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My army isn't quite painted yet; I've got only 6 guys painted, but neither sealed nor decaled. I was initially planning on going to game at my FLGS after my army is fully painted. However, someone there convinced me to come and game anyways, so I went last Saturday and played the Konor campaign. While I had fun, I was only about 60% comfortable using Grey plastic soldiers.

I'll be painting up my army regardless, but I wanted to ask you guys, when you're painting up a new army, do you game with your army while you're still painting it up? Or do you wait to play until you've finished painting the whole army?

This is about your own preference for yourself, not others. So please, don't bash others on their life choices or on the morality of playing with painted or unpainted minis.

I have just put paint on models I've had from the 2nd Edition 'Learn to Paint' set and the 3rd Edition Starter. Now granted, I stopped playing mid 4th through till the start of 7th, but that is still a long time of bare plastic and plenty of games done between then and now. I have never had a problem with playing naked models though lately I have been swinging much heavier towards painting as much as I can but if what I want to bring is not painted or painted the wrong colors, I'll still play the game.

I play with unpainted minis unapologetically. I only paint them when I'm bringing them in a tournament list that requires it.

I play my army while painting it. This allows me to decide maybe an unpainted unit isn't really what I want. It also inspires when I look down and see a painted squad looking cool on the table (I would say good...but then there's my painting skills...) and I just HAVE to get the rest to fit in. I may not be an exact source for information. I play most games on my own table with the same group of players. I have played painted armies at the store, but not an unpainted one, thought this had nothing to do with not wanting to, just trying out my gamesday army (yes i'm old enough to have been to several gamesdays here in California.)
Hey, as you said, no bashing etc but a step further. However you feel is the way it should be my friend! You need to be happy at the table...not anyone else...you!
Besides, I love seeing any paint scheme. Every single one is someone's ideas, inspiration, etc etc etc, and yours fall into that whether army is done or not. I would probably have looked at your 6 guys and said "COOL! What's the plan? I can't wait to see it! Jump in here and whoop my behind with those dudes..."
Hope it helps.

As a younger player, I hated painting. Loved modelling and making/putting together guys. But getting a paint job on them was the most miserable experience for me. So a lot of my games were with poorly painted and bare models. Now, I try to field painted models. I will play with grey men. But I always try to work on a unit or finish something before the next game.

I have always felt I should paint my models if I was going to play with them BUT that doesn't mean you can't play with unpainted models. I like the look of a painted army on the field vs another painted army. But not every one has time to paint their models, or even wants to. Some just buy a lot of stuff then realize they have too much to do and suddenly don't want to do any.

Personally if I had a friend who didn't want to paint or felt it was too much (which has happened) I offer to paint with them. Sometimes getting together for warhammer doesn't have to mean playing a game. Just sitting down and painting guys while talking strategy can be a blast too.

But even then I have put together a new model and wanted to try it out before getting it painted. When the land raider crusader came out me and my cousin ran out and he got a normal lr and I got a crusader. We put them together then tried them out before painting them because of course we wanted to try them out!

The army I play with is painted before it hits the table.

I won't play with an unpainted army.

Unless you're going to be done painting really soon, you're missing out on the fun of the game in the meantime. Just play while you're still painting and enjoy it.

I don't play a model until its painted. Period.

I sometimes will play a model painted but not based, but that is rare.

Anyone opponent that I play can ensure a fully painted (table top plus) army to face.

I have no qualms about playing with unpainted models, and I have yet to field an army of completely painted miniatures. I'm a slow painter, so if I waited to paint all my stuff before playing it I'd never play at all. I do try to have everything primed at least rather than gray plastic, though.

Lately certain models I've decided to paint before playing simply because I need to paint them in parts before assembly. The new Repulsor is one such model, and I suspect Mortarion will be another.

If I waited until my entire army was painted before it hit the board, I'd still be waiting.

I try to have as much painted as I can, but other hobbies and life-stuff have just made it impractical to have it all done. Besides, in some cases it actually benefited me, as I am much better at painting back when I originally got the models.

I have a distinctly phased approach to army building.

I select, buy and assemble 2=2.5K of models.

I get a few games to confirm that selection works as expected (in case I need to modify some weapon options). Then they get shelved for painting.

After about a year playing with that army (once they've been painted) I'll starting adding toys to it. These get painted before thy see the table.

Other than those test games with a brand new army it is painted models only for me. That said, I can generally turn a 2K army around in a few months, start to finish.

If you're clearly making an effort, even if at a sluggish pace, to finish your army, I'm not gonna judge you for bringing unpainted minis.

I don't put unpainted models on the table. No exceptions.

I don't care what my opponent does (I can't legislate how other people do their hobby), but I prefer if they play with a painted army as well.

I play unpainted with the goal to paint them. I still want to use them, and since my game and paint time us limited, I have to compromise.

Il play with all grey plastic before i pick more colors. painting is fun and it looks real neat but the game doesn't require it and nobody should expect it.

When I was young, I only build and painted my models before I bought the next box. Therfore ecvverything was finished on the table. Now I am old and I hate painting more and more. Most of my friends do not paint their units or do not finush them at least. It is their bad inflzence!

But the thing is: whenever I play unpainted models, I will get bad dice-results. So I paint them anyway. XD

I will not judge anyone who does not paint his army. The joy of this hobby is different for every player.

I really don't have excuses for playing with unprimed models, other than literally finishing gluing them together on the same day as a game is scheduled. So I'll usually have them at least primed before playing. I'd prefer to play with fully painted armies but I just don't have enough time on my hands to paint everything right away and I usually buy models to fill a gap in my army.

Also if a unit I've assembled and primed doesn't really work the way I anticipated I might as well put them in a box and not hurry about painting them since they're not gonna see regular tabletop time. I would probably find it too disheartening putting hours upon hours of work into a unit only to see it fail miserably on the tabletop.

I'm trying to finish most of my WIP SW models ("only" 15ish left, yay) soon and hope that they don't introduce any new FOTM units with the new codex. With Orks I'm trying to get to about 1000ish points painted before playing with them. After that I'll try to manage bigger games while having a maximum of 1-2 WIP units on the tabletop.

paint first.

usualy all my models are in sub assembly stage anyways as i cant get a paint job i am happy whit from a 100% assembled model.

however board games whit minis i leave unpainted. they are game tokens, not models.

I paint the models before playing them, but I don't mind playing against unpainted models. For me, its part of the miniatures experience: painting them is how I earn the right to place them on the tabletop.

I'm happy to play both with and against unpainted models. I do find that I care so much more about painted models though, like looking after them physically and caring more about their tabletop exploits.

When I put my Epic Imperial Guard on the table and all 400+ little 6mm redcoats are painted it does make me feel very proud.

But 6mm is ridiculously quick and easy to paint to a nice tabletop standard. My 40k and WFB armies rarely got more than a squad/regiment painted before I would get sick.

I can't deploy unpainted models they have to be at least table ready if not 100% done.

I have never used an unpainted model in a game and I never will. I also prefer to play with people with painted armies.

And I understand that beginners may not have many painted models yet, but in such situation I'd prefer to pay a smaller game with them with painted armies rather than a larger game involving some unpainted models.

I only play with fully painted armies. I have 4 armies painted already though, so it's not a big sacrifice to hold off on the ones in-progress.

I have no problem playing against other people's work in progress.

I only play with fully painted models, but I don't require it of my opponents.

For me, it's part of my enjoyment of the hobby, I really like painting.

I have a self-imposed rule of only playing with painted stuff. Incentivises me to finish painting things, stops me buying too much of a backlog of toys, and looks awesome.

In my experience people that go for paint and play seldom end up with a painted army. They end up buying and buying, fielding more grey units every year.

There is a lot more motivation to get your stuff painted if you only play with models you have finished.

When given the choice, nothing unpainted hits the table. A minor exception being if I'm playing something like Mordheim or a skirmish game and something unique comes up and my buddies and I search around to find a suitable model...then sure. For instance, one scenario called for a figure we didn't have, so I pulled one from my Zombicide board game, etc.

Generally speaking though, nothing unpainted. However, I also don't build stuff until I paint it...so it's not as if I have an army of grey plastic or metal sitting around.

Also, one of the main reasons I think people need to finish more armies - once you have an army completed, you can play the game while still building/painting another army.

Some people will never paint their models, but most people will still play against them.
Painted models make a game better though (IMHO), so I try to only use my painted models in games. It limits me to what I use, and makes me paint to get more models in play.
But I still play against the unpainted armies people bring along.

Paint then play. If you're painting your models correctly you're almost certainly building them in sections and painting them before final assembly, so playing before painting means having unassembled "models" on the table. And really, paint your models. I don't want to see your gray plastic monument to laziness.