife here, adding a scope to a lasgun there, guardsmen drinking from there water cans... all kinds of stuff really. I try to make my squads themed like a close quarter oriented squad with melee weapons and shotguns, relaxed squads where the guardsmen are chilling, long range squads with various weapon mods and sniper rifles and so on. Even have a squad with only solid projectile weapons instead of lasguns (like autoguns). Rules wise I run them all as regular standard guardsmen. My current project is building ork nobs out of the fantasy trolls models.

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2020/09/11 06:41:48


His pattern of returning alive after being declared dead occurred often enough during Cain's career that the Munitorum made a special ruling that Ciaphas Cain is to never be considered dead, despite evidence to the contrary. 
   
Made in it
Waaagh! Ork Warboss




Italy

Grimlineman wrote:

What satisfaction is there In gluing sprue piece 3 to sprue piece 28 per instructions?


For me it's the best part of the hobby. I really spend a lot of time just trying to figure out how to assemble my models in order to give them the best looking possible poses.

I wouldn't even start an army that doesn't allow me to kitbash through different boxes, magnetize and convert stuff. It's one of the main reason why I can't stand primaris

It's painting the miniatures that it's really boring IMHO.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2020/09/11 06:45:28


 
   
 
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