"Help me vent about unpainted miniatures...." Topic

In all honesty it all depends on context…the group I play with have been playing for 30 odd years….there are thousands of painted figures amongst us….we would not dream of unpainted minis on the table… having said that we encourage new players by giving them a division of ours to push around and giving them all the assistance we can to get them to put their own force together…..

I wonder if this is how Nazi Germany started?

Regardless, from the responses I've seen it looks like the ones who insist on fully-painted everything would be the ones who are least fun to play even if all the models WERE painted.

I have at present many unfinished some even un-undercoated and yes they occasionally see the table in the state but our group works on the basic principle that progress is important, by that i mean this week bare metal next game at least undercoated and so on and so on until the army/unit etc. are finished.

jon

One level up from this affront is the terrain the DBA guys use in their games-come on man

HEY!!! I play DBA, and my terrain is as good or better than some terrain I've seen on any other gaming table.

Selma Hayek popped round for a game the other day, she wanted to learn the rules and promised me untold pleasure if I helped out.

Her army was unpainted so I sent her packing telling her to never darken my door again.

Gotta have principles.

Be sure to take pictures next time.

They were unpainted figures, why would I take pictures of them?

I will be the first to admit it, I have fallen victim to the unpainted horde in the past with my other game systems – Specifically with my Warhammer stuff – Dont worry, I have sold all those "Heathen" games and now play Flames of War and am getting into the Napoleonic gaming currently. My Flames of War armies are slowly being painted and put on the table, but recently I have shy-ed away from events and games because I hate playing my unpainted minis. I would prefer to hold off on playing till they are painted…if for nothing else but sheer dumb superstition…the Dice Gods do not smile on unpainted armies :)

My napoleonic stuff though, I refuse to put on the table until it is painted. The era is A: Too colorful to allow unpainted minis on the table B: Too similarly dressed to be able to tell the difference in units without the color distinctions (at least this way I can tell, at a glance, what units are Fusiliers as opposed to Grenadiers or Chasseurs!) and C: the sea of metal on the table would make me feel like I am playing a fantasy game again…I love the realism in my historical games too much to want to cheapen them with unpainted minis.

Heres to painting my horde!

I don't want pictures of the ty miniatures…I want pictures of you with Selma Hayek.

How many eyebrows did she have?

one

Manflesh: Do you really? : )

Yes, I'm sure he feels that way. He also won't eat dinner with us because we refuse to eat off of the floor.

Manflesh: Do you really? : )

No, but if Clay starts mentioning a Final Solution I'm outta here.

That said all my models are painted so I'm OK.

One further thought- why do some people object to the term elitist being used when they are on the same side as someone who describes himself as one in his username?

Leigh

I can't answer for others….for my part, I'm embracing the label. Yeah, I have standards.

Ancient tournaments is an exception. I have been in them and watched them over the years and I can't remember seeing unpainted figures.

It's some of the players who migrate from the dark side of fantasy and Sufi gaming to FOW etc that I have seen unpainted figures.

I have read several posts about playing games with their buddies and they could care less about having painted figures. I knock myself out putting on the best games I possibly can for my friends.

I am talking about our once a month club games with guys I have been gaming with for years. I do it that way partially because I enjoy doing it, but also because they are my friends and I want to do right by them.

In the process I believe I have raised the standard of the games they put on. Once they realize it's not that hard to do it right they raise their standards. I also loan out terrain features to them.

Like I said in an earlier post we don't have to worry about the unpainted figure issue because we all paint our figures or I furnish both sides in my games so I don't have that problem. I have painted some figures for free, just to help a friend get ready for his game.

If I did not have the time or finances to paint figures then I would be playing board games. No figures to worry about and everything comes in the box. If I want to play Waterloo I select which of the five games on the battle I have, set it up and away we go.

If you want to field unpainted figures for your games and if you and your friends don't care then go for it. Just don't make fun of those who go all out for convention and club games.

I have had horrible comments by people at conventions about "the fancy game and showing up everyone." "Look at this guy with his fancy set up and painted figures" it gets really old. Yep, I have standards too.

Personally I do not put unpainted figures on a table and neither do those I game with, but we are all adult gamers who have spent years in the hobby and that includes playing with fully painted FOW armies.

For newcomers or kids, anything that gets them playing and painting is, in my opinion, a good thing.

As to anyone complaining seriously about a game being 'too fancy', they're simply too stupid to give the slightest attention to on a pearls before swine basis.

I was in a meeting once where the bosses boss requested "a final solution" to an IT problem. Needless to say I needed kicking under the table to keep a straight face.

I do think there should be certain standards and do not play with unpainted metal. However I would have no problem playing someone who used at least one appropriate color. A simple blue spray for yankees and grey or brown for rebs is enough. Bare metal is so…bare (and to the "Monk" in me a health hazard but I digress).

Some years ago I tinkered with some ACW urles using ESCI figures. All I did was spray the horses brown and I was good to go. Mind you all my metals are properly painted before use : )

This topic always starts a small riot when brought up. My attitude is that since it's your hobby you can do as you please.

However, with that being said my own experience is based on how I started gaming back in the early 70's. Our group started with Custom Cast Lord of the Rings figs at the Tin Soldier. The store rules were no unpainted figs period. You had to have at least 3-4 colors. So, every Saturday my friends and I would arrive 2-3 hours early and finish painting or basing our troops to get them in that weekends big battle. The owner of the store realized that the successful marketing of his product was with 'painted' figs. It made sense to all of us since we got in the habit of never playing with unpainted figs.

That has stuck with me all these years later. Even now I won't use unpainted figs ever. Too me it's a visual hobby. If your figs are unpainted you may as well be using paper figs. Considering that, I agree with others who have suggested that you aren't doing the hobby any favors by using unpainted ones. That is a fair point and really isn't making anyone 'elitist' by saying it. Remember my original statement above. Do as you please. But if someone comments about it don't be surprised.

YMMV.

Thanks,

John

My parents gave me my first plastic army men in 1958 when I was three years old. I now have about 100,000 and they are still nearly all unpainted. I probably include another few thousand unpainted metal and resin figures, which generally get the spray paint color that matches their plastic counterparts.

I primarily play ACW to now, especially WWII. If I played Napoleonics, I would be more interested in having painted armies. The fancy uniforms seem to be more in need of fancy colors.

My armies have painted and unpainted vehicles, thousands of them, and hundreds of aircraft and lots of buildings and terrain. I use what pleases me and if someone else is not pleased with the result, than that's okay too.

YouTube link

Mike "Bunkermeister" Creek
mediatealways.org
bunkermeister.blogspot.com
sgtsays.blogspot.com

While unpainted minis irritate me, its NOTHING compared to some players who have FULL ASSEMBLED THE FIGS, and still try to field them.
Arms missing. No Weapons. Lost heads… *ugh*

It's OK to field unpainted armies if they are Airfix (especially if it the 1970s as well).

I love the irony of DBA terrain coming under fire,as it specifically says in the rules that you should make more effort with the terrain as there won't be much of it!

if you are not going to paint them, why take tem out of the packaging? just throw that 24 figure pack of Grenadiers out on the table and there you go….here are 4 packs of line…you can even move them about in columns & lines of packs/bags..etc. The cardboard packs spell out what they are & how many in a unit.

AND….if they don't fight well you can always return them the next day