Every hobbyist goes through the doldrums at some point. Right now, it's my turn. Following a frenzied painting marathon up to the end of September I find myself drifting a little, my brushes, paints and greenstuff untouched for the last few weeks. Yes, I probably burned myself out a bit. So, what can be done?
It probably doesn't help that I left myself such treats as movement trays to finish up. There's no doing anything else either, I have a little pile of army housekeeping to get done before I get onto anything else. And the 'anything else' has becomes more alluring by the day.
I am looking at a 50 block of old school metal Citadel skeletons to start getting my long neglected vampire counts up to speed. There's a unit of 8 fimir nobles including the Forge World fimir calling for paint. I'm really wanting to paint a squad of Rogue Trader era Nurgle renegades. The assembled pieces of Balor want building and painting. I have a unit of eight crypt horrors made up of metal undead ogres, trolls, minotaurs and so on that have been in the to do pile for some time. The marlwyrm champion needs converting and some sculpting. There's a squad of genestealer hybrids needing some love.
All this, and I can't summon the momentum to lift a sculpting tool or paint brush.
Waaahhh!
I fully understand your feeling of being a bit knackered and hobby burned out. If you do this for a living and for a hobby too it can come on almost every month.
ReplyDeleteI often get around this by doing something well away from wargaming such as a long walk in the rain (I do live in Scotland!) and then making a deal with myself that for every wargaming thing I want to do I do two wargaming things from the pile I don't feel like first.
Hope this helps.
GBS
http://theionageblog.blogspot.co.uk/
Aye, I do get out and about a fair bit. I live on the cusp of Connemara in Western Ireland, so it's pretty great for the outdoors. Usually a walk in the forest gets me jazzed up for painting.
DeleteI stop myself from being burned out on one project by having half a dozen going on at the same time. I know for some people this doesn't work and they just get daunted by so much unpainted lead. Also another way when you can't be asked to paint is to buy something new, that tends to inspire me to get painting of the rest of that force in prep for the new item to come.
ReplyDeleteI'm usually pretty linear when it comes to projects. I only have a couple of primed minis waiting painting, an unfinished mini sitting there sends me spiralling into madness, so my stuff is either finished or totally untouched.
DeleteI feel your pain brother....I'm having a hard time getting any painting done right now and its starting to make me sad. I had hoped to have all the forces I need for a long planned campaign painted and ready to go but am only about half way there and the Gaming season is here! Still I can get off my ass and get anything done....frustrating....
ReplyDelete...in the mean time the lead pile GROOOWWWSSS!
It sure does. I have a couple of great Kickstarter packs coming in next year too, which will demand my full attention.
Deletemotivation ebbs and flows. If not feeling it, just wait, or start a new project. I love starting new projects -that always sparks motivation for me, it is why I have about 100 unfinished projects.
ReplyDelete100 unfinished projects would end me. I'm a one at a time kind of guy usually. Maybe I need to look at that.
DeleteJust wait till the Martians land ; )
ReplyDeleteYou said it. I kind of want to get my fimir to a decent level before they hit, as it's all hands on deck once those babies arrive.
DeleteIt doesn't sound like you're burnt out overall - just sick of the grind of what you're making yourself do now. Can you not relent a little and mix in some of the more appealing projects with the things that need to be done? Might make the task less painful and let you get your paws on something fun a little sooner.
ReplyDeleteWise words. Maybe a more interesting model just to ease me back in once the current move tray is done.
DeleteI have to agree with Chico and Ferret, sometimes it just takes a new project to fuel up. i tend to paint a single mini which has absolutely no link to anything I feel I have to do or even better, I dive in the bits box and try to build something unexpected and new out of it (generally ends up oin another chaos champion though ;) )
ReplyDeleteThis helps to see things from another point, getting the fun from painting without the hassle of these deadlines we give ourselves. When painting gets boring, there's always sculpting and when that fails too, there's kitbashing and so on...
Or you can just watch a good film, read a good book and the mojo comes back (adre tell me you won't be tempted to finish this Balor of you read Corum again...)
Cheers
I think the problem is there are so many models that I can't wait to get stuck into that when I come across something like a move tray it seems so boring in comparison, even though it looks great once it's done. I think I just need to man up and paint the bloody things.
DeleteMaybe I can motivate you to paint - paint mine for cash!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the offer Martin, I'm flattered. I used to do a fair bit of commission, I even did some stuff for Foundry some years back, but it cut deep into my own hobby time, so I don't do that much these days. Too much in the lead pile!
DeleteHopefully we'll get the painting requirements for NWG14 up over the next few days. This, along with the Emerald Daemon side of things, will hopefully help you out of the doldrums!
ReplyDeleteGood stuff! Thankfully I managed to heft the paint brush a couple of days ago, even if only to finish some move trays. Display board ideas are starting to bubble too.
Delete