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.

Hi all,

I've been wondering. To what standard do you have to paint a tournament army? I guess the models need to be built as, what you see is what they have, but with how much detail do you paint them. Is there a requierd standard?

Thanks a lot guys.

Typically you need to have at least three distinct colors in your palette (so no dumping a can of spray paint over the army, then messily daubing a contrast color on the shoulders) and painted and/or flocked/textured/scenic bases.

Following that old school guideline while doing your best will generally do the trick.

In the past I've seen people fulfill this minimum by literally putting three dots of color on bare metal and plastic models. Do your best to not be that guy and you'll be fine.

Long and short, 40k is a game+ art hobby, and not a game or art only. Generally give your best shot at participating in the full hobby.

In NZ all the tournaments are run be amazing painters. Unfortunately they are uptight about it and have very very high painting standards (funnily enough they score highly). As a result I will not and do not go to tournaments. So if you have a reasonable painted force and they dont mind then lucky you. Here because my army although not badly painted and so on doesnt meet the requirements of the tournament and so ill loose lots of points.

Its a shame really.

But paint them to a standard you think is good. If you think its good and complete then you should be on the right track.

In the UK, check with the organiser. I attended the UK 40K GT final over the weekend and many of my models are basic base coated with 3+ colours and based. I scored 15 out of a possible 25 for painting scores.

So a best effort it would seem. Thats grand, thanks guys.

According to Army painter a tourney ant standard for be their usual quality with 1 highlight.

Keeping in mind that there are a lot of people who don't want to/don't like to paint, I think the 3 color standard is fine. Additionally, while I like the concept of painting scores and comp scores, I think these should be independent and separate from the game scores.

 Ifurita wrote:
Keeping in mind that there are a lot of people who don't want to/don't like to paint, I think the 3 color standard is fine. Additionally, while I like the concept of painting scores and comp scores, I think these should be independent and separate from the game scores.

In any self respecting tournament they are, hence why there should be separate categories for Best General/Appearance/Sportsmanship/etc... and then the Overall Champion spot for the best combined score across all aspects of the hobby.

As for 'tournament standard' painting, a nice neatly applied basecoat followed by a simple wash is enough to get a respectable score and isn't that time-intensive for those who don't enjoy the painting aspect as much as other areas of the hobby.
As long as it looks like some effort was put into it instead of say just priming black/white & sloppily painting the eye lenses, or else just dunking the entire model into a pot of Ultrasmurf Blue you'll do fine.

At my local store it is REALLY SLACK for the painting thing for tournaments. I was invited to a Fantasy tournament and I didn't participate because my SKaven aren't painted fully.

The store owner lets you play a bare plastic army in a tournament if you want to. I just wouldn't feel right bringing an unpainted army.

My armies aren't painted the best (my space marines being the worst in paint jobs but it was my first army) and now my Eldar and Tau are decently painted. My Tau probably wouldn't make the 3 colour scheme some people talk about (it is averland sunset, black and then a few silver and other colours etc on there so not sure if that counts).

I only play at my house with unpainted models and when I go to the FLGS the models are all painted to a decent table top standard with some nicely painted HQs etc

Our local tournament scene either requires 3 colours + base or 4 + base, mostly 3 through, and the basing requirements are pretty chill, mostly just "not black or white", so just straight green flocking is fine or sand on glue.

So is it fair to say that a lot of tourny players just want to to play not paint? If thats the case would it be worth getting some one else to paint them? What sor of prices do people pay for that?

I have mostly heard at least 3 colours plus basing.

For marines that can be as simple as basecoat, highlight joints and eyes. that itself is 4 colours. 5 if you paint the gun silver. Dont even really need highlights if you hate painting.

 Swastakowey wrote:
In NZ all the tournaments are run be amazing painters. Unfortunately they are uptight about it and have very very high painting standards (funnily enough they score highly). As a result I will not and do not go to tournaments. So if you have a reasonable painted force and they dont mind then lucky you. Here because my army although not badly painted and so on doesnt meet the requirements of the tournament and so ill loose lots of points.

Its a shame really.

But paint them to a standard you think is good. If you think its good and complete then you should be on the right track.

Interesting, in my experience NZ tournaments have very relaxed painting standards and soft scores in all forms have been scaled back over the last 5 years. Its pretty sad that its enough to completely turn you off tournaments. Are you playing 40k or Fantasy? Ignoring Battlecry (which has been consistently bleeding numbers over the last 4 years as more and more people realise that its terrible) the main 40k tournaments are run by people I would consider solid but not spectacular painters and they all have fairly similar standards for painting.
I am currently scrambling to get my Ulthwe army done for a tournament this weekend, the stuff I'm doing this week will likely be 3 different basecoats (black, bone, maybe some red and purple) then a wash + a decent base (sand, wash, maybe some rock pieces etc). I won't have time to make a real attempt at highlights - highlighting a black Eldar vehicle like a Serpent would probably take me a full day of painting, there are a crazy number of edges and I don't paint fast. With that very basic scheme I expect to get at least 15/20 points for painting (which is 20% of overall score), its all three colours with some attempt at shading (wash/highlight etc), based and looks good without checking close detail (passes the 3' test) which normally gets you 15, + you get bonus points for display boards, unified colour schemes etc. I have no thoughts of winning any kind of painting prizes (which are usually decided by player voting rather than judges) but even putting in heaps of time my painting skills aren't going to cut it anyway. Usually the only people I see who end up with less than 15 are people that bring stuff that doesn't have 3 colours (drops them to 12-14 maybe) or bring stuff that is completely unpainted (only works if its a couple of units, fully unpainted armies don't even make the table) which drops them below 10. Even in the worst case where I only get 15 that 5% is about the difference of a single win bracket (that is a draw becomes a minor win becomes a major win becomes a max point win) so its very rarely going to make a difference.

Check before you go if tournaments have a lot of points in painting, but for the most part don't worry about it, the amount of well painted armies has been spiralling into the dirt over recent years. The guy that won Da boyz had a 2/40 for painting, and the guy that one LVO had a terrible looking army (ironically both jetstar...).