So what makes you paint your armies

[Darkman]

So what motivates you in to painting an army then? I am not talking about adding more to the lead mountain, but actually sitting down and painting.

A couple of us were having a discussion the other day as I had a Renegade Republican Army I bought in January 2010. But I needed a reason to paint it. I used to go to a lot of competitions and liked to take a different army to each. Nowadays I don’t have much time to do that. I still paint figures to go with collections that I already have but find it hard to motivate for a new army unless a number of people at the club are starting as well. My answer to this problem was to organise a 4 player round robin using the WAB Hannibal book. Now I have my army painted ready to go.

So what do you do?

[CoffinDodger]

Mr Darkman,

I vowed never to start another new period until I read the first edition of BtLB and then I was hooked. I remember the pain of whittling away at huge lead mountains and the fact that just looking at them put you off sitting down and getting the paints out.

I lived in South Africa and Papua New Guinea at the time of doing my 25mm Minifig Napoleonics and 40mm Perry ACW armies respectively and had no choice but to buy in bulk.

I am now building a Louis XIV French 1695 army and a Napoleonic French 1807 division (in bicornes and white uniforms), both in 28mm.

Now back in Scotland, I decided to forego bulk discounts and purchase one unit at a time and then only after I had completely finished the previous one. I now actually look forward to the next infantry battalion, artillery battery or cavalry regiment arriving and it keeps me fresh.

When painting a unit, I intersperse painting the line figures with a few officers or civilians so I don't get fed up with doing the same uniform over and over again.

This system seems to keep me motivated.

Regards,

Jim

[jezamonos]

An interesting question Steve.

I collect two sides to every period that I want to game so that I can play with my son as he gets older, so the issue of a new period is somewhat negated by that fact. I start new projects that I am interested in and that I think he will be. I tend to purchase all of the basic elements of the Army long before I start painting it.

I generally run a couple of projects at the same time so that I don't become bored, and usually quite different periods. I am currently working on BAOR as I have just finished Cold War Soviets and along side this I will be doing WSS to add some colour.

[dashing blade]

Well i need a spark!..........If i like the period i've seen figures for,read a book and wanted to capture the battles on the table top or really like the latest new sculpts from some companies;then i've got to paint them .Hard to explain but i have a strong driving force to see them finished (even if that feeling seems to wain near the end of a project)
However, like Mr Dodger i only buy one or two units at a time. So no off putting metal mountain.