What to Do When You're Overwhelmed With Your Hobby
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 มิ.ย. 2024
- Frequently, we all get overwhelmed by our hobby - but Uncle Atom has some tricks and tips to help you get back in business.
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You're the best Hobby Coach I've found on TH-cam. Keep inspiring and motivating.
100% agree. He doesn't have a try-hard approach or overly energetic, just comes off as genuine and helpful. Cool guy
I was 100% overwhelmed with work life, and it caused me to avoid painting at night. This video gave me that push to get back in the game. I so appreciate you and your content:)
By the time I got to the end of the video it wasn’t even about modeling for me. This was just a life lesson from Uncle Atom about being overwhelmed in life and it was awesome and liberating. Thank you, I needed this today.
When I got back into the hobby not so long ago, I deceided to just do one boxset at a time even if it was just troops. This way I'm never overwhelmed with any work, but I think we need to show restrain and will power to, sure its hard when you've got shadowspear and you want an imperial Knight to. Paint your shadowspear stuff and then get your Knight. That's only me personally
When I got into the hobby, lets say I went overboard with finding deals for my army. I bought too much and became so overwhelmed I was paralyzed. Couldn't stand being around the hobby. So I broke down and packed everything up into boxes, sealed them, and put them out of sight.
This let me focus on my immediate project and forget the larger backlog exists. Its helped a lot! Downsizing what I can immediately see and think on made the hobby seem more manageable, and I'm slowly coming closer to finishing my current project. I've forgotten what's in each box, so now it feels like I have three big loot boxes of models I can choose from when I'm done. Its helped me hold off from making unnecessary purchases too.
That's an excellent idea.
Actually suffering from anxiety disorder lately... Thanks for this Uncle Atom, you're very soothing and just hearing this helps!
I came back into the hobby recently after like 10 years or so away, and discovered your channel among others. I must say that I like the themes and videos you make, as well as your flow and accent (English is not my native language, despite a good level).
Keep it up, we are all concerned about being overwhelmed at one point or another!
Yes! The mix of audio book and listening to a podcast (or those sweet uncle atom's videos) usually gets the job done for me!
Thought for the day: Aim to finish at least one army a year.
I build my units ten models at a time but I use a conveyor belt method for mould lines, assembly,etc. (Also known as batch assembly.). When assembling I place all relevant pieces in their own piles. (Pile for heads, pile for left arms, pile for right arms, etc.) I do the exact same thing for all accessories. This makes the batch assembling a lot easier so that I know what has been glued together and what hasn't. (A hobby table clear of clutter is good for this.) For plastics I start with the legs, cleaning the mould lines and gluing them onto the bases. I repeat the process with the torso, then the right arm, then the left arm, followed by the head, etc. For most metal minis it's the same process just with the legs, torso and head combined. I do however, pin the arms to the models as well as certain bits. (E.g. a plastic weapon going on a metal hand and vice versa.)
When doing accessories, I clean the mould lines pile by pile before gluing all the relevant pieces onto a model, model by model. E.g. Ten-man squad of Fallen. On model 1 I glue holstered pistol first on the right hand side and work my way around the model clockwise with one or two long pouches, two or three small pouches, sheathed combat knife and a water bottle. I then glue a couple of grenades to the front of the model, one next to the pistol the other next to the water bottle. I repeat the process for the rest of the squad.
Just like with batch painting, each step in assembly gives the glue some time to dry before you get back to the first model. On average it takes me about five hours to assemble a ten man squad using this method, but it ensures that all the models are consistent and that no steps are missed.
When painting I use the conveyor belt method when batch painting, again painting one unit at a time. Using the Fallen as an example again, I paint all the robes first, then the black armour, then all the chaos trim on the armour, then the pouches and holsters, etc, etc. Again, this ensures that not only all the models in the squad are consistent but it also means that you don't miss any details on the model. (Sometimes, I will treat specific details as a sub batch paint. E.g. I paint all the holsters first, then the large pouches, then the small pouches, etc.) Depending on my schedule I will paint at least one colour a day and have the squad completed in a week, or I spend the whole weekend painting one squad.
My starting army is always 1000 pts. I build the entire force before before painting so that I can field start playing games with it. (It usually takes me a whole weekend to build my 1000 point army.) I paint then paint the army unit by unit in between games. The 1000 pt army is the core of my force. Once that's done I will then repeat the process for 500 pts add-ons to the army, building it all before painting it, etc. On average it takes me about two months to get a 1000 pt force fully assembled and painted, and about a month to a month-and-a-half to build and paint 500 pt add ons for larger games.
After my army is assembled but before I start painting it, I literally put it away in a display cabinet. When I want to paint I simply take a unit of the cabinet and spend the week painting it. Once it's complete I put it back in the cabinet. It's easier to look at one unit to paint as opposed to a whole army, and because they're in a display cabinet, you visually see the army gradually near completion.
However, If you only have one display cabinet then you can transfer the army to a miniatures case so that you can focus on completing your next big project. Though if you have multiple display cabinets, then the fruits of your labour are well worth putting on display.
Dude you are like the Yoda of hobbying. Great video as always!
"whelmed" quote appears in Young Justice, uttered by Robin.
11 years after it was uttered in 10 Things I Hate About You.
@@asiegel87 it was Larisa Olynick (as Bianca)
@@reubenmccallum3350 good catch. I was close.
Damn!!! I wanted to be the guy who posted robin saying it, well done sir
@@asiegel87 "I think you can in Europe"
# WHELMED
whenever i finish a project i have a glass of 12yo scotch. Ill have a label made that says WHELMED and glue it on the bottle :D
what does whelmed mean?
wait nvm Im stupid lmao
@@chad2687 it doesn't mean anything, that word is stupid not you
@@MutsuKazuma :)
Literally just hit this wall with my Deathwatch army. Now I’m going to split them up into squads of five and paint one squad at a time, thanks to my favourite uncle!
Oh, yeah: I always try to never paint more than five or ten (tops) members in a squad at a time. But, I never try to paint squad members one at a time, either. There's a sweet spot. Thanks for watching!
I'm attempting to speed paint for a tournament between shifts at work.
Thanks for putting this video out. This exactly what I needed to hear.
Great idea- speed painting. At least for finishing daunting progress.
I have decided (around 6 months ago) to focus on ‘just’ 5 games. I’ll play virtually anything but everything I buy, build and paint is limited to just these five games. I’ve been slowly selling off all my kit for the other games and projects. It’s really helped me with my focus. Five games still gives me enough variety so that I can move around with my hobby time and stay motivated. But I no longer feel overwhelmed owning and painting for about 10 different games/projects. Avoid the hobby adhd!
These videos are so helpful and will be timeless advice for any hobbyist. Cheers for your mentoring support.
You know uncle atom, I've recently started my own 'commission' painting thing and your video has really helped me through! Keep up the good work buddy! You've been a consistent source of inspiration!
Excellent video and one that I can relate to! When I find myself being swamped or overwhelmed, it's normally because I have the 4-5 projects sat in front of me and it feels like they're goading me to finish them. Weird I know but I digress. What I find helps is putting the majority of them out of sight, blitzing my work area and then start again on one or two models and finish them entirely before starting something new. To me that's then an achievement and motivator to try something new.
Contextualizing things in how they relate to our hobbies is a great tool to help keep things in perspective. Thanks!
In the last couple videos on this topic of motivation have been just excellent and has really helped me move on with some progress, so thank you. It is a weird thing to be stuck in a hobby but you love but I know it happens to everyone so it is great we have a wonderful resource like this to get us going.
Uncle Atom you are awesome. Thanks for all you put out for your viewers
As always - you are the best psychology trainer ever! Thanks for your help!
Excellent advice, thanks Uncle :) I'm glad we have you apart of the Minature community :)
I do the clipping things out too but use plastic hobby boxes as build boxes instead of bags with one guy per compartment. When Im waiting for paint to dry I tackle a build box by batch building doing mold line as I go, so by the time I'm done with one phase of the build the next colour is ready to go on. Admittedly atm im hobbying in between decorating my hallway so progress is slower as im getting about 5mins of hobby done when I grab a drink.
What!? A hobbyist with multiple unfinished projects? Welcome to the club! I have been Hobbying since I was 7.Plastic kits of all kinds,miniature armies from many different games and genres. In all the to-do pile is bigger than the done pile and sometimes it bothers me.
However, approaching it in small,seemingly meaningless little tasks does yield results. Unless there is some kind of deadline I don't worry much about how long it takes me. If I feel like I have been too ambitious with the size of a project I scale it back. When I hit a block or feel unmotivated aged or uninterested in what I need to do I find something else, usually unrelated to spend my time on. Reading,music,video games. Heck! Sometimes I go outside!
Another great video Atom, thanks!
I've had this work for me. I had a mini that I'd come to a standstill with, and thought "well, I'll just get some highlighting done on the armour". Started to look good, got into a groove, and the mini was done by the end of the evening.
Great video. A lot of wonderful tips to utilize. Thank you for sharing.
Just got the dark imperium box set and this helped a ton! Thanks Uncle Adam!
You always have great topics/helpful feedback & hints. Thanks so much for your efforts!
i just scaled down tremendously my plans for my army and are trying to take things in smaller clumps as of recently and then u release this video! what a coincidence thank u for the guidance always
Thank you so much for these videos
EXACTLY how I survived exams. When I was overwhelmed, I just wrote down the list of all I needed to do. When I was finally just whelmed, I was organized enough to plow ahead. Applying the same mentality to my Skorne Mammoth has really helped! Thanks man!
Excellent motivational points, Sir! My future self thanks you in advance! I appreciate the consideration shown to my unfulfilled Tyranid models, anxiously awaiting tabletop glory!
This huge subject can seem petty, brilliantly handled here: people don’t realise- this is a large part of being an artist.
This can be applied to my college work just as well?? Merci!
"...when you're over the overwhelmed part". Guess you're... Beyondwhelmed? Besides jokes, great video, I always tackle being overwhelmed with breaking projects up into "phases" and it really helps. It's also good how it gives you a lot of smaller achievements you can be satisfied about, which can also empower you by giving you that little "victory rush" boost.
Thank you Uncle Atom, I really needed this!
Great help Uncle Atom. Thank you! Seriously.
I love how your videos always help me with other situations in life aswell :3
The more i come to think about it, miniature painting is a great analogy for life as we experience it and learning to master the process of painting, can really help us to better get along in life in general aswell. Its no shame to set down the brush from time to time, just pick it back up
Usually it's when I get to the power weapon portion of my model and have to decide if I want to spend hours wet blending or just paint the damn thing silver.
I usually paint in steps like your talking about. I usually do one step per night on 5 models for example. Paint the belts, back packs doing one each night. It makes it super easy as each night you a achieve a small goal that you have set out for yourself. Thanks for the great advice.
I know that feeling with being overwhelmed with the Hellbrute model, got through it by focusing on completing a body part, eventually finished it
GW does such a good job at making the Helbrute look insane. Can be daunting even trying to measure up.
"Can you just be whelmed?"
"I think you can in Europe. "
10 Things i Hate About You
That was that movie with Heath Ledger in it, right? I cannot remember if I saw it or not, but I remember the box art on the DVD. Hmm. Thanks for watching!
That's the one. Great film.
Why did I think that was from Clueless? But damn I think you
Are right
Just getting into Warhammer 40k, and I chose Imperial guard. The start collecting box. No model is completely finished, probably because of feeling overwhelmed verbalized as 'it's just a lot to do, taking it slow'. But I just color primed my tank in green and tan rattle can, and I love the look so far. Your videos are so helpful! Pachow!
Brand new and it's really easy to be overwhelmed. Started 40k with dark Imperium but I needed 1000 points to start playing at my local store so I had to buy more to play. Sure I can play now but getting things painted is difficult, there's just so much!
As a commission painter having a lot of WIP project helps me because every day I can just decide what to do, depending on the mood. Having strong will to actually finish all those project is another issue :D
Drat! Almost first comment (at least at the time of loading this video). Definitely feeling overwhelmed at the moment, so I appreciate the topic. Great video as always, keep up the good work!
Yeah, I got overwhelmed when I assembled my Sharp Practice French force, about 60 models. The sight of them all in their ranks really freaked me out. I still haven't got back to them (I did one test figure) but I decided that I'd just pick random figures that are in the queue, regardless of how many there are already painted or if there's a ruleset I'm planning to use them on. And because of that I'm enjoying painting them, perhaps because there's no pressure to get them done since they're not part of a plan, they're just there (I have masses of unpainted stuff, some of which will never be painted as it was inherited from friends or was in a lot with other stuff).
Great advice, thank you!
Usually I start by putting down all the base colors...it is easy, quick and you don’t need to be precise usually. Just set down all the base colors for all main parts of the model...then maybe next day go on to setting down a shade or a first lighting...if it is a trooper then do a whole bunch...exemple warhammer orks take 10 models and set down base colours for all af them like pants first then shirts then skin...the next time set down some shades and lighting...and the next time you’ll be ready for detailing. I’ve painted 60 orks in a week spending maybe 2/3 hours a day into it.
Thanks, it is really great advice. The stuff you mentioned is really stuff that helps me in my Blender3D projects.
So true.
I always make doable chunks. The maximum amount of minis I paint simultaneously is three. This way I stay motivated and maximize the feeling of success. If youbdo badge painting units you maybe finish something every ten or more miniatures. I finish something every three models. This is a very big motivation for me. You see stuff getting done.
With a big model or project I sometimes work for set amount of time. That way you shift your success to an fixed amount of time and its not depending on a finished part.
The last one helps a lot dealing with piles of paperwork too.
Fun fact. This is like psychology 101 so thank you for sharing. It's really easy to see stuff as a whole and think that a catastrophe will happen and that the task ahead is insurmountable. You can't eat an elephant in one sitting, You have to break it down piece by piece and learn your limits. Once you start breaking it down and then tricking yourself to do it, you'd be amazed how quickly it's achieved. This can be true of hobby things or real life issues, so just take your time, break things down and tackle them one at a time.
Ah my favourite hobby voice of reason 😁👏.
I've realised it can be like the gym, hardest part is starting lol. One step at a time makes it easy 👍👍👍
Uncle Atom, besides being our hobby guru, you are a good life coach. Saw you at LVO. Didn’t say hi because you were in a convo. It was cool to see you. When is the next time you’re on the west coast?
Something I find helpful is to make a list of steps and tick them off as I go. Not even a list for the whole project, maybe just list the steps for a section of the model or models, and tick them off. Then even if you only do one per day, at least you visible ticked something off and got closer to finishing.
Thanks Adam! great motivator! (looks at his A song of ice and fire models)
Super awesome to see some Mercs minis!
I actually just did this in my hobby area. I realized that I had a lot of grey plastic in a lot of armies and haven't wanted to paint much. I was also jumping around from playing army to army each week. Everything was getting spread out and nothing was getting done. So I reorganized my stuff and told myself I'm only going to swap between these 2 armies to play so I can get more progress building and painting.
Great video, amazing sugestion, they also work for procrastinators
Super helpful. I usually do 28mm figures but I recently started a 75mm figure. After getting the kids to bed it is hard to come up with the motivation to paint with the last hour or two I have for the day. Also fear of it not coming out awesome paralysis
Great advice as usual :)
Small goal it what’s work for me. I’m a slow painter and if I don’t paint for a while then my motivation is starting to drag. So I’m trying to paint more often for shorter periods and that “I might as well to this” like you said happen a lot and help me moving project forward. Currently working on my first “bigger” model, a Redemptor Dreadnought and focusing on small section help a lot, when I look at the whole thing I get Scared XP
PS the projects you presented in the video look really good even though you were "overwhelmed" I think you are close to finishing them. You have my support. 😉
I actually have an "OOP" or order of operations for my projects. I became overwhelmed with a custom death guard daemon prince, so I made a painting order to help with that. I base coat the skin and armor being that I do preheresy scheme, green armor bits, basecoat the cloth and horns, completely finish the rust, and basecoat the bronze parts, I wash the skin/finish the skin, wash the armor and bronze/finish both parts, etc. After that then I go back and do all the nurgly bits, like boils, pox marks, tentacles, maggots, fat tissue, guts, etc
It’s my first year in this hobby and love it, but omg getting overwhelmed takes no time at all when trying hard on each mini while also preparing for a army and feeling like box sets will run out. Got 3x DG half of dark imperium, and 2x shadowspear chaos half and a start collecting nurgle demons. Oh boy the work ahead @-@
first models I ordered were bloodreavers in 2015. I didnt even know what age of sigmar was. just liked the new models. Yesterday I finished the damn bloodreavers finally! I hated to paint them, there were messed up all that. But now they are done and is an awesome feeling
1:48 I was geniunly holding a Glottkin based Imperial Knight conversion in my hands thinking "Yea, I'm overwhelmed by this thing".
"im just clippin' " should be printed on a shirt bc that is genius haha
Seriously, why aren't you giving TED style talks at conventions? Love the channel, inspiring and humorous. Thank you!!
My problem surprisingly enough is the basing of my models. Since im doing a nurgles garden theme for my nurgle army and i want to make sure that each base looks somewhat unique.
Thx Uncle, for this once more great Video! Could you make a Video about how to set up a Narrative/Setting and all the other important stuff to create a campagne/quest kinda thing? Would really love to hear what your wisdom has to offer us 🤓😎😁
I purchased the dark imperium set. I’m working through the space marines and the first 5 I built up, I stopped, looked at the figures and thought, how am i going to get into those tight areas? So I decided with the next few, I’ll build them up so far and hold off on adding the weapon/arm/head. Why? Well, I can try different techniques on building and painting.
So, the first 5 I made will be a test, practice etc to see how I do with painting these finished figures. Then I’ll try the ones with 2/3 built up and paint them.
I will then decide which process gave me the best results. Then proceed with what worked best for me, to go forward with the rest of the models.
I came to this conclusion to do this now, why? Because I’m at the beginning of my Warhammer 40k journey and I want to enjoy it and for it to not to become a chore, but a huge pleasure.
I’m overwhelmed every time I look at my 4000 points of unpainted deepkin 😭
Pick a small squad and start there. Just build them first - or just clip the bits and put them into baggies. You can do it. Thanks for watching!
4k is so much haha how is the army going?
As I was listening to your video I simultaneously based a Drukhari Raider, because I didn't feel like continuing the edge highlighting on a bunch of Kabalite Warriors. Fit perfectly^^
Yay you quoting Robin in Young Justice lol great stuff
There used to be a word "whelm", it meant "overwhelm". Then people wanted to exaggerate how whelmed they were, so they started to talk about being overwhelmed, until whelm fell out of use entirely. Later people coined the term "underwhelm" as an antonym to overwhelm. And that is why no one is whelmed any more.
What did you do to get such a clean and clear audio recording for these videos? It's really impressive.
"Chunking" a big project like a new army helps me immeasurably. A Valhallan Crusade Force I'm ~80% done lets me build one squad and a character, then paint until I'm lagging on motivation, I stop and then build the 2nd squad; once it's built I go back and finish 1st squad paint job. Becomes a cycle, building a component chunk and alternating to painting a chunk. Plus it gives you options depending on what you feel like doing at the time and the project keeps rolling. It was the only way that worked for me to finish an 8k Cadian force and now this one. Break up your project with the "fun" or unique pieces like a character or vehicle. "Palate cleansing" is something someone said once. And set reasonable goals - we do this for fun, so self-pressure isn't good or worth it. Hey ho let`s go
I was quite good at watching movies in the background while painting (you have to pick movies where you know you will not have to look that much... and it *will* slow you down - you have to be okay with that) until I realised how many movies I had watched while painting four Black Orc Blockers. To be fair, I probably spent about half of the time pondering on how to paint them because they were the first shove of my BB project and I hadn't done any hobbying in years (stupid 6th WH edition...) but still.
Can you maybe do a video on the citadel contrast paints? I would love to hear your perspective on the entire line.
That’s coming soon. I’ve used them all now, and I have opinions. Thanks for watching!
Pa-Chow!
This was helpful ;)
Sometimes I have to start another smaller or troop type model that I don’t care as much about. This gets me started although sometimes I end up painting the whole thing and then I’m like “ great finished that guy but still haven’t started the guy I was going to do. Lol
I for a long time used to batch paint huge numbers of models at a time (like 50+) but it always felt unending.
I now batch paint the base colours and then do an individual unit or group at a time with the rest put away. That way you can more easily see progress and get finished models rather than loads of not quite done models.
Deadlines are also really good motivators as well. Enter a tournament/contest or something with that unit/model/dio so you have to get it done.
DAMMIT! I thought you meant you'd be sending Sam to my place to paint some stuff! **insert crushed expectations here**
Getta cabinet with doors, that you can't see through. Fill it with models. Assemble 1 box of models at a time. Don't look at your cabinet ever, unless you re going to pick something out to paint. Works for me.
Very relevant topic indeed. You need to be a voice-over actor.
Buy what you need and do a project this fortnight. I'm currently working on a baal predator, primaris apothecary, a techmarine and 4x servitors.. when there done I'll work on my redemptor dreadnoughts, plan in advance. The models dint go anywhere you just got to build to what your army suits.
Your videos are great. Such an accessible way of delivering, and topics we can all relate to.
I'm currently working through my ASOIAF TMG minis, and there are literally hundreds (somewhere approaching 700 so far, for Starks, Lannisters, Boltons, Night's Watch, and Free Folk). I know it'll never end, because Baratheon and Targaryen are on their way. And then there'll be more units, yadda yadda.
So as of today I'm 144 minis done on my Starks, with about 20 to go, before moving on to Boltons. How do I deal with it when I just can't face painting more Sworn Swords? Probably a combo of this video and the previous one you referenced.
I've broken the project up into units with an estimate of how long it will take, and a plan stretching to (at this point) next March. But it's not an onerous schedule, and it allows room for swapping things out (this weekend I did Crannogmen rather than Outriders, for instance). And there's always a different thing to change gears to when you're over painting (yesterday I undercoated my Free Folk and Night's Watch, for example. This evening I based my Outriders.
A change is as good as a holiday!
I have this problem of always buying new models than finishing my old stuff first. Feeling pretty overwhelmed.
Yes it works, doing it from the time of two years ago to paint both sides, paint happy, but have a plan.(chaos & Smurf marines)
I've always looked at it this way: A model will take x amount of hours to finish,regardless of how many sessions that is. If I slap a wash on it before I head off to work, that's still closer to done, or whatever.
What works for me when I am painting a unit and it is just not moving as fast as I'd like, I have a single mini on the side to putter with for a few minutes and then go back to the unit.
Hey Atom, great vid (as usual)! Is there any way that you or Sam could help me with an issue? I'm looking for a good varnish to use, that doesn't desaturate my minis' colors a lot. I've been plugging away at my backlog, but the varnish I currently use is Liquitex Professional (gloss first, then matte or gloss after, situation-dependent), but have noticed very quickly how even just the first thin coat will desaturate my colors, losing a lot of color transitions and fx. Anyone's assistance is much appreciated.
I started to cope by making videos of myself doing stuff, to make me do stuff.... suddenly now I'm overwhelmed with video editing as well.
About overwhelming, there is a story of a german soldier who was catched by russians during WW2. He managed to escape, but has to walk through gigantic desert of ice which is Russia during winter. This thing is he had 10 bullets. So, every 100 feet, he put a bullet from a pocket to another. And he always try to reached achievable objectives (that group of trees, that hill, that rock). Multiple small steps. The legend said he reached ally lines. Dunno if it's true or not, I heard it by Bear Grylls in one episode of his tv show.
All joking aside, “whelmed” is a nautical term describing a ship that is filling with water because the rain and waves are crashing over the edges of the ship, as opposed to a ship that is filling with water because it’s leaking. Thus “overwhelmed” is simply an emphatic version of the same thing, most accurately describing where the waves are so high the entire top deck becomes an extension of the ocean. “Underwhelmed” is just a play on the more modern metaphorical meaning, and has no real nautical meaning, though I presume you could describe waves that DON’T fill your ship with water as “underwhelming”.
Haha i was bagging bits few weeks ago, that way i can just put a figure together and get after it.
I get purchase and competitive paralysis - is this any good and is it worth my money? Then once I'm over that I get information overload on my army being unique etc.
However I will say that this mainly happens with Age of Sigmar because I feel like I'm struggling to connect with the narrative in a way I would with 40k or WHFB.