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 Sigvatr wrote:
Suggest meeting up and doing a "paint day" where you sit together, paint your miniatures and maybe watch a good TV series or listen to music at the same time to create a welcoming atmosphere.

Not a bad idea.

However, if the player's response is that they have no interest, accept that and decide to A. not play against them or B. suck it up and be happy you actually have someone to play with.

Not everyone has the luxury of B for a variety of reasons.

Honestly, I would rather play against a completely unpainted army than an army that's partially painted. I don't really blame the guy - painting multiple armies gets to be ridiculously time-consuming, and some of us would rather spend that time playing.

If you really want to convince him, then have a painting day at your FLGS and help him out. Otherwise, you can just do the very basics: give the army a colored spray paint primer/basecoat, and then give it a quick dip. You can do a 2000 point army in a couple hours, and honestly from a distance it looks just fine.

Explain to him that his lack of painting takes a lot of the fun outof the game for you. Then tell him his lack of effort depresses you and basically ruins your interest in playing. Then tell him you don't want to play anymore. Then start looking for more opponents. They are out there.

 DeffDred wrote:
Explain to him that his lack of painting takes a lot of the fun outof the game for you. Then tell him his lack of effort depresses you and basically ruins your interest in playing. Then tell him you don't want to play anymore. Then start looking for more opponents. They are out there.

So..Be TFG to try and "motivate" him or something? That second line is way to unnecessary.

I hafta agree to a degree. tell him to prime them and fund paints for you and go at them yourself.

I once had a regular opponent who never painted his armies. Sadly your just going to have to decide whether playing against him is important enough to you to put up with the grey. You can't force him to change. Just don't let your opponent spiral down out of unpainted and into unbuilt. The very last game I played against my unpainted friend was against an army of bases (what one was a character/heavy weapon again?), 3 rhino hulls (what was the predator and what was the vindicator?) and a dreadnought base.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Maybe try organising a hobby day with him? Beer, movie and two paint station to chill out and paint models? Might find that painting is something he thinks is boring, so make it interesting to him. I've done that with mates as well.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Suggest meeting up and doing a "paint day" where you sit together, paint your miniatures and maybe watch a good TV series or listen to music at the same time to create a welcoming atmosphere.

How did this productive reply get in here??

 Sigvatr wrote:
Suggest meeting up and doing a "paint day" where you sit together, paint your miniatures and maybe watch a good TV series or listen to music at the same time to create a welcoming atmosphere.

I've done this. It really does help you to stay motivated when you're painting with someone else.

Couldn't agree more. Either don't play against him or get over it.

Maybe you sounded more dogmatic than you wanted. In that case I can say what helped with some people for me in the past (though they all were not rejecting painting their army in general, just didn't have skill or time):
- Offer to help with painting or to give an introduction
- Make offers to speedpaint his army, e.g. just bright basecoat with shade/ink
- Find someone with an airbrush to paint masses of models quickly. Especially a metal look is so easy to do: black basecoat, airbrush boltgun metal, airbrush nuln oil/agrax earthshade. Highlight if desired. Finished.

 Rismonite wrote:
You should totally take some grots and make him color by number basecoat it

Then, after he's spent his time basecoating.. show him how awesome those gitz look with some wash on 'em

He'll want to paint them again.. and with you to play against a coupole times a week he'll want to paint just to show'em off to you.

Or just find someone who isn't TFG.

So people are TFG now if they dont want to paint models?

At the end of the day, it's his money spent on his models, it may be annoying to some, but some people just don't enjoy or value painting as much as others, it can be quite irritating, but it's not like he's hurting anyone by not having painted models.

I happen to like monochrome grey!!!

Mindgak paint my entire army Monochrome grey!

Make '50 shades of grey' jokes with everything till he is forced to at least base coat :p

 Bottle wrote:
Make '50 shades of grey' jokes with everything till he is forced to at least base coat :p

This.... right now.

The best advice I can give is to point out the "dip & flick" method of painting. Prime the minis, basecoat them a bit, then brush on a bit of dip (for instance, the Army Painter stuff). It doesn't look GREAT, but it's better than no paint at all.

Failing that, get a leather strap to bite on while you play to keep from grinding your teeth and/or screaming as you stare at his grey plastic hordes. Y'know, like when they amputated limbs during the Civil War. Works great for me.

Suggest he just undercover them using army painter spray?

Eh, I'd just be happy to be getting regular games. Some people just don't like to paint...or can't be bothered...there are many reasons. Don't worry about it.

Post pics of your models.

The only thing more annoying than a guy who hasn't painted any of his models is a guy who painted all of his models to a terrible standard and then acts like that's an accomplishment.

 whitehorn wrote:
I once had a regular opponent who never painted his armies. Sadly your just going to have to decide whether playing against him is important enough to you to put up with the grey. You can't force him to chang.
Maybe try organising a hobby day with him? Beer, movie and two paint station to chill out and paint models? Might find that painting is something he thinks is boring, so make it interesting to him. I've done that with mates as well.

This is a better explanation of my views from before.

I wasn't trying to insinuate an attitude towards the non-painter, just saying if painting is that much of an important aspect of the hobby to you, you really need to reach out and find like minded players.

 OldSkoolGoff wrote:
Post pics of your models.

The only thing more annoying than a guy who hasn't painted any of his models is a guy who painted all of his models to a terrible standard and then acts like that's an accomplishment.

You do realize everyone has different standards, right?

As for you OP, just accept that not everyone enjoys painting. If you really cannot stand unpainted armies, try looking for different opponents. There's no point forcing your friend to do something he doesn't want to do.

Although I will say a joint paint day might be a good idea, just ask if he's open to the idea. If not, just leave the whole thing alone.

 Mumblez wrote:

You do realize everyone has different standards, right?

Yes. What of it?

 OldSkoolGoff wrote:

 Mumblez wrote:

You do realize everyone has different standards, right?

Yes. What of it?

Your 'terrible' might be another person's best work. Not everyone can paint well and those that can't shouldn't be hated just because they aren't good at it.

Are those Tyranids painted with the wash only technique? I actually really like that look, I've used it in the past.

Cadians look great.

I can actually see how that would be frustrating because your models certainly don't suck.

 OldSkoolGoff wrote:
Are those Tyranids painted with the wash only technique? I actually really like that look, I've used it in the past.

Cadians look great.

I can actually see how that would be frustrating because your models certainly don't suck.

Really? Not to be that guy, but I am not impressed with the Tyranids. The Cadians look fine, but they're at a distance so I can't tell

I feel like if you have to say 'not to be that guy' you're being that guy.

 OldSkoolGoff wrote:
I feel like if you have to say 'not to be that guy' you're being that guy.

My point is unless he's paint GD standard, then he doesn't really have room to be giving the other guy gak. It's fine to be annoyed at his unpainted army, but just don't play him.

My local GW has a house rule that painted models get preferred enemy to grey plastic models. You could always roll with that haha

While I dont really hate it when people dont paint models, and never criticize. I do try push people to paint their models. But thats about it really.

Playing with painted models is a lot better though.