Any Armies you just cant paint

[canadasteve]

I have tried twice now to paint a ECW army. Both times I have bought the Battalia box both times, built it all, undercoated and started and then thats it, I just dont enjoy painting ECW figures, which is weird as I used to reenact with the Knot as a pikeman. Anyone else out there suffer from this strange syndrome ?

[Stuart]

I've just suffered this with a 3rd Crusade army, bought everything I needed for both sides plus research books, started it off and then after 7months thought "I'm never getting in to this". I just couldn't get excited about it no matter how long I waited or what ever film I watched. I think I'd been sucked in from seeing something in W.I. and had the old reaction of "Oooo that looks pretty.."
But they are all now in a good home!

[BigMike]

A big GW Easterling army. I don't like their colour scheme, but having tried at least 5 times i can't think of a good one, so they sit in their box - thought tbh that's the story with a lot of my gw stuff atm

[Undave]

Not being able to see red very well I can't really paint Redcoats...


Doesn't seem to stop me trying though

[Cubster]

All of them.

A seriously annoying fact of my life is that I started selling off all my GW Orcs & Goblins on eBay, largely because I'd never got round to painting more than 10% of them. Then the guy who bought almost all of them paid me to paint them for him. So I painted the whole lot ... then wished I'd kept them. Doh.

I have never finished painting any of the armies I have tried to paint - Orcs & Goblins, Bretonnians, ACW Confederates, British Napoleonics, WW2 Desert War, 1st/2nd Century Romans, Ancient Britons, Zulu War British, Zulus ... a list of great shame to me. I think the trick is to only buy in small chunks, to paint what you have and only then buy more models.

[mrtn]

I think the trick is to only buy in small chunks, to paint what you have and only then buy more models.

Yup, that, or alternatively you can hide all your unpainted models. There's nothing more depressing than seeing a mountain of grey metal and plastic and thinking "oh, right. Let's paint a handful of these, then it's just 295 more"
I've painted some big horde armies the last years (3500 points of skaven for example), but I still only paint them five at a time. The rest is usually hidden away in the cupboard. Another trick is to just get on with it, and not worry too much about colour schemes or whatever. That should be especially good advice for pike and shot models, since those should be more or less in civilian clothing, and if five of them end up with green coats instead of red, then that's just historically accurate.

[Helen]

Many times in the past I've tried to build and paint large armies to no avail.

What I do now is firstly settle with a set of rules that I'd be comfortable to play with, although not important.

I then go about how I would present the miniatures on bases and where I'm looking at more vignette style to keep the joy of building and painting at the same time. I also like watching movies to get me in the mood too.

Lastly, consider painting one unit at a time and then purchase another after that. This is my approach unless I need extras for conversions.

Good luck with yours,


Helen

[Phil]

Painting an army is rather like the old joke about how to eat an elephant - one mouthful at a time. You have to set limited goals, and not focus on the whole project. Buy a unit (or a pair of units, one for each side, if you're painting both sides). Paint them, admire them, and bask in the glow of satisfaction at having accomplished something worthwhile. Then get another, and paint that. Whether you buy one unit at a time, or buy a whole lot and stash the ones you're not working on, the knack is to focus on that one batch you're painting.

And set realistic 'army' goals. When I started with my EIR and Britons, I decided to start by building the two 1000 point forces depicted in the original WAB book, and then to play some games. I did that, and then I was hooked... In WAB terms, I've no idea how many points-worth of figures I've got for each side, but it must be well in excess of 3,000.

If you're painting units, paint a unit, not five figures out of thirty. Set up a 'production line' , paint all the flesh on all the figures, then move onto painting all the trousers (or whatever). It's more efficient, the job goes quicker, you get a consistent finish across the unit, and once you've finished that 'batch', well, you've finished the whole unit.

That's my approach. The difficulty, for me, lies in getting started at all.

Cheers,
Phil

[grant]

Ancient Britons. Just stalled on them. eBay!
I've usually been able ro paint other armies to a decent enough standard.

[sandman36]

Cubster, you could try buying two armies and alternating units. Alternatively, you could plan your army for twice as big as you actually need, paint half, burn out, and then realize you actually have a playable army.

I'm not a happy painter either. If you look at my current work it is all over the place. That keeps me fresh and interested. The other thing that works is gaming. Nothing keeps me wanting to paint miniatures like playing with them. When the sit on the shelf is when I really lose interest.