So any of my readers will know that this blog is not about painting. I am not sure exactly what it is about but certainly not painting. You will not find any painting tips or even many pictures of painted projects. I have been pretty much a dedicated nonpainter for all my years of miniature gaming. I have 20 year old epic space marine stuff that has not seen a brush or spray can near them. Recently I had a game that changed my perspective.
I have read in a few different places discussing that these games are representative games and having the fully painted battlefield and pieces really add to the enjoyment. I personally had always not really felt that way. I figured the painting requirements was another way for GW to try to suck money out of me for paints and such. It did not bother me and I did not see the other side of it. Lots of people around my FLGS play with a few unpainted pieces but I was the only one with a nearly totally unpainted 8K points army.
Interestingly I have always been an extremely strict WYSIWYG guy. The only time I have ever fielded units that were not strictly WYSIWYG was in a few big Apoc games where I had a couple of marines with CC and Boltpistol count as marines with true grit or some Multimeltas count as meltaguns for a drop pod army. I figured this really might affect how people play the game so I should get it right. You can see this is my Honor Guard where I have modeled everyone with the power weapon, bolter and bolt pistol. Even the guy with the banner. While this is not strictly required since it is standard equipment for the unit I thought I should do it since it is one of the things that make the Honor Guard stand out by having the multiple weapon options.
What has changed my mind and made me decide to really get serious about painting? It was a recent game of Blood Bowl in my new league. I am really excited to get to play the game and happy to see new people brought into the game. GW does not make that easy with the box set costing 82.50 now. Wow that is steep. Plus full league teams are 50 for the basic 12 guys plus 20 for a 4 man booster if it is even made for that team(or 8.25 each otherwise) plus 25 for a big guy. So you are essential at 100 dollars retail for a full team now. No wonder bidding has gotten more serious on ebay. Plus the rulebook in the box is totally out of date so you have to download and print a 60 page rulebook.
So a few people in the league play with basic home made board(not a fancy pitch conversions) with proxied teams using heroquest models. I played such a game recently and found it slightly less evocative than playing with the real pieces. I know that that orc is really a norse lineman or that chaos warrior is really a werewolf but it made things seem just a bit off.
Do not get me wrong, I still had fun and do not think everyone should have to spend 200 dollars to get started playing a game which they might not play for very long. It just got me thinking. Is this how people feel when they play me? Maybe I should do a better job of getting my act together on painting. So I have decided to start painting again. Since painting tons and tons of marines currently is not calling to me, I thought I might paint my wood elves for blood bowl. But not green. I remembered a cool article from an Aussie who painted up wood elves in a winter style so I was thinking of giving something like that a try in Blood Bowl.
Stay posted for developments as a non painter tries to learn to paint.
I have read in a few different places discussing that these games are representative games and having the fully painted battlefield and pieces really add to the enjoyment. I personally had always not really felt that way. I figured the painting requirements was another way for GW to try to suck money out of me for paints and such. It did not bother me and I did not see the other side of it. Lots of people around my FLGS play with a few unpainted pieces but I was the only one with a nearly totally unpainted 8K points army.
Interestingly I have always been an extremely strict WYSIWYG guy. The only time I have ever fielded units that were not strictly WYSIWYG was in a few big Apoc games where I had a couple of marines with CC and Boltpistol count as marines with true grit or some Multimeltas count as meltaguns for a drop pod army. I figured this really might affect how people play the game so I should get it right. You can see this is my Honor Guard where I have modeled everyone with the power weapon, bolter and bolt pistol. Even the guy with the banner. While this is not strictly required since it is standard equipment for the unit I thought I should do it since it is one of the things that make the Honor Guard stand out by having the multiple weapon options.
What has changed my mind and made me decide to really get serious about painting? It was a recent game of Blood Bowl in my new league. I am really excited to get to play the game and happy to see new people brought into the game. GW does not make that easy with the box set costing 82.50 now. Wow that is steep. Plus full league teams are 50 for the basic 12 guys plus 20 for a 4 man booster if it is even made for that team(or 8.25 each otherwise) plus 25 for a big guy. So you are essential at 100 dollars retail for a full team now. No wonder bidding has gotten more serious on ebay. Plus the rulebook in the box is totally out of date so you have to download and print a 60 page rulebook.
So a few people in the league play with basic home made board(not a fancy pitch conversions) with proxied teams using heroquest models. I played such a game recently and found it slightly less evocative than playing with the real pieces. I know that that orc is really a norse lineman or that chaos warrior is really a werewolf but it made things seem just a bit off.
Do not get me wrong, I still had fun and do not think everyone should have to spend 200 dollars to get started playing a game which they might not play for very long. It just got me thinking. Is this how people feel when they play me? Maybe I should do a better job of getting my act together on painting. So I have decided to start painting again. Since painting tons and tons of marines currently is not calling to me, I thought I might paint my wood elves for blood bowl. But not green. I remembered a cool article from an Aussie who painted up wood elves in a winter style so I was thinking of giving something like that a try in Blood Bowl.
Stay posted for developments as a non painter tries to learn to paint.
Having a fully painted army and scenery adds tons to the feel and quality of the game.
ReplyDeleteGREAT to hear dude. I hope you can derive some enjoyment from the actual painting process in addition to the satisfaction of having painted minis. A blood bowl team is a perfect way to start painting again as there are never that many models - when I got back into the hobby the plastic orc team from the 3rd edition box was my first task. I've slowly added a few more minis and got them painted. My undead will probably be the first fully painted army/team/gang that I'll have.
ReplyDeleteI can highly recommend dipping your models if that floats your boat. Could also recommend painting with washes only, as it is generally much quicker and can truly achieve positive results. Just check out my LOTR O&G (washed over grey base) or Raptors (washed over white). Next I'm going to try basecoat grey and either light spray or drybrush of white.
If you ever have any questions, feel free to email me.
I did pick up some GW washes and will be talking about them as part of my painting saga. I have the mud and black and will probably be applying them to those undead models I showed a couple of weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteI am the kind of player that wont field an army unless its 4 color standard with WYSWYG. I sometimes have trouble getting into the game if the person I am playing has unpainted miniatures
ReplyDeleteOh, I should mentioned that I still don't mind playing unpainted armies, it just makes it hard to get excited about the game! :)
ReplyDelete