How Best to Motivate Myself to Paint?

[hobgoblinclub]

I really struggle with painting motivation.  I have an extensive collection of grey plastic minis and every night I build more.  I just love building minis.  I can't get enough of it.  That'd be fine, but I really want to push a fully painted army around, particularly as I'd like to start attending tournaments soon.

I've tried buying more paints and brushes so I'd have shiney things to use, but still I go back to the hobby knife and glue and start building.

Does anyone have any motivation tips that can help me turn the corner, other than 'stop buying plastic'?

Thanks.

[Ben]

I'd suggest doing nothing else other than watching the GW how to paint vids. 

Get through a few of them and see if it gets you excited to paint. 

[Knight of Ruin]

Sign up for an event. Like an escalation league or tournament. They normally require fully painted stuff. It's practicly the only thing that makes me have a full painted army for 40k, and our AoS escalation league keeps me expanding my AoS chaos. 

 

Without such deadlines.. I would be horrid at finishing stuff.

[hobgoblinclub]

Weirdly I didn't think of watching painting vids @Ben.  I watch a lot of Warhammer talk but no painting.  I'l give it a go.

@Knight of Ruin I'm so slow at painting, I'd be scared I'd have to cancel going to a tournament.  Maybe when I start to get closer to a finished force I'll use that to spur me onto the finish line.

I'm thinking my new shed should get me painting again, as I'll be able to spread out.  I'm also going to start a painting blog on here.  Wanting to have something to post might get me going.

[Knight of Ruin]

Anither trick could be to have a unit of 5 standing in view and easy access, with the paints and brushes for the next step ready. Each time you see them you want to do it, and actually get your tools out shouldn't be a hindrance at that point

[Ben Johnson]

I'm lucky and have a permanent setup so can come and go quickly.

What I find that helps me is doing a little bit a night and setting a small goal for each session. 

So bacecoat 5 guys, hi light the armour etc. Once that's done I can carry on or leave it till the next night. You'll be amazed how quickly you get stuff done like that. 

Also no mixing, use the citadel (or whoevers) paint system to its fullest. There is no mixing on any of my Stormcast (other than the inside of the Stardrakes mouth) again this is a huge time saver. 

[Durty B]

Play a movie in the background and grind dude. I try to keep a clean work space as well, this helps me stay motivated. 

Put in at least a half hour each day. Stuff gets completed. Or look into zenithal highlight priming and working with washes so it goes really fast. There are lots of different speed paint techniques. Not everything needs to be Golden Daemon. 

[StoneMonk]

Echoing a lot here. You want a painted army, and it's totally achievable in a week or two if you know your standards and your ability. If you aim for 3-5 color + wash, and a simple basing scheme, you could get one infantry model a night. Save your biggest models as rewards after doing your infantry.

[hobgoblinclub]

Thanks to all for the tips.  I'll be sure to try anything and everything to get myself painting.  I feel like once I get going I'll be hooked.  It's just getting started!  The new man shed should be done within the next week so I'll have no excuse!

 

[NiallJC1984]

I find the best motivation is the tutorials, podcasts and signing yourself up to tournaments. Deadlines can be a good thing!

[Brunel.Richard]

Everybody else has said it but I'll put my two cents in and say that doing something, anything, however small, every day and having a permanent set up makes all the difference. After a few days or a week you'll build up a head of steam and there'll be no stopping you. Playing games helps too.

[Jon kerr]

I find a few things useful....:

1) Building/Converting and Painting tend to use two sets of distinctly different materials/tools. I find having a good tidy up of my work area helps switch mindset from building to painting.

2) podcasts+ Audiobooks! Listen to something interesting to motivate you to paint.

3) only display fully painted minis. If you have a diaplay cabinet/shelf, ban yourself from putting grey plastic out on show!

4) "just paint the foot". This is a jokey tactic picked up from the Point Hammered boys, but the underlying principle works... Start painting SOMETHING on the model, even a belt or foot, and you'll snowball motivation to finish it.

[klunc]

I know that on the Independent Characters podcast they talk about "an hour a night". I tried that in a slump before and found that it was very rarely just an hour...

[Ben]

Even 15mins a night would be good. Start building a routine. 

[Boiling Point]

Like some others have said, watching painting videos, also looking at pictures of other armies of the same faction helps me.
And sometimes I'll just have an idea I want to try on a model, and I'll just get so motivated I end up painting for 3 or 4 hours.
When I painted my Lord Relictor I did an all-nighter because I had set an aim. I had the aim to get a unit done each week for the campaign I'm currently a part of.
I just play some music and I can paint for hours.

[hobgoblinclub]

I think I just found a great source of motivation: a visit to Warhammer Fest!  I've been crazy busy so far this week, but after seeing all of the superb minis at the Fest I cannot wait to get the airbrush out.

[Sete]

Eh a night for an infantry model? You underestimate my lack of paiting skills.

I have this problem aswell. Love to build hate to paint.

Great suggestions.

[Shane]

One of the benefits of painting in short, regular bursts is that your models can be gratifying quicker.

I often find myself doubting the colour/scheme/style during a painting session. Come back the next day afresh and I find it actually does work.

Having a (semi-)permanent setup is also a big winner here. Even it it's setup for a three-four day sprint where you do 1-2hrs a go. It'll help a lot.

[APH]

I answer this question quite often!

• I only play with finished models.  I really enjoy modeling and playing, but painting is a chore.  If I want to actually play with what I'm building, I have to paint it.
• I only have one small shelf in my WIP cabinet for modeled, but unpainted, models.  If I want to move on to the next great conversion project, I have to finish what I've already started.
• I target projects for events - tournaments, campaigns, etc. - to provide an enforced deadline.
• I tell my friends what I'm currently working on.  They have a tendency to pester me about my progress. 
• I create a tracking sheet in Excel for each project.  Each unit has a current status, and every night I update the sheet with my progress.  Large models might be broken down by sub-assembly.  This makes every completed step - assembly, priming, painting, basing, etc. - feel like a minor victory.

[Paul@DiceFiend.com]

I'm exactly the same. I love building new stuff but get really 'meh' about the painting side of it. One of the reasons I've gone with the poster-boy Hammers of Sigmar Stormhost is because they have their own spray paint, Retributor Armour, which speeds things up. Spray, wash, dry-brush, detail will do for me thanks very much. As per a post I did on my blog: http://dicefiend.com/let-the-painting-commence/

I've been to my local independent stockist today and bought some new minis (the missus is going to kill me when she gets home, oops) and decided to listen to Ben's new BadDice podcast where he mentioned a tournament he'll be running this coming August (if my memory serves me right. I think I've been breathing in too much plastic glue and spray paint recently) so I've now decided that that's my target for getting my boys painted. It's working so far as motivation as it'll be my first ever tournament in any game system. I need something like that to motivate me or I'd just have a half finished army as always.

[Sete]

3 hours ago, Shane said:

One of the benefits of painting in short, regular bursts is that your models can be gratifying quicker.

I often find myself doubting the colour/scheme/style during a painting session. Come back the next day afresh and I find it actually does work.

Having a (semi-)permanent setup is also a big winner here. Even it it's setup for a three-four day sprint where you do 1-2hrs a go. It'll help a lot.

Ah the color schemes. My bane.

Thats why my Stormcast are Plastic Grey

But maybe ill go for Anvils of Heldenhammer.

Already have lots of black paint (Black Templar player) so it kinda feels right.

Black gold and red. 

Lots of Zeal.

[MyGeekyPersona]

I have exactly the same problem - I really enjoy kit bashing and converting, but find painting a drag.

Three things that I've tried recently that have helped,

1) write an army list. That should help stop you adding more and more models to units / starting new units.

2) I can't have a permanent hobby area, so I've got one of the "really useful boxes" (A4 size) which contains brushes, palette, and only the paints that I need. Some nights I leave the hobby tools and bits box in my trunk, take the paint box to another (well lit) room and just paint for the evening.

3) I reward myself with a modelling session after one, or two painting sessions.

I hope that helps and good luck!

MGP

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[bottle]

Make an promise with your girlfriend/wife/partner that you won't buy anymore minis until you've finished painting what you've got.

You'll either end up with a lot of painted minis or... well I don't want to think about what would happen if you broke that promise...

[Grimnaud]

Bizarrely enough, what's really helped me paint more is to do entire armies at once. I have primed models that have stood around for a couple of years now because I only built a unit or two at the time. Then I built and painted an army for a friend of mine at the start of the year. Once I build an entire army (AoS, not WFB sized, so 50-70 models), and work on them all at once, I can paint an army in the course of a month or two. You would think that it's demoralising to batch paint the entire army, and it is when you're working on the base coats, but once I get started I get really motivated by the progress. The bonus is that when I'm done, I don't have to go back and repeat the same steps for another and another and another unit.

I'll have the second army of the year done in a week or so, and plan to do at least two more this year.

[Stevewren]

DO NOT PAINT A TEST MODEL

Id suggest, like others that a tournament deadline is a good idea. You don't even need to sign up yet - for example Blood and Glory is in November, which gives you quite a few months to plan it out. Decide on a list now and stick to it - pick the models you enjoy. If you think there might be something good coming out in the future plan for it. Pick some models that cost a lot of 'pools.'

DO NOT PAINT A TEST MODEL! 

Paint a unit to a base standard to figure out your colour scheme and start with simple base coats and washes. Use the zenithal highlight technique for the undercoat. Keep your paint slightly thinner than what comes out of the pot and one smooth, thin base coat will allow the preside to shine through. 

DO NOT PAINT A TEST MODEL! Generally these take longer and are a higher quality than you'll actually do. Pick  a GW colour scheme from a book you like. Generally 99% of these are solid schemes to start with. 

Good luck @hobgoblinclub ! I've looked at your blog and you are off to a good start