"What's your longest painting delay from purchase to table?" Topic

Finally got around to painting some fine AB figures, after a shamefully long wait. 1806 Morands Division finally done!

Please read about it here

link
What has been the longest delay for you and why?

Problem with link?

Right now, I'd say it's been 6-7 years since I bought a GW terrain piece and then started/finished it a month or so ago.

Link fixed, many thanks for letting me know!

I've got a few Grenadier western figures (and assorted miscellany) that have been waiting the better part of 40 years to fulfill their gaming destiny. Maybe those don't count since they are still not painted. I know I had some ACW troops that took 15 years to get painted (and their brethren are still waiting). I am sure I am a piker compared to some of the old hands on here.

Why? Because.

Some of the landsknechts I'm working on now 20years!!

Still have some figs I bought in the mid 70's unpainted.

It's been a few years

ZuluPaul beats me my oldest are some table top games 15mm laserburn figures that I got in the early 80's and still haven't painted yet.

I have some Essex 28mm Naps I'm still waiting to paint. I bought them from Gamers In Exile, (have I got that right?) a little shop just outside King's Cross station.

I think that was in 1988.

Mid late 70s…

Although some did see the table unpainted.

I've got figures I bought more 40 years ago still unpainted.

I have more than enough adequate and alternative figures though.

Flats bought in 1995. Still in the box.

What an inspired topic!

the Prize for November goes to……

Now where is that Hinchliffe set from Beatties on Wimpole St, next to the Royal Soc of Medicine, late 70s? I just know I have several guns and crews…somewhere…..in bare metal!

If I make it another 30 years the answer then will be my Front Rank Carabiniers a Cheval. Some of the best castings and worst proportions and posing I have ever bought. I simply could never make the effort to paint them.

Look forward to more nostalgia here. Brilliant

About 20 years for some resin Normandy scenery that keeps getting superceded by newer, better-looking Normandy scenery?

Figs I tend to buy as needed/wanted. Same for vehicles/ships, etc.

Terrain? A lot more spontaneous buys.

Foundry Napoleonic Mamelukes it's my someday teddy bear
Or A foundry Hittites deal aaah well
Still in blisterpscks in the unopened postage box theyvweee sent in

35 years.
I bought some Gedemco resin triremes way back in the last century.
A friend got tired of hearing me say "Sometime soon!" and bought them off me. They were on the table within a month.
He added Old Glory to the mix.
They look great, with 15mm hoplites etc on washers.

Napoleoics not long, but bought a brand new 28mm dwarf maybe 5 years ago and he sits on the paint board like a bench warmer

~30 years.

Pretty sure I've finished all the ~30–40's.

no idea, but it must be decades

26 years, Frontier colonial Brit infantry, which i'm painting right now. Ral Partha Beja from the same year are next

30 years, and counting.

Oops, didn't read the original post properly. 30 years and counting, because I buy minis for their beauty, and don't thereby feel obliged to do anything else at all with them. Doubtless, matters seem different in Puritan countries.

I read the question to als how long you owned a group of figures before actually painting them. I just finished painting two boxes of Eureka WAS Dutch that I bought as part of their 100 Club. The postmark on the boxes was 2008.

I have a small number of the original Leicester microtanks bought in the early 70's that have yet to see paint. From a little later some Peter Laing medieval, most got painted but didn't do quite all that I bought.

On the other hand, I've assembled and painted 4 carts that I bought at Fiasco on Sunday.

Figures bought in the mid 70's. Why…I guess because I could.

Don't know, yet.

I have 3 boxes of Old Glory (Dave Allsop) Limited Edition Napoleonics (2 Infantry, 1 Cavalry) and several boxes of Civil War (North and South), by the same man. All miniatures have separate heads. These came out I think in the late 80s or early 90s. They were in storage, by my parents, and thought they threw them away.

Longest between buying and actually painting (and playing with) – 35 years for some Minifigs 15mm medieval figures.

Decades. I have some of the Dave Alsop Old Glory ACW figs with separate heads--I'm thinking 1990, more than a hundred, that need paint. I'm thinking they're still likely five years away.

Ral Partha's 1st limited Edition box set: Imperial Dragon. Bought it in 1982. It's still only half painted.

I have some Hinton Hunt Old Guard that are from 1974 or so -- they're primed with Imre Risley greenish grey primer… They are in various stages of painting from nearly done to merely primed.

I've got a ton of stuff from the 88-90s years that haven't been painted yet. I thought it was about stuff you did end up getting completed…

At least 15 years, maybe more

I have some starships that I started scratchbuilding in 1981 that I have not finished… or in fact touched again since then. They have moved two states and 5 houses with me.

I have stuff I bought 10 or more years ago still in the lead pile.

Took me 25 years to get my MinifigII napoleonic figures to the painting table. Still have some other figures from late 70's that have not reached the table.

What has been the longest delay for you and why?

About 20 years because I am easily distracted.

30-35 years since I started Roman and Carthaginian armies for DBA. About 2/3 painted. Sitting on a shelf in my closet on a piece of newspaper dated Oct 3, 2000 which was the last time I put paintbrush to them. IIRC I painted the elephants at that time. Lost interest in ancients and moved on to SF and VSF. If we talk totally unpainted I have some flats I picked up in 1962.

32 years, I bought some Ral Partha Greeks in 1983 and finally painted them in 2016.

Yep, mid 70's for some… on a larger scale, I have gobs of Fantasy and Historical figs from the late 70's-early 80's, and entire armies of Greeks and Persians from the mid-80s. Those are my senior Ignorables.

I have some Airfix men that I bought in the late 1970s that I have never gotten around to painting.

Beat the OP by a country mile. I've figs from the late 80s. Mostly extras left over. 2008 is like yesterday.

Assorted stuff from the early 1970's, 25's and 15's, oh and stuff…….

I still have some of my first stuff I bought as a kid in early 90's, sitting unpainted in the attic. That's mostly Fantasy and sci-fi though.

There's lots individual figures left unpainted, even for projects I did paint up. But my oldest completely unpainted project is probably a 15mm Timurid DBA army I bought some ten years ago, and not a single one of them got painted. It waits in a box at home, year after year.

37 yes and counting

I still have some 25mm Hinchcliffe Russian Napoleonic Grenadiers that I bought in the early 70's. 2 marriages and 4 house moves later I still have my Russian Nappy army although the years have been very unkind to it and dropping them in the bin has crossed my mind a couple of times.

Inspired by a new group of gamers however, they are finally to hand along with some others who need stripping so they may yet see the tabletop – really !

Infinite, I have some stuff I may never paint.

Wow, quite a response. I'm loving hearing about the nostalgia tinged with regret!

So as regards the longest delay between purchase and finally getting a unit to the tabletop after its painted it looks like the longest specific unit was painted 32 years after purchase!

Seems the biggest reason is being tempted by newer things so the old ones slip away.

For me it was a dip in inspiration, combined with the fact all of the uniforms were pretty much the same. Many armies have more variety I think which makes projects easier to tackle in "bite size" chunks.

Still got a few bits left from the 90s.

45+ years

At a certain point, one becomes resigned to the thought that some lead probably will never make it out of the pile.