Please prepaint the miniatures

[Iceeagle85 495]

11 hours ago, Armandhammer said:

Fair point.

But I personally believe unpainted minis work best for games that aren't tied to big name franchises (like RuneWars and Warhammer)

With a game based in the Star Wars universe, there’s already a clear set of themes and aesthetics that fans have fallen in love with.

And miniature wargaming is all about immersion. I mean, I’m sure you could paint your stormtroopers purple with yellow stars but how many people are really going to deviate from the films?

How many people are going to paint Darth freakin’ Vader green?

True, but I'm sure you will see some people using their own colour schemes and aren't the rebel troopers using colours fitting to their environment? So why not colour your Stormtrooper armour according to your battlefield, the clones did that didn't they?

There are quite some people painting there X-WIng or Armada ships either just in fitting colours but not used colours (blue squadron is blue) or in non canon ways.

Edited August 19, 2017 by Iceeagle85

[Ajones47 170]

2 minutes ago, Slugrage said:

Stormtrooper: Spray with white primer, paint blaster rifle black, hit up the figure with Citadel Nuln Oil, touch up white. Done. About 15 minutes total time (excluding drying)

And if people don't like playing as the bad guys?

[Slugrage 5,011]

Just now, LiveWire X said:

I love how you guys that can paint think it's so simple that anyone beyond 4 years old can do it. It's simple to you because you ALREADY have the skill set, time, and patience to paint them. 

For the majority of regular people who want to play the game and have their product look nice, they don't know the first thing about painting. I watched Sorastro's tutorial (apologies if I I misspelled his name) and it's not that simple. Sure, he breaks into down into steps that you can mimic but I'm guaranteeing that a non artistic person is not going to reproduce any where near the quality that he did just by following his video. It takes a long time and a lot of practice to do that. He's able to do it in simple steps because he's already an artistic inclined person if not a painter already. 

It takes experience, an eye for detail and how colors interact and a steady hand from practice to achieve those same results. You guys who can already do it take for granted your own abilities and the average person off the streets ability to reproduce a similar result. 

I hadn't painted for over 20 years (and probably closer to 25), and I need reading glasses now too so I'm certainly not the teen I used to be when painting. But the videos, and with some practice and patience, I get great results like the Stormtroopers below. The biggest part of painting is patience. This is what came of me spending a bit of time. It white primer, Citadel Black & Leadbelcher and White paints, Nuln Oil shade. Grey for the base. Done. Literally about 15-20 minutes per figure. But are they perfect? No way. Loads of mistakes all over the place.

Find someone locally if you can that will help you with it. I'm always eager to go to any painting events at a local game shop, both to learn from others and to show how to do it to those willing to try.

[Slugrage 5,011]

2 minutes ago, Ajones47 said:

And if people don't like playing as the bad guys?

I haven't painted the Rebels yet. I know my skills were sorely neglected so I started with the Empire first to get my skills developed to a better level. Then I'll tackle the harder stuff. It's all about patience. Not my mind on the future, but only on what I am doing.

[Slugrage 5,011]

6 minutes ago, Iceeagle85 said:

True, but I'm sure you will see some people using their own colour schemes and aren't the rebel troopers using colours fitting to their environment? So why not colour your Stormtrooper armour according to your battlefield, the clones did that didn't they?

There are quite some people painting there X-WIng or Armada ships either just in fitting colours but not used colours (blue squadron is blue) or in non canon ways.

I saw a Wampa that someone painted like Sully from Monsters Inc. It was pretty hilarious to see.

[Iceeagle85 495]

11 minutes ago, Slugrage said:

I saw a Wampa that someone painted like Sully from Monsters Inc. It was pretty hilarious to see.

That sounds like an awesome model.

[demon3o5z 145]

Less bothered by the painting than the building. Sitting there with glue and clippers is not a good time.

[Iceeagle85 495]

3 minutes ago, demon3o5z said:

Less bothered by the painting than the building. Sitting there with glue and clippers is not a good time.

Watch your favourite movie/show or listen to music/audio books while doing it.

[LiveWire X 22]

By the way, my post wasn't to knock anyone. In fact, I'm jealous that I don't have painting skills. I have to pay a friend to make my Armada ships look cool. 

My only point is that it's unrealistic to think that people can easily paint these miniatures and make them look good. ****, I could just dip them in a jar of paint and have a painted model but to achieve the level of mastery that was posted in Sorastro's video and/or the great job many of you guys do is just not possible for the average person. 

Many of you state that it took years to achieve the level of skill that you currently possess. 

Just count me as one of the people that would have liked to see at least the core set models pre painted. 

[jsalyers 74]

11 minutes ago, Slugrage said:

[snip]

Find someone locally if you can that will help you with it. I'm always eager to go to any painting events at a local game shop, both to learn from others and to show how to do it to those willing to try.

[snip]

 

The hobby aspect of the game helps grow the community. I paint regularly at the Team Covenant store and share both my knowledge and my supplies with anyone who comes in to paint. For me, playing the games is good but hanging out with the people is the best.

If you have some time and the interest painting miniatures can be very rewarding. Look for someone in your community who has experience and talk to them about it you might make a friend and learn new skills.

Nothing ventured noting gained.

 

J-- 

[cogollo 47]

I prefer unpainted... I enjoy painting, even if I don't have time to paint every mini I own (work, kids, other hobbys)... still, there are a lot of cheap and professional painting services if and when you really want to have them painted.

Nevertheless I advice to try painting as a learning experience:  it can be relaxing and enjoyable and you'll feel proud of youself when you see your improvement after painting some minis. And today, with so many great artists in Youtube (Sorastro is my favorite for FFG games) it has become simpler than ever

[Attackmack 525]

42 minutes ago, LiveWire X said:

By the way, my post wasn't to knock anyone. In fact, I'm jealous that I don't have painting skills. I have to pay a friend to make my Armada ships look cool. 

My only point is that it's unrealistic to think that people can easily paint these miniatures and make them look good. ****, I could just dip them in a jar of paint and have a painted model but to achieve the level of mastery that was posted in Sorastro's video and/or the great job many of you guys do is just not possible for the average person. 

Many of you state that it took years to achieve the level of skill that you currently possess. 

Just count me as one of the people that would have liked to see at least the core set models pre painted. 

I think the point. Even though many painters are very skilled and have aquired that skill through many painful years of learning (and/or some are just born with a knack for it) most of us that paint are NOT that skilled nor have that talent. Sure, having painted a fair amount of various miniatures over a few years now Ive picked up a few techniques that a beginner lacks but the point here is that there are ways to paint miniatures that is so simple that yes ANYONE can do it, assuming you have two functional hands.

The stormtrooper is a perfect example. You simply slab white and black on it, doesnt have to be detailed just the overall areas, then dip the entire miniature in a "wash" and it fills in the cracks and recesses to give the miniature details. THere is no secret to it, someone doing this for the very first time will still get a far better result then the prepainted mini shown above.

Most of even us mediocre painters wouldnt paint our minis like that because we are willing to dedicate more time to get a better result, but if all you want is a painted miniature with at least some details then anyone can do it, and I do mean anyone. 

[Thormind 565]

4 hours ago, Slugrage said:

You must not play very often then. Or at all. Anyone who's into WH40k that I know paints quickly, gets their figures to the table and they play non-stop.

hehe i did say "never got into Warhammer because..." :-)  When you have a limited amount of time to game, the ration painting/gaming becomes much worst... The shorter you have, the more it tips toward painting. I'd rather just open up my x-wings and play with them (or maybe legion packs, if prepainted...)  Maybe they could offer a painted and and unpainted version to satisfy both types of player...

[Mep 2,291]

Save up your money and wait for someone on Ebay or Etsy to sell Legion Minis painted by hand. Keep in mind, it takes a lot of time to paint those minis and mini paint isn't cheap so that outrageous price actually isn't.

[Archangelion 50]

19 hours ago, Marxander97 said:

As an absolute noob in painting miniatures, i would wish that Star Wars Legion is prepainted like X-Wing.

I hate to play games with grey figures like Imperial Assault, which i selled because of that.

Its the reason why i wont buy this game ;(

 

(Sorry for bad english)

You would be surprised, I think, about how good even a quick paint job will make your minis look. There are some VERY simple painting techniques that you could use to give your models life.

That said. The hobby of assembling and painting miniatures isn't for everyone. It was my favorite aspect of 40K, I found it very rewarding. If you have a board game that has unpainted minis I suggest staring there. A quick base cost of black and a drybrush of grey make those Star Destroyers in Rebelion really pop on the board.

[Guest Mahjai]

$90 for a core set. Ok.

I need how many hours ( & skill ) to paint them?

 

* not gonna happen *

 

i love Fantasy Flight...partially for attention to Visuals ( Beautiful Art ), partially for rules ( although despite spending hundreds of dollars on the RPG books, not a great system ).  You have guaranteed $$$ if you release a pre-painted set...or coordinate others to do the work...but grey plastic? Nope-

 

Augmented Reality is looking better on empty tabletops than grey figures...i think you are behind the times...

 

[Iceeagle85 495]

35 minutes ago, Guest Mahjai said:

i think you are behind the times...

Well unpainted and sometimes unassembled miniatures are the norm for miniature wargames, their own Runewars miniatures game has unpainted minis nad so have many other miniature wargames on the market, X-Wing and Armada are the only exceptions I know. And the price seems fine for that kind of game.

[PastrySandwich 273]

I am baffled on why they would not prepaint these. X-wing being prepainted brought in a lot of players that would not have normally picked up the game. As, I assume, this is too is designed to be a bit more approachable I don't know why they would not follow with the prepainted minis. Now I get that there are plenty of old school wargamers that just love their painting, but (if the game is good quality) they are coming on board regardless. It is those that haven't dove into a wargame that this offers a much larger barrier to entry. Prepainting wasn't going to scare anyone off, however not prepainting will. The game will suffer because of this (not like causing the downfall or anything, simply if it is successful it will be less successful than it could have been) which is a shame.

[Bike Stunts 163]

4 minutes ago, PastrySandwich said:

I am baffled on why they would not prepaint these. X-wing being prepainted brought in a lot of players that would not have normally picked up the game. As, I assume, this is too is designed to be a bit more approachable I don't know why they would not follow with the prepainted minis. Now I get that there are plenty of old school wargamers that just love their painting, but (if the game is good quality) they are coming on board regardless. It is those that haven't dove into a wargame that this offers a much larger barrier to entry. Prepainting wasn't going to scare anyone off, however not prepainting will. The game will suffer because of this (not like causing the downfall or anything, simply if it is successful it will be less successful than it could have been) which is a shame.

There's just way too many models. The most models you'll get on the table in an X-wing game is what, 20-30 for a game of Epic? That would be a small sized game of this. You get 33 minis in the box, and that won't even be up to the full points limit (going by other game's starter boxes). There was no realistic way a game like this could have been prepainted.

[Mikayhu 131]

1 hour ago, PastrySandwich said:

I am baffled on why they would not prepaint these. X-wing being prepainted brought in a lot of players that would not have normally picked up the game. As, I assume, this is too is designed to be a bit more approachable I don't know why they would not follow with the prepainted minis. Now I get that there are plenty of old school wargamers that just love their painting, but (if the game is good quality) they are coming on board regardless. It is those that haven't dove into a wargame that this offers a much larger barrier to entry. Prepainting wasn't going to scare anyone off, however not prepainting will. The game will suffer because of this (not like causing the downfall or anything, simply if it is successful it will be less successful than it could have been) which is a shame.

There's a couple of problems here, though.

First, you ignore the fact that pre-painting would also scare off potential players.  There are plenty of people that enjoy the building and painting part of the hobby that won't buy a pre-painted game.  Second, you make it sound like painting miniatures is some throwback to the 80s with "old school wargamers", when the fact is that new people are getting into the hobby all the time, and it's never been more popular given the success of practically every miniatures-based Kickstarter out there, especially the Reaper BONES collections.  Someone interested in getting into the hobby side of gaming that loves Star Wars would be likely to take the leap on a game like this.

It's good for companies to branch out and make products that appeal to multiple groups of people. 

[Rammstein117 227]

It really isn't that hard to paint a model, and SW models look even easier to do than 40k/WH. Just spray the stormtroopers with white primer, paint black areas black. Tidy up with white, shade with a thinned wash of brown or a dirty blue into the lines and crevices and its a done deal. I think making up your mind on whether to base the models on tatooine/desert or hoth/snow etc will be the hardest decision....

And i'm glad they increased the scale and apparent quality of the models because the IA ones were pretty awful in my opinion. These will also probably be only 2-3 part figures, so the assembly probably won't be as daunting as building a tactical marine squad in 40k. If you can't spend an hour to slap together the starter box with some plastic glue then I don't know what to tell you.

If they were pre painted the paintjobs would probably be pretty lousy and inconsistent quality. I found the paintjobs in x wing and armada to be barely tabletop standard. 

[kmanweiss 1,502]

5 hours ago, Rammstein117 said:

It really isn't that hard to paint a model, and SW models look even easier to do than 40k/WH. Just spray the stormtroopers with white primer, paint black areas black. Tidy up with white, shade with a thinned wash of brown or a dirty blue into the lines and crevices and its a done deal. I think making up your mind on whether to base the models on tatooine/desert or hoth/snow etc will be the hardest decision....

And i'm glad they increased the scale and apparent quality of the models because the IA ones were pretty awful in my opinion. These will also probably be only 2-3 part figures, so the assembly probably won't be as daunting as building a tactical marine squad in 40k. If you can't spend an hour to slap together the starter box with some plastic glue then I don't know what to tell you.

If they were pre painted the paintjobs would probably be pretty lousy and inconsistent quality. I found the paintjobs in x wing and armada to be barely tabletop standard. 

Maybe barely tabletop standard to you, but to the VAST MAJORITY of players, it's far better than what they are capable of.  To get a decent paint job it takes time, practice, research, trail and error.  Beyond that, you're working on a finer scale than what most people ever deal with.  A lot of people don't have the time to dedicate to it, or value their time more for doing something they enjoy (like playing games) instead of painting game pieces which they may find a burden or a chore.  Not everyone likes doing that stuff.

Sure, people can do better than X-Wing and Armada.  And those people stripped, primed, painted, and touched up those models.  For the other 99% of the people, they were ecstatic to have amazing looking (in their opinion) unit to field right out of the box.  The pre-painted aspect of those games drew people in, lots of people.  Lots of people that had never played table top games.  Lots of people that had never touched a paintbrush outside a water color set in grade school.  X-wing wouldn't be top dog today if it wasn't for the pre-painted aspect.

I'm not making a stand on if Legion should or should not be pre-painted, just saying you have a unique perspective that may not be shared by a lot of players.

[Mikayhu 131]

8 hours ago, kmanweiss said:

Maybe barely tabletop standard to you, but to the VAST MAJORITY of players, it's far better than what they are capable of.  To get a decent paint job it takes time, practice, research, trail and error.  Beyond that, you're working on a finer scale than what most people ever deal with.  A lot of people don't have the time to dedicate to it, or value their time more for doing something they enjoy (like playing games) instead of painting game pieces which they may find a burden or a chore.  Not everyone likes doing that stuff.

Sure, people can do better than X-Wing and Armada.  And those people stripped, primed, painted, and touched up those models.  For the other 99% of the people, they were ecstatic to have amazing looking (in their opinion) unit to field right out of the box.  The pre-painted aspect of those games drew people in, lots of people.  Lots of people that had never played table top games.  Lots of people that had never touched a paintbrush outside a water color set in grade school.  X-wing wouldn't be top dog today if it wasn't for the pre-painted aspect.

I'm not making a stand on if Legion should or should not be pre-painted, just saying you have a unique perspective that may not be shared by a lot of players.

X-Wing only looks acceptable because of the scale, and being all vehicles.  Check out the pre painted Arkham Horror miniatures to see how a machine would handle painting smaller characters. 

People make painting harder than it is in their heads, and the idea that X-Wing is better than what 99% of people can accomplish is absurd. Join a Warhammer forum or Discord and check out what brand new people paint every day after just watching one of Duncan's YouTube videos. 

[Mikayhu 131]

22 hours ago, Slugrage said:

I hadn't painted for over 20 years (and probably closer to 25), and I need reading glasses now too so I'm certainly not the teen I used to be when painting. But the videos, and with some practice and patience, I get great results like the Stormtroopers below. The biggest part of painting is patience. This is what came of me spending a bit of time. It white primer, Citadel Black & Leadbelcher and White paints, Nuln Oil shade. Grey for the base. Done. Literally about 15-20 minutes per figure. But are they perfect? No way. Loads of mistakes all over the place.

Find someone locally if you can that will help you with it. I'm always eager to go to any painting events at a local game shop, both to learn from others and to show how to do it to those willing to try.

Also let me take a break from the self-defeat to say that those are excellent Space Mans and welcome back to the hobby. 

[Rammstein117 227]

14 hours ago, kmanweiss said:

Maybe barely tabletop standard to you, but to the VAST MAJORITY of players, it's far better than what they are capable of.  To get a decent paint job it takes time, practice, research, trail and error.  Beyond that, you're working on a finer scale than what most people ever deal with.  A lot of people don't have the time to dedicate to it, or value their time more for doing something they enjoy (like playing games) instead of painting game pieces which they may find a burden or a chore.  Not everyone likes doing that stuff.

Sure, people can do better than X-Wing and Armada.  And those people stripped, primed, painted, and touched up those models.  For the other 99% of the people, they were ecstatic to have amazing looking (in their opinion) unit to field right out of the box.  The pre-painted aspect of those games drew people in, lots of people.  Lots of people that had never played table top games.  Lots of people that had never touched a paintbrush outside a water color set in grade school.  X-wing wouldn't be top dog today if it wasn't for the pre-painted aspect.

I'm not making a stand on if Legion should or should not be pre-painted, just saying you have a unique perspective that may not be shared by a lot of players.

FFG made a conscious decision to make this game have more of a hobby aspect than X wing. That might make it more niche but the SW brand will still manage to bring in new people. That's just the route they've taken...people might not like it. But then there are other alternatives if you'd rather play a SW game where you don't have to paint. The first model I painted was pretty bad, but nowadays you have so many youtube tutorials to help a new painter and a visual aid is helpful. Casual type gamers may want their models pre painted, but I think FFG is trying to step into the realm of tabletop wargaming akin to 40k/AoS and the hobby aspect is a big part of those games. It is not actually uncommon to see people play 40k/AoS with their figures half painted or bare plastic too...