If a player is new to the game then there is some understanding of why they dont have a painted army. As time goes on the army should show some progress, maybe a base coat after a month, then off to one color here, and one color there, after about a year they should at least have all the colors in the right spaces if they play with those models on a regular basis. No one is expecting everything to turn out studio quality but at least have sense of progress. Just get the colors in the right places.