I almost never paint minis, and when I do, it's pretty horrible. Is it worth it to get into Legion anyway?

Depends on the game, which we don't have enough info about.

I played Warmachine for years, barely ever painted.

52 minutes ago, Celestial Lizards said:

I almost never paint minis, and when I do, it's pretty horrible. Is it worth it to get into Legion anyway?

Absolutely. Game Workshop, the dominant company for this sort of game, has historically referred to a player's enjoyment as being broken down into 4 categories...

• Collecting - some people just like to buy the stuff and stick it in their closet. I prefer to play with what I buy, but I will admit that I have some X-Wing ships still in the package that I haven't gotten around to opening yet.
• Assembling - some people just like to put the models together. Sometimes this involves doing some minor "surgery" and reposing a model or swapping out a head or weapon.
• Painting - some people love to paint. I know a lot of people who don't play Warhammer 40k at all, but have fully painted armies. They just love the actual painting.
• Playing - some people prefer to just play the game. Legion looks like it has great rules and some real strategic depth.

Realistically, most people enjoy several, if not all of these. I like the collecting aspect, get sort of tired of assembling models, love to paint... when I feel like it, but mainly like to play. The net result is that I rush through assembly and generally play with a mostly unpainted army with one or two really nicely painted units.

If you mainly enjoy playing, don't bother with the painting. You'll still enjoy the time you spend with the game. A table top miniatures game is kind of like World of Warcraft. It offers a lot of different things, but doesn't expect you to embrace them all. If you don't like fishing (painting), don't bother. Nobody is going to give you grief for that. If they do, tell them you'd be happy to let them paint your stuff for you.

Just Like in IA there will be no requirement to paint. So if your okay with unpainted then go for it.

Personally I hate seeing a blob of unpainted units. But that's my problem. 90% of people will probably have partly painted armies, but never quite get round to having a full painted army anyway.

1 minute ago, Sk3tch said:

Just Like in IA there will be no requirement to paint. So if your okay with unpainted then go for it.

Personally I hate seeing a blob of unpainted units. But that's my problem. 90% of people will probably have partly painted armies, but never quite get round to having a full painted army anyway.

"But that's my problem."

I actually want to say thank you to Sk3tch for saying this. I want to reinforce the idea that your army is your army. You don't have to paint it if you don't want to. Your opponent may hate the fact that you army is unpainted, but that's an issue they need to work through. For me, playing against a fully painted army is a treat, but I would never give someone grief for having an unpainted army. If they express interest in learning to paint, I'll happily set up a "basics" session and show them how to proceed. Most people don't realize how easy it is to get a good looking army if you learn a couple of pretty basic techniques combined with the concept of batch painting.

Ultimately, this is a community sort of game. Generally speaking, everyone benefits when more people play. That means we NEVER exclude someone who doesn't like to paint.

Sure it's worth playing.

We have a range of opinions in our local gaming community right now. There's the ultra-hardcore "U MUST PAINT ALL TEH MINI OR KEEP THEM OFFF DA TABLE!" minority who usually have amazing paint jobs on all their figures, the majority somewhere in the middle of somewhat painted, from very nice to white primer stormtroopers, to a few people who won't bother painting anything. Personally, I love a nice paintjob and beautiful terrain and spend a bunch of time on both, but I won't complain or whine about someone that doesn't paint their figures. And what @Sk3tch says is exactly right - if someone has a problem with unpainted minis, it's *their* problem. Not yours. Play how you like to.

My FLGS has a rule for X-Wing minis: they don't even have to be the original mini as long as you don't have two of the same ship mini on different ships.

If that makes sense.

My biggest issue I have with mini wargaming is that I WANT to paint the minis, but my painting skill SUCK and I tend to be overly critical of my work, so nothing ever gets finished/played.

My painting skills have made me force myself out of the game. And it's killing me because my SW OCD is kicking in big time. I want to buy/play Legion, but I just don't think I can.

Yes, get into any game you want regardless of painting or painting skill. It's not a requirement and while companies like GW used to give out bonus tourney points for painted armies, that practice has died out and is more an old remnant of thinking.

Just don't ever play with blank bases, at least have the minis built on the bases. I still remember playing a guy back in the day that ran Tyranids - half the army was bases and I kept having to ask what they were.

9 minutes ago, papy72 said:

My biggest issue I have with mini wargaming is that I WANT to paint the minis, but my painting skill SUCK and I tend to be overly critical of my work, so nothing ever gets finished/played.

My painting skills have made me force myself out of the game. And it's killing me because my SW OCD is kicking in big time. I want to buy/play Legion, but I just don't think I can.

Have you watched the @Sorastro videos on his Youtube channel? He's done a ton of Imperial Assault (and other systems) work, and will be doing some Legion tutorials. They're quite excellent and geared for people with a wide range of skills.

Sorastro's Painting

3 minutes ago, Slugrage said:

Have you watched the @Sorastro videos on his Youtube channel? He's done a ton of Imperial Assault (and other systems) work, and will be doing some Legion tutorials. They're quite excellent and geared for people with a wide range of skills.

Sorastro's Painting

Yeah I watched about half of his video on painting Legion Luke. That one came across as something on a much higher skill level than I can muster. I mean, the material list alone was like 20 paints. I haven't had the chance to finish watching it (though I plan to).

3 minutes ago, Hawkman2000 said:

Just don't ever play with blank bases, at least have the minis built on the bases. I still remember playing a guy back in the day that ran Tyranids - half the army was bases and I kept having to ask what they were.

*shudders*

12 minutes ago, papy72 said:

My biggest issue I have with mini wargaming is that I WANT to paint the minis, but my painting skill SUCK and I tend to be overly critical of my work, so nothing ever gets finished/played.

My painting skills have made me force myself out of the game. And it's killing me because my SW OCD is kicking in big time. I want to buy/play Legion, but I just don't think I can.

That's a shame I'm still new to painting (painted a handful of IA) , so mine won't be great. But enough to look good on the table.

2 minutes ago, papy72 said:

Yeah I watched about half of his video on painting Legion Luke. That one came across as something on a much higher skill level than I can muster. I mean, the material list alone was like 20 paints. I haven't had the chance to finish watching it (though I plan to).

What I found useful was watching a few videos through before even touch the paints, its worth going back to his Imperial Assualt Stormtroopers as they are quite simple and less demand for the raw materials side of it.

1 hour ago, papy72 said:

Yeah I watched about half of his video on painting Legion Luke. That one came across as something on a much higher skill level than I can muster. I mean, the material list alone was like 20 paints. I haven't had the chance to finish watching it (though I plan to).

Start from the beginning.

As he goes through the IA stuff he adds a lot of new techniques so that eventually you're building on the different ways to do things.

Also, (and this is the tough part) you've gott to get over the idea that you're stuff is going to be perfect to begin with. It's a skill. Natural talent will take you a long way, but practice is more important. Practice can help you find your talent that you didn't realize you had, or it can just help you get down to the paint by numbers.

Also, instead of being overly critical on yourself, show your stuff to others...others of various skill levels. You're always going to be able to see every brush stroke and know where you screwed up. Someone else who didn't spend a couple hours staring at the same mini isn't going to see all that.

Finally, remember that you're painting to a "Table Top Standard" That means it's got to look good at a distance of 3-4 feet away and with a lot of other visual noise.

This isn't a display piece that will be viewed up close in perfect lighting by itself.

You can do it.

I do not care if my opponents models are unpainted, as they're his. As for me, I shall never field an unpainted model.

1 hour ago, Zrob314 said:

Also, (and this is the tough part) you've gott to get over the idea that you're stuff is going to be perfect to begin with. It's a skill. Natural talent will take you a long way, but practice is more important. Practice can help you find your talent that you didn't realize you had, or it can just help you get down to the paint by numbers.

Also, instead of being overly critical on yourself, show your stuff to others...others of various skill levels. You're always going to be able to see every brush stroke and know where you screwed up. Someone else who didn't spend a couple hours staring at the same mini isn't going to see all that.

This.

Don't compare your first work, to that of those folks who've been painting for years and have hundreds (thousands?) of figures finished. Just strive to be slightly better with each figure you do from the one that came before it.

And yes, I see every single screwed up brush stroke on every single one of my miniatures. Then I take them to the shop and set them up to play and everyone tells me how wonderful they look. Don't correct them and point out your mistakes that pretty much only you can see.

28 minutes ago, Slugrage said:

This.

Don't compare your first work, to that of those folks who've been painting for years and have hundreds (thousands?) of figures finished. Just strive to be slightly better with each figure you do from the one that came before it.

And yes, I see every single screwed up brush stroke on every single one of my miniatures. Then I take them to the shop and set them up to play and everyone tells me how wonderful they look. Don't correct them and point out your mistakes that pretty much only you can see.

I was trying to explain to my girlfriend one time that I couldn't get something right on one of the ships I was painting. She laughed at me and said "Okay baby, just as long as you understand that you're the only person who will ever even notice it".

43 minutes ago, Megatronrex said:

I was trying to explain to my girlfriend one time that I couldn't get something right on one of the ships I was painting. She laughed at me and said "Okay baby, just as long as you understand that you're the only person who will ever even notice it".

I know that feeling

"That spot which only visible from a certain angle isn't perfect, **** it!!"

I wrote in another topic already but im happy to rewrite it:
Those miniatures can be painted with minimal skills.
You can even try to apply wash directly onto the plastic if you really are not into painting. Not even mentioning stormtroopers, but even rebel troopers can be painted using only 4-5 colors and only basic techniques - large area drybrushin and large area washes.

They are really "noob friendly" in terms of painting.

1 hour ago, Vitalis said:

I wrote in another topic already but im happy to rewrite it:
Those miniatures can be painted with minimal skills.
You can even try to apply wash directly onto the plastic if you really are not into painting. Not even mentioning stormtroopers, but even rebel troopers can be painted using only 4-5 colors and only basic techniques - large area drybrushin and large area washes.

They are really "noob friendly" in terms of painting.

Rebel Troopers are easier in my opinion.

All the colors you'd normally utilize would lend themselves to using the Army Painter "dip" as a universal shading tool.