Which 40K race is most fun to paint?

[Zablorg]

I was thinking about getting back into 40K, now that I have a bit more money. This time I just want to focus on painting the models to perfection, rather than spending lots of money ammassing an army. I'm looking for a race that is interesting, and fun to paint. Any suggestions?

I'm thinking of collecting Orks and painting their skin red, so far.

[Uraniun235]

40K does not have an apostrophe. That's like saying I have 542'GB of free space on my hard drive.

[Zablorg]

YOU SAW NOTHING!!!

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Depends on your tastes. I love painting Guard, because I love creating/trying/painting camo schemes and military themes. I love painting my Space Marines, because I've created a relatively unique style and theme for mine that I greatly enjoy expanding on. I love painting Orks because they're Orky - there's virtually no rules when it comes to Orks, and checks, dags, glyphs, and barely-legible, poorly scrawled proclamations of Orky superiority are fun to do.

Whatever floats your boat the most.

[Oskuro]

Of course, if you want to challenge yourself, try painting Chaos miniatures. Lots of weird details that will get you wondering why didn't you go Tau.

Additionally, Slaneesh miniatures can be shamelessly painted pink.

[Zablorg]

Starting poll, because I can't keep track of opinions unless they are in a display of some kind. I am not touching the Tau or the Dark Eldar. Or the Space marines, for that matter. They feel so generic.

[Ford Prefect]

Of the options there, the Tyranids can legitimately have more slime.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Of the options there, the Tyranids can legitimately have more slime.

You do Father Nurgle a disservice, my friend.

[white_rabbit]

I was thinking about getting back into 40K, now that I have a bit more money. This time I just want to focus on painting the models to perfection, rather than spending lots of money ammassing an army. I'm looking for a race that is interesting, and fun to paint. Any suggestions?

I'm thinking of collecting Orks and painting their skin red, so far.

While technically da ladz are Green, and Green is Best, there are several Orky notes that have Orks literally covered in tattoos, body paint etc, Brothers of the Snake described orks as so covered you could barely see any green on them.

Red orks would probably look quite cool, certainly distinctive, and after all, Red wunz go fasta!


virtually any army offers massive variation, but as far as being "fun" goes, painting camo patterns IMO isnt' fun, its a giant pain in the arse, even with the masking tape method.

Chaos and Nids are the most fun for me personally, particularly the non-marine stuff for chaos, although with enough conversion, you avoid the feeling you've already painted the model 15 times already.

Key to having fun painting IMO is painting lots of different things, rather than churning models out enmasse, so model ranges which allow easy variations or conversion are good.

with the plastic kits these days, that can be almost any army.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

virtually any army offers massive variation, but as far as being "fun" goes, painting camo patterns IMO isnt' fun, its a giant pain in the arse, even with the masking tape method.

Pfffsshh. Clearly you have never experienced the wonder and delight of perfecting your chocolate chip pattern, or looking on in awe at how well your new US Woodland-style scheme came together.

It's not all that tedious, really, especially compared to a real pattern (of paint, not camouflage). Whereas with most uniformed army looks you have to duplicate a lot of detail coloring (shoulder pads, insignia, slime patterns, checks'n'dags, whatever), a well-designed camo pattern is, in painting terms at least, little more than semi-random swathes, blotches, and branches which can be applied pretty crudely and no one's the wiser.

plus it makes it really easy to hit that "3-color minimum" tournament rule

[Azazal]

Now now everyone he did say the most fun to paint. Go for marines or chaos. Why you ask, simple, line up 1500 or so points of marines and orks, you'll be done with the marines in no time, but cursing you hundreds of orks left to go after the same time frame.

Though with the new Ork-dex, the good old days of Orkdum seem to have returned, if you go that way, good luck.

[Pulp Hero]

I prefer guard, but I like military themed paint jobs and conversions.

Of what is listed, I'd say orks. They can have all sorts of comical conversions and colors.

[Typhonis 1]

Actually there is nothing in the rules that says you cant paint space marines in camo patterns.

[Zablorg]

I decided to do orks, and the result can be seen in the art forum. Thank you all for your input.