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I also love building models, it's one of the best parts of the hobby. It reminds me of the good old days when I would get a big lego set for Christmas and spend the rest of the holidays building it.

Converting and kitbashing also is great fun (I have more unique nobz than one could possibly hope to field), any vehicle that makes sense to magnetize is magnetized, my dreads and killa kanz can swap their arms freely among each other, my helbrutes can be fielded in every configuration, my dakkajets can turn into burna bommers within seconds.

I don't shy away from metal either, I recently stripped a metal CSM daemon prince, took him apart to rebuild and add metal hive tyrant wings to him. The only material that is no longer allowed on my crafting table is finecast.

I hate painting though. I'm still hoping to find someone who would paint my models in exchange for me building and magnetizing their models.

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. 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?

Ha i have the excact opposite, i dislike painting (unless i have inspiration) unlike building, i could build for days, especially if my bitz box would be deeper, but then again i play(ed) factions that lend themselves to kitbashing, 3rd parties and everyhing in between.

Some of my personal highlights include:

An Abbadon into a version of my fav chaos lord.


A chaos lord into a specifc kind of themed Necro CSM.


A count as Daemonprince engine:


Count as Stalkleman russ tanks amiriger conversions aswell as a daemonegnified Basilisk:


Meanwhile my painting skill often limits the capability of what i want to look them like so i kinda have to compensate with my building skill.
That and a at times tight portmonnaie lead inevitably to some happy kitbashing and repurposing.

At the moment i am contemplating to use corpsegrinders with Tempestus to kitbash some elite formations with left over 3rd party bits...

I hate it and would prefer to have my minis already built and primed, EXCEPT if I plan to kitbash or convert something.
It's also less about the building and more about the cleanup, worst of all those clip off nubs.
I have no issue with mouldlines and gaps are ususally managable, but those stupid nubs are the worst.

Not Online!!! wrote:

Some of my personal highlights include:

An Abbadon into a version of my fav chaos lord.

Spoiler:

A chaos lord into a specifc kind of themed Necro CSM.

Spoiler:

Damn, love those 2

If you don’t enjoy building models this is probable not an ideal hobby.

Depends on the model. Some stuff goes together brilliantly. I LOVE kitbashing stuff. Tomb Blades are fething horrible to assemble. Seriously, feth tomb blades. No basic jetbike should be in 40ish parts.

I'd say as with a lot of art its more about satisfaction than enjoyment.

 JohnnyHell wrote:
If you don’t enjoy building models this is probable not an ideal hobby.

I disagree, cause you can enjoy playing, but not painting or building and you can also enjoy building and playing, but not painting, or you can be in it mainly for the painting enjoyment (like me) and don't play and only build stuff to have something to paint and not because you enjoy it. It's just a necessity to get to where you can do your hobby.

I dislike work, but love the money, so I gotta do the first to get to the second XD

This is why we can't have nice things, and monopose plastics are on there way back in.

 Sim-Life wrote:
Depends on the model. Some stuff goes together brilliantly. I LOVE kitbashing stuff. Tomb Blades are fething horrible to assemble. Seriously, feth tomb blades. No basic jetbike should be in 40ish parts.

Personal most hated kit, warcry splintered fang, why?
Have you seen the fething NET?

As someone who also loves the assembly side, I'm not getting all the hate for Primaris poses.

One the one hand (ha!) for the arm combos and preset poses, that's excellent for the people who want to know exactly what pose they're getting, and don't want to do all the clipping and remodelling to get a different variation of "bolter held in two hands, without just clutching it to the chest". You're given a good idea of what that'll look like from the start, and there's a nice range of poses. I remember when Tactical Marine arms were all pretty much the same, and your pose options were "bolter held by the casing and grenade in the other hand" or "bolter clutched to the chest" without more cutting. Current Tacticals, 30k plastics and Primaris allow for aiming down sights, held at an angle, reloading, and held at waist without any extra work.

As for the legs and torsos being stuck together - again, that's never been much of an issue with me. Simply changing the head angle usually does a great deal in changing the momentum of the model. The main thing missed is if you want a whole squad having the same leg stance.

My main gripe with Primaris (and honestly nearly all modern sculpts)? The hands being molded to the guns, and the join being at the wrist. It makes having guns held in one hand far more difficult without using one built for that purpose. But that's about it.

Building and converting is the best part of the hobby for me, too. Especially when it's getting creative.

I really enoy it. More so than playing or painting.

There are only two parts of building that I hate

1) Removing mould lines prior to assembly.

2) When the style of a model means that the ideal way to build it is in stages with painting between those stages.
However that's more my phobia of painting and lack of painting skill than anything to do with model building.


Hating building models is a bit of a barrier in the hobby since playing and painting both require a built model. Of course if you've the money you can commission others to build and prime your models.

That said in my view a lot of hate often comes from a lack of confidence and methods to achieve a result at a quality we desire. Ergo that you might hate building because you're not sure you're doing it right or to the best of your ability. Sometimes some guidance, help and tuition can help overcome this.

I like the model building more than I like painting,as painting takes so much time for so little actual progress when it's just that much faster to go from sprues to assembled model, even when doing subassemblies and magnetization. And I'm not that great at painting,so that feels more like work I have to do.

When building miniatures I am usually a bit sad when I'm finished. Painting is more like "thank God I'm done with this" most of the time.

But what overread wrote is absolutely true - knowing how to build stuff is a requirement, otherwise it's really frustrating. It's why I prefer GW plastics over anything else. No super glue that doesn't stick until it's your fingers, no weird instructions, no metal to shav,easy to cut and modify ....

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
As someone who also loves the assembly side, I'm not getting all the hate for Primaris poses.

One the one hand (ha!) for the arm combos and preset poses, that's excellent for the people who want to know exactly what pose they're getting, and don't want to do all the clipping and remodelling to get a different variation of "bolter held in two hands, without just clutching it to the chest". You're given a good idea of what that'll look like from the start, and there's a nice range of poses. I remember when Tactical Marine arms were all pretty much the same, and your pose options were "bolter held by the casing and grenade in the other hand" or "bolter clutched to the chest" without more cutting. Current Tacticals, 30k plastics and Primaris allow for aiming down sights, held at an angle, reloading, and held at waist without any extra work.

As for the legs and torsos being stuck together - again, that's never been much of an issue with me. Simply changing the head angle usually does a great deal in changing the momentum of the model. The main thing missed is if you want a whole squad having the same leg stance.

My main gripe with Primaris (and honestly nearly all modern sculpts)? The hands being molded to the guns, and the join being at the wrist. It makes having guns held in one hand far more difficult without using one built for that purpose. But that's about it.

I see monopose models as next level of challange for conversion

Only time i ever came close to liking building a model was making minor conversions.

I also am not the best painter, so I only sometimes enjoy that.

As someone who converts and/or kitbashes literally everything, building is easily my favorite part of the process.

I hate it

I pay other people a few hundred to build armies normally. Any PP or Mantic army? someones getting paid to do that for me

I can work on terrain all day

I started in the hobby when everything was mono-pose metal, so converting a mono-pose plastic model doesn't really pose a challenge to me. Count me as someone else who doesn't understand the "Primaris pose" hate.

That said, while I still enjoy converting and scratch building, regular old building of the models is becoming increasingly tedious. Sometimes, I convert things. Most of the time, I just want to get the models built as quickly as I can so that I can get to painting, and anymore, that's becoming tiresome. While I love the look GW has been achieving w/a lot of the 40k stuff recently, they've made building it a real PITA. Illuminor Szeras was a nightmare for example, and that guy is NEVER leaving the house because I can't envision a way to transport him and NOT have a million tiny pieces snap off.

In fact, almost every new Necron model has been a pain. Even the snap fits - "Wind this arm.head/hip combo piece over the back piece under the chest piece and through the hips". The Mechanicus stuff also bums me out. Put one wrong set of legs with one wrong toros on a Ranger and you're fethed.

Some of the stuff has gotten too intricate for its own good. Not a fan. Plus, outside of the occasional issue with Tank tracks, assembling vehicles use to be a snap. But the last few I got (Repulsor and Repulsor Executioner) were to warped and had massive gaps. It was like assembling old school Forge World where you had to tack on a few days just for fixing things. I just don't enjoy it anymore.

In response to OP, I like building models more than painting. I even find removing mould lines to be somewhat enjoyable.

In fact I find that painting can interfere with my enjoyment of building models more so than the other way around. The reason is because I struggle with my painting due to poor eyesight and hand control, I consistently have to leave my mini's in more sub-assemblies than I might otherwise would have and this frustrates the model builder in me because I constantly have a collection of partially assembled models as part of my painting backlog. So not only do I suffer through seemingly endless shelves of gray plastic, but its shelves of partially assembled gray plastic at that!

Transporting delicate models can be easy if you have ferrous metal in/on the base, and some rare earth magnets for securing that base to something, and a case sufficient for it. A guy in Halifax has this custom case that I've seen a similar version available commercially now, where essentially he has a box that you can slot baking sheets into, and the models hold onto the baking sheets.

I enjoy putting the modular kits together, specifically space marines before the modern method. I would glue legs to bases and then fit torsos together before putting arms and weapons on. Then head pointed where it makes sense with the pose and be done. Now when every kit is numbered and each piece fitted to specific others it feels like a chore. To me the opportunity to customize my models is less though the actual model is better looking. I just don't want every box to look the same when you need so many infantry models to make an army.

I like all aspects of modeling. I do get bored pretty easy doing 1 task for too long. Currently working on Necron as a project. I am building several kits at once and painting a few others. I just keep rotating when I get bored. I have actually found this is the fastest way for me to get a large project done.

I think Building is my favorite part of the hobby though. Building however is not without it's frustrations. Some pieces are just fiddly and I get angry wondering why I have to glue two tiny pieces together when they easily could have just been 1 piece. I think gluing arms together holding a gun is the worst...or a staff or whatever. There is just no great way to do this. Also scraping mold lines off is pretty tiresome...not just the scraping...getting the plastic shaving out of the cracks. In the end it is worth it when it's all over. That feeling of accomplishment and knowing you can now move to painting.

 Stevefamine wrote:
I can work on terrain all day

Yes, I am the same. Terrain has gone from an afterthought when I started out, to a major focus - I work on more terain than minis these days. There is something queerly pleasing about making a nice setpiece, even the the battles it was meant to host never happen.

I guess this is what model railroading is like.

I like building models, especially Ork ones, mainly because of all the conversion possibilities and the equivalent of finishing a lego kit when you are finished. I do hate metal models though, especially top heavy ones like the SAG mek. I always preferred it over painting until recently, where I've really realized that I love painting vehicles and terrain. It's just infantry with their tiny bits and clothes that became far too tedious for me.

I like putting things together. It's fun.

I do mostly enjoy building the models, yes. I don't go too crazy with kitbashing, but on occasion I like to personalize some HQs--for instance I recently cut off my captain in phobos armor's lower left leg and replaced it with a cybernetic bit from Anvil Industries. It looks awesome and was worth the trouble when finished!

As others have mentioned, some models are a bit of a chore--it's mostly the older kits in my experience that are like this. E.g. the land raider and rhino were fairly easy, but the tolerances aren't great and getting everything seamless was a chore. Illuminor Szeras was a pain for a new model, as he has tons of super tiny bits attached to other bits in weird places. Very hard to assemble seamlessly without breaking anything. The model is a show-stopper, though, so worth it in the end. I built a bunch of Seraphon Saurus Knights recently for my wife's army and they were simple, but the kits are old and don't fit together worth a damn, so it was an absolute pain. I actually didn't enjoy those at all.

Two of my favorite kits are Leviathan and Contemptor dreadnoughts. I know some people just cannot deal with resin, but these kits have customizability that allows amazing poses, and with fewer pieces than plastic. Only trouble is mould slips (due to FW's absolutely shameful quality control) and having to pin and use super glue or epoxy (which I recommend!). Pinning resin is super-duper easy, though, as it's really easy to drill. Google search an Iron Hands Leviathan and see what I mean about posing. One of the first images that pops up for me is one with a grav flux bombard and siege drill running forward. Whoever did that must have felt immensely satisfied when finished! And it's not even that hard with those kits compared to plastic.

I am also like the OP. Assembling models is my least favorite part, but I love painting. I also like the newer models that are easy to build and monopose models. I find models that have lot posing options to a pain to put together and rarely ever convert models. Example of a model I hate assembling is the Dire Avenger plastic models and plastic guardians

I really don't like drilling and sanding resin. I know they claim it isn't carcinogenic, but I'm not at all sure I believe them, and it's terrible to inhale either way. Even with a dust mask and careful vacuuming I always have the sinking suspicion I've put a lot of fine resin particles into the air that are going into somebody's lungs sooner or later.

The fact that FW's bad quality control means you'll almost always have to do at least some sanding makes the whole thing a "feels bad" moment IMO. I will not completely refuse to do it, but I always hate it when I have to.

Yes i do and it is related to my Asperger syndrome, but it is not limited to only plastic figures. (IKEA and me are very good friends)
Abselutly hate painting tough. I try as mutch as possible to find prepainted minis on ebay for the "large army" stuff. Skirmish games i can paint myself