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I'm at an interesting spot hobbywise where I'm just a few Immortals and a Monolith short of completing my Necron collection and about halfway through in terms of painting (Which I do love by the way) but for the past few weeks I can't seem to shake a certain unsatisfying feeling and I've narrowed it down to the paint scheme.

Funny enough the current scheme I have is everything that I initially wanted it to be, easy to batch paint, primarily washes and drybrushing and focus on more realistic or desaturated colours. I suppose while functionally it does everything I wanted I think I've missed the mark aesthetically which is why I'm seriously considering stripping everything and starting over.

What's been your reason for repainting? I'm trying to see if I'm onto something, overthinking things or just need a break.

I've only ever really repainted some of my marines, and it's because I painted the first bunch when I was about 12 and although I did my best I knew I could do better. I left quite a few in the old scheme though to remind myself how far I've come as a painter.

Other than that I've mostly just done stuff like rebasing models or using washes and a bit of extra detailing to improve paintjobs rather than stripping them.

Honestly a break sounds like a great idea. I tend to hate painting my stuff unless I'm inspired and it sounds like you've lost the inspiration.
Most of my repaints have been because I stopped liking the army for one reason or another. Heck this past year I repainted all of my 30k Emperor's Children into Mantis Warriors, Black Legion, Iron Warriors or Deathwatch because I stopped playing EC about 3 years ago and didn't want to shell out for loads of new minis.

I painted an entire Custodes army once I was unhappy with how it turned out. I painted them bronze and it just didn’t feel right.

So I repurchased the army and painted them gold.

Sometimes it’s hard to translate the idea of what you want in your head to real life.

The only stuff I've ever gone back and repainted was because I was embarassed at how bad the original paint job was and I wanted to go back and apply things I'd learned since.

 Gert wrote:
Honestly a break sounds like a great idea. I tend to hate painting my stuff unless I'm inspired and it sounds like you've lost the inspiration.
Most of my repaints have been because I stopped liking the army for one reason or another.....

Necrons are the only faction I like in 40k so it's them or bust so yeah, sounds like I might just take a break.

 Brutus_Apex wrote:
I painted an entire Custodes army once I was unhappy with how it turned out. I painted them bronze and it just didn’t feel right.

So I repurchased the army and painted them gold.

Sometimes it’s hard to translate the idea of what you want in your head to real life.

Hmmm conversely this may just be it to be honest. What I wanted and what I have are similar but different enough to throw me off the more I paint.

If you can find some super cheap easy to build/pushfit models, I've found that just trying different styles of painting can help a lot. I had lots of ETB Poxwalkers from Conquest when it was around and I used them as a break from painting Marines/Tanks for my Guard. I tried different skin tones, cloth colours and techniques like decayed flesh. The ETB models eventually piled up into a workable Necromunda Chaos Gang which was a nice side effect.

 Gert wrote:
If you can find some super cheap easy to build/pushfit models, I've found that just trying different styles of painting can help a lot. I had lots of ETB Poxwalkers from Conquest when it was around and I used them as a break from painting Marines/Tanks for my Guard. I tried different skin tones, cloth colours and techniques like decayed flesh. The ETB models eventually piled up into a workable Necromunda Chaos Gang which was a nice side effect.

That sounds like a good idea. I actually have a spare SoB lying around here for some reason so I'll paint that up before I touch the Necrons, hopefully the change of pace and style will be refreshing.

I do Wizkids D&D stuff as palette clensers quite a bit.

Originally painted my Titanicus legion as Gryphonicus, as it looked good at the time. Did a couple of Reavers and a Warlord before it just started to look like bare plastic with gold trim, so redid them as Astorum.

I've replaced my marine army three times, entirely because of the paint scheme. In each case I sold the army and started over from the beginning. My first army was straight UM from the books (2nd ed). Each replacement was a custom scheme. Formerly, part of the new scheme formulation was about "paintability" so that it wasn't too difficult to paint an army. My current(latest) scheme was designed to be my final scheme, and "paintability" was less of a concern, opting instead for a look I would always be happy with. I started on this "final" scheme about 11/12(?) years ago, and I still love it.


A side benefit to selling and re-collecting is that I've wound up with a huge stockpile of bits which serve for customization or just more swappable options.

 Insectum7 wrote:
I've replaced my marine army three times, entirely because of the paint scheme. In each case I sold the army and started over from the beginning. My first army was straight UM from the books (2nd ed). Each replacement was a custom scheme. Formerly, part of the new scheme formulation was about "paintability" so that it wasn't too difficult to paint an army. My current(latest) scheme was designed to be my final scheme, and "paintability" was less of a concern, opting instead for a look I would always be happy with. I started on this "final" scheme about 11/12(?) years ago, and I still love it.

Spoiler:

A side benefit to selling and re-collecting is that I've wound up with a huge stockpile of bits which serve for customization or just more swappable options.

Dude those look gorgeous!

I also like what you mentioned about paintability. That was definitely my main target with the current scheme I have as my goal was to be able to field a fully painted army. In my case and yours it seems that doesn't necessarily mean its a scheme that you like as a whole.

I’ve stripped and repainted some old RT metals and RTB01s from their original Blood Angels and custom chapter so they could join my Ultras.

My BAs haven’t seen the table since 3rd, and the custom guys were for our PC forces from when we played RT as a RPG. Long time collecting dust. Mk. VI beekies are technically compliant for HH games, where large blocks of guys with just bolters can be a thing, so I figured they might have a chance of seeing the table. And painting the old RT metals in a new scheme would be fun, and again, might actually see play.

 Mixzremixzd wrote:

 Insectum7 wrote:
I've replaced my marine army three times, entirely because of the paint scheme. In each case I sold the army and started over from the beginning. My first army was straight UM from the books (2nd ed). Each replacement was a custom scheme. Formerly, part of the new scheme formulation was about "paintability" so that it wasn't too difficult to paint an army. My current(latest) scheme was designed to be my final scheme, and "paintability" was less of a concern, opting instead for a look I would always be happy with. I started on this "final" scheme about 11/12(?) years ago, and I still love it.

Spoiler:

A side benefit to selling and re-collecting is that I've wound up with a huge stockpile of bits which serve for customization or just more swappable options.

Dude those look gorgeous!

Thanks!

 Mixzremixzd wrote:

I also like what you mentioned about paintability. That was definitely my main target with the current scheme I have as my goal was to be able to field a fully painted army. In my case and yours it seems that doesn't necessarily mean its a scheme that you like as a whole.

Totally. On the downside, it takes me forever to paint a squad. But I'm always really happy when I complete a new unit. There's this other added psychological benefit too, I find . . . And that is, always in the back of my mind, is the conviction that I'm NEVER switching my scheme again because after all the work starting over again would just be too painful/time intensive, lol.

 Insectum7 wrote:

 Mixzremixzd wrote:

I also like what you mentioned about paintability. That was definitely my main target with the current scheme I have as my goal was to be able to field a fully painted army. In my case and yours it seems that doesn't necessarily mean its a scheme that you like as a whole.

Totally. On the downside, it takes me forever to paint a squad. But I'm always really happy when I complete a new unit. There's this other added psychological benefit too, I find . . . And that is, always in the back of my mind, is the conviction that I'm NEVER switching my scheme again because after all the work starting over again would just be too painful/time intensive, lol.

One thing I realised discussing this subject with others and looking at my Necrons again is that my favourite colours are black, white and blue and yet....not a single one of those colours is really present in my current scheme...hobbyists are weird people .

I've repainted a lot of my armies over the years. The last one that sticks out the most were my Necrons. I first painted them with a brush but set them aside for a few years and when I went back to them after a long time away from playing 40K I decided to repaint them with my airbrush.
Basically my original ideas came together much better with the airbrush than they did with the brush. Sold those, that landed me a large commission to paint a bunch more.
I've repainted my Orks as I wasn't satisfied with having drybrushed so many of them and had a bunch in my backlog that had nearly no effort put into them. I'd started to change my painting style and wanted to bring everything more in line with it. It didn't really feel like re painting but more like finishing them.
I've repainted a lot of Space Marine armies over the years either because I just want them to look different or bought them second hand, I would usually resell these armies from time to time usually for part of a new army and a little money. I've just repainted a lot of Primaris to fill the ranks when I started my newest Blood Angels army. which is all painted now. still tempted to repaint a big chunk of this to start Black Templars but I hope I don't. Guess I just have this need to paint so I do.

 Mixzremixzd wrote:
I'm at an interesting spot hobbywise where I'm just a few Immortals and a Monolith short of completing my Necron collection and about halfway through in terms of painting (Which I do love by the way) but for the past few weeks I can't seem to shake a certain unsatisfying feeling and I've narrowed it down to the paint scheme.

Funny enough the current scheme I have is everything that I initially wanted it to be, easy to batch paint, primarily washes and drybrushing and focus on more realistic or desaturated colours. I suppose while functionally it does everything I wanted I think I've missed the mark aesthetically which is why I'm seriously considering stripping everything and starting over.

What's been your reason for repainting? I'm trying to see if I'm onto something, overthinking things or just need a break.

I switched my guard scheme from green & brown to white & grey, because I decided I didn't like the brown/green and liked the winter theme better.

The winter/urban look is marginally more distinct, but more importantly, doesn't blend in on oriental carpets.


I didn't repaint most of my troopers though, just my tanks.

I've repainted an Imperial Knight and an Onager Dunecrawler from red to a pale green because I decided I didn't love the red color scheme. Pictures:



I've also recently started repainting my old school Stormtroopers or Militarum Tempestus as we say now, from grey armor to orange, because it was hard to tell what was going on from a tabletop distance. They just looked like kinda grey-ish blobs. The new orange color definitely pops by comparison:

Ask yourself this: What bothers you more, the current paint scheme, or half of your army one paint scheme and another a different paint scheme. You did not specify exactly how large your army is, but if you have an army large enough to break down in to smaller detachments that are still viable and fieldable, then I would experiment on a new paint scheme and see what you think. You can always strip the paint on an old job and repaint it to something that you like what Nevelon did with his space marines. I have seen people do what Gert is suggesting to a fashion in that they paint up one or two models of one paint scheme to see how it turns out.

As far as the question in the OP, I have stripped a few squads/units that I flat out made a mistake that I could not fix, or changed the way that I was modeling my army. Most recent was that I over-painted on one squad and painted over details that I wanted to show.

main reason for repainting some of my armies that I kept rather than putting on sale is that I've learn to use the proper tools(jewelry files in this case on metal parts) and prepping(mold line cleaning, gun barrel drilling, magnets, sub assembly) the models prior to painting, 2nd reason is that my painting got better, 3rd is that its more cost effective, especially those models I couldn't replace.

I've started with WHFB with Bret(stripped and in process of prepping, partially sold), DE(stripped and await prepping, partially sold), DoW(sold), VC(sold), WE(sold)

IG(repainted over the yrs, partially sold), tau(repainted, partially sold), orks(drilled the gun barrels and retouched), thank god the other various armies I started correctly!

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/767743.page

I had to repaint my Necrons because I was doing some weird hipster nonsense using a painted-on airbrush paint to get an obsidian effect that didn't really work and then when the new Skorpekh stuff came out I realized that the company that made the paint I was using was no longer selling it so I just switched to contrasts.

I've repainted my old models as a teenager some 15 years ago. I started with a scheme for my Chaos Marines when I was like 14, and I learned all sorts of better ways to paint over time. I picked up the starter set at the time, Assault on Black Reach, and used the Space Marines as test models. I eventually ended up with a paint scheme I'm still happy with, but I'd stripped and repainted my models so much I didn't really make progress on completing the whole army.

I had two big lessons. Always do test models to pick a scheme, and even do test models to refine the painting process. The first model can be unrelated, just paint sections differently. Then do a real model and figure out the kinks. Secondly, don't start repainting models when you've got new ones waiting for paint. When you do start repainting, do it in small batches. You'll feel more satisfied with mixed paint schemes than a grey tide you never make progress on.

TinyLegions wrote:
Ask yourself this: What bothers you more, the current paint scheme, or half of your army one paint scheme and another a different paint scheme. You did not specify exactly how large your army is, but if you have an army large enough to break down in to smaller detachments that are still viable and fieldable, then I would experiment on a new paint scheme and see what you think. You can always strip the paint on an old job and repaint it to something that you like what Nevelon did with his space marines. I have seen people do what Gert is suggesting to a fashion in that they paint up one or two models of one paint scheme to see how it turns out.

As far as the question in the OP, I have stripped a few squads/units that I flat out made a mistake that I could not fix, or changed the way that I was modeling my army. Most recent was that I over-painted on one squad and painted over details that I wanted to show.

While not painting and stripping, I do have some differences in my Ultras.

I’ve been playing since the start. I’ve got RTB01s fighting shoulder to shoulder with their new primaris brothers. Now anyone who’s been with us for a while knows about how fickle GW’s paint range is. Some of them are basecoated in “Ultramarine Blue” others with “Macragge Blue”. Most of them are glazed with “Blue Ink” but some are in whatever the modern shade is. I forget the name and was able to source another pot of the right Ink, so it’s only some of my heresy era guys that use it. A careful eye can pick out the era of the mini due the paint, but it’s compounded by some being sun-bleached from a hundred battlefields, or covered in a cozy layer of dust due to years of neglected crappy rules.

My painting skills, shockingly, have improved over the last 3 decades. But I didn’t want to change how I painted my army, as I wanted to keep them as uniform as possible. I used the new primaris range as an excuse. They get shoulder trim. They get edge highlights. I figured that if they are going to look different then the rest of the range due to size, I might as well just cut to the chase and stop holding back.

I’m not going to strip all my old guys to bring them up to modern standards, or so they all use the same paint. The pile of shame is deep enough that I don’t have time for that. I’d rather get new models to the table than revist old ones. It was only to savage useable models from dead armies that I started to strip minis.

Tyranids. I started with a pink-purple look but switched to a sandy-green scheme to fit in with jungle battles. Sadly, that means repurchasing some hormagaunts but I might wait and see if they get overhauled with the forthcoming codex...

I've got half an AM army that I repainted once and might repaint again. I liked the Prussian blue with white color scheme and liked the DKoK but found their price outrageous. So I ordered some 3rd party heads and bits intending to use them on Cadians, and painted up all 8 vehicles before those arrived.

The vehicles came out all right, not great. The bits arrived and the heads were a hair too small for the Cadian bodies, and I REALLY wasn't happy with my test models. The whole project seemed a lot cooler in my head.

I sprayed the tanks Russian Green and put them with half a Deathwatch army for a few games of 8E "soup", and figured I'd eventually get some inspiration for the infantry, but never did, and so they are packed away for a rainy day.

Fast forward a few years and there are "grognards, possible plastic DKoK infantry boxes, and good resin 3D prints that seem like they would fit that original theme a lot better than the half assed Cadians. I have since made a Tau army in those same colors so the original color scheme is out, but some desert yellow colonial french "grognards" might be interesting...

Eldar was one of my first armies and I've repainted my metal minis more than a few times trying out different Craftworlds color schemes. I eventually settled on a Custom Craftworld mixing purples, greens and blues.

I can barely afford GW models so I just constantly strip and repaint the same units over and over again.

I've repainted my IG army quite a few times. It was because I did not like the previous theme, and thus did not want to paint any new units in the same theme, or because I was unable to reach the look I was going for.

With space marines, I started with blood angels, then added salamanders, but realized that it was stupid to have several marine armies, so I repainted to a custom chapter that could play with any rules.

Now I try to avoid repainting, as I would rather paint new stuff. I have also gotten better at planning and executing themes, so less chance of falling out of love with a theme now. I also do sub-armies if I want to do different themes on the same army. For example an armoured regiment in a different camo than the regular IG army.

I find it interesting how common it is to strip paint of minis. I find it overkill unless the paint is thickly applied by a beginner. You can more often than not reprime models and paint over with no issue.

I've repainted some orks and various marines, just to bring them to a fresh painting standard in new projects. Never stripped a model though.

Only ever tried stripping models once - a unit of 40 skellies for AoS. It was such a faff that I decided to never bother again. I have considered starting my Death Guard again but if I ever did I would just replace what I have one unit at a time, painting them up as I went.