Good tidings to you my fellow wargamers and miniature
enthusiasts and welcome back for your bi-monthly reading here at my den of
ramblings. It’s been a couple of months
since we spoke but a lot of things have been going on so we have a good amount
to discuss. I hope things have been well
for you all in whatever you are doing in life, and so with that let’s get to
chatting. So get a drink, sit
comfortably, and relax while these slow beats soothe your soul…or let these
pictures do something for you.
So last time we talked about my painting progress, some
goals set out because of NoVA/other events, and saw some work being done. I’ve been putting in some work on the
projects, but I have to say these past few months have been semi-slow in terms
of progress. I’ve had some stuff going
on in the real world that it made painting take a back burner and in turn
caused a slow down on my overall progress.
It’s not been necessarily a bad thing that real life has taken priority,
but it is what it is and as a result I don’t feel like I’ve gotten as much done
in terms of model count as I had the period before. Add in the fact that I ended up spending a
lot of time assembling models and having to wait for bits and bases to roll in,
time just keep plodding along and I was not making a lot of progress. Though I had a lot of things going on, and I
felt like I had excuses, there was something else in the back of my mind and
heart that was inhibitive of my overall progress.
Which in turn has made me introspective when it comes to my
hobby time because I certainly felt a difference in mood and outlook this
period than I did before. Before I felt
like a machine, churning out models (60 some odd iirc) at a pretty intense
speed from what I’m used to doing.
During this period I felt more like a grazing cow, sometimes taking a
bite but otherwise just moving slowly. When
we look at this period and see I have reached about half that number, which admittedly
I probably painted about half of those days, I knew something else was at work. While I can point to a few things going on
that slowed my progress down (studying for a state credentialing board,
visitations with family, a friend being deployed, and house maintenance) I also
recognize that there were more than a few days that I didn’t pick up the brush
because I just…didn’t want to. Like my
motivation was suddenly…dried up and withered away at times.
Motivation is a funny thing like that, especially for me in
this hobby and I feel like painting is in a weird spot in the hierarchy of
this. Motivation in general can be a
great start to a task and is a great opportunity for growth in a particular
area. A lot of things can motivate us to
begin projects or to continue past ones. For example I can read a novel about the Horus
Heresy and then I’m motivated to start working on my Thousand Sons and bring
their tragic story of hubris, honor, treachery, and sadness to the table! I can watch an episode of Game of Thrones and
then I’m motivated to clean and paint up some A Song of Ice and Fire models so
that I too can bring the raw fighting prowess of The Mountain to my enemies’
lines! Motivation! Yeah!
Within the past couple of weeks I saw a meme/quote about
motivation compared with discipline and in this time in my hobbying life it
truly resonated with me. You know how
sometimes you see a quote and it does nothing for you until you find yourself
in a new spot in life and next thing you know it’s like “ohhhh…there it is?” That was me in this instance and I realized
that instead of relying on motivation to keep me going (because that’s
obviously worked before right?), I would need to start cultivating discipline
to paint on the regular. Then if you
think about it, painting regularly probably requires the most discipline out of
the other aspects of the hobby (for me at least). When you assemble models there’s an end
result that happens relatively quickly and there’s several rewards attached to
it. You have the model assembled and you
can start playing games with it. If you
choose not to do anything else then most of the community won’t say anything
because they too have unpainted models.
Painting though…painting takes some effort.
With painting you don’t get immediate results like you do
with assembling and unless you have some great skills then you sometimes risk
your model looking vastly different than you intended it for it to be. If you are a slow painter then that squad of
10 guys might take you weeks to finish and when you look at an entire army it
starts to look like a yearlong project instead.
It’s very easy to get discouraged with painting, especially with the
advent of social media the great miniature painters can show off their amazing
work and make it seem like they woke up one morning and painted a masterpiece
before their morning coffee is done. So
it takes discipline to not only keep painting despite not necessarily wanting
to and to continue even though the results are not immediate and are risky.
Couple that mindset of discipline>motivation with that I
am to enjoy my painting time versus making it a secondary job of churning out
models, I think I was able to find my painting groove again. Maybe not at the same speed as before, but I
even felt like some of those models had lost quality due to time constraints. So with my shift towards discipline I am also
shifting towards making the models good quality instead of quick quality. Will this mean I will hit some of my
deadlines? Probably not but I will plan
accordingly so that the armies that NEED to be painted (i.e. my Zone Mortalis
force) will be done by the event time, and then I’ll return back to the others
as needed.
So a quick update on where the projects stand:
·
Zone Mortalis (Warhammer 30k):
o
32 models
o
Progress/Pitfalls: Models have had their
assembly finalized and their insignia from Pop Goes the Monkey came in. Army specific paints have been acquired.
o
Current status: Ready for priming
·
Aristeia!
o
4 models
o
Fighters outside of the core box have been
acquired and a team of 4 has been selected.
They have been cleaned of mold lines which that ranged from hardly
present to “holy crap that’s a lot and annoying to clean.”
o
Current status: Ready for priming
·
Infinity After Dark
o
A 300 point Yu-Jing force
o
Progress/Pitfalls: I was short of some models
but due to some generosity from WaaarghPug I now have enough for 300 points and
then some.
o
Current status: Some models are ready for
painting, the new models require assembling/cleaning/priming and so I am about
50% ready
·
Blood Bowl:
o
Dwarf Team of 18 models
o
Current status: Painting and basing are complete
and pre-varnishing has been finished leaving the final matte varnish spray.
·
Warmachine:
o
Crucible Guard 75 points, 2 list format
consisting of 67 models (!!!)
o
Progress/Pitfalls: Models were assembled but had
to wait on MDF base inserts from Laser Craft Workshop LLC (great customer
service btw) but they are ready for painting.
o
Current status: 20% of the army has been painted
but basing is being reserved for a final “done with the army” phase since I
plan on putting in some effort in making some dope bases.
I’m overall pleased with my progress and as much as I have
been enjoying painting up the Crucible Guard I know I will have to pause the
overall project to take care of the NoVA Open projects. It’s a situation of “do I keep working on the
Crucible Guard until the event,” or “do I get those NoVA units out of the way
first and then go back to my other stuff afterwards?” Not sure on the answer to that just yet but I’m
sure I’ll figure it out in the near future.
As always I want to extend thanks and appreciation for my
local fellow wargamers to including WaaarghPug, The Ordinary Wargamer, and
Mininomicon for being sources of painting and hobbying encouragement. Insignia for the Thousand Sons can be found here again and the bases I
used for my Crucible Guard can be found here again. I want to also thank you the reader for
spending your time here on this blog and reading the article, if there are any
questions or comments please leave them and I assure you I will get to
them. Thank you for stopping by and I
hope your wargaming and hobbying adventures continue to prosper in whatever
format you want them to be. Until next
time, happy gaming folks.
