A Wargames fenonamumm...

[Harry Faversham]

With plenty of time for cogitating, I've laid one...
Does this exotic creature exist in real life? A wargamer with no interest in painting and basing figures, building terrain or anything creative attached to our hobby. A bloke who just wants to play wargames, buys everything ready made and painted including figures, and gets to it?

[v_lazy_dragon]

Not quite - but I know quite a few have no interest in painting and only limited interests in modelling. Bung em together and get them on the table.

[FifteensAway]

One semi-local gamer, about an hours drive away, comes pretty darn close to that.  Of course, he lost his entire collection in the terrible fire in Paradise, California a couple of years ago so I'm guessing going forward that will be his standard option, everything ready to go.  Pretty devastating to just retire and have your whole world burn down.  He's been pretty resilient and climbed back into the hobby - bought quite a load of plastics from some poor old guy who descended into the throws of dementia and his wife has been selling stuff off for cheap.  At least she didn't toss it all!

[Plynkes]

My mate is like this, I'd say even more so, because he doesn't bother with that extra step of acquiring painted figures, he will happily game with figures in any condition. He really doesn't care if the figures are miniature masterpieces, basic tabletop standard, or even entirely unpainted. He is not interested in the modelling side of the hobby in the slightest, is entirely indifferent to the aesthetics of a game, and yet he loves gaming and game systems. He slaps on the most cursory of paint-jobs (or none at all) and is perfectly happy with that.

I find it kind of refreshing, as I won't actually get to the tabletop stage until everything is perfectly finished off, and I am so slow that this only happens once in a blue moon. My friend, however, is untroubled by such problems. He buys what he wants and then games with it. I think he gets more out of the hobby than I do, sometimes.

[CHALLY]

My mate is one. He buys everything ready painted. The game is important to him but research more so. He is ex RAF Regiment though which says it all! 😩🤣🤣🤣👍

[Harry Faversham]

He buys what he wants and then games with it. I think he gets more out of the hobby than I do, sometimes.

How refreshing, I've never met your mate, but I hate him already!
I'm like you, and spend so much time fartarsing about, that when I finally decree a unit ready for the Trooper to the Front...
I've forgotten where the Wargames Emporium is!

[SteveBurt]

Brigadier Peter Young bought all his stuff ready painted, I believe. He was more interested in the wargame than the modelling

[Calimero]

It might not be as uncommon as we think. I know a few people that would love to approach wargaming like you described it. The only things that prevent them for doing it is, I think, the lack of necessary funds… That explained why we see unpainted figures on green painted table with a bunch of crudely cut foam pieces as hills.

[Elbows]

I think there are a lot of people like this, though I don't know if they'd be considered actual wargamers.  Heaps of younger people who play stuff like Warhammer 40K to the exclusion of any other tabletop games express zero interest in any creative/hobby elements of the "hobby".

I don't mean this as an insult, but it's similar to people who buy an Xbox or Playstation to play one game only.  I wouldn't say they're actively interested in wargaming as a hobby, but they like 40K (maybe because their friends play it), and playing the tabletop game is the most common method of partaking in that interest.

I know several local players entirely happy to play with unpainted (sometimes unfinished) miniatures over the laziest/poorest terrain and it's of no concern to them. 

[dadlamassu]

My most frequent wargame opponents have never bought a figure for themselves relying entirely on my purchases.  They have painted some in a fair to middling standard that both they and I like especially for goblins and zombies.  They love playing games and get a lot of enjoyment from the hobby.

Did I mention that they are my grandchildren aged 6-10? 

[Mammoth miniatures]

Warmachine used to have a big audience like this - When i worked in a store the players would come in to do tournements and some of them would just ask for a blank picnic table, then they'se lay out black paper "zones" for terrain and use empty bases as miniatures.
The privateer drive towards competitive play did alot to damage the idea of a holistic hobby in that community.

[FramFramson]

I used to play tons of Mage Knight (still have my collection) and that catered very specifically to that crowd. It was the first minis game I ever bought into in large quantities.

Of course I went on to repaint and even replace some minis, and well...

I will say that I've never gotten into mass battles after that. Everything I've done since then is skirmish - I have nothing against traditional mass-battles games at all, but I could quite simply never paint a mass battle army (forces of about 30-ish figures are probably my maximum), as I'm far too obsessive about each individual figure. 

[fred]

One of our group has little to no interest in painting and modelling. He will base stuff but tends to get it painted by one of the other guys (for payment). For a cowboy gang, he had basecoated and painted one colour. After several games of this, the other 3 of us playing painted the figures during a game.

His creative interest is in rules and army lists.

[Banderium]

I hate painting, basing, building and modeling.
I love playing with beautifully painted miniatures on detailed terrain and I love too the "literary" part of the hobby (researching and reading sources but also building my imaginary settings).
Because I rarely have the money to pay for a decent painting service, I have to paint the miniatures by myself, but it's a torture.
I still consider myself a wargamer and not a rare one (in my club there are people that stopped playing with miniatures and are now happily playing board wargames).

[Sunjester]

It might not be as uncommon as we think. I know a few people that would love to approach wargaming like you described it. The only things that prevent them for doing it is, I think, the lack of necessary funds… That explained why we see unpainted figures on green painted table with a bunch of crudely cut foam pieces as hills.

I think you are describing me. Painting and modelling is a necessary evil, something I have to do in order to play the games I want to play.

Having said that, I've increased my painting output during the lockdown period and realised that I quite enjoyed painting some figures, so long as I didn't feel that I needed to paint them for any ongoing project!