Lost on Army Selection

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

FYI blue and red are the easiest to paint coz these colors are most visible to human eye in terms of the entire spectrum.

[Warhead01]

I can sympathies with the OP. I don't really enjoy building models anymore. he new stuff GW is producing seems to be made of several small parts now where they used to be larger and a bit easier to build. It can be a bit frustrating and I now follow directions instead of just building the models, which used to be more intuitive for me.  

Of the Armies you listed which do you like more. I would stick with which ever army you actually like and build it even if it was a fight to get the finish. I feel that would be rewarding in the end. Personally I found Nidz fairly easy to paint when I got my first Nidz army together back in third. and I can't see that the models have changed all that much between then and now but I haven't really looked into it. For Nidz I think I used 3 colors and a wash on most everything and it was ready to hit the table. While this may not have looked the best it did get results and had I kept it I would have gone back over each unit to jazz them up when I felt the need to or got excited about it. 
This I think is a good way to paint an army. Put on a few colors so you can hit the tables and then keep kicking that can down the road a few colors at a time over a few years, if it takes that long. Most importantly though pick an army you actually like.  While some models may be a pain to build, with 9th edition points costs you just need less of them. even with Orks or Nidz. So a low model count army should come together even faster for you. You might look for big models to add to your army of choice that will keep the model count low, to help with painting and to add a little variety, even if those models take a little extra time to build.  Like Chaot + a chaos Knight for example. Though I can't say how that would play but if your just having a go for fun then it could be good.  I haven't used contrast paint and don't plan to. I recall seeing videos by painters on youtube looking for cost effective way to diy their own contrast paints and if you go for a large model count army you might look into that if you decide to go the rout of contrast paints. 

I hope this was helpful. 

[INKS]

I appreciate the feedback, keep it coming.

I was looking over my balance sheet the other day and this year I've spent about 577 dollars on 40k. This doesn't include white dwarf but it does include some of the codex's, the rule book and so on that I've picked up. 

 

A good deal of that money has been on paints. Paints, I don't really even use but had plans to at one point or another. 

Model wise I have unpainted

1 Lictor,

1 box Termagants

1 start collecting box of 1kSons.

 

nothing is painted and or ready to play a game with. 

so essentially it feels like I've wasted 577 dollars, when I could have paid someone to paint and do the work for me. 

frustration continues. But now that I know this, hopefully I can avoid wasting more money in the future. or so I hope.

 

I actually went back and counted:

43.80 on tools

150.94 on paint

318 on books

172.25 on models

after shipping it's 702.89 for the year so far.

This is in Canadian dollars, so in USD it would be a little less mind you.

Still, nothing to show for it really. And reselling used paint... is that even a thing? even new paint? I dunno, I doubt there is a way to recoup that cost.

[Leonaides]

I tend to paint for an hour or two once a week. I've got about 50 marines in various states of assembly, dry fit, part glued, undercoated, detailed or just awaiting basing. It has taken a while to get to that point but I can just dabble on a bit here or there. Feel like I need to be productive? Clip off sprues and dry-fit some etb models. Half an hour spare? Paint some details on one or two models (just do one or two colours at a time)? It soon builds up until after a month or so you have a tt ready squad. Then you can leave it at that and move on to the next squad, every so 9fyen you might pop back yo the first squad and do a few details like bolter rivets or purity seals. From 3ft away, your eye will miss most details and that's plenty good enough for gaming.

[Emicus]

Find a local commission painter and part pay in paint. If you sell paint directly that's rarely worth much. Or just keep your paint, it lasts for approximately forever and you might enjoy painting single models and not armies. God I hate painting armies.

 

Common price for painting is box value, unless you want to get fancy. Big projects they might throw basing in for free! Decals too!

 

But really a spray, a wash, maaaaybe a drybrush. That's plenty better than Grey to play with.

[Rik Lightstar]

Find a local commission painter and part pay in paint. If you sell paint directly that's rarely worth much. Or just keep your paint, it lasts for approximately forever and you might enjoy painting single models and not armies. God I hate painting armies.

 

Common price for painting is box value, unless you want to get fancy. Big projects they might throw basing in for free! Decals too!

 

But really a spray, a wash, maaaaybe a drybrush. That's plenty better than Grey to play with.

With any "skilled labour" you tend to get what you pay for.

 

I'd say that paying box value is very much on the cheap side of things.

 

To take the UK as an example, the minimum wage is £8.72 so to make that on a box of Thousand Sons (£35 RRP) I'd have to get them finished in 4 hours or I'd be better off stacking shelves at a local supermarket.

 

This is an issue I've personally experienced whe with people ask me to paint stuff for them.

 

Let's look at a 10 man squad and spending an entirely reasonable ONE hour on each model average to get a presentable result for a paying customer, well let's call that £90 at just over minimum wage, plus a bit for materials etc gets us to £100.

 

That's far closer to triple box value for standard troops, and it scales pretty well for characters to be honest when you consider that people want their centrepiece models to look nicer than standard stuff.

 

Rik

[BrandX]

Hello. I too am new to warhammer. I don’t know much about all the armies and building or painting them. But I did find that there are a bunch of videos on YouTube for both building and painting. So maybe that will help. If you do find something that you like to build you could try using shades and drybrushing to quickly power through the painting process. You don’t need a steady hand just a quick shake of the brush.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

When it comes to painting I think it's becoming more intimidating to new players than it should be.

 

Most of the content creators have a ton of experience and don't show the mistakes or how to fix them. There are also are a lot of commission painters who are posting pictures to advertise, there aren't many pictures of the armies that most of us have.

 

When you actually play the game your not going to notice a lot of the details because your standing over the table and the minis are spread out over a large space. Don't judge yourself by the standard that GW, and people who are trying to make a living painting it's not realistic.

[Halandaar]

I think Jorin's point is really relevant; the standard of painting you see on the average tabletop is way more reasonable and achievable than what you tend to see on social media, what with the proliferation of the commission painters, competition painters and so on.

 

Aim for something you're comfortable with and honestly don't worry about mistakes when painting. They can always be fixed later as/when your technique improves.

[MARK0SIAN]

Yeah Jorim has some great advice there. Remember, it’s only got to look ok from 3 feet away with the human eye, not super close under the lens of a HD camera.

[LameBeard]

First of all, I admire your bravery in putting up your accounts! Many of us are in denial about how much we spend with relatively little to show for it.

 

Personally, I buy more than I build, I build more than I paint, I paint more than I play. But at least I enjoy every aspect of that process to some extent. I feel it's tougher for you when you want to focus on the end part. In many ways, building (and kitbashing) is the part of the hobby I enjoy the most.

 

Back on the topic of 'concept' paint schemes like ghosts. If properly done with a shade and highlight, and separate base scheme, I believe these meet the spirit of the tournarment 3-colour rule, if not the letter - because they are honouring your opponent with an army that has some effort in it, and will still look great across the table top. I wonder if the army above in White Dwarf had those red tabards to satisfy the rule, because they look weird to me - why is the rest of the model a ghost but not the tabard?  Maybe some do take this literally.  But right now you could make that ghost army and start playing and worry about tournaments later.  I mean could 3 similar shades of green count? Or a blend from white at the feet to mid green at the head count? It's a dumb rule, but it's better than a rule which says "we know what we don't like when we see it".

 

Back on the topic of paying someone to help out. I think professional commission painters will do most of it by airbrush / sub-assembiles - they have invested in the kit, but they will be fast that way, and beat some of those equations above.  I think some hobbyists with a little side-hustle might be doing it partly for the love and not making a lot of money, but maybe they'd be amenable to doing half the job if you'd already started and laid down some base coats or whatever.

 

In my little Sigmar group we have a rule that the model must at least be primed to go on the table-top, and I'm only a little ashamed to say I have some models primed in German Red Brown that look better than my fully painted models next to them. What can I say? I haven't got the knack on that army yet. They've only ever won one game as well. But I was still having fun.

[INKS]

I will give this a look. If I can get some value out of the unused paint then all the better.

Find a local commission painter and part pay in paint. If you sell paint directly that's rarely worth much. Or just keep your paint, it lasts for approximately forever and you might enjoy painting single models and not armies. God I hate painting armies.

Common price for painting is box value, unless you want to get fancy. Big projects they might throw basing in for free! Decals too!

But really a spray, a wash, maaaaybe a drybrush. That's plenty better than Grey to play with.

 Keep it coming gang if you have something to add. I am taking it all in.

[Emicus]

 

With any "skilled labour" you tend to get what you pay for.

 

I'd say that paying box value is very much on the cheap side of things.

 

To take the UK as an example, the minimum wage is £8.72 so to make that on a box of Thousand Sons (£35 RRP) I'd have to get them finished in 4 hours or I'd be better off stacking shelves at a local supermarket.

 

This is an issue I've personally experienced whe with people ask me to paint stuff for them.

 

Let's look at a 10 man squad and spending an entirely reasonable ONE hour on each model average to get a presentable result for a paying customer, well let's call that £90 at just over minimum wage, plus a bit for materials etc gets us to £100.

 

That's far closer to triple box value for standard troops, and it scales pretty well for characters to be honest when you consider that people want their centrepiece models to look nicer than standard stuff.

 

Rik

 

NB: the following comment is tongue in cheek.

 

1 hour per trooper?! I'm not paying you to scratch your butt! Have you ever heard of batch painting? Spray on primer? Washes? Maybe you're a bad painter and can't do lenses in one go and need to fix mistakes! Good painters paint fast!

 

NB: the previous comment was tongue in cheek.

 

Forreal though I think it's important to set expectations for yourself and your client/painter. If you want a quick table top standard, washes, drybrush, easy slop-on basing, pick out some details and decals - that looks hella good on the table and it should be fast. You don't do 1 guy an hour you do 1 hour and prime the whole army, 1 hour wash the army, then get in there with the drybrush, etc etc it's starting to take time. If that's not your style that's fine, but that's what I mean for tabletop, army commission 'box is price'.

 

If you even mention the word 'edge highlight' that's a completely different league, which is also great, but that's gonna rack hours! Or freehand! Or custom mixed colours!

 

Personal anecdote: i don't like painting. I know I can do a good job but it takes me daaays and since it's so long between each time it's hard to make models in the same army match. So after years of never painting I lowered my standards a lot. I still don't paint much but at least I can get stuff finished now. 3 types of colours and basing is all you need to make models look great on the table.

[INKS]

Paying someone is expensive. You are paying for their time and skill. I've been cruising fiver and so we'll see what that brings if anything at all. I would really like my Ahriman for example to look really good, far better than I could ever do. So at a minimum it's likely I'll be paying out for that.

 

EDIT: Maybe I should just focus on and trying to play Kill Team over 40k. Less models

[Rik Lightstar]

NB: the following comment is tongue in cheek.

 

1 hour per trooper?! I'm not paying you to scratch your butt! Have you ever heard of batch painting? Spray on primer? Washes? Maybe you're a bad painter and can't do lenses in one go and need to fix mistakes! Good painters paint fast!

 

NB: the previous comment was tongue in cheek.

 

Forreal though I think it's important to set expectations for yourself and your client/painter. If you want a quick table top standard, washes, drybrush, easy slop-on basing, pick out some details and decals - that looks hella good on the table and it should be fast. You don't do 1 guy an hour you do 1 hour and prime the whole army, 1 hour wash the army, then get in there with the drybrush, etc etc it's starting to take time. If that's not your style that's fine, but that's what I mean for tabletop, army commission 'box is price'.

 

If you even mention the word 'edge highlight' that's a completely different league, which is also great, but that's gonna rack hours! Or freehand! Or custom mixed colours!

 

Personal anecdote: i don't like painting. I know I can do a good job but it takes me daaays and since it's so long between each time it's hard to make models in the same army match. So after years of never painting I lowered my standards a lot. I still don't paint much but at least I can get stuff finished now. 3 types of colours and basing is all you need to make models look great on the table.

Saying the equivalent of "no offence but..." doesn't really excuse any comments that follow.

 

My point still stands for a £35 box of Marines taking 4 hours being less than minimum wage.

 

We clearly have very different ideas about what a commission painter is, to me it's someone who gains a reasonable income from it and values their reputation.

 

You can feel free to check out either of the links in my signature to decide if you think I know what I'm talking about in terms of painting.

 

Good painters in my experience do the quick bits quickly and then take their time over making things stand out. It's about standards when providing a service, there's a minimum standard I'd be prepared to put my name to.

 

Rik

[Emicus]

'No offense but have you heard of primer' doesn't really work as a joke though. Maybe your horse is so high you can't relate to people struggling with grey armies?

[WarriorFish]

It seems there is some struggling with the B&C's rules and mission statement. Let's get back to the topic at hand please and treating others as you would like to be treated. Thanks!

[INKS]

I've been looking more and more at 40k lists. I might end up going with Knights just because there are so few models. there is something about not having a lot of models to worry about, to move, to shoot and so on that is appealing from a play perspective. and there is something about having so few to paint and assemble and or pay someone to paint for example. I don't know. I keep flip flopping on the decision.

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

Take your time, you’ll know when you’ve made the right pick.

[WarriorFish]

Yes, look more into the models and how they play etc - for these types of things its good to follow your gut. The Knight models are really good, even the smaller models are notable projects in their own right and the knightly theme offers a lot too plus they come with some very nice transfers to help spice the models up :)

[Son of Sacrifice]

If you hate building and painting I'm not sure changing to a third army is going to help. Time to track down a reliable commission service I think, then you can focus on the part of the hobby you enjoy.

[INKS]

I thought about push fit models only, but I think that is pretty limited still?

[BLACK BLΠFLY]

It is.