"You don't use a painting service because..." Topic

You were asked – TMP link

I was wondering why gamers who have large lead mountains and plastic piles don't use painting services.

14% of the votes: "Painting is half the fun of it, and granted services paint miles above my skill level but it's my quiet time."

9%: "I cannot afford to pay for the painting standard I require."

9%: "I will get round to painting them all one day, despite all past evidence to the contrary."

7%: "I couldn't afford the standard of paint job I can do myself, even if I only paint 10% of my stuff."

7%: "I'd rather spend the money on more shiny lead and bare plastic because I get joy from the collecting."

Does the final option count for cheap (son of someone other than father's wife)?

All of the above, plus paying for shipping two ways (three if you count the first, initial internet purchase).

I am cheap when it comes to hobby spending, but I also enjoy painting and would rather have the money to spend on figures.

I hate to paint, would rather spend the time playing or rebasing painted figures that I bought. I would rather pay someone for the time and get better results than I can do. Like many times I have done so with nnascati :)

Gotta go with #1, and BTW, painting is closer to 75%-80% of the fun.

yeah – cost and that feeling of always knowing that I didn't do it all myself…

I paint far more than I play. I actually enjoy the modelling side of the hobby more, if I'm honest, so I'm not paying someone to paint for me. Add to that I'm not a bad painter so to get something better than I can produce myself becomes pretty expensive.

I've been meaning to use a painting service for years, but it's so much work just to assemble the order, write detailed instructions, and manage the shipping issues, I just never get around to it.

There are also certain things I absolutely will not pay to have painted because I really want the finished product to be something I created.

- Ix

Prince Rupert brought up another good point. Some friends of mine at my former club had a service do some painting for them. I looked them over and they were really no better that what I was capable of doing myself, plus I greatly enjoy the modeling part. To me, the painting of the figures is such an integral part of the hobby. I for one was really surprised when I learned that there were so many painting services.

Although painting figures is an integral part of the hobby, it isnt necessary that the gamer paints his own figures. For those of us who have the money and no time to paint, painting services are essential.

Unfortunately, to rationalize their behavior, there are no shortage of modern day gamers who tread a mythic landscape that painting is half the fun.

Further, and also unfortunately, a lot of painters cant deliver, mostly because painting is both difficult and time consuming. Thus, if many of the "pros" cant handle it, why would I waste my precious free time on it when all I want to do is game occasionally?

Wait…so now I'm treading a "mythical landscape" trying to "rationalize" the simple fact that I, and a great number of us here, find researching, collecting, compiling, and painting our own figures extremely enjoyable and satisfying?

I think you need to look back on your little post/rant here and "rationalize" exactly what it is that YOU dislike about those of us who prefer to live in this "mythological landscape" you describe.

…because it feels like cheating.

I presume IronMike you are referring to using a painting service?

To say that is surely equivalent to suggesting that one should only play chess if one can carve the pieces!

What about purchasing secondhand painted figures, being given some by a friend, or even inheriting them?

Using a painting service would only be cheating if actually entering the figures in a painting competition, or dishonest if pretending they were self-painted to one's friends or opponents.

Wargaming does not, ipso facto, require players to have painted the miniature troops themselves. I doubt that Robert Louis Stevenson or H.G. Wells painted their figures.

Now, if you enjoy painting figures, fine – enjoy yourself!

But please don't insist that modelling and painting miniature figures – a hobby in its own right – is an essential part of wargaming with them, and try to make those of us who don't possess the skill, or the time, or the inclination to paint our figures ourselves that we are, in some way, acting immorally.

How would you react if I were to suggest that not writing your own rules like the pioneers of wargaming – Stevenson, Wells, Featherstone, Grant and Young – but using commercially published rules, was 'cheating'?

I have never implied that using a painting service was akin to "cheating" but I do take umbrage with people who use such a service and yet feel free to compare their figures, painted by a "professional" who does it for a living, with those painstakingly painted and detailed by those of us, many of whom are less skilled and talented than the pros, myself included, who do it for the love of the hobby and the relaxation it provides us.

von Schwartz, my comment was not addressed to you, but to IronMike, who used the word 'cheating'.

I agree completely with your last post, that it ill becomes anyone who uses a painting service to criticise the standard of others' painted figures. My quarrel is with the way that some people have emphasised the modelling and painting aspect of the hobby above the actual games being played, so that the orthodoxy is that wargaming is putting excellently painted figures on diorama standard terrain.

Sometimes it's a useful way to overcome the hump of starting a new period. I can't afford to do it regularly though

My apologies, Arthur, this particular topic has hit a sore point with me and the previous comments of others only served to pour salt into the wound.

Thank you, von Schwartz. I wasn't offended.

I hope you will continue to enjoy painting figures and relaxing with all the other aspects of the hobby that give you pleasure.

Wait…so now I'm treading a "mythical landscape" trying to "rationalize" the simple fact that I, and a great number of us here, find researching, collecting, compiling, and painting our own figures extremely enjoyable and satisfying?

Well you know, getting there is half the fun:

link

I think you need to look back on your little post/rant here and "rationalize" exactly what it is that YOU dislike about those of us who prefer to live in this "mythological landscape" you describe.

Rant? I think it's hilarious that some who either cant afford or wont pay for painted figures have reinvented their situation as some sort of purity of wargaming philosophy.

Just own your situation. There isnt anything wrong with painting your own figures and their isnt anything wrong with paying for a painting service.

Mini, I never said they was anything wrong with paying for pre-painted figs. I just said I don't do it because I happen to find painting very relaxing and enjoyable, and, for me anyway, it IS half the fun of the hobby. I'm not rationalizing anything, nor am I treading some sort of mythic landscape.
Afterall, this IS a hobby and not a vocation, if you don't enjoy doing it, don't.

Perhaps if you had omitted the following…
Unfortunately, to rationalize their behavior, there are no shortage of modern day gamers who tread a mythic landscape that painting is half the fun.

Hi von Schwartz

I admitted that painting is fun/integral but that i simply dont have the time and thus have to miss out. I wouldnt take it too personally because it seems like you're a good egg who just likes painting as an outlet.

However, and i hope you can see it my way too, there are these "baddies" who repackage their cheapskate-itude as some sort of badge of being a true hobbyist.

Even though I am paying for the paint jobs, I like to think that somewhere, perhaps in a land of unicorns and rainbows, someone is still enjoying that painting. Thus, if you look at it that way, I am paying for someone else to have fun.