What's your completion success rate?

yxalitis

New member
As I look at my pile of incomplete miniatures, it struck me how few of them make it all the way to the glory of my display cabinet.
A quick count revealed about a 1 in 3 success rate.

Some minis get stared with enthusiasm, which wanes when:
The bastard won't assemble correctly
I discover I can't find an important piece
A new, better mini comes along
The brilliant colour scheme I imagined for them turns out...poorly
The level of detail I committed to starts to seem a little overwhelming (I know, I’ll paint every scale in a shaded hue from top to bottom, there's only a few hundred!)
My enthusiasm for minis enters into a low phase (the most recent one lasted 5 years).

Some minis go from purchase to completed almost without a break, my recent Rackham Titan Dragon was one.
Some start off fine, get to some arbitrary point of completion, then get pushed aside for...in some cases, 10 years.
Some classic failures over the past few decades:
The classic Great Spiny Dragon...I never managed to get the wing membranes done. He is long gone, no idea where he went.
The Imperial Dragon, yes, Ral Partha's massive dragon on a very impressive treasure pile. I decided I didn't like the actual dragon, so I cut him off with a hack saw, and fully intended to use the base to display the Grenadier Dragon of the Emerald Idol, which stands on a much smaller treasure pile. I still have the Grenadier dragon, but the treasure pile never got used, and was tossed many years ago.

The Golden Dragon of Chaos. The original one from Ral Partha, with certificate and everything...he has sat on my shelf looking at me every day for the past 20 years. I have tried 100 times to get him looking OK, but no colour scheme I tried worked. At the moment he has a browny base colour and golden highlights, this approach holds promise, but so far I haven't progressed past that.

You can tell I like dragons...

Many many small figures litter my workbench, Orboros 2-headed warhounds, the fly demon from Reaper, the giant skeletal dragon from Ral partha that was completed, but then fell apart, and never got glued back together again...many others...


Anyway, I've rabbited on enough, tell me your completed/sitting-in-a-disused-pile-of-rubble ratio.
 

SkelettetS

New member
of the miniatures i buy i paint something like below 5%
of the miniatures i start to paint i finish about 90%. yay!

...the 10% consists of a large tyranid and a halequin. will never finish those buggers i suppose...
 

Torn blue sky

New member
I crunched some numbers.
After a sleepless night and vast quantities of coffee, a few 80s music backed cutscene montages and a short run up some library stairs I came up wiTH!?

Approximately 0.1% success rate.
 

Einion

New member
98% or so?

I've only ever abandoned one model, when I couldn't figure out a way to assemble it (although I should revisit it and see if I can work it out now). Everything else that's started but unfinished is still officially in the in-progress category :)

Einion
 

Chrome

New member
98% or so?

I've only ever abandoned one model, when I couldn't figure out a way to assemble it (although I should revisit it and see if I can work it out now). Everything else that's started but unfinished is still officially in the in-progress category :)

Einion


Here's my approach to things as well... They WILL be finished... some day...
 

Moradin

New member
About 1-2% finished painting for me, those started about a bit less than 1% (still on the painting bench). But for those that need built up about 90%, primed and ready to paint about 98% (keeping in check those that are not yet build up!)
 

funnymouth

Active member
of course i have a massive pile of unpainted stuff - of which ive finished maybe 2-3%. i noticed awhile back that my "abandoned" pile of minis at some intermediate stage of paint was growing out of control, so for the last several months i have been determined to chip away at that pile until it is gone. im almost there! maybe 10 more to go. unfortunately i keep adding to it without starting new minis; from time to time i find a mini on my "display shelf" that im just not happy with anymore. rather than stuffing it in a drawer i strip & repaint.

much to my dismay i have an entire GK army somewhere, half painted. i was all revved up to finish it a few months ago, but then the new codex came out and i threw in the towel when i realized my beloved storm troopers were no longer an option and i all i had to paint was GK. i should strip and sell 'em. hell, i should sell a lot of my minis.
 

TrystanGST

New member
It depends on how you count. If you're talking minis that I started to paint, but haven't finished, then since coming back I've finished 3 out of 8. If you're talking minis I own vs minis that are done, well, erm, I don't think my calculator can display that many zeros.
 

kathrynloch

New member
LOTR was 40% purchase to completion - now I can't paint them so it's 0.

Resin model horses 5% purchase to completion - too many sitting around waiting for inspiration. They're fixin' to go on the sale block.

The new 54mm "mini" projects...first one is in progress now about 7-8 sitting here staring at me. Although, the others don't have a horse. I wonder if I will be able to start them or will my interest fade.

One thing is certain, having a WIP certainly helps keep me motivated.
 

Hasdrubal

New member
I'm an army painter, so I tend to purchase stuff before assembling the models and painting them. The % will vary vastly depending on the current army painting stage, even though I should mention I have a pile of orks waiting for painting and a few necrons as well.
Necrons: about 90% painted to purchase ratio
Orks: about 60% painted to purchase ratio
Elyseans: about 40% painted to purchase ratio (including the batch I'm currently painting)
Space Marine: starting purchasing verious bits and minis, haven't started the army so 0% ratio
 

10 ball

New member
As I look at my pile of incomplete miniatures, it struck me how few of them make it all the way to the glory of my display cabinet.
A quick count revealed about a 1 in 3 success rate.

I'm in the stage of when i've finished a mini it goes on display, then after painting a few others I realise that the quality of the first perhaps wasnt that good afterall :)
Shows progress I suppose?
 

David Stanton

New member
I have my first army painted in its entirety, and working on the second....so 80% painted?
I have a few models that I bought just to paint, so I guess it bumps it to 90%...
 
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