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 notprop wrote:

 kronk wrote:
I feel shame is my army has even 1 bolter not painted.

You just paint the Bolters? What if the model doesn't have Bolters?

All models have bolters if you try hard enough and believe in yourself.

I tend to assemble a 1500 point force, paint it in a couple of massive 'batches' and then start playing. So, quite a lot of painting hours, but I tend to do it all at once over a weekend or something so it's not months and months of painting before I can play.

After that, I'll just paint squads at a time and add them to the collection.

I don't like playing with unpainted models, but it helps that I already have a few armies, so I can still be playing...

I start playing with an army as soon as it's assembled and at least 3 colours painted (as I won't field an unpainted MODEL, regardless of the game - let alone an unpainted army).

Any other units I wish to add to it also only see table time AFTER they are painted.

If it means that my new army won't see play for 3 months, so be it.

I tend to use units as-is when it gets to a game, whatever condition that's in. Though I do at least try for a base coat + 2 colours and will paint them up between games.

I'm a slow painter and life is too short to keep my unfinished forces in reserve.

Currently I'm working on a 120-man WOTR force, which has 4/5 colours inc base, so usable if not impressive.

The smaller the mini's, or the less of them, the further on I tend to be.

 zedmeister wrote:
A trick I find useful is to always, where possible, do a little something each day or night depending on your free time and the Mrs/Mr and Children's needs. The little something could be as little as adding a coat to a pair of trousers or the foundation for a gem. At least something was done, ready for the next stage.

Yes!! I've done this for years

I always get a sense of accomplishment, a victory of sorts, even if it is a tiny little victory.

I picked 21-50 hours. While I don't paint before playing, all my model prep and assembly is done with painting in mind. I'm not super good at catching mold lines, but all the joins are greenstuffed and my armies usually contain at least 2-3 major conversions (sadly unpainted usually).

I don't have the time to fully paint an army before playing it. There's an ITS tournament in November with a fully painted requirement, and even though I would only need to crank out about 15 models, that's pretty much impossible for me. (Realistically would need 2-3 months dedicated prep time).

I used to play fully painted in 3/4th Ed 40k, using the "bit-by-bit" approach. At the end of 3rd Edition I was pushing towards improving my paintwork and speed was really beginning to suffer as I was averaging 7-8 hours per infantry. I gave up and went back to speedpainting in 4th Edition.

The laxness of fully-painted requirement in Warmachine (and an explosion in purchases) really stymied my ability to paint before play. Now that I play less, I'm working on painting again - though with a bent towards even better paint jobs... which is kind of at odds with getting stuff done!

 Talys wrote:

 zedmeister wrote:
A trick I find useful is to always, where possible, do a little something each day or night depending on your free time and the Mrs/Mr and Children's needs. The little something could be as little as adding a coat to a pair of trousers or the foundation for a gem. At least something was done, ready for the next stage.

Yes!! I've done this for years

I always get a sense of accomplishment, a victory of sorts, even if it is a tiny little victory.

This technique has never worked for me. After about 2 weeks I just get sick of it and it just becomes a painful chore instead of an interesting hobby.

I find it easier to both justify and enjoy spending a whole weekend painting once in a while instead of spending an hour or two each night.

Same, I keep my current project + paints in a tray by the couch and pick them up now and then but any attempt to do it nightly fails after a few days - I really don't want it turning into a chore and I've got other things to do as well (or just can't be bothered painting).

I've got a whole load of DIY projects that need to be finished off this year.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Talys wrote:

 zedmeister wrote:
A trick I find useful is to always, where possible, do a little something each day or night depending on your free time and the Mrs/Mr and Children's needs. The little something could be as little as adding a coat to a pair of trousers or the foundation for a gem. At least something was done, ready for the next stage.

Yes!! I've done this for years

I always get a sense of accomplishment, a victory of sorts, even if it is a tiny little victory.

This technique has never worked for me. After about 2 weeks I just get sick of it and it just becomes a painful chore instead of an interesting hobby.

I find it easier to both justify and enjoy spending a whole weekend painting once in a while instead of spending an hour or two each night.

Oh, the little victories are *in addition* to the whole weekends or long nights they're what I squeeze in when I really didn't have enough time to work on anything significant.

Incidentally, about 2 weeks is when my desire to work on another model kicks in too.

How long?

However long it takes to paint the army.

I don't like playing a game if the army isn't painted.


Which is at least partly why I don't ever play ever. I have FAR too many armies to finish.

I find it depends on the game. As I have a fully painted 40k armies a new 40k model usually won't see play until it's painted. If I'm picking up a new game though I'll put the models together and start playing. Usually I'll have the models scraped and base-coated before they hit the table. Unfortunately my family time has been eating away at my hobby time so I'm less likely to pick up new games these days. I've got my fingers crossed that one of my kids will take up my hobby and I'll have an in house opponent.

There is no such thing as an 'average army'. What system? What scale?

I tend to spend an average of around an hour for a 28mm infantry model; less for rank and file, more for characters and Skirmish games. I aim to paint a squad/unit per weekend if I am actively working on an army, although I can generally manage 2 or even 3 for Epic.

Block painting, simple highlights (generally a light drybrush) and a wash of watered down Vallejo dark brown wash is what most of my models get. Nothing sees the table without being based and fully painted though.