Until recently, I was a hobby purist. Armed
with excessive free time, I was proud that all of my miniatures, terrain and
other hobby accessories were mine. I built them, I painted them, I had made
them as unique or as conformed as I chose. Even when I was young and my
painting was admittedly terrible (not that it is much better now), I loved the
fact that what I put on the table was 100% the work of my own hand.
I didn’t understand people that bought
armies, or had their buddy paint units. I viewed painting hiring services as
cheating and really wondered why anyone would pay a premium on Ebay to lose out
on one of the most enjoyable parts of our game. If I had to have troops ready
to go with no work, I would have played a video game. I just didn’t make sense
to me.
Then I started working. I went from having
16 hours of potential painting time to roughly two and a half. I get home late
many nights and my wife, like a mother herding children to sleep, makes me
accompany her to bed at 10:30. Within those few hours I also have to make time
to hang out with her, to cook, to play with the dog and to do any social things
I want to do. Quite obviously, painting becomes a secondary (or tertiary)
concern very quickly. Units that would be done in a day become the result of a
solid week or two of painting for twenty minutes here or there. The joy of
placing a finished unit in its place on the shelf has become an all too rare
event.
I bought my first painted miniatures a few
months ago almost by chance. I had come into owning a stupid number of old
metal Tallarn imperial guard figures through various trades and I knew I would
never use them. I put them up on the trading sites and got a very intriguing
offer. A guy in Nottingham had a very large DAK force, unpainted and well
stocked with units I like that he wanted to trade. (Shoutout to Mark Owen – I’ve
since traded with him several times and always a fantastic experience) I love
the desert war and had been thinking about playing DAK at some point. However,
his DAK force wasn’t quite at the level of the Tallarns in terms of value (it
was like $1,700 in guard). He did, however, have random bits and pieces of
other things.
One of his “bits and pieces” was a fully
painted, based and in carrying case late war Russian Guards Heavy Tankovy force
with 16 (16!!) KV-1e tanks (I will feature it in a post sometime soon). Talk
about a cool army that I would love to own but would never ever build myself.
There it was, completely done. I literally had to do nothing to field it. I
thought about it, and decided maybe it was time I should start cutting myself
some slack and let some other guy do the work. Although I haven’t played the
army much due to the fact that it hits like a little girl, I’m glad I own it
and I know that had I bought it on my own it never would have gotten done.
Since then, I have bought various units
here and there. It’s easy to buy a whole army where the painting will match,
but buying individual units becomes hard. They have to fit into whatever scheme
you are using and not be either too much better or too much worse than what you
have painted.
A few weeks ago I featured a unit of
Hetzers in my post on overloaded vehicles. Those were one of the painted units
I purchased. They fit the scheme I wanted to use, were cleanly painted and were
a unit I wanted but would never reach a high enough importance to get painted.
Now, I have a unit I want to run, fully painted and they fit in perfectly. Had
I bought them at the store, I would have had to spend hours assembling,
painting and weathering to get the same use I have now. Even worse, units that
I really want to paint would have been pushed back in priority to where they
maybe would never have been done.
I recently got a couple more units from the
same painter. These followed the same lines as the Hetzers: units I would love
to have that maybe only fit into a few lists and that I know I would never
paint even if I bought them. I got a unit of 5 German T-34 tanks with one
T-34/85. The Desperate Measures tank list has a ton of options and this little
unit is about my favorite. I’m really excited to field the unit, but if I had
not seen them for sale I never would have made them. They are usable in
literally one list. Why would I paint them over say a unit of artillery or some
jagdpanthers that I could use in tons of lists?
The second unit that I got was Auflauker
38-Ts. As you know from my other posts, I love small units of recon armored
cars. They zip, spy and annoy all day. The 38-T is among the cutest and most
interesting of these armored cars, but much like the T-34s they are not used in
many lists. These models are not the actual models, but PSC 38-T hulls with the
sdkz 222 turret on them. Accordingly, they have an additional machine gun. The
guy I got them from was worried they wouldn’t sell and so he tossed them in
with the T-34s (I disagree on them selling, but I’m happy about it). I never
would have gone out and bought 3 blister of these in lieu of recon 250s or
pumas, but I’m super happy I have them.
I still find it difficult to take a unit or
army that I didn’t paint and slap it on the table. I have to make in mine in
some way. With the Hetzers, I changed their track color to match my other
units, did a customary very light drybrush of Iraqi Sand (makes any vehicle
pop) and did some line inking. I haven’t had the opportunity to do the same
with the new vehicles, but they will end up going under the brush for some
minor additions. I feel that if I put something of mine into them, it feels
less like “cheating”.
For the Russian army, I’m looking forward
to having a free few hours to completely update the basing and inking of the
whole army. I did ink lining of each of the KV-1Es, and I’m thinking to mud the
tracks and give a light drybrush of dust and mud to make them look well used.
There is no way KV-1Es that have survived until late war look anything like
pristine. When I do give them the weather treatment, I’ll make sure to do a step by step so the
readers of the blog can see how I weather units (as can be seen in my earlier
picture of the American tanks).
I initially had great reservations about
buying painted miniatures, but more and more I become a fan. I get great
looking toys that fit my armies. It saves me a ton of time and effort, while
allowing me to not disrespect my opponents with “silver surfers” or the “black
on black” armies of unpainted toys. Those I buy these miniatures from are able
to get some return on their hard work too, and that always helps the hobby.
This change of heart has come about due to
changing life circumstance, but it has made me think about what role “ownership”
of one’s work plays in the hobby. Is it ok to turn up at a tournament with an
army you didn’t paint? Are you less of a hobbyist if you do? How much work on
someone else’s miniatures must be done until it’s yours? Should we care?
I’m not sure about the answer on any of
those, but what I do know is that I’m glad I got over my pride and bought some
painted units. My armies get more interesting and more painted, and I still
have time for those unique, difficult units that I truly want to paint.
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