"Paint to game or game to paint?" Topic

Do paint so you have figures to game with or do you game because you have the figures. In other words do consider yourself and figure painter or a gamer first.
Myself, I started out as a figure painter (actually third generation) and fond gaming. I now use my gaming as a reason to paint large numbers of figures.

I am a gamer, and paint so I can get trashed on the tabletop!

Both. Sometimes I will see figures I want to paint and then find a game for them, other times I want to play a period and paint figures for it.

Mostly Paint to game

90/10 painting.

Paint to game.

Can't count the number of figures of painted that never ended on the "field of battle". End up selling them … and painting them all over again a few years later.

The plan is always paint to game, however many times painting ends up as the ends unto itself.

I am mostly a painter and although I love to game there are lots of figs I have painted that have never seen a gaming table

Maybe when I retire – - -

I think I play to paint, but also think when I am no longer working, and painting is harder it will just be play time.

I hate painting. I'm slow and the results are poor. Definitely paint to game.

The games the thing…

Painting is a required step

Paint to game…but rarely game anymore.

Paint to store usually.

I will be placing an order with Foundry this weekend for "Aaron Burr", and some Mountain Men and Scalphunters to represent some disreputable elements in a game that "epturner" and I are planning.
I will be painting some Seminole figures I bought a while back, but forget why.
They are pushing aside about 90 Queens Rangers that are based and primed. Different game.

I like to paint. I will need those figures for a distinct future game. But once I have them, they will see service in many games
Just like the Over Mountain Men I got from Kings Mountain and gave Scotch bonnets too. I "needed" them for Moore's Creek, and now they have been used as Loyalist militia, and are in place for King's Mountain battle.

The answer to the OP is "YES".
If I didn't "need" these figures to game with, I would have no need to paint them. But I like to paint, so I also "need" to come up with a reason to use figures I've already painted.

I bought some Foundry Mountain Men years ago. For some reason, I didn't sell them off when I had to sell my Old West project. They had been drafted into the General Militia. Now, they will fight again as originally intended.

I like to paint odd stuff. I suppose if I did Napoleonics, my attitude might be slightly different. I would not get excited over painting yet another identical Regiment with a different number. It would then be a chore, rather than a pleasure.

I seem to have made a distinction between "paint" and "buy" above.
It is a real distinction.

Didn't we just have this discussion a week or three ago?

I started out making models and painting, and later discovered gaming. Now I expect that everything I paint will, sooner or later, appear in a game. Sometimes I paint for specific games, but not always.

Paint to game. Period.

Paint to game.

Paint to game. One period, albeit a large one, and once I am finished with current armies, I don't foresee much painting in my future!

Paint to Paint

YES!

Paint to game…

Paint a LOT. Game a little.

I am a painter/terrain guy 1st. But I do game with my best friend
a couple times a year. And I love both.

I paint, and then wish I could play with them.

I buy, and then wish I could paint faster, so that I could get to them.

For me it's a feedback loop. I wouldn't do either very much without the other.

both..but always painting ,even conflicts I know ,only I will paint.

Yes. There are times I do more of one than the other but both are fun and support each other.

Paint to game. I wouldn't paint any miniatures if I wasn't going to game with them.

Paint to game for the most part. I'd probably still paint some if not gaming but I'd spend most of my time on models.

Well if I didn't intend to use the figures for gaming, they would have never been purchased or painted.

I paint all the time, but I only seem to finish things when I need them for a game.

Paint to game.

Didn't used to but now make every effort to deploy painted miniatures often rushed for a new game tho. Seems a shame to use unpainted miniatures when someone has laid out a gaming table with scenery etc.

To my intense embarrassment my last game I had only part painted figures.

I really love to game, but considering the amount of time I spend painting and building a project vs. the amount time that I paint, I guess I am a painter.

Both.

I like painting miniatures but only if I can play games with them.

And when I don't have a game coming up, I lose motivation to paint.

I just seem to paint these days. Haven't gamed with them for some time now.