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I think some people enjoy the game more than the hobby, me being one of them. I play and win at tourneys and sometimes the hatorade pours in, "he may have won, but he doesnt even have a fully painted army".
I truly do not let it bother me, but perhaps some people just buy painted models to quell un-easy eyes at games.

I do have parts of my armies painted. Thing is, i might not be the best painter. But for me, i like it and if I am going to take the time to paint, its one model at a time. layers, washes and to best of my ability. I cant put $100's of dollars worth of models together and then just fast paint, or drybrush an army that in my opinion wont look good. (not to say to others it would or would not look good). But to me, id rather play with plastic or primed and take years to paint instead of rushing a paint job... But i am also my own worst critic, something that looks great to others that i paint, i might repaint 3 times to get to the way i like it, which may or may not look like trash to others when im done lol.

FinnSeer wrote:
I have noticed that there is a trend forming in the community where plenty of people buy their figures pre-painted or commission the painting for someone else.

Personally I don't understand this at all.

I wouldn't have the same connection at all to the miniatures that I have not painted myself. I have never sold any "extra" figures that I have which are painted beyond priming. I also would not buy any miniature that has been already painted and then use it on a game.

On the other hand, I've noticed a trend forming where plenty of people buy their food pre-cooked from restaurants.
Do you think these people have the same "connection" to the food as a housewife who makes it herself?

My confusion is in the "connection" part. I don't understand how some people think that you need to feel a "connection" to your models to enjoy the game. To a degree, I don't give a spit about the models (barring financially, of course). They're just *things.* They're inanimate objects. They're shaped chunks of plastic. There is no emotion tied into them (for me).
They're a means to an end, and the "End" is enjoying a game with some buddies.

Now, I LIKE the way painted models look (usually), sure. I paint some and buy others prepainted. The fact is that I don't have time to paint 1/10th of my models.


Eric

I agree with your take on the "connection" part. I've never been a person that develops a real connection to inanimate objects unless they have a serious sentimental value. (Examples: my deceased mother's wedding set, my college sheepskin, the picture a friend painted for me as a gift.)

I don't think that you have dislike anything about painting your own miniatures, to be able to enjoy someone else's work, and want to own it. In the same way that I play guitar, but still enjoy other people's music, and I have other peoples artwork hanging on my wall, even though I work as an artist.

I have often thought about finding two commission painters, who's work I really enjoy, and getting them to convert and paint a custom Space Marine team each for Space Crusade (Ultra Marines and Imperial Fists respectively). I would do the 3rd team myself (Blood Angels). My reasoning is not because I'm lazy or incapable. I just think it would be really cool for each team to be individual, and painted in a unique style.

If anyone comments on the paint job, I would be proud to tell them that these two teams were painted on commission by my favorite artists, and this one was painted by me. And hopefully, if everyone did their best, I like to think that no team would stand out as being significantly better or worse.

Saldiven wrote:
I agree with your take on the "connection" part. I've never been a person that develops a real connection to inanimate objects unless they have a serious sentimental value. (Examples: my deceased mother's wedding set, my college sheepskin, the picture a friend painted for me as a gift.)

It just means that some people's sense of sentimental attachment activates more easily than yours.

Saldiven wrote:
I agree with your take on the "connection" part. I've never been a person that develops a real connection to inanimate objects unless they have a serious sentimental value. (Examples: my deceased mother's wedding set, my college sheepskin, the picture a friend painted for me as a gift.)

The connection (for me) is mostly a form of "I did that" - a somewhat constant reminder (when I see them) of what is (mostly, hopefully) pride in a job well done. It's one of the reasons we share photos of our decorated inanimate objects. Some figures also remind me of certain times or events or even people in my life, some who have moved on and some who have passed on.

I definitely am a person that prefers to do my own painting of miniatures. It personalizes them as being my own. I detest playing with unpainted minis and belong to a club where it is not allowed.

Perhaps more importantly I also find that much camaraderie among gamers can come from asking each other about their miniatures, conversions, and paint schemes. Discussing a person's minis isn't the same when they didn't paint themselves. There's just not much to talk about.

All that said, I have made exceptions.
-Once in a while I buy miniatures that are come painted. When they arrive it seems a shame to waste the nice paintjob, especially when I have so many other figures to paint. So, they usually get a dip or wash and maybe a touchup or rebasing and hit the table.

-I sometimes trade painting with my club mates. I like making terrain and have gotten pretty fast at it. So recently I rebuilt and painted a friend's chemical plant and in return he's painting 20 chaos warriors for me. The first 10 warriors I painted were fine, but I'm more than happy to have him paint the next 20!

I still push on trying, despite being dysgraphic. (the fine motor controls are messed up- I have the handwriting of a doctor.)

To each their own.

 Eilif wrote:
I definitely am a person that prefers to do my own painting of miniatures. It personalizes them as being my own. I detest playing with unpainted minis and belong to a club where it is not allowed.

I'd hate that, and in our club it'd probably result in about half of the games not happening. But it seems pretty laid back (and almost all 30somethings with plenty of other commitments). I always aim to get stuff painted, or to be making progress on them in campaign games (we're in the 3rd and final month of a FoW campaign and my newly bought army is probably only about 30% completed, but based and primed), but the painting comes secondary to the gaming.

It's different for skirmish games where I can get the 8 figures up to a tabletop standard in a couple of evenings, but with a horde army (my FoW army has ~105 minis + guns) it's a whole different challenge.

Herzlos wrote:

 Eilif wrote:
I definitely am a person that prefers to do my own painting of miniatures. It personalizes them as being my own. I detest playing with unpainted minis and belong to a club where it is not allowed.

I'd hate that, and in our club it'd probably result in about half of the games not happening. But it seems pretty laid back (and almost all 30somethings with plenty of other commitments). I always aim to get stuff painted, or to be making progress on them in campaign games (we're in the 3rd and final month of a FoW campaign and my newly bought army is probably only about 30% completed, but based and primed), but the painting comes secondary to the gaming.

It's different for skirmish games where I can get the 8 figures up to a tabletop standard in a couple of evenings, but with a horde army (my FoW army has ~105 minis + guns) it's a whole different challenge.

You probably wouldn't hate it too much, as almost all we play is skirmish games, and we always keep extra forces on hand for newbies. A few of us play larger games (KoW, Panzer8 sci-fi, 40k) occasionally, but it's not the norm. Our group age and vibe sounds like yours. Alot of 30 somethings with real lives. The only difference is we all decided that life is too short to spend our limited bi-weekly gaming time playing with unpainted figures.

Ours has a mix of some larger games, though it's mostly skirmish too. I think we just decided life was too short to worry about painting figures

Having extra forces on hand is pretty good too

Herzlos wrote:
Ours has a mix of some larger games, though it's mostly skirmish too. I think we just decided life was too short to worry about painting figures

Having extra forces on hand is pretty good too

Sounds like you've got a nice group of folks over there. If you're ever in Chicago, you're welcome at our tables!

Many thanks. I don't think I'll be that far West in the US though. The same offer is open to you if you're through this way.

Don't really mind unpainted personally. Don't always feel motivated and anxiety attacks aren't really constructive to be working on I'd rather leave it blank and come back later, or much later than try to do it now, mess it up due to reasons and most likely spend the next day or two feeling gak about everything in general. That and it's generally Play > Paint for me. If it comes to money for hobby supplies or a new rulebook, i'll go rulebook thanks

As for the other peoples work bit, why is it a problem? Got a friend who's been painting 10+ years compared to my 1-2 who often "helps" most of us with the group, and I have a wonderfully painted and converted metal Inquisitor courtesy of a another friend I commissioned simply due to his work being better than mine and it being one of the few GW model's I felt that I genuinely liked enough to go out and buy, Didn't feel like I could do it justice, but he could and did and now it sits on my desk to see instead of in a storage box like most all my other mini's.

My absolute favorite part of the game is when someone comes up and tells my opponent and I how cool our armies look. Nothing better than having a force that looks so awesome it draws comments from the crowd.

To that end, commissioned pieces are just as good (let's be honest-given my painting skill, commissioned work is better) at accomplishing this.

Don't take insult here; it's not intended...
MY favorite part of the game is kicking back and spending time with my friends. I don't really care what people think of my armies.

Eric

I think that the typical reasoning goes as follows;
I like to play [Insert Game Here] > Painted miniatures look better > I do not have the [Time / Skill / Desire] (Select Appropriate) to paint miniatures (Alternately - that many miniatures) > Buy painted miniatures > I now have painted miniatures! > They do look better painted! (Optional - > And they look better than [Insert Name Of Rival With Painted Army]'s miniatures!)

Being the guy that has that unpainted army is motivation enough for a lot of folks to buy a painted one.

I just finished a small pile of Stonehaven Gnomes - not for wargaming, but because somebody wants to run an all gnome Pathfinder game.

She is the GM, and wants to provide all the miniatures, because otherwise some folks won't have painted miniatures.

Plus, she likes gnomes.

The Auld Grump, my girlfriend also likes the gnomes, but is painting her own.

For me, I don't have enough time to paint to a standard I like, and I've kinda fallen out of love with 40k. I wanna play more games but I don't have enough time away from work/family life to build up and paint an army

I love to paint, there are so many lovely models out there that I'd like to caress with my paintbrush

But because I put my painting first I don't have time or motivation to play all the games I want to paint models for so I paint them up and sell them on ebay. It's a win win situation for me I get to paint all the nice models and sell them to fund more nice models to paint. In turn people who dont/cant paint get to buy nicely painted models to play with which they would not have had a chance to otherwise.

I was born without arms so painting is impossible for me

 pities2004 wrote:
I was born without arms so painting is impossible for me

This is one of the most straight foward excuses on the thread. But what about robotic arms??

 MagickalMemories wrote:
Don't take insult here; it's not intended...
MY favorite part of the game is kicking back and spending time with my friends. I don't really care what people think of my armies.

Eric

Yeah, this is my favorite part, too.

 pities2004 wrote:
I was born without arms so painting is impossible for me

Out of curiosity, how did you type that? Some sort of speak and type device?

I know because of my disabilities that I sometimes have to use a headset mic and Dragon Naturally Speaking to get my typing done when the pain gets too severe.

If you suck at painting and enjoy playing with a decently painted army (plus don't have the time and money to spend learning to paint) then I can totally understand it. Personally I would only commission someone else to do it if their skill is really very exceptional otherwise to me it's not really worth it...

cos im lazy and loaded.

 Lutharr101 wrote:
cos im lazy and loaded.

Gotta love a bit of honesty.

Truth be told, if I had the disposable income, there's an army or two sitting in my lead pile that I'd probably have professionally painted. For Example, I'd love to have my 180 man Kingdoms of Man (for KoW) army painted now, but I've got other projects, already am working on a KoW army, and just don't get more than a few chances a year to play KoW. If I had the $ it would be out the door for painting.

Maybe I should research painting services...

 pities2004 wrote:
I was born without arms so painting is impossible for me

Just out of curiosity, how do you move minis?

Not sure if serious.

carmachu wrote:

 pities2004 wrote:
I was born without arms so painting is impossible for me

Just out of curiosity, how do you move minis?

Telekinesis. Clearly.

And if I could afford to have my King's Hand professionally painted, you bet I would. Because with the amount of detail and my limited range of paints/brushes/skills, I could never do the model justice.