Playing and DM'ing DnD and having a regular schedule was a great motivation to paint. First, to paint a miniature for each PC, and then to have monsters to put on the tabletop. Some people also do the "Paint one miniature a week" challenge, which can be a great way to set a deadline for yourself.
I 'sort of' have a one mini a week policy - I have a modelling blog, and I try to post every Saturday. What this means is that I need to finish an average of one thing per week. It's not such a hard deadline as a tournament or paint comp, but it helps keep me motivated.
There are two difficult steps for me, motivationally: the first is actually getting paint on a model, after priming, and the second is applying the final, difficult details/blends to finish a model off. So often I set a simple goal of 'putting some colour on a model' that's been sitting on the shelf for a long time, or 'get this model highlighted'. The bit inbetween, applying blocks of colour and washes, is very enjoyable, and I don't find it hard to get motivated there, but for some reason, the other two steps are harder! I think it might be because that middle step is where a model gets most of its character and 'completeness'. Base colours look terrible until they've been layered up and washed, and highlights just make a model look finished and visually attractive. The layers and washes are what really makes the model look like the model should, and so I think enjoy that most (the pleasure of finishing a model notwithstanding!).
I like deadlines. A friend is getting back into the hobby and he drug me into the hobby :) .. Having deadlines inspires me to assemble, base, paint, etc. Whenever I finish one unit, vehicle, etc. then I get something else I want and make a new deadline for play.
Great video once again! Yes I must agree that sub-deadlines are the way to go. It keeps things manageble. And on top of that it provide us with the much needed gratification and accomplishment we all need. One other tip might be to calculate setbacks into the planning so you have some additional time for mishaps or real life messing with you. Have a great weekend!
I've always been a slow painter and I've never really finished an army properly. Since I've started entering competitions and doing commission work I've found I've started speeding up. The deadlines do suck a bit of the enjoyment when I start to panic a bit, but once I break the back of it I find I quite enjoy the deadlines restriction.
I don't really paint with deadlines. For 2018 i've made a list i want to get done this year and i just try to paint every day. Even if i do only one coat per day, the models will be finished in a week or 2. I try to stay with one project, but if i can't stand it anymore, i do something else in between. When i did 40 Genestealers i threw in a few Necrons in between to keep my sanity :D
I’ve been playing 40k video games for ten years and got into the actual hobby in 2017. As a beginner, I’m one of those guys who will paint ravenously for a week or two and then set it down for a month. Deadlines would further push me into procrastination, because I already feel I rush too much on my models, and don’t want them to be any worse than they already are coming out : ) Just a thought.
I've had a few tournament deadlines and the way I've dealt with them is to paint my models in such a way that they get to the three colours and based first, then I can come back later and flesh out the details. So if for whatever reason I can't or don't want to paint for a while, the army is still legal to be played on the day. It won't win any prizes, but I haven't cut any corners that will make me regret my work later. Another option is to just contact the organizer and ask if you can resubmit your list and run a different army on the day. I've done that once when an army just wasn't ready. At the end of the day I go to tournaments to be social, so getting there with AN army is more important to me than not going at all.
I always have a totally different deadline, since my son is at my place every other weekend. So when I paint new models for us (for example with "the walking dead" game by mantic), I need to get them finished within two weeks. Or right now I discovered "Gaslands" as a game and want to introduce it to my son this weekend. So I needed to convert some Hotwheels into cool Mad Max style cars. I really like this two week deadline thing. It keeps me going. :) I also set myself goals on the way, so I don't totally stress out the day before I need it all to be done. Chris
Hey Atom. I'm moving more to an iteratative approach to my army. I'm painting up 80 odd infantry models at the moment, I've come up with a recipe where I can get them on the table top quickly, but then I can come back to add details later. I try to pick colour schemes with one dominant colour that can be airbrushed, using zenithal highlighting, drybrushing and washes to get most of the surface area of the model to a good standard. This can be done in a couple of days. I'm now at the point of blocking in the details, I'm not worrying about shading and highlighting at this point. This will already give me a better than 3 Colours Up standard across the whole army. My plan is to come back and add highlights, maybe glaze in some shades, that kind of thing, at a later date. That way, I can do the detailed work without worrying about a deadline, and just enjoy it for what it is.
When I started with 40k I generally liked to build new lists from my models every game, and my group don't mind unpainted, this lead me to have no direction in my painting, and I would have a some stuff sitting half painted for years. (I bought the Raptor models when they came out in 6th edition, finished painting them when KDK came out in 7th...) These days I like making an army, and saying "This is what I want to play" and then start painting/buying/building. That in and of it self is also a deadline or at least a goal, it focuses the scope of what you are painting, which for me makes it less daunting. Part two comes if there is (like it is for me this February) tournaments. That will then dictate what in that army of 2000 points I want to paint first for the 1500 point tournament. I have also adapted several techniques for paintig to a fairly decent gaming standard that I can do quickly. It means I can have a consistent look across my army every time I paint. The steps are the same no matter what, which makes it easy to estimate when you'll have something finished. "Okay, The gold trim is done, so now it's this, this and that left, I should have that done by Friday at the latest" (I find this actually helps me add more details that maks the model look cool, rather than "technically well painted" Who needs edge highlight when you can have glowing eyes!?" Lately I have also moved into a midset of not playing without having painted the models, as I find it forces me to paint :) (Humble brag: Finished a batch of 90 poxwalkers in a few weeks)
No deadlines for me really. But if I had to, then my airbrush is a godsend for speeding up the boring priming, basecoating, and highlighting. It’s a must for people who want stuff out the door quicker. Sitting there applying a base coat and a highlight by brush seems almost a waste of time, in my opinion. I know good painters don’t airbrush much, but I am not a good painter. So, it doesn’t matter to me. Lol.
Our local Games Workshop runs a 24 hour challenge as an event a few times per year. Basically participants buy roughly the equivalent of a Start Collecting box and have 24 hours to build and paint. By the end of 24 hours of painting a Shadowsword I wasn't even game to finish the Commissar Tank Commander simply because I knew it would look atrocious due to my lack of sleep and over consumption of caffeine. I feel for Quirk, but at least for me it was a relaxed environment
Deadlines are good I think which is why slow grow campaigns are so effective. For example, Path to Glory is great if you're into Age of Sigmar, it's really fun but does require some house rules for balance.
People sometimes have too much deadlines. And by breaking them too often they train their subconcious to failure. You should commit to much less and realistic deadlines. And as you say, divide them to smaller ones. And always reach your goal. This way you trsin your subconcious to "I can, I can, I can...". If you notice you can't get the desdlines, commit to much less! To set goals make them SMART: specific, mesurable, attractive, realistic and terminated.
Speaking of the Three Color Up thing, I've seen someone spitefully make a Candy Khorne army. Orange on the Bottom Yellow in the middle and White Top. No detailing just the colors taking up their respective third of the model.
I'm not good with deadlines, or anything that makes my hobby feel like a job - so I feel that goals are more important to me than deadlines. Sadly, my greatest weakness is that I'm awful at setting goals - not just the when, but the what and the how of it.
“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” That said I'm trying to stick to at least painting slightly more models than I'm buying, currently on the table are some metal Harlequins from 'a while' ago from £2.99 for 4 figs blisters, guessing mid/late 90's ? Wise words as ever A
It all comes down to backwards planning. I just started in the is hobby. We are having a 3000pt Apocalypse battle just after new year. I only have a few figures but I made a planning schedule and am sticking to it and I wil have a few weeks to spare before the that.
I am more boardgamer with minis than minis wargamer. I don't enter tournaments however I do go to quite a few boardgame conventions. I always have self imposed painting goals for these to give myself something to shoot for. It has helped me finish several projects that probably would have lingered if I didn't have a goal to shoot for.
Majority of my “hobbies” have turned into a deadline of sorts. Photography turned into shooting for publication, wanting to make my own game calls turned on a lathe turned into others wanting them, building terrain turned into commissions...I did it to myself because I want to make others happy. All of these things were therapeutic in their onset but be careful y’all. Burn out is real. I put down the camera and haven’t been in my wood shop for awhile.
Dear Minions, could we get your thoughts on the importance of a dedicated work space? My problem is that I am always setting up and tearing down my work table.
I have my goals set up in a google sheets document so I can access it from my phone / computer / anywhere and then I update whenever I finish some goal
I always paint for a few weeks and have great ideas and inspiration. then there is a 3-6 month break to get that again. Most of the time I play to much video game then. I should stop video game addiction. Video games make ur brain believe that everything else is boring
I sometimes do deadlines as i stop and start painting a lot but most of the time i set goals for one unit done a week, so this week i am getting a Solar Auxilia Lasrifle Section done for my 30k army and next week i will just pick another unit and so on. what normally happens is i do like 5 at the start and then another 10 at the end xD and go for batch painting as that way i get a lot more done and can do quality control before i burn out
Great video, as always! Would it be helpful for a beginner like myself to set deadlines, try to achieve a series of small goals in order to keep up forward progress, or just keep fighting the good fight and enjoying the process like I am now? In all honesty, I'm happy collecting and working on improving my painting skills at the moment, but would like to *eventually* hit the tables.
I'm still very inexperienced in painting and as such still very slow. At this point setting an actual deadline would be borderline insanity. Instead I just try and set a simple goal. Take a group of 5 - 12 mini's, whatever I want to work on that share colors (like a squad of marines or something), and I say, tonight, I'm going to get color 1 and maybe 2 done. As long as I can keep that up on a semi-regular basis than I'm making progress.
If it’s too cold, the primer won’t work properly. It’ll frequently be very dusty on the model and have a bad surface, at least in my experience. Thanks for watching!
Me too, painting for 12 hours a day makes me insane, but I can do it, I don't mind being insane. Just let yourself go a little more insane Uncle Atom. Do you know Commander Mark? He draws beyond 12 hours, he draws 1 trillion hours a day! Draw! Draw! Draw! Paint! Paint! Paint! Everyday! ! trillion hours a day and beyond!
I got some deodorant ghetto terrain 3 colours for when a friend came over once and it was a hassle but we had better terrain because of it. Mainly I'm a rolling hobbyist
First time ive been under any real deadline would be this week lol trying to finish my BA assault marines before this weekend for my first 40k game. Hate being under the gun lol im a slow methodical painter that pays the price for what i perceive as as close to perfection that is possible so far for me lol
WELL HI just fore fun i put the live vid on my tv downs staers and whas going ues my lap top to do the chat but no on that came to PC room and no on that dont know whats wrong just got say some thing think its you tube tv well if can will see
"Wait until the last second and then paint while crying?" Why do you spy upon me?!
+Alan
LOL! That's my life in a nutshell! :-)
You are literally describing me right at this moment.
Playing and DM'ing DnD and having a regular schedule was a great motivation to paint. First, to paint a miniature for each PC, and then to have monsters to put on the tabletop. Some people also do the "Paint one miniature a week" challenge, which can be a great way to set a deadline for yourself.
I 'sort of' have a one mini a week policy - I have a modelling blog, and I try to post every Saturday. What this means is that I need to finish an average of one thing per week. It's not such a hard deadline as a tournament or paint comp, but it helps keep me motivated.
There are two difficult steps for me, motivationally: the first is actually getting paint on a model, after priming, and the second is applying the final, difficult details/blends to finish a model off.
So often I set a simple goal of 'putting some colour on a model' that's been sitting on the shelf for a long time, or 'get this model highlighted'. The bit inbetween, applying blocks of colour and washes, is very enjoyable, and I don't find it hard to get motivated there, but for some reason, the other two steps are harder! I think it might be because that middle step is where a model gets most of its character and 'completeness'. Base colours look terrible until they've been layered up and washed, and highlights just make a model look finished and visually attractive. The layers and washes are what really makes the model look like the model should, and so I think enjoy that most (the pleasure of finishing a model notwithstanding!).
I like deadlines. A friend is getting back into the hobby and he drug me into the hobby :) .. Having deadlines inspires me to assemble, base, paint, etc. Whenever I finish one unit, vehicle, etc. then I get something else I want and make a new deadline for play.
Great video once again! Yes I must agree that sub-deadlines are the way to go. It keeps things manageble. And on top of that it provide us with the much needed gratification and accomplishment we all need. One other tip might be to calculate setbacks into the planning so you have some additional time for mishaps or real life messing with you.
Have a great weekend!
I've always been a slow painter and I've never really finished an army properly.
Since I've started entering competitions and doing commission work I've found I've started speeding up.
The deadlines do suck a bit of the enjoyment when I start to panic a bit, but once I break the back of it I find I quite enjoy the deadlines restriction.
I don't really paint with deadlines. For 2018 i've made a list i want to get done this year and i just try to paint every day. Even if i do only one coat per day, the models will be finished in a week or 2. I try to stay with one project, but if i can't stand it anymore, i do something else in between. When i did 40 Genestealers i threw in a few Necrons in between to keep my sanity :D
I’ve been playing 40k video games for ten years and got into the actual hobby in 2017. As a beginner, I’m one of those guys who will paint ravenously for a week or two and then set it down for a month. Deadlines would further push me into procrastination, because I already feel I rush too much on my models, and don’t want them to be any worse than they already are coming out : ) Just a thought.
I've had a few tournament deadlines and the way I've dealt with them is to paint my models in such a way that they get to the three colours and based first, then I can come back later and flesh out the details. So if for whatever reason I can't or don't want to paint for a while, the army is still legal to be played on the day. It won't win any prizes, but I haven't cut any corners that will make me regret my work later.
Another option is to just contact the organizer and ask if you can resubmit your list and run a different army on the day. I've done that once when an army just wasn't ready. At the end of the day I go to tournaments to be social, so getting there with AN army is more important to me than not going at all.
I always have a totally different deadline, since my son is at my place every other weekend. So when I paint new models for us (for example with "the walking dead" game by mantic), I need to get them finished within two weeks. Or right now I discovered "Gaslands" as a game and want to introduce it to my son this weekend. So I needed to convert some Hotwheels into cool Mad Max style cars. I really like this two week deadline thing. It keeps me going. :) I also set myself goals on the way, so I don't totally stress out the day before I need it all to be done. Chris
Hey Atom. I'm moving more to an iteratative approach to my army. I'm painting up 80 odd infantry models at the moment, I've come up with a recipe where I can get them on the table top quickly, but then I can come back to add details later.
I try to pick colour schemes with one dominant colour that can be airbrushed, using zenithal highlighting, drybrushing and washes to get most of the surface area of the model to a good standard. This can be done in a couple of days. I'm now at the point of blocking in the details, I'm not worrying about shading and highlighting at this point. This will already give me a better than 3 Colours Up standard across the whole army.
My plan is to come back and add highlights, maybe glaze in some shades, that kind of thing, at a later date. That way, I can do the detailed work without worrying about a deadline, and just enjoy it for what it is.
When I started with 40k I generally liked to build new lists from my models every game, and my group don't mind unpainted, this lead me to have no direction in my painting, and I would have a some stuff sitting half painted for years. (I bought the Raptor models when they came out in 6th edition, finished painting them when KDK came out in 7th...)
These days I like making an army, and saying "This is what I want to play" and then start painting/buying/building. That in and of it self is also a deadline or at least a goal, it focuses the scope of what you are painting, which for me makes it less daunting.
Part two comes if there is (like it is for me this February) tournaments. That will then dictate what in that army of 2000 points I want to paint first for the 1500 point tournament.
I have also adapted several techniques for paintig to a fairly decent gaming standard that I can do quickly. It means I can have a consistent look across my army every time I paint. The steps are the same no matter what, which makes it easy to estimate when you'll have something finished. "Okay, The gold trim is done, so now it's this, this and that left, I should have that done by Friday at the latest" (I find this actually helps me add more details that maks the model look cool, rather than "technically well painted" Who needs edge highlight when you can have glowing eyes!?"
Lately I have also moved into a midset of not playing without having painted the models, as I find it forces me to paint :)
(Humble brag: Finished a batch of 90 poxwalkers in a few weeks)
No deadlines for me really. But if I had to, then my airbrush is a godsend for speeding up the boring priming, basecoating, and highlighting. It’s a must for people who want stuff out the door quicker. Sitting there applying a base coat and a highlight by brush seems almost a waste of time, in my opinion. I know good painters don’t airbrush much, but I am not a good painter. So, it doesn’t matter to me. Lol.
Great video! I tend to stick to one army and try and complete them before I move on.
i envy you... i've got a lot of suspended projects
Our local Games Workshop runs a 24 hour challenge as an event a few times per year. Basically participants buy roughly the equivalent of a Start Collecting box and have 24 hours to build and paint.
By the end of 24 hours of painting a Shadowsword I wasn't even game to finish the Commissar Tank Commander simply because I knew it would look atrocious due to my lack of sleep and over consumption of caffeine.
I feel for Quirk, but at least for me it was a relaxed environment
Quirk's issue was also that he was running the stream. He should've had someone there managing the chat and passing along relevant questions.
Currently painting 2k points for next tournament in 3 weeks, I started last week. Your "deadline" for 300 points is a luxury i wish I had.
Deadlines are good I think which is why slow grow campaigns are so effective. For example, Path to Glory is great if you're into Age of Sigmar, it's really fun but does require some house rules for balance.
I'm also in a slow grow league and it's been a great experience each time I've done it.
Are we a month and a half away from Adepticon? Time to start a new Legion! - Me every year.
People sometimes have too much deadlines. And by breaking them too often they train their subconcious to failure.
You should commit to much less and realistic deadlines. And as you say, divide them to smaller ones. And always reach your goal. This way you trsin your subconcious to "I can, I can, I can...".
If you notice you can't get the desdlines, commit to much less!
To set goals make them SMART: specific, mesurable, attractive, realistic and terminated.
Speaking of the Three Color Up thing, I've seen someone spitefully make a Candy Khorne army. Orange on the Bottom Yellow in the middle and White Top. No detailing just the colors taking up their respective third of the model.
I watched Quirk's 24 hour live stream.
It was fun, but I don't think it worked quite how he intended it to.
Danny Eccles I watched about 20mins before switching off. What do you mean by it didn't work as he intended?
I'm not good with deadlines, or anything that makes my hobby feel like a job - so I feel that goals are more important to me than deadlines. Sadly, my greatest weakness is that I'm awful at setting goals - not just the when, but the what and the how of it.
“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”
That said I'm trying to stick to at least painting slightly more models than I'm buying, currently on the table are some metal Harlequins from 'a while' ago from £2.99 for 4 figs blisters, guessing mid/late 90's ?
Wise words as ever A
It all comes down to backwards planning. I just started in the is hobby. We are having a 3000pt Apocalypse battle just after new year. I only have a few figures but I made a planning schedule and am sticking to it and I wil have a few weeks to spare before the that.
I am more boardgamer with minis than minis wargamer. I don't enter tournaments however I do go to quite a few boardgame conventions. I always have self imposed painting goals for these to give myself something to shoot for. It has helped me finish several projects that probably would have lingered if I didn't have a goal to shoot for.
Majority of my “hobbies” have turned into a deadline of sorts. Photography turned into shooting for publication, wanting to make my own game calls turned on a lathe turned into others wanting them, building terrain turned into commissions...I did it to myself because I want to make others happy. All of these things were therapeutic in their onset but be careful y’all. Burn out is real. I put down the camera and haven’t been in my wood shop for awhile.
Dear Minions, could we get your thoughts on the importance of a dedicated work space? My problem is that I am always setting up and tearing down my work table.
I have my goals set up in a google sheets document so I can access it from my phone / computer / anywhere and then I update whenever I finish some goal
Good advice. Can I ask what you use for your sound, mic , camera mic, boom? It's very good.
I always paint for a few weeks and have great ideas and inspiration. then there is a 3-6 month break to get that again.
Most of the time I play to much video game then.
I should stop video game addiction. Video games make ur brain believe that everything else is boring
*Looks at pile of stuff for Adepticon* I have no idea what you’re talking about...
I sometimes do deadlines as i stop and start painting a lot but most of the time i set goals for one unit done a week, so this week i am getting a Solar Auxilia Lasrifle Section done for my 30k army and next week i will just pick another unit and so on. what normally happens is i do like 5 at the start and then another 10 at the end xD and go for batch painting as that way i get a lot more done and can do quality control before i burn out
i like your content a lot. but when are you going to make these vids 1080p?
Some good advice there, nice chat
Great video, as always! Would it be helpful for a beginner like myself to set deadlines, try to achieve a series of small goals in order to keep up forward progress, or just keep fighting the good fight and enjoying the process like I am now? In all honesty, I'm happy collecting and working on improving my painting skills at the moment, but would like to *eventually* hit the tables.
I'm still very inexperienced in painting and as such still very slow. At this point setting an actual deadline would be borderline insanity. Instead I just try and set a simple goal. Take a group of 5 - 12 mini's, whatever I want to work on that share colors (like a squad of marines or something), and I say, tonight, I'm going to get color 1 and maybe 2 done. As long as I can keep that up on a semi-regular basis than I'm making progress.
Could you explain why you cant prime outside in the winter?
If it’s too cold, the primer won’t work properly. It’ll frequently be very dusty on the model and have a bad surface, at least in my experience. Thanks for watching!
a great video as always, thanks.
Me too, painting for 12 hours a day makes me insane, but I can do it, I don't mind being insane. Just let yourself go a little more insane Uncle Atom. Do you know Commander Mark? He draws beyond 12 hours, he draws 1 trillion hours a day! Draw! Draw! Draw! Paint! Paint! Paint! Everyday! ! trillion hours a day and beyond!
Hey, Atom, ever consider dipping into d&d at all?
Wow! This vid actually helped me motivate my lazy ass! Thanks Uncle! You're The Best!
It's far more about motivation then deadlines imo, even with consignments.
I got some deodorant ghetto terrain 3 colours for when a friend came over once and it was a hassle but we had better terrain because of it. Mainly I'm a rolling hobbyist
Great video!
Deadlines work fine for me... if by "fine" you mean "lots of work with tons of passion, then miss the deadline."
My current deadline is to have 17 longbeard beards painted by next weekend, talk about percentages. Hahaha
First time ive been under any real deadline would be this week lol trying to finish my BA assault marines before this weekend for my first 40k game. Hate being under the gun lol im a slow methodical painter that pays the price for what i perceive as as close to perfection that is possible so far for me lol
It might be that avoiding deadlines is the reason I don't finish models.
Hobby and deadline should not be in the same sentence unless you are a commission painter, then is not hobby but job.
Good or Terrible? It depends..... :)
WELL HI just fore fun i put the live vid on my tv downs staers and whas going ues my lap top to do the chat but no on that came to PC room and no on that dont know whats wrong just got say some thing think its you tube tv well if can will see
One time i painted for 15 hours non stop
Aye,.. now if I could stop jumping from mob to mob, then, stop and build a House/Ruins,... Ha ha.
Anyone else find the cut from Uncle Atom to the credits to be very abrupt? Like, border-line comedic.
yes seespung bob he dream he bunes house down be caous he has an esay due yes pur of gotlot mini that put offf will see more
There is no such thing as a hobby deadline.