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Was going to make a poll, but I ended up scrapping it.

So far for me I have painted:
Death watch (Worst)
Skeleton horde (easiest)
Daemons (best looking)
Grey knights (worst looking, hardest, lots of bits and bobs to snap off by accident, too intricate)
Custodes (best looking sculpts, least expensive to paint, largest models, hardest to get to perfect, difficult characters)
Imperial Guard (most expensive to paint, most labor intensive, over 200 models)

For me I'd say I enjoyed the Custodes the most, but their characters were hard to paint, and my bad skills left my Trajaan looking like Trashjaan. I want to start painting a Drukari, or I might go in AoS?

What was your favorite army to paint and why?

Harlequins. I enjoyed the 'scheme' (or lack thereof, because I have never understood why troupes of performers playing characters would wear matching outfits) for my Harlequins so much that I carried it over to a much larger combined-eldar force.

They're basically just "the model is a blank, smooth canvas, go nuts with whatever freehand you want to do".

It also helps that the plastic harlequin kit is the single most poseable, customizable plastic kit in all of 40k currently, bar none. I've made that kit six times and have not one single harlequin who looks even close to any of my other ones.

the_scotsman wrote:
Harlequins. I enjoyed the 'scheme' (or lack thereof, because I have never understood why troupes of performers playing characters would wear matching outfits) for my Harlequins so much that I carried it over to a much larger combined-eldar force.

They're basically just "the model is a blank, smooth canvas, go nuts with whatever freehand you want to do".

It also helps that the plastic harlequin kit is the single most poseable, customizable plastic kit in all of 40k currently, bar none. I've made that kit six times and have not one single harlequin who looks even close to any of my other ones.

Out of curiosity, did you free hand all your harlequin designs, or go with a tool for making all the shape designs?

Those are all MASTER level painting models. I would rather try and re-paint the writing on my GK books and standards, then free hand Harlequin suit designs. mad respect though! If you are providing lessons on how not to suck at painting....

Fun is not something I would associate with painting. In order of the least pain-in-the-ass:

Tyranids. Easy to paint and you can do some crazy stuff with them.
Custodes. The sculpts make them easy to dry brush whilst looking great. Essentially Stormcast Eternals.
Imperial Guard. Sure there’s a lot but they are easy to paint.
Death Guard. Pain in the ass
Space Marines. ZZZZzzzzzzz.

I really enjoys painting my Imperial knights because each one is unique and has its own look going on. Tyranids are close 2nd because I found a scheme I liked that was looked good and was quick and easy.

If you thought Grey Knights had lot's of bits that snap, you're not gonna enjoy Drukhari. Lol. Fiddling with Ravagers and such can be quite annoying and Drukhari (atm) isn't an army that works on a lot of base infantry (which is fairly easy to paint, admittedly, though foot-Drukhari would be quite a lot of models still).

I concur that Harlequins would be the best army to paint if I had the painting skills to pull it off. Since I don't - and I certainly didn't back when I painted mine - the experience was rather stressful and frustrating.

Given my more limited skills, the 40k models I've enjoyed painting most are my Thousand Sons / Alpha Legion terminator (using the FW Lernaens) army. Those models have the advantage of having so much baroque detail that all you really have to do is paint each detail and do some very basic highlighting and they come out looking very good. It's like the adult coloring book of model painting.

yukishiro1 wrote:
I concur that Harlequins would be the best army to paint if I had the painting skills to pull it off. Since I don't - and I certainly didn't back when I painted mine - the experience was rather stressful and frustrating.

Given my more limited skills, the 40k models I've enjoyed painting most are my Thousand Sons / Alpha Legion terminator (using the FW Lernaens) army. Those models have the advantage of having so much baroque detail that all you really have to do is paint each detail and do some very basic highlighting and they come out looking very good. It's like the adult coloring book of model painting.

Thank you, I'll have to look at them!

I will say, I can see how some people would hate painting them, precisely because of all that detail. The detail is almost all conveniently raised off the surface of the model, which makes picking it out easier than it looks. But it does require a lot of patience. It's not for someone who wants to just get stuff table-ready as quickly as possible. But they're the 40k models I've had the most satisfaction from painting, in terms of feeling like they allowed me to achieve better results than my feeble painting skills would otherwise allow.

AOS has a ton of fun models to paint. I'm currently painting an Idoneth army and having the most fun doing it I've ever had with any models I've ever painted, but AOS in general has heaps of fantastic models that seem more engineered to be fun to paint than 40k stuff is.

For me, it was my Death Guard. They were the first army where I really developed a "formula" for painting them, and I really experimented with washes and glazes. They ended up getting me Best Painted at my local Armies on Parade in 2019, and I learned so much from doing them that I've actually become pretty fast as a painter. No more "pile of shame" for me. Plus, they have the added bonus of - if you really botch one, you can cover it with really thick nuln oil and it looks great! lol

I hated doing my Tau and while I LOVE doing Ork vehicles, Boyz are probably the biggest PITA you can engage in. lol

Craftworlds/Corsairs, and to a lesser extent Tau. Clean, uncluttered vehicle designs can be made to look passable with minimal effort, but also offer big flat areas that let you go in wild directions with freehanding, patterns, gradients, camouflage, etc.

Out of all the armies I have:

Marines - meh, they're pretty generic. You can do some nice things but to me at least, it requires a bit of investment in terms of unique kitbashing, BA/DA/etc upgrade parts, etc. The movement towards monopose kits has made it more difficult as well.

Custodes - Despite the monotonous gold you really can do some nice things with them, still a little limited though.

Guard - Similar to the Marines, to get the most out of them you have to invest in unique parts, something to set them apart from the standard Cadian/Catachan template. All my Guardsmen, even the vehicle crews are Hostile Environment Guard which works but otherwise quite plain.

Knights - You can do some wonderful things with the Knight heraldry. I do wish there was a bit more variety in the Mechanicus colour schemes in the Codex but you can go a bit nuts with them regardless.

Grey Knights - Nice models but you really are stuck with grey/silver/white.

Thousand Sons/Daemons - The TS are lovely models but again quite limited; the Codex shows just variations of the standard blue/yellow, with one mention of red/yellow similar to the 30k scheme. Daemons of Tzeench on the other hand are full of opportunity as they're literally made from warp-stuff.

 Valkyrie wrote:
...Custodes - Despite the monotonous gold you really can do some nice things with them, still a little limited though...

You don't have to paint monotonous gold statues. I've done test models in both black/gold and white/gold, they're much more fun.

I wanted to do a set of Solar Watch, but we'll see. All I have left right now, is two boxes of bikes and a box of wardens. I might do the Wardens up in Solar Watch, because unless the new codex is world shattering, I don't see Wardens ever beating my terminators or shield guardians for space in my list.

I'd say Lotr easterlings but this is the 40K section, so... Orks I guess? I just started them though, so could be that I'm just not as tired with them as with my 3 other armies that are all Nurgle

For me the most enjoyable armies to paint have been Death Guard and Flesh-Eater Courts. Quick to paint and allows for more exploration than the more clean painted armies.

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:

the_scotsman wrote:
Harlequins. I enjoyed the 'scheme' (or lack thereof, because I have never understood why troupes of performers playing characters would wear matching outfits) for my Harlequins so much that I carried it over to a much larger combined-eldar force.

They're basically just "the model is a blank, smooth canvas, go nuts with whatever freehand you want to do".

It also helps that the plastic harlequin kit is the single most poseable, customizable plastic kit in all of 40k currently, bar none. I've made that kit six times and have not one single harlequin who looks even close to any of my other ones.

Out of curiosity, did you free hand all your harlequin designs, or go with a tool for making all the shape designs?

Those are all MASTER level painting models. I would rather try and re-paint the writing on my GK books and standards, then free hand Harlequin suit designs. mad respect though! If you are providing lessons on how not to suck at painting....

Depends on the pattern I was working with. Often, I would trace out the pattern with a micropen or pencil, then fill it in, or if I was doing a wider stripe or spiral I'd mask the pattern out with some tape and then paint it.

Not all of them look amazing, but that's how you learn. Also worth noting that Harlequins and Drukhari conveniently fall in that wonderful price window where GW wasn't yet putting the screws in but their stuff still looked amazing, so you can get like 10-man squads for 30 or 35 dollars.

My Alpha Legion are ok to paint, but I just do a coat of Akhelian Green over a basecoat of Stormhost Silver.

Death Guard have been very pleasing to me. Is it damn annoying when I find random maggots that missed the 2nd or 3rd time looking at the model? Sure, but all of the little details make them stand out from most armies.

I haven't worked on my eldar in a while, but they were fine. Just wish orange coated a little better lol

To date the armies I've enjoyed painting the most have all been 15mm WWII North Africa forces (Brits/Germans/USA/Italians).
And random one off D&D monsters....

I enjoy painting Tyranids the most.

For cost, the DND minis are extremely cheap, the adult red dragon costs less than a box of Custodes, and is about the size of a storm raven. Also they come pre-primed, they are great for learning how to paint. The minis of player characters and smaller monsters, goblins and such, are much harder, but still cheap and no one expects much anyway. Just throw two or three colors on em and call it bob.

I need an army I can paint and actually have a 500-1k force. I like the idea of harlequins, but have no idea what to buy.

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
For cost, the DND minis are extremely cheap, the adult red dragon costs less than a box of Custodes, and is about the size of a storm raven. Also they come pre-primed, they are great for learning how to paint. The minis of player characters and smaller monsters, goblins and such, are much harder, but still cheap and no one expects much anyway. Just throw two or three colors on em and call it bob.

If I wanted the piss poor Chinese factory quality seen on most pre-painted D&D minis, I wouldn't be investing the time/effort in painting them myself.
So no, just throwing 2-3 colors on is not the approach I take. Not on a D&D mini nor any other.

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
I need an army I can paint and actually have a 500-1k force. I like the idea of harlequins, but have no idea what to buy.

Start with the Codex.
Make your lists.
That'll determine what you buy....

I find Primaris space marines the most fun to paint. They seem to be sculpted in a way that is stress-free to paint that is simple but not as basic as say a Necron Warrior. I can turn out like 8 in a week and think all those models are painted quite well for my skill level. There is something zen about the pace of painting them I really enjoy. The biggest reason I even have a Primaris army is because I have the most fun painting their models.

Next is a toss up between Genestealer Cults and Orks. Both have a bunch of little details that can be picked out. I would probably lean more toward GSC as they tend to be a little more uniform and easier to get a whole army done. Where as with Orks, I have nearly a dozen green paints and I am going to use that to have a bunch of different skin tones. Not to mention all the little gribblies on them and my favor Kultur is Bad Moons. So Orks are fun at the kill team level, I can't say if would enjoy painting my 50th, 70th or 90th Ork Boy though.

Honorable mention to Death Guard. I thought they were going to be way worst and almost turned down a commission to paint them as I figured it would take way too long for a basicl low quality paint job. I was pretty wrong.

On the other end for me, I am not a fan of painting Tyranids. Just when you think you are about done, they have another set of limbs with another set of claws or something. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I haven't ever enjoyed painting them and had force my way through for my nid kill team, Space Hulk Genestealers and GSC Purestrains.

Space wolves are proably my favorite, they have the ease of marines, but they lend themselves well to custromization

ccs wrote:

FezzikDaBullgryn wrote:
I need an army I can paint and actually have a 500-1k force. I like the idea of harlequins, but have no idea what to buy.

Start with the Codex.
Make your lists.
That'll determine what you buy....

It's not like you're spoiled for choice. There's, what? 8 things in the codex?

Seer thing, Troup master, Ygrain, the Troop choice, an elite jester thing, and the bikes, right?

 AnomanderRake wrote:

 Valkyrie wrote:
...Custodes - Despite the monotonous gold you really can do some nice things with them, still a little limited though...

You don't have to paint monotonous gold statues. I've done test models in both black/gold and white/gold, they're much more fun.

Oh yes I agree, I originally planned to go with Shadowkeepers but found the black too irritating to get right.

After having painting a hell of a lot of tyanids I can only say I truly enjoy it. However, paintig gaunts can go and die a slow death in several religions version of hell.

Ork Vehicles personally have been a joy to paint for me, whether it's walkers or the new buggies. It's a lot more fun being able to slap on paint on a larger model and giving it rust and other highlights than painting waves of Ork boyz which have too many fiddly cloth and metal bits to really power through.

I'm not going to lie, I don't think you can tell my first painted model, a Commissar, from an ork painted grot. I do like the idea of painting a Morkanaut, but the day I shell out the money for a second horde army is the day I also get full VA pension and quit my day job.