A sudden revelation - or horror story depending on your view

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fullheadofhair
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A sudden revelation - or horror story depending on your view

Post by fullheadofhair »

I had a sudden revelation of what is important in life. I am a painter first, that is how I got into the war gaming. However I absolutely loathe painting armies - I cannot stand painting squads. It just seems so pointless and so goddam frustrating painting the same model again and again - especially assembly line painting.

My wife has been nagging me for years - she says my hobby stresses me out and I need to stop. Each time I do, but then a friend wants to play and I feel obligated to finish the army and the whole cycle begins again.

I had a "lightbulb" moment - cause by a friends off hand comment. I was looking at some Confrontation models and he said "$20 - what an expensive cost for what is essentially a board game piece".

All of a sudden it was like bugger me - why I am doing this to myself. It is just a board game, albeit on a big board. The result of this train of thought will horrorify you all - take a deep breath before reading further....





I now have a painted Confrontation squad. I bought it, built it and then I sprayed in green and varnished it. That's it. Took me 10 minutes to do it (after 4 days of staring at the can feeling guilty). Yes, those beautiful devourer models have been sprayed one color and look as if they have come from a box of cheap plastic soldiers that we used to play with when we were 5 years old.

Going to get another faction and spray it another color on Friday. Friday evening, I am playing Comfrontation with friends, and have plans to do so more often. I have a pink faction for Hybrid. Next week my Ogre army gets sprayed brown.

I feel so liberated. I now paint individual models for fun. They are not part of an army. They are painted because I want to and I like them, not because I feel I have to. Probably for the first time in 5 years I can cheerfully say I am enjoying myself.

Not really a painting tip, but I thought I would share. Please keep the hate mail to a minimum :P
Currently painting 15mm's with an extremely large brush - one step away from dipping them in the pot.
mahon
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RE: A sudden revelation - or horror story depending on your

Post by mahon »

pretty interesting point of view. I understand it, even though for me gaming with nice and well painted minis over a table of well done terrain pieces is a totally different experience than gaming with pure metal minis over a tabletop with a few boxes on it.

Sure, both will do, but these are two diefferent conventions. But if you feel liberated and now painting single minis is fun again - you did the right thing :D
-- Mahoń

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Demi_morgana
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Re: A sudden revelation - or horror story depending on your

Post by Demi_morgana »

fullheadofhair wrote:However I absolutely loathe painting armies - I cannot stand painting squads. It just seems so pointless and so goddam frustrating painting the same model again and again - especially assembly line painting.
I must admit I have same thing:
I used to play warhammer battle but long time ago relised that painting same models over and over to build up reliable battle force is a freakin' nonsence... :?
that's why nowdays I play only skirmish games - that's why there's no chance to paint the same model more than once* :)

fullheadofhair wrote:My wife has been nagging me for years - she says my hobby stresses me out and I need to stop. Each time I do, but then a friend wants to play and I feel obligated to finish the army and the whole cycle begins again.
I know the pain: my girlfriend and my bro also noticed that the hobby was driving me crazy so I decided to take several weeks of holiday from painting stuff...


it's great news You found such way to take a distance from painting :D
if I'm forced to play large battle ever again I think I'll borrow Your idea and also purchase green spray :wink:


*the only exception is warmachine: I have some doubling mechanithralls, bile thralls, scrap thralls and bane thralls but it's just because there are 4 only patterns but minis are sold by 6 in the box
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mahon
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RE: Re: A sudden revelation - or horror story depending on y

Post by mahon »

... and spray a goblin or orc army ;)
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Trovarion
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RE: Re: A sudden revelation - or horror story depending on y

Post by Trovarion »

ok first of all: Congratulations for joining the Confrontation side of life :mrgreen: and also for being happy with your decission ;)

second: HOLY COW how can you be so mean to these beautiful minis :shock: I mean, if you sprayed plastic minis that way, ok, but CO :shock: :mrgreen: I suggest that you prime your next bunch of CO minis black and give them a few layers from top with a white can, this way you and your oponent (and watchers!) get to see ALL the beautiful details of the minis and you still havent invested too much work :P

I have an example pic: https://achaeon.lmb.st/albums/Confrontat ... en_007.jpg consider it ;)
endrem
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RE: Re: A sudden revelation - or horror story depending on y

Post by endrem »

Yeah, Trov's idea is pretty good too. It made me also think fo another time saving method: dipping.
You prime your models white, dip them in some kind of wood varnish (mordant) let them dry and there you go. You can even play with the base color and the varnish's color to achive different effects (HERE and HERE is an article, but I'm sure you'll find more).
Nameless
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RE: Re: A sudden revelation - or horror story depending on y

Post by Nameless »

One colour, huh? This would not be a tournament legal army (3 colours mininum regulation) :D

Speaking seriously - if you and your opponents have no problem with that, everything's fine than.
I'm also not able to finish an army, so I decided to paint base colours only (no shading on troopers etc.). Not that this helped me much :?
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RE: Re: A sudden revelation - or horror story depending on y

Post by LadyEyes »

Personally, I'm of the "whatever makes you happy and lets you play a game that you like and have fun playing is just okay with me" school of thought. I can appreciate Mahon's comments, but at the same time I can appreciate the frustration of letting the painting keep you from having fun with a game.

To me, it's a GAME. The point of a game is usually to PLAY. (and here's where a lot of guys are screaming at the screen, "No! The point is to WIN!" Can't win if you don't play.... :P)

So if this change has made you happy and less stressed, congratulations! I'm very happy for you. :D
fullheadofhair
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RE: Re: A sudden revelation - or horror story depending on y

Post by fullheadofhair »

Well I have stripped the mini's and they are now spray painted black and dry brushed skull white - it looks so much better with the detail picked up a little bit so thanks for that tip. Just waiting to be varnished. I have decided that I will do two colors for each model.

I don't play tournements as too many people seem to forget you can still have fun and play nice even if it is competitive.

Atleast this way I can have the models up and playing asap - Confrontaion models I find cannot be put together and then painted - some bits need to be painted separately to get at the detail and I am just to slow a painter. If I want to play a faction I am just going to buy them and do this to them so I can play otherwise they will just sit on my "to do" pile for ages. The cynwall elves are going to be two shades of pink because ... well.... they are still pompous pointy eared gits (O/t why are elves in all gaming systems pompous pricks?).

My wife is in UK with the camera, but I will do pictures of said elves soon as well as a real painted model. Just picked up some Reaper's that I am just looking forward to painting. I see my email box contains no hate mail so thanks for that :hug:
Currently painting 15mm's with an extremely large brush - one step away from dipping them in the pot.
mahon
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Re: RE: Re: A sudden revelation - or horror story depending

Post by mahon »

LadyEyes wrote:"No! The point is to WIN!"
And isn't it? :shock:
;)
-- Mahoń

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