Recently, it has become apparent to me that I’m not painting
as much as I was at the beginning of the year. Once again I find myself in a
state of ‘Hobby Flux’ where I can’t seem to focus on any one project, for long
enough to make any sort of significant progress. For example, for the past month or so, I’ve
been trying to paint a Dreadnought close combat arm that was tagged in my WIP
pic in this article. Try as I might though, I wasn't able to return to it and get it completed until this week. The end result of my efforts are shown below.
At this point I’m kind of desperate to come up with a system
that helps me get paint onto models so in desperation, I’m taking the dangerous
path of a designating a minimum 1.5 hours of #brushtime that must be completed
each weekday (excluding weekends).
Mandatory painting is a dangerous thing because at the very worst, you
are forcing yourself to paint something when you don’t really feel like it
which can very easily lead to hobby burnout.
Having experienced it before, hobby burnout is not something I wish to
revisit any time soon, so there are some precautions I’ll be taking.
If I feel like
painting something, I’ll paint it – Simple really. If I want to paint a Space Marine, I’ll paint
a Space Marine. If I feel like doing
terrain, then terrain is where it’s at.
If I want to do it, it won’t be a chore.
If I don’t feel like
painting anything particular, then do something different each time – If I
bounce from project to project, then there’s progress happening across the
board. Again, this is a means of staving
off boredom with any one particular item while giving me the opportunity to get
excited about something.
Break up the time
block into smaller chunks – Forcing myself to sit down for 90 minutes to
paint everyday is a good way to ensure my desire to paint and model will die a
most spectacular death. Instead I’ll try
and break it up into smaller, more manageable pieces. If I can sit myself in front of the TV and
watch a show while painting a shield, I can smash 30-40 minutes off my allotted
time. Also, if paint for 30 minutes in
the morning before I get ready for work, then I’ve only got to fit 60 minutes
into my afternoon / evening.
With these resolutions fixed firmly in my mind, I can
proudly say that I’ve managed to amass a decent chunk of hours over the last couple of weeks, which is very encouraging, despite a terrain project commandeering a good deal of designated brushtime. Thus far I’ve got a number of projects on the
go, including the Dreadnought chassis and the Mordheim Norse Swordsmen that are shown
above. I’ve also started building a house/ mansion for my Warhammer table. The progress I’ve made thus far is shown in
the pic below.
Catch you all later
Trev
No comments:
Post a Comment