Welcome to Part Three of our attempts to get through the backlog of unpainted miniatures we've built up over our years of hobbying. January and February were excellent months for me in terms of progress – I painted my good and evil armies for the Warhammer World Grand Tournament, managing to paint 75 models in that two month period.
March, however, was less successful. Fresh from the GT, I was eager to dive back into my pile of shame and get cracking on some more models. Unfortunately, I then lost all motivation for painting. It wasn't because I didn’t have anything I wanted to paint (there's no shortage of models like that in my pile of shame) – I simply didn’t want to pick up a paintbrush. After two months of solid (sometimes hectic) hobbying, I was suffering from hobby burnout.
Burnout is something nearly all hobbyists will experience to some extent – you spend ages painting miniatures, and at some point your brain will simply say enough is enough, and you lose all desire to paint. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – sometimes a break from hobbying can be good as it helps clear your mind, and then you can come back to the painting table refreshed, ready to continue with your hoppy project, or make a start on the next one.
One problem a lot of hobbyists can suffer from is a lack of motivation, something which can also be attributed to being burnt out. There are however some tips that I can suggest that helped me get through my burnout, and back to painting models again.
1. Take a break. The simplest solution – if you don’t feel like painting, then you don’t have to. If you’re forcing yourself to paint a model, it's going to be a lot less fun, and you may find your not as happy with the paint job, as your focus would have been to just get some paint on the model, rather than giving it the care and attention it would normally get.
So, put down the paintbrush, and walk away from the hobby area – find something else to do that gets painting off your mind – it could be reading a book, binge-watching a series, listening to an album or podcast, or something else entirely - I spent the time I'd normally be painting in the evenings playing some video games. Our hobby gives us many hours of enjoyment, but sometimes it's ok to step away from it for a while.
2. Paint something different. Sometimes burnout can come from painting the same model over and over again – especially if you’re working on horde armies, like Moria or Goblin Town, or from always painting the same colours – Minas Tirith players will know full well that painting all that black and silver loses its charm eventually!
Changing the model you’re painting can help clear your mind as you're thinking differently about how you're painting that model – for example, swap a Moria Goblin for a Hobbit – the change in model, details and colour pallet will help alleviate the monotony of painting goblins. Alternatively, it might be you've spent ages painting the rank and file troops for your army, so why not switch it up and paint a hero? They always have those little extra details that make them stand out from the rest of the army, and they can be really fun to paint.
Sometimes changing the system the model's from can help – bored with painting SBG models? Maybe paint something from Warhammer 40,000 or Age of Sigmar, or vice versa, or from a different game system? Painting a completely different model helps break the monotony of painting the same thing over and over again - you can then go back to what you were originally painting once you're finished.
3. Take it slow. If you're suffering from burnout, sometimes a good solution is to only focus on a couple of miniatures, rather than throwing yourself into a huge pile of unpainted models. I was able to paint up some Axemen of Lossarnach as my way of getting back hobbying again. Yes, it was only three models, but I found the desire to paint coming back to me as I was working on them - by the end of the month, I’d painted another half dozen models. Not many, but it’s still progress - my total number of painted models for the year is now 81!
Another solution may be to do some hobbying that isn’t painting – I spent an evening assembling some models, enjoying looking at all the little details they had as I was putting them together. I also spent some time tidying up in my hobby workspace, making it a lot neater, putting away some models into storage (sometimes having all those unpainted models piled up on your desk can be REALLY off-putting!) – coming back to a tidy hobby space can also help your painting motivation – I'm very determined to keep my hobby space tidy and only having a few unpainted models on it, rather than a huge horde!
So hopefully the tips above are useful for you if you ever find yourself struggling to paint your models. It's not the end of the world to step away for a bit and then come back recharged. I’ve certainly come back refreshed and I’m ready to dive back into clearing my backlog - fortunately I’ve got some tournament weekends coming up this month - perfect motivation!
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