General Hobby Chatter!

[Thiagoma]

11 hours ago, Kirjava13 said:

Depression has hit really bad lately. Haven't done any painting, even though I made such good progress with my Arch-Warlock at the start of the month. If anyone has had a similar experience, I'd be curious to know how you powered out of it.

I feel you. I think a lot about painting, read a lot and  cant make myself paint. When i get a " burst" of energy i usually get stuff done. 

I find assembly and basing relaxing so i do that while i am stuck. 

Other thing  i do is start a batch of models with a single area painted. My ocd drives me crazy to have partially painted models.

Painting a hero or unit leader is also cool. You get to be more creative. Converting is also really fun! 

Those are some ideas, maybe it helps, but you probably gona have to find you own solution to the issue.

 

 

[Ointagru]

12 hours ago, Kirjava13 said:

Depression has hit really bad lately. Haven't done any painting, even though I made such good progress with my Arch-Warlock at the start of the month. If anyone has had a similar experience, I'd be curious to know how you powered out of it.

Set up a game with friends (enjoying the company of people  you like can improve your mood on its own) and than try to paint miniatures you need for that battle.

[EccentricCircle]

From a getting things done perspective. I like to clear a shelf, and start setting up a display as I finish things. Once I've got two or three lonely models on the shelf I get very keen to add the rest, and once the army is almost all up there, and there are just a few partially finished models left, its amazing how quickly I'll get them done so that they can join their friends.

It helps though that I usually spend months tinkering with models, blocking in bits of colour, making mistakes and needing to touch things up. There often comes a tipping point where things look in a complete mess, but are actually not that far from finished if you can sit down and focus on them. That can often be easier said than done though.

Yesterday I was all set to get on with some fine detail, but then had to carry lots of heavy shopping up three flights of stairs since the lift was broken. My arms were shaking so badly for the rest of the evening that fine detail work of any sort went out the window, and I'd just spent the morning doing all of the messy base coating! The result was prime hobby time on a saturday, which I couldn't use despite being keen to crack on. It was so frustrating. That will teach me to buy groceries! (Or maybe I should have done some warmup or stretches or something first, before trying to lift heavy stuff?)

[zilberfrid]

9 minutes ago, EccentricCircle said:

From a getting things done perspective. I like to clear a shelf, and start setting up a display as I finish things. Once I've got two or three lonely models on the shelf I get very keen to add the rest, and once the army is almost all up there, and there are just a few partially finished models left, its amazing how quickly I'll get them done so that they can join their friends.

It helps though that I usually spend months tinkering with models, blocking in bits of colour, making mistakes and needing to touch things up. There often comes a tipping point where things look in a complete mess, but are actually not that far from finished if you can sit down and focus on them. That can often be easier said than done though.

Yesterday I was all set to get on with some fine detail, but then had to carry lots of heavy shopping up three flights of stairs since the lift was broken. My arms were shaking so badly for the rest of the evening that fine detail work of any sort went out the window, and I'd just spent the morning doing all of the messy base coating! The result was prime hobby time on a saturday, which I couldn't use despite being keen to crack on. It was so frustrating. That will teach me to buy groceries! (Or maybe I should have done some warmup or stretches or something first, before trying to lift heavy stuff?)

Simply leave your groceries on the bottom floor until you're finished painting.

There's a solution for every problem.

[Kugane]

14 hours ago, Kirjava13 said:

Depression has hit really bad lately. Haven't done any painting, even though I made such good progress with my Arch-Warlock at the start of the month. If anyone has had a similar experience, I'd be curious to know how you powered out of it.

Are you experiencing the same in your job or other aspects of your life? Because it sounds more like you may have a burnout rather than full blown depression. Regardless, I have plenty of tips to help you break free from either without the use of medication.

Also, powering out of it may be counterproductive. 

Edited September 29, 2019 by Kugane

[Kirjava13]

1 hour ago, Kugane said:

Are you experiencing the same in your job or other aspects of your life? Because it sounds more like you may have a burnout rather than full blown depression. Regardless, I have plenty of tips to help you break free from either without the use of medication.

Also, powering out of it may be counterproductive. 

It's a life thing rather than a burnout thing, but it hasn't been helped by a revolting end to a relationship. And hobby got entwined in that so now I pick up my brush and look at my models and it brings up a lot of memories, which makes me really sad that it's effectively soiled my hobby.

[sigmar is scottish]

8 minutes ago, Kirjava13 said:

It's a life thing rather than a burnout thing, but it hasn't been helped by a revolting end to a relationship. And hobby got entwined in that so now I pick up my brush and look at my models and it brings up a lot of memories, which makes me really sad that it's effectively soiled my hobby.

I get this. However the best thing to do is focus on the positives of the hobby. Easier said than done and I feel a bit of a shock just voicing it but I believe it helps. 

Your first model, white dwarf or anything. I cling to the memory of the first time I walked into a gw. Seeing as how it was 23 years ago it certainly come with rose tinted glasses but never stops to make me smile. 

I'm sure for most of us warhammer pre dates relationships, marriages, kids, work, debt, mortgage, death, whatever. So cling to it if it makes you happy, don't let it be soiled. Most people don't understand what or why we like what we like but we do so don't let it go.

[Kugane]

13 minutes ago, Kirjava13 said:

It's a life thing rather than a burnout thing, but it hasn't been helped by a revolting end to a relationship. And hobby got entwined in that so now I pick up my brush and look at my models and it brings up a lot of memories, which makes me really sad that it's effectively soiled my hobby.

Thats tough, I am sorry to hear so.

Its hard when random things remind you of sad(or even traumatizing) moments of the person you used to be with, what kind of helps in those situations is to try and detach the emotional label and the hobby away from eachother. Remind yourself that painting and the hobby itself is something that is shared by a large portion of people all around the world and that its not necesarily something "special" you shared with your ex.

By trying to strip away the "this was our thing" label and emotion, the hobby may seem a bit pointless at first, but you can slowly rediscover it and give it a new value for yourself.

In terms of getting over a relationship, taking at least 20 minutes a day doing absolutely nothing or going for a walk in nature and relaxing your mind will be really helpful. 

The reason is that breakups are very draining on our adrenal glands. Its compareable as being in a life threatening situation ALL the time. 

Adrenaline is largely required for energy pathways and also the motivation and energy to do stuff (like painting).

I think if you start giving those glands some rest every day to recover it will help a lot.

Starting a regular sleep shedule with 7 to 8 hours of sleep will help too, if you are capable of sleeping after the shock you went through.

Your body just needs to recover so your mind can be at ease.

As for your feelings, try redecorating your room. Move furnature around, perhaps even start a new army for now. Changing up your living space and environment helps a lot to detach previous feelings.

Lastly, find a place to vent out and talk out these problems, but do keep in mind friends are human, so dont overload friends too much =). Also if you ever want to talk things out, feel free to PM. 

I hope these things are of any help.

[zilberfrid]

2 hours ago, Kirjava13 said:

It's a life thing rather than a burnout thing, but it hasn't been helped by a revolting end to a relationship. And hobby got entwined in that so now I pick up my brush and look at my models and it brings up a lot of memories, which makes me really sad that it's effectively soiled my hobby.

I get this. My ex convinced me to start Warhammer, and much of my building I did while waiting for her to get ready. Some of the best times were building and painting together.

It's getting easier looking at the stuff after a month, but a bit of sadness does pour through.

[EccentricCircle]

After spending the better part of a month trying to do all the fiddly detail which completely covers every Kharadron Overlords model, its surprisingly relaxing to be painting Night Goblins again! The only slight concern is that my Squig skin recipe is a bit reliant on GW red ink, which they've not made for a decade. Hopefully I'll have enough...

[RuneBrush]

On 9/29/2019 at 1:09 PM, Kirjava13 said:

It's a life thing rather than a burnout thing, but it hasn't been helped by a revolting end to a relationship. And hobby got entwined in that so now I pick up my brush and look at my models and it brings up a lot of memories, which makes me really sad that it's effectively soiled my hobby.

Think a few of us have been in similar situations.  What I will say is that it does improve, one day you'll look at a model and go "I really fancy painting that" and that'll be the first step back onto the hobby train!

[Moldek]

On 9/29/2019 at 2:09 PM, Kirjava13 said:

It's a life thing rather than a burnout thing, but it hasn't been helped by a revolting end to a relationship. And hobby got entwined in that so now I pick up my brush and look at my models and it brings up a lot of memories, which makes me really sad that it's effectively soiled my hobby.

I feel you man, that sucks. You should know your hobby is not actually soiled, but if it has bad association I'd recommend just letting it go for a while. Focus on seeing people you like, make sure to go outside, allow yourself to feel sad because that's a normal reaction that you need to go through. The desire to hobby should come back after a while.

If you still want to paint right now, I'd say clean up your hobby space, pack up any projects that were ongoing so that they're out of your sight, and pick up a mini / box from a new army or game. Have fun painting it without the bad history attached to those other models. There's even the "like a virgin" option : buy a start painting box that comes with a few models (nighthaunt or SCE) and use only that box's contents.

It sucks right now but I guarantee you're still a nerd deep inside. That corruption is never fully cleansed

[JPjr]

@Kirjava13 eurgh, sorry to hear all this man. I know what it's like to have the black dog on your shoulder and yeah very easy to lose interest in most things, I'm currently buckling down for the winter when inevitably I fall into prolonged periods of depression so this year I'm really stepping everything I possibly can up to try and reinforce my mental battlements.

Not sure if you have access to it but there's an interesting documentary that should be on BBC iPlayer where former spin doctor Alistair Campbell looks into various ways of managing depression. Sadly despite being offered he doesn't get stuck into psychedelics, one of my preferred ways of self medicating, but there's a really interesting section where he meets a Canadian researcher and she has this interesting analogy about how there's so much stressful or ****** stuff in life that we can't get rid off so a better technique is building routines, structures, activities that increase our capacity for dealing with ******.

For me that's running, weights, yoga, doing some hobby, reading, getting outside as much as possible etc etc, even just got one of those insanely powerful lamps to hit myself with the power of about 12 suns every day, no idea if that'll help but it's a good light to paint by at any rate. If you watch the doc you'll see that it's clearly not a magic bullet, even vaguely, but I do think it's an interesting approach.

Anyway in sheer terms of hobby, I've found it hard to get motivated the past couple of months despite (or because) of having both a huge pile of unpainted models sat on my shelves and a huge Wishlist of new ones I want to buy but won't till I've got the first lot done. What's helped me over the past week was focusing on some big simple things, stuff that takes up a lot of room but can be both painted quickly and still look good. 

So right now I'm smashing through the Warcry scenery, the Kill Team Starter set scenery and another Imperial Basilica I randomly bought. and it's been great fun. You don't really need to think too much about it, you can just go crazy with a big old dry brush and still get decent results.

In a week I've got about 60% done to an actually pretty nice standard and it's very easy to then go back when I'm feeling more focused and start to add more details and do some customisation etc. And because they were all big kits it's cleared a lot of unpainted plastic off my shelf, so win win.

EDIT: for some reason that documentary's not on iPlayer at the moment but you can watch it here: 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2019 by JPjr

[RuneBrush]

On 10/1/2019 at 11:47 AM, JPjr said:

For me that's running, weights, yoga, doing some hobby, reading, getting outside as much as possible etc etc, even just got one of those insanely powerful lamps to hit myself with the power of about 12 suns every day, no idea if that'll help but it's a good light to paint by at any rate. If you watch the doc you'll see that it's clearly not a magic bullet, even vaguely, but I do think it's an interesting approach.

One thing my ex introduced me to was a SAD alarm clock (Lumie).  Basically the light on it starts to illuminate around 20~30 minutes before the alarm goes off.  I'm fairly fortunate in that I don't suffer from SAD or depression, but I've found that especially during the winter my alarm/light has made the process of waking up a lot easier (my alarm goes off at 6am so get to this time of year and you're getting up in the dark).  - Disclaimer - it doesn't make the process of getting out bed easier, just the waking up bit 😂

[EccentricCircle]

21 minutes ago, RuneBrush said:

One thing my ex introduced me to was a SAD alarm clock (Lumie).  Basically the light on it starts to illuminate around 20~30 minutes before the alarm goes off.  I'm fairly fortunate in that I don't suffer from SAD or depression, but I've found that especially during the winter my alarm/light has made the process of waking up a lot easier (my alarm goes off at 6am so get to this time of year and you're getting up in the dark).  - Disclaimer - it doesn't make the process of getting out bed easier, just the waking up bit 😂

I have one of those, they are really great! Day light bulbs generally are a good idea, both for SAD purposes and for good light while painting!

[Overread]

In hobby related news its Kickstarter Season! I don't think we are allowed to post non AoS KS links but search engines work still :

 

Reaper Miniatures is doing Bones 5 which is already over 1 Million $ on day 1. Many of the models are going to be in the new Bones Black material which sounds like its a bit closer to a resin in that its a bit firmer and less bendy than regular Bones. Great source of cheap big models or warriors and monsters and such for adventuring and DnD. 

Burrows and Badgers has a KS coming up (its not yet out) to expand their range; skirmish fantasy gaming. Think Redwall - their models are very good and hold a lot of animal charm

Time of Legends: Joan of Arc 1.5 is also running, this one is shorter so don't miss out. It's basically repeating their first KS in terms of model options and prices, but also adding in a brand new expansion for the game. LOADS of 15mm warriors and fantasy models including a full town, a castle tower and wall setup and siege gear. So lots to enjoy. 

ArcWorlde: Second Edition stylish fantasy adventuring. The sculpts this guy produces have an insane amount of charm to them. This one is not only adding models but the second edition of their skirmish rules. There's even a wildbest "AI" for solo games or player VS wildlands in team games. 

Obsidian Protocol - not fantasy related but worth a shout out as this one is doing very well. Armoured Core/Zone of the Enders style mechs (so fast agile looking mechs) which come with magnets in the box so taht you can swap out the various loadout weapons and bodies for different skirmish battles with them. Very creative but the most risky of all (all the others have done KS before, already delievered and shown good quality products and communication). 

Edited October 2, 2019 by Overread

[Thiagoma]

You know what, pretty proud of this community!

 

Serious issue being discussed with a lot of maturity. Well done lads!

[amysrevenge]

They did a handful of Bones Black last KS and I really liked them. None of the models are speaking to me yet but I'm in for a buck and willing to watch for cool stretch goals (they have yet to disappoint me).

[michu]

New episode!! With some bones for the good boy! And anger, mostly anger... and blood.

 

[Kirjava13]

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the engagement with the depression subject. I appreciate everyone who took the time to reply.

Edit: also, re: Kickstarter: it would be best not to back anything for the moment given the company's recent anti-union debacle.

Edited October 5, 2019 by Kirjava13

[deumosd]

I have a hobby problem at the moment- it is a good problem to have.

 

After finishing painting up my fyreslayers, I am looking to start a new army to paint up. Only problem is I can not pick between the two new battletombs. Have got them both but after looking at both still can not pick between them!

anyone started two armies up at the same time before? If you did, did you ever get them both finished?

 

just wondering if I should just try to do two at once!

[Fairbanks]

23 hours ago, deumosd said:

I have a hobby problem at the moment- it is a good problem to have.

 

After finishing painting up my fyreslayers, I am looking to start a new army to paint up. Only problem is I can not pick between the two new battletombs. Have got them both but after looking at both still can not pick between them!

anyone started two armies up at the same time before? If you did, did you ever get them both finished?

 

just wondering if I should just try to do two at once!

CoS and Orruks?

I painted up a unit of State Troops and unit of Orcs back to back and didn’t have many issues as the paint schemes were completely different. But my usual issue cropped up of not staying focused on big projects and I was off painting Plague Monks (then stormcast, then building things, etc).

If you are going to do both at the same time, I suggest slowgrowing them in  tandem. Start at 300-500 points each, play a game, then add the same amount of points for both.

[deumosd]

Yep CoS and Orruks.

 

That sounds like a good plan. I set myself a rule ofnot buying stuff until my last stuff was painted. Seems to have worked up to now. Might just start both at the same time.

Thanks for the input.

[Captain Marius]

I like to have around a start collectings worth of one faction from each of the grand alliances on the go at the same time. This means i can flit between projects at will, bit will get a good chunk of several armies done in a reasonable amount of time. Currently im working on fyreslayers, nighthaunt, squigs and slaanesh, with a bunch of terrain in the mix for good measure!

[michu]

Watching Hang Out and Paint right now - did you know that during early AoS (with "funny" rules) there was someone who hollowed out the Konrad von Carstein  miniature and put a small speaker inside it to use his "One Bat Short of a Belfry" rule? You could talk to him, push a button on his base and he would talk back! Free re-rolls!!

Edited October 8, 2019 by michu