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A couple of weekends back, the girlfriend was rooting through my wardrobe trying to find something or other when she decided to count how many miniatures I had lurking in its depths.
According to her I have over 500 which have not even been threatened with a can of spray undercoat yet.
This prompted her to impose a "no more toys until Christmas" ban, my task in that time is to get as much of my lead mountain painted and should I spend more than £20 on miniatures (excluding supplies White Dwarf and so on), in the next three months, then this will result in a sex ban. Bad times. Apparently this is all for my own good

Now whilst i will freely admit that my pewter fettish has developed into a full blown plastic crack addiction, i do have a slight problem with getting miniatures actualy painted. I think this is down to three main reasons.

1/ Time, I work full time and often cover shifts, the only time I get to see the girlfriend is weekends so realisticaly my only free time to paint is in the evenings, when I am tired and fed up after a dull day at work.

2/ I am a perfectionist, I cant bear to rush a miniature, especialy since they cost so much.

3/ I very rarely get any games in, most of my friends have moved away from GW figures and I am reluctant to go to my local GW due to the many reasons given in the model molesters thread.

So good people of Dakka, what can I do to get those miniatures painted, and what advice do you have to get my sorry arse motivated?

You should impost a no more shoes/clothes/bags/whatever she has a lot of ban if she doesn't use them all within a month. That'll teach her!

Depending on the models, you could try dipping them? While it is by no means a gold standard paint job, just a little time invested can produce very nice results that don't look rushed.

I have the same issue, really, lots of minis and no paint on any of them. Some have primer, most don't. I can't even get started on my Dark Elves because I can't figure out a paint scheme for them, and once I see one I like I can't figure out how to replicate it due to my lackluster skills. To combat my lack of painting, though, I put a halt on my plastic/pewter addiction until I have my 1k DE army painted. I figure if I can move up in increments of 200 or so I'll be alright.

Dexy wrote:You should impost a no more shoes/clothes/bags/whatever she has a lot of ban if she doesn't use them all within a month. That'll teach her!

Yeah, that would, except women don't play by the rules. They cheat. Especially since putting her on a sex ban is the same as putting you on one.

That's rough guy, I feel your pain. Your reasons for not painting are pretty much the same as mine, so when you figure out how to stay motivated let me know.
I do have one tip though for when you actually make it to the desk and start painting: Put a show, or a cartoon season on in the background. It will distract you just enough to keep you from getting bored/frustrated while painting.

Sell old stuff, everybody happy.

BrookM wrote:Sell old stuff, everybody happy.

Sacrelige!

just hide your old stuff, then say you sold it...Everyone happy

fire4effekt wrote:just hide your old stuff, then say you sold it...Everyone happy

That was working fine until she found my hiding place....... the wardrobe

I would also suggest selling them, yet since you don't like the idea I guess it would be out of the question.

Perhaps start a blog here on dakka, if not for any thing else(i.e tips on improving painting, or the like)then for the general,"back patting,"it helps keep one motivated(or atleast it would work for me).

If you don't paint, and don't play - why are you buying new figs?

Or if that bit of logic does not fix the problem, set up a 1 squad painted = 1 squad purchased plan with your GF.

I've heard London has an excellent red light district. I'd say spend 21 GBP on something and then take the rest of the money there. Tell her she can have her sex ban all she wants.

I think everyone on the board should paint 10 for you so you can continue to get some a$$.

C'mon its BROs before HOs.

Send me 10 troops. I'll start the hook up.

Defeat the purpose and have a cheap commission painter do jobs that can be easily be cleaned off later. Jut let her see you painting alot. Done.

squilverine wrote:3/ I very rarely get any games in, most of my friends have moved away from GW figures and I am reluctant to go to my local GW due to the many reasons given in the model molesters thread.

Come to Bristol Vanguard on thursday nights!
It's held in the GW on the Horsefair and has an over 18s policy so no model molesters!!! Just don't let Wing Wong near your Chaos Lord!
Some really nice armies there to get inspired by and booking a game with someone can really motivate you to get some stuff painted.
PM me if you want any more details.

1. Keep your painting area free of crap, and everything you need within arms reach. That way, whenever the mood strikes you you can sit down and paint, and you won't have the excuse of not being bothered cleaning off the area.

2. Switch it up. If you have several armies or games, paint squads of each in a cycle rather than whole armies at once.

3. (this always works for me) Commit to a tournament that won't let you play unless everything is painted. It's usually unpleasant, but you can paint a lot of stuff that way.

Hmmm. Two things.

1. She didn't say "tabletop" or "professional" level of painting. Just spray some primer and they're painted! Taa daaa!

2. Sell the extra models. It's painful but you've got to manage your addiction more properly

3. Is she a serious girlfriend on the way to becoming wife or is she just one of many? The threat of no sex is heavy, man. So instead of going to a red light district to engage in some dubious activity and perhaps walk away with souvenirs you never wanted, you may want to do what she says. Remember, its' the ones who love you who hurt you the most.

I think option 2 is the most painful but better karma-wise as others who love models as much as you do will be able to experience the joy and you get to line your pockets and still get GF action. Win-win I tell ya!

take the sex ban it would be easier. She'll probably cave anyway.

Shaman wrote:take the sex ban it would be easier. She'll probably cave anyway.

you say that but women are evil when they say things like they mean, I remember when one of my ex's imposed a no sex ban until my room at uni had less models in the room, lets just say she wasn't my girlfriend anymore and leave it at that, foolish woman thinking she could change me!

1. Break them down into manageable blocks.
Nothing is more demotivating than an endless sea of bare metal of plastic.

2. Organise the blocks for commonality to reduce the number of colours needed. For instance, don't mix Orks, Nids and Tau all together, tackle them separately.

3. Plan your colour scheme in advance, perhaps with a test model, so you know the sequence to follow.

4. Consider the use of speed techniques such as dipping, inking or waching.

5. Don't try and make every single figure a Golden Daemon contender.

6. Work on a production line basis. I.e. do all the base coat on all the figures in one batch, then go back and do the main highlights, then the fine highlights, and so on.

7. Treat basing the same way.

8. Once a unit is finished, varnish it and put it on display.

99MDeery wrote:

Shaman wrote:take the sex ban it would be easier. She'll probably cave anyway.

you say that but women are evil when they say things like they mean, I remember when one of my ex's imposed a no sex ban until my room at uni had less models in the room, lets just say she wasn't my girlfriend anymore and leave it at that, foolish woman thinking she could change me!

Well in my experience your gonna piss em off no matter what you do, might as well be what you want to do.

New girlfriend time. If she's that controlling before you marry the wench, imagine afterward. You'll be wearing "cute" costumes of plaid sweater vests and pastel shirts and driving your 2.5 snot nosed honor students to football practice in a minivan she picked out. Now granted, some folks need a strong, domineering hand at the reins to ensure their lives don't disintegrate, but since you came online to get help with the female issue and didn't calmly discuss it with her, it speaks to a deeper need for personal freedom.

Punt the chick and find a new one. Or three. Whatever makes you happy.

*the above intended as tongue in cheek, put those flamers down fellas!

squilverine wrote:A couple of weekends back, the girlfriend was rooting through my wardrobe trying to find something or other when she decided to count how many miniatures I had lurking in its depths.
According to her I have over 500 which have not even been threatened with a can of spray undercoat yet.
This prompted her to impose a "no more toys until Christmas" ban, my task in that time is to get as much of my lead mountain painted and should I spend more than £20 on miniatures (excluding supplies White Dwarf and so on), in the next three months, then this will result in a sex ban. Bad times. Apparently this is all for my own good

Now whilst i will freely admit that my pewter fettish has developed into a full blown plastic crack addiction, i do have a slight problem with getting miniatures actualy painted. I think this is down to three main reasons.

1/ Time, I work full time and often cover shifts, the only time I get to see the girlfriend is weekends so realisticaly my only free time to paint is in the evenings, when I am tired and fed up after a dull day at work.

2/ I am a perfectionist, I cant bear to rush a miniature, especialy since they cost so much.

3/ I very rarely get any games in, most of my friends have moved away from GW figures and I am reluctant to go to my local GW due to the many reasons given in the model molesters thread.

So good people of Dakka, what can I do to get those miniatures painted, and what advice do you have to get my sorry arse motivated?

Um....

...considering the fact that you don't paint your miniatures and you hardly play games with them, the real question is why do you keep buying them?

And, as to the last question, if the threat of no-sex isn't enough to get you motivated, nothing I can say will work.

Kirbinator wrote:Especially since putting her on a sex ban is the same as putting you on one.

When we were dating, my wife imposed a sex ban once. It lasted all of the 4 hours until we went to bed and she realized a sex ban on me meant no sex for her, too.

Saldiven wrote:

squilverine wrote:A couple of weekends back, the girlfriend was rooting through my wardrobe trying to find something or other when she decided to count how many miniatures I had lurking in its depths.
According to her I have over 500 which have not even been threatened with a can of spray undercoat yet.
This prompted her to impose a "no more toys until Christmas" ban, my task in that time is to get as much of my lead mountain painted and should I spend more than £20 on miniatures (excluding supplies White Dwarf and so on), in the next three months, then this will result in a sex ban. Bad times. Apparently this is all for my own good

Now whilst i will freely admit that my pewter fettish has developed into a full blown plastic crack addiction, i do have a slight problem with getting miniatures actualy painted. I think this is down to three main reasons.

1/ Time, I work full time and often cover shifts, the only time I get to see the girlfriend is weekends so realisticaly my only free time to paint is in the evenings, when I am tired and fed up after a dull day at work.

2/ I am a perfectionist, I cant bear to rush a miniature, especialy since they cost so much.

3/ I very rarely get any games in, most of my friends have moved away from GW figures and I am reluctant to go to my local GW due to the many reasons given in the model molesters thread.

So good people of Dakka, what can I do to get those miniatures painted, and what advice do you have to get my sorry arse motivated?

Um....

...considering the fact that you don't paint your miniatures and you hardly play games with them, the real question is why do you keep buying them?

And, as to the last question, if the threat of no-sex isn't enough to get you motivated, nothing I can say will work.

Thats a very good point, I get the most pleasure from building and converting models, I do paint them, just very slowly! Also a lot of the unpainted models are ones which I will probably never use as they came when I bought a game i.e. old plastic style orks and gretchin from the 40k boxed set, I should get round to selling these but seeing as they are virtualy worthless I am in no rush!

I would like to game more so will be checking out the Bristol Vanguard to see if I can get a few games in.

The sex ban will only come into force if I buy more miniatures, the idea is that this will concentrate me on the ones I have rather than lusting after new ones. For the time being I am still able to do the nasty.

Saldiven wrote:
Um....

...considering the fact that you don't paint your miniatures and you hardly play games with them, the real question is why do you keep buying them?

Thats hard to say as everyone is different , but its sort of like a bad habit .

squilverine wrote:2/ I am a perfectionist, I cant bear to rush a miniature, especialy since they cost so much.

Ahh im very very similar like that . Thus i have just the solution for you ( atleast how i deal with it )


Force yourself to speed paint , time yourself . This doesnt mean rush no , it just means pace / work up the
steps so you know exactly what to do next . Better yet , paint 1 whole unit at a time , with process like a
factory's assembly line.

Because unlike where you spend 1 hour , finishing 1 mini and looking back "sigh 9 more mini to go"
Instead you can have 1 hour of painting , all 10 minis with some paints on.
Then the next day, some more , and you can see it progressively getting finished ! which will no doubt
encourage you ALOT till you finally finish them all. Not to mention painting them this way you'll be very familiar on
how to paint the specific parts , thus better , faster as well.

Hmm, you do realise that if she should decide to ban you from making passionate and lasting love to her, you are entitled to seek a vent for your lust elsewhere....

...now this is where the conversation turns interesting, and erotic! Imagine, not only do you get to fulfill your base needs to increase your miniature army via the human urge to collect....but you also are now entitled to make love to a different woman, of your choice....

Looks, like Christmas has just arrived early for you my friend.....

So, what was your problem exactly?

Delephont wrote:you are entitled to seek a vent for your lust elsewhere....

You are evil -_-

Just sell them and move on


...also how hard is it to not buy anything new? There isn't anything good on the horizon for the rest of the year anyway.

Paint in smaller chunks. I found that I am more satisfied when i can spend more time on a few minis to make them look better, rather than assembly line and trying to get them done quickly.

My usual method for something like space marines is to paint the squad minimum at a time, so I only do 5 at once. After the 5 are done I will move to a special character or sergeant with more detail or even a vehicle.

The only other suggestion I have is, PLAY A GAME!!!
Seeing a squad or partially painted army on the table really made me get my a$$ in gear for painting. I find it makes the game more enjoyable for me.

tournaments motivate me... I have one comming up on saturday. in the past 2 weeks, i've painted a full assault squad, and am almost done with a vindicator. Normally a squad takes me about a month...