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On average, how long does it take you to assemble a box?


Axineton

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Just sold a Lizardman battalion set still 60% on sprues.... brought over 5 years ago (before I moved house!)

 

Except for that blip... normally put models together the weekend after I get them or spend an hour here and there during the week... 2nd longest was about a month..

 

edit - PAINTING however... errr I still have undercoated guardians that I brought 15 years ago.... and only last year finished painting some sister of battle I brought about the same time....

Edited by Slasher956
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Lemme go find that report button, I’m feeling attacked here ;)

 

 

....so how long ago did space hulk come out? I at least have the nids base coated, and the terminators are off sprue..... so we’ll call that my oldest box and ignore the rest of my pile of shame. On average though 3-18 months between purchase and completion unless it’s something like a character or a vehicle, and then it’s gets closer to 6 months.

 

ETL of course has a habit of skewing all these numbers, and I may or may not be preparing to avenge myself this year.....

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I still have most of this box unbuilt under my desk :sad.:

 

edit: link decided to break but it's the Space Marine Strike Force box from 2008. Found its contents on this site: https://www.nobleknight.com/P/2147384741/Strike-Force-2008-Edition

 

It's been a long, long time. 

Edited by Reyner
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I take a while, but I'm making an effort this year to not buy anything until my backlog is cleared up. I'm making an exception for Shadowspear because I sold some stuff to fund that.

 

I'm still working on my DI stuff but am almost done with that. I'm hoping to move a little faster on the Primaris half of Shadowspear when I get it.

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It’s taken me around 2 hours per 4 Primaris from DI. I completed them all last night after working in multiple sessions over the last week.

 

It’s the mould line clean up that takes the time. I can’t understand how anyone can put minis together much quicker than this. I don’t think I’m particularly slow at clean up, maybe a bit fussier that average?

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I built my Assault on Black Reach when I bought it but didn't paint any of the orcs and only really finished the dread and the terminators.

 

The Dark Angels half of my Dark Vengeance are all on the sprues, but I bought that at clearance after Dark Imperium came out.

 

I painted the power armoured DG from Dark Imperium quickly, but the pox walkers are still on the sprues and I only got the Primaris done a month ago.

 

I have two boxes of Wrath and Rapture with just 5 of the flesh hounds built. They might take a year or so to get done. I still have tons of stuff from a DG Battleforce I bought at the same time.

 

Smaller boxes I tend to get done but I have tons of character models i bought last year that are barely touched.

 

Somehow I got my whole Deathwatch Overkill finished in a few months after purchase. But technically I bought two at once and only just did the Aberrants from the second box a few weeks ago and have some of the marines and Cult characters from that box still on sprues. I got the cult infantry from the second box done when the proper Cult release happened and I could use parts from the multipart kits so that would have been a while.

Edited by Closet Skeleton
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Hmm, I still have half of the calth box untouched, and haven't looked at the prospero box since I bought it. Plus various other boxes on my shame closet. But I built the Primaris box in a week. Now to find the will to break out the brushes again
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Usually 2 or 3 weeks per ten 'normal infantry'. 'Big infantry' are about half that rate (5 every 14 days). Vehicles are around one week to ten days, depending on complexity and size. This is without any spraying... the cold Chaos Wastes of Kanada tend to put a damper on using any spray cans...

 

I used to batch paint 10 minis at a time, but I find that the repetition and length of time between colours/coats is not as rewarding as for 5 at a time, or 3 if they are very complex (large/monstrous infantry). So even with units that come ten to a box, I'll paint a maximum of 5 of them at a time, and about a week is good for that. I paint about an hour a day, plus an extra hour or two on Sat/Sun.

 

If you can make painting part of your daily schedule, I'm sure things will speed up for you...

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

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I hate painting mate. Don’t mind the assembly but painting does my nut in.

 

 

Yipes! Well there's not too many ways around that, I'm afraid... or at least, no cheap ways...

 

If you basically think of the painting part as a [hated chore], then my advice is to focus on 'speed methods' that get you an acceptable result with minimum hassle. To me this means:

 

1: 3 COLOUR MAXIMUM > this means 'base' + 'contrast' + 'accent'... most offical GW schemes can be done this way, or near to it... based on your avatar for Ultras, that means Blue + White + Gold. For my Salamanders it would be Green + Gold + Red etc. Also consider skipping a step and basecoating the whole model in the colour that will be most prevalent (blue for Ultras, obvs).

2: DRYBRUSHING > forget about blending and edging in favor of drybrushing for quick highlights

3: ONE WASH TO RULE THEM ALL > pick your colours so that you can use one shade alone as a way to unify the colours. This is likely going to be a 'brown', a 'blue' or a 'black'

4: DRYBRUSH AGAIN > a great tip I found in a Blachitsu article was to finish each model with an 'almost undetectable' drybrush of pure white. I use this strategy alot now, and it's surprisingly effective!

 

Finally - even if it's a thing you hate doing now, setting a manageable goal of 'hours per week' could help you stay engaged in it instead of doing the classic procrastination game of 'leaving for tomorrow what you can do today'... The more things pile up, the less achievable the goal of a painted army may seem!

 

If you can set aside 45min-1hr per day, or even every other day to paint/build and listen to a podcast, I think that could help you feel like you have a bit of forward momentum instead of just watching the stack of unbuilt/unpainted stuff build up...

 

Finally - set limits: if you tend to just build more stuff because you like that part of it more, I think that can be demoralizing. In past I did this > focusing on building almost everything in an army but then struggling to find the motivation to paint it all... My 'to paint' pile is now kept to a minimum by me not building anything that's not 'next on my paint list'... Converting and building do feel more 'creative' and engaged than most painting tasks, so use those parts you do enjoy as 'rewards for progress' through the stack of things waiting for their first 3 colours.

 

Cheers,

 

The Good Doctor.

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Shadowspear brought me back to my beloved Raven Guard and I need everything but the Lieutenant for a tournament in June, so that one will be pretty quick.

 

I have an Eldar Battleforce box my wife got me for Christmas that I've barely touched. Only done a Wraithlord and Farseer out of it so far.

 

So, my short answer is it depends on whether I have a deadline.

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Not done a big campaign box before. In experienced hands, a box of 10 battle sisters can be assembled in 30 seconds :p

Painting wise? I got models from 12 years ago waiting to be finished.

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On average, from purchase to assembly, probably 5 years.

 

To elaborate, I got a great deal on an eldar army in 2012. Still on sprues.

 

Boxed sets:

Shadow war

Dark Imperium

Forgebane

Deathstorm

Shadowspear

Command tanks

Dark vengeance

 

My pike of shame is large.

Edited by Xenith
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If I am actively trying to assemble something for immediate play then an average infantry box is 2-3 hours of build time. I have some boxes which I have saved for future projects in storage. Some I have had 3 or 4 years. I tend to stock up on minis during my employers build season due to excess funds but little time and then I end up doing large scale projects during our slow periods. It works out well enough but when life is busy my hobby time struggles.

 

Another factor would be my enthusiasm at the time. I go through periods where I am not interested in plastic space men in the slightest and have learned that if I push myself to keep going I get the dreaded hobby burnout. These always seem to coincide with a major release or when the wife buys me something amazing for my armies.

 

Go figure.

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I must be doing something wrong. Whenever I buy models its because I want to use them in game. I try to play once a week, anything I buy is typically built/magnetized for the next time I go play. Because of my penchant for magnetizing things I have what is probably a dozen segments of cannibalized Power Amor kits but hey that comes with the territory. Don't ask me about when it all gets painted though, that's a tossup... 

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When the mood and time permits, 2-3 evenings to make, probably a month to get painted.

 

When it doesn't, which is most of the time, I still have 12 ork boyz from around 1994 still on sprue.  You remember, from back when you got 36 in a box and they were armed with bolters and plasma weapons.

 

So anywhere between a few evenings and 25 years - and still counting. :whistling:

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