"How Much of Your Collection Have You Painted?" Topic

All of them.

I wouldn't dream of fielding troops that I hadn't painted myself. (Unless I'm visiting a friend and using his troops)

When I began the hobby I learned the doctrine about its three form structure
@ Reading the history
@ Painting the figures
@ Playing the game

In other threads I've often cited the value to me of painting as therapy for stress. If I've found time to paint, I've found time to relax because there's onlty a certain speed that paint goes on lead.

For the record. I stopped counting the 15mm figures two years ago when I reached 10,000.

I have no idea. Really, I just don't know. I collect old fantasy models for nostalgia, and I have no plans to paint them. However, I've got a good number of miniatures for four armies that I have very little painted for. I put 20%, but it could be around 30-40. I suppose if I ever lose my job, I'll finally catalog all those miniatures.

Steve
Cavalcade Wargames
cavalcadewargames.com
nycjadie.wordpress.com

I used to think I was well above 50% painted, then I started to dig through some unknown boxes.

Maybe 1/3 to 1/2 painted and based.

All of them.

Congratulations!

Any painted figs I bought, I bought as used with the purpose of repainting them. I've painted 100% of my troops myself, though I still have piles of lead to paint.

If you paint all your lead you die!

Really just depends. I buy and trade and sell figures / air planes all the time. This keeps me at an equilibrium of sorts.

At present I have gone off the deep end where 1/72 aircraft are concerned. I probably have as many or more planes than anyone and have begun giving away some now and again to reduce the glut. That said, I probably have 2-3 times unassembeled what I have done. So 33%.

15mm ACW and WWII is about where I want it. Hard to justify getting more stuff than you will ever use in a game -- so these are 85% painted.

1/72 WWI plastic. I just cannot get into painting plastic if there's metal to be painted. probably 5% painted.

25mm Napoleonics? I'm afraid to look. Probably 50%

28mm Ancients. This is a new area for me -- probably 65% painted. -- or if we just count Gauls I'm at 80%. (Not sure those plastic Romans count.

mjc

I'm probably at about a third painted. I have lots of painted figures but many, many, many unpainted ones. In 40K I have fully painted Tau, Khorne, Black Legion, Emperor's Children, Grey Knights and Tzeentch armies painted but I have a massive collection of unpainted regular Space marines, many unpainted tau and a bunch of deamons unpainted.

In ancients it is pretty bad as well. I have pretty decent sized Greek, Persian, Late Roman, Macedonian and Saxon armies, but then I have a ton of figures from each of those armies unpainted. I must have at least 20 some blisters of foundry macedonians unpainted and probably at least a dozen blisters of Artizan spartans unpainted and a couple of Foundry Late Roman hordes to boot. Plus a couple packs of OG elephants and those are only the things I can remember.

In WWII I have a huge Soviet army painted and am working on a Desert Rats and British para armies.

But I have piles of figs to paint for them.

It goes on and on. I guess I'm about halfway finished with my 1/2400 napoleonic naval stuff. So there is that.

Why can't we count re-paints? That seems like a silly limit.

I'm probably at about a third painted.

Thats funny because you have painted at least 75% of mine. ; )

Unfortunately, I fall into the category of only enough time to paint OR game, not both. So I take advantage of folks like Pictors so that when I have time to game, I can.

Well considering I always buy more of the type of figures I need for a unit (around 1/4) just to have replacement for broken and lost figures it is not at all surprising I have less then 50%. I have also bags of newer figures I plan to replace older lines with.

I think a better question is how many projects have you not started on yet!

Me Three or Four or Five

Trojans 25mm less then 100 of about 600 or so but I do have 24 of 48 chariots done.
Romans 25mm(Late Republic) about 300 of well over 1000
F&I War 25mm ZERO of about 120
Samurai 15mm 48 of over 800
Koreans (Choson or Shila Era) 15mm about 100 of 240 or so.
25mm ALL 3 figures! I am still working up my order of Perry and Bear Den figures list.
Several other armies and projects just starting this year.

VR
James Mattes

I bought a couple of DBA armies when I was playing DBa so I had something quick. They were of variable quality. One came from Pictor's studio and it was quite good. Bought that at Fall-in a few years back. Others came from E-bay and were good to really bad (aka rip-off). I stopped buying pr-paints and have been painting my own ever since.

I think somewhere between 80-90% of my armies are painted by me.

This poll is confusing. The title seems to ask "what percentage of your lead collection is painted," but if you read though the (long) description, you see that the actual question is what percentage of our painted figures were painted by you, personally. Quite a different proposition.

I'm not quite sure why "re-paints" don't count…? When I think of something I have "repainted" it's something I picked up from ebay or a trade that was painted by someone else which I then soaked in pinesol, stripped all the paint off, cleaned, primed and then RE-PAINTED myself…so, despite the fact that it has been previously painted by someone else, it has now been entirely (re-)painted by myself (just like all the other painted minis I own)… Are you referring to something else…?

"50%", he said optimistically.

I, too, was originally a little confused about what was being asked… I thought from the title and description that it was referring to what percentage was painted vs. unpainted… which, for me, is much, much less than 100%…

Something like 30-40% of my figures are painted, but there are some that probably never will get done as newer, more interesting figures get bought.

Luckily I don't have to sneak anything past my wife.

maybe 1-5%.

Why no option for painting something, then disappointment with the results leads to hours of paint stripping? I'm practically at zero.

I only have about 100 figures unpainted out of my collection of maybe 2,500. I`ve painted them all except about 120 which i had painted for me as a treat about 8yrs ago.

For me these days i actually enjoy the painting, its part of the overall hobby.

The question is about the number of painted figures you have painted yourself (excluding pre-paints). In which case my answer is 100%. I've also repainted most stuff I bought which is pre-painted (excepting Micro machines Star Wars and some Wings of War planes).

Looking at the alternate interpetation (overall percentage painted), then 95%. The only two major things are the entire Spanish Navy in 1/6000th and some OG modern Brits I haven't got around to yet.

I have a rule about buying lead. I only buy one project ahead of where I'm at. So if I'm working on one period, then I will buy the next project so its ready to go when I'm done. I do break it for really good deals though. I figure I'm 70% painted, although I included stuff I've outsourced to get painted.

Steve

If the question is how many of my painted figures are painted by me – 80%

If the question is what % of my whole collection is painted- 20%

I wish there was a choice for about 10%. In all honesty, I have collected a lot of painted figures (and I have updated 1,000's of used figures). I paint when time allows, but I do not seem to get a lot of time to work on figures these days. Fortunately, the "off season" is here and I will be able to work on some projects.

I buy almost everything at the three big HMGS East cons (though I quess Historicon will be out next year). I try to get everything I bought at the last con painted before the next one. I'm mostly successful.

I put "abstain", but the real answer is "I have no clue".

I put "abstain", but the real answer is "I have no clue".

Ditto.

I could also answer "Not anywhere near enough."

Okay, wait, "how many have I painted myself versus how many are painted by someone else?" Is *that* supposed to be the point of the poll?

Well, that depends. Do Heroscape figs count as pre-paints? How about MechWarrior DA? Micromachines and Titanium spaceships? Wings of War? I have a good mix of all of these.

On the other hand, if it's referring to minis that are sold unpainted and then painted by someone else, well, I only have one mini painted by someone else; my very first, given to me by a friend thirty years ago. (Squint at my icon; you're lookin' at him.) The rest (of those painted) were all painted by yours truly. (Even if I'd like to claim that someone else is responsible.)

Given that I'd hate to try to figure out what the percentage of any of this mix is either way, I'll still stick with "abstain" (or Michael's answer).

I'm at about 50%. Half of what I own is painted and about half of that was painted by me. All of my vehicles were painted by me but during a forced OT time at worked I outsourced most of my troopers to be completed.

I also outsource some pulp figures so my collection has some varying styles.

Some projects like Pulp and WW2 I think I'm at 90%. Medievals maybe 75%. SYW about 60-70%. Ancients are probably around 50-60%. (Spanish are 100% but the Marian Romans are only maybe 40%. Late Imperials are about 70% and the Goths are the same). Colonials are probably 60-70% too. Napoleonics are at 0%.

Once I loose the enthusiasm to paint a project I stop buying for it and I can't buy in big lumps so that helps.

I have a lot of figures. Not a lot of them are painted. I answered 10%, but I don't know for sure.

Nearly 90% – I have 2400 x 28mm figures painted.

Up to end May, I had painted just about everything that I had bought.

I have recently been buying a lot from the UK as the pound is low so I currently have 350 unpainted. Also, I have received some figures for painting guides.

Mick

I just did an interesting sum. If the results of this pole are representitive, less than half of all miniatures sold get painted. (sum of the % painted by % votes = 48%)

And I suspect the pole answers are biased to the side of people who paint more than the average.

All the figures in my collection are painted by me so 100%. All my so called pre-paints (Wings of War) have been modified in some way. Total collection is less than 2,000.

I worked out, as close as I can, that I have 95 – 97% of all my lead painted. I have one 18mm unit unpainted and just one 28mm figure I'm doing for a friend. I will buy more but only when these are nearly done.

I'm about 60% completed.

I was kinda looking for a "paint? there's people who get around to that?" option…

While the percentage of my total collection that is painted is a lot lower, the percentage of the painted ones that *I* painted is in excess of 90%. Not quite 100%, but close.

About 60% or so. I paint constantly, but then again, I'm buying constantly!

Erik

None. My hobby is wargaming, not painting. I am more than happy to enrich those who like to paint and do it well.

Rick

Just a guess, but I'd say 30-40% is actually painted, but everything that's painted was done by me. Call me weird, but I just can't use something painted by someone else, even though it may be very nice. It just feels somehow wrong. Like wearing somebody else's underwear.

It just feels somehow wrong. Like wearing somebody else's underwear.

I would like to make it quite clear that I have never worn this man's underwear even though I do have some of his figures.
link

Mick just wrote--
>>I just did an interesting sum. If the results of
>>this pole are representitive, less than half of
>>all miniatures sold get painted. (sum of the %
>>painted by % votes = 48%)

If the question was how much is painted then my answer would have been much higher. But th equestion seemed to be how much was painted by me. A much lower number.

I think we can not draw such a conclution because of the various ways the poll is being answered.

Daniel

Hmm, at last count I had about 3,500 25/28mm figures painted (and it's taken me 30 years to get to that state); unfortunately I have at least 8,000 unpainted figures. As my painting rate is going down, there will be many an unpainted figure when I pass on to the "great wargames club in the sky, (or down below)"

100 % of my painted figures were painted by me.

Sadly, I only have around 25% of my total collection painted.

I call it hobby security :) I like always having a project waiting. Or in my case many, many projects. Not eough time to paint, work keeps getting in the way!

I have several hundred very old unpainted metal figures. It is unlikely they will ever get painted – though I did paint up 60 1805 French in bicorns from the late 70's. I have several hundred plastic figures about 10 years old or so that may never get painted. I have 6-700 figures painted by other folks. And I have about 4-5,000 figures that I have painted myself. The paint job improved markedly (and went much faster) after discovering dip-wash techniques.

I have only 20 or so figures unpainted that I bought this year. Once they are done that will free me to order more. These are mostly 15mm. I do have some 18 28mm Alban riflemen painted up who wonder when I'll order and paint the French, but my 15mm Napoleonic Anglo-Allied army got in the way.

I only have a handful of figs painted by anyone else, 3 Confrontation painted by Jim Bowen (off Ebay) – stunning work and I am trying to match a fourth………I really don't think I am a 'painter' anymore, merely a collector of lead – a handful finished out of the 1000s I have. I am kind of fanatic about Dragontooth from the 70s/early 80's and have most of the general release stuff however only 1 actually painted to completion. Now, if we start discussing figures we have started painting……………..

The more that I paint, the more that I have to buy. Like the Red Queen, I have to run twice as fast to stay in place!

I would say 99.9% painted and by me.

SYW and Napoleonicsn I am keeping,but, HOTT and DBA armies are being sold off to feed the SYW addiction. As new figures arrive, I paint them completely before ordering anything else. Therefore, the number of unpainted lead remains insignificant. Of that small unpainted percentage, these are extra command figures or extra riders.

Still, I may use the extras to experiment with Zombie painting technique.

Cheers,

not enough…sob….

not enough… and never enough… sob, sob ;)

Ha! 2 more completed. One a 70's Ral Partha Dictator figure I picked up recently and another an Artizan Pulp. Only 30,000 more to go :(