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I'm sure this has happened to most people.

I had been working on various armies for the last 6 years or so. For the better part of the last year, I haven't been able to pick up a paintbrush. I have an entire skaven army ready to be built/painted, but I'm trying to pull myself out of this burnout.

How do you finally snap out of it? I figure, if I can make some progress on something, things will roll along. Getting glasses has helped, as I am slowly getting farsighted.

My interest hasn't really subsided, as I regularly read all the army books. That paintbrush just looks so heavy...

ZF-

I find that if i tend to focus on an event that I want to participate in, I will paint much faster and more often. I find it always helps it have a goal.

I get this a lot - some of it boils down to motivation, some of it can be attributed to time factors, and yet more to other interests. At the moment, my wife gave birth recently so family matters are impinging on my time. What little time I do have is spent on other things and this is all to the detriment of my painting. I have a large backlog awaiting my attention!

Added to this, I am a notoriously slow painter anyway! I find that my motivation and desire comes and goes in waves and I just have to roll with it. Sometimes having a deadline helps but then again, I don't really tourney game so have very little in the way of concrete deadlines.

On the plus side, I see it as a long term thing. I'm not in any rush to get finished; I know I *will* finish eventually and since I try and limit new purchases until I have painted or at least, made a good start on previous stuff - it helps me to keep my interest going.

Just wait it out and chill, no harm in taking break.

I think most of us have been in a rut before, I know I have. Here are two things that help me.

I put away everything that I'm not working on. So I will only have 5 guys out at a time. Mentally it makes it much easier to gauge progress.

The other thing I do is I always paint and model while watching anime/horror movies. I like to have something playing in the background and for whatever reason I like to watch badly drawn Japanese cartoons. Over time this has made a strong link to painting/modeling and every time I watch anime I work on minis.

Corey85 wrote:I think most of us have been in a rut before, I know I have. Here are two things that help me.

I put away everything that I'm not working on. So I will only have 5 guys out at a time. Mentally it makes it much easier to gauge progress.

The other thing I do is I always paint and model while watching anime/horror movies. I like to have something playing in the background and for whatever reason I like to watch badly drawn Japanese cartoons. Over time this has made a strong link to painting/modeling and every time I watch anime I work on minis.

+1 here.

I only have out the model or models I'm currently working on. If I see a dozen unpainted minis, it gets overwhelming.

I enjoy watching a football game or a baseball game while I paint. If unavailable, a good moive that I've seen a bunch works (Batman: The Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, Debbie Does Dallas). Just something to listen to.

Alternatively, a friend gets into the painting rut now and then. He sets a timer for 20 minutes and makes himself do 20 minutes a day just to plow through some stuff. It's a little surprising what gets done in a few weeks at 20 minutes a day.

I share a lot of Filbert's sentiments on this as well. My wife is due this week to give birth to our first child, and a lot of stuff has been put on the backburner, with both hobby and non-hobby wise events.

At first, I was very motivated and banged out mini's like nobody's business. From assembly to modifications, and then to painting and basing, I finished about 5000 points worth of stuff within a month, and that was with going to work full time, spending time with the family, going to the gym, eating, sleeping, etc.

But after that first month, I went through a burnout stage as well, and got tired of the whole "assembly line" production. So I took a break from it, and just played games for the next couple of months, until I was ready to hit the assembly line again. But I think what got me motivated the most though was that I didn't like playing with unpainted mini's. Not that my FLGS or friends minded I played with unpainted stuff, but to me, it was less appealing having them on the table, in mix with some of my painted stuff. So I avoided playing with mini's that I didn't have painted, but then it motivated me at the same time to get the one's I really wanted to play with painted.

Now, I've got about 1000 or so points left unpainted (out of about 14,000 points worth of Space Marines), and needless to say, I'm not in the biggest of rushes to get it done. At the same time though, I've learned to look at it as a long term project, completing small bits and pieces along the way. So instead of doing 20 marines all at once and getting overwhelmed by it, I do about 5 marines at a time, and have fun with them.

This happens to me too once in a while. The answer is, have many hobbies

I'll spend 1-2 months doing nothing but painting every night.. then I get bored, buy a new video game or 2 and work on my carpal tunnel for a while. Just do other stuff, eventually your army men will call you back

And here I thought we were going to be talking about the video game Burnout. Sweet game. Especially Burnout 3! Did anyone else wonder that?


On topic: My wife does the painting in our house, and it goes by seasons of television shows. She'll get "Season X" of some show, and start ploughing through it - and this is great painting time.

kronk wrote:
Alternatively, a friend gets into the painting rut now and then. He sets a timer for 20 minutes and makes himself do 20 minutes a day just to plow through some stuff. It's a little surprising what gets done in a few weeks at 20 minutes a day.

QFT. I also find that if I'm working on smaller amounts of stuff at a time, regardless of how much time I spend on them, the quality of my work is a lot better.

If I were to pull out one of the mini's I did in my first month of work, I would be like 'WTF is this crap"? Compared to my later works, it was definitely not as good, albeit still tabletop worthy, but noticeable different nonetheless.

Dashofpepper wrote:

On topic: My wife does the painting in our house, and it goes by seasons of television shows. She'll get "Season X" of some show, and start ploughing through it - and this is great painting time.

I wish, I wish, I wish I could indoctrinate my wife to do the same.....

I have a few tactics that really help me get stuff painted.

1. First, I already have 3 warhammer armies. When I start a new one I buy ONE box at a time (This works because there are 4 shops within 20 minutes of my house, If the only shop is 2 hours away it might be different). I fully assemble, prime, paint that unit. Once its done I buy a new one. I also take pictures as I progress. It really helps to see that progress.

2. Every Wednesday night at my FLGS is paint night. We put on some music/a DVD and paint away. It really makes it easier for some reason.

3. Only have a little bit out at a time so it appears your making more progress. If you have 100 clanrats on your table getting 10 painted isnt that big of a deal. If you only have 20 on your table getting those 10 done actually makes it look like you did something.

4. I only play armies that have models I will enjoy painting. I have learned if I make an army with the intent of it just doing well in tournies I will normally not get it painted.

I'm in the middle of a pretty heavy burnout, and not just painting, but with almost everything to do with warhammer. If it weren't for 'Ard Boyz I wouldn't have been in any tournaments for the past 3 months (I used to do 1 or 2 a month) and I have only played a single game outside of that. I rarely even come to Dakkadakk anymore and I can't even get excited about the Dark Eldar release (even though I have been waiting so very very long for it). So I have just been working on my D&D game that I run on Saturdays and playing boat loads of StarCraft 2 and waiting for the Table Top gaming bug to bite me in the @$$ again...

I'm thinking of doing a re-org of my building table. It's been hard to easily find the paints I need for a particular subject, which is more of a distraction lately.

All my paints are on a two tier lazy susan type affair, but they're crammed in tight, and despite the paints being grouped by color, still inconvenient to pick paints from.

Despite being 4 ft wide, the table's feeling cramped. With all the unbuilt stuff I have, it looks like a small hobby shop.

I guess, my layout is sapping my desire to work there. Maybe a fresh "change of scenery" will help this.

ZF-


Automatically Appended Next Post:
My FLGS has been having smaller scale tournaments each month. I believe there was a thousand pointer for WHFB later this year, so maybe that's a low enough rung to work for.

ZF-

Most of what works for me has been said already, but I'll elaborate...

Corey85 wrote:
I put away everything that I'm not working on. So I will only have 5 guys out at a time. Mentally it makes it much easier to gauge progress.

I do this alot. Once in a while I'll even go so far as to only have the bare minimum of paints out on a small tray. I can leave this in the living room and paint in brief stints.

Necros wrote: have many hobbies... eventually your army men will call you back

In addition to 40k, I also enjoy LEGO and Assembling/modifying electric basses. Sometimes I'll abandon gaming for up to 6 months. If I'm not forcing my self to paint, it's so much more satisfying when I get inspired and come back to the hobby.

As a variation on this theme, play a smaller game or two on the side. Adding another mass-combat game like WFB, Hordes, FoW might be a bit overwhelming, but try a squad/warband level game like Necromunda, Mordheim, Malifaux, Mercs, etc.
I personally recommend Song of Blades and Heroes and Flying Lead, two warband size quick-play games using the Ganesha games system. They are generic rules for any minatures, so it frees me up to paint non-GW figures that catch my eye, but since they are squad level games, I'm not dumping alot of cash on a new game. Playing and painting-for these games have proved to be a great break when painting my IG get's overwhelming.

ShivanAngel wrote:I buy ONE box at a time

I haven't mastered this, but I have become better at buying slower, and getting rid of stuff when I know I'll never get around to painting it.

Lastly, try emphasizing a different part of the hobby. If you're way into painting/converting, try gaming a bit more. If you're spending most of your painting time gaming, get some folks together for a painting night.

Burnout 3 was awesome.
I suffer from the same symptoms too dude, don't fear it's nothing bad.
Sometime I get burned out painting my Eldar. This is usually due to me enthusiastically buying something new, or converting up a new unit.
I've still got tons of metals that need painting (just look at how long ago I updated my blogs!)

The fact of the matter is I have a lot going og, and sometimes things just take time.

Try building some scenery, I always enjoy that. You can normally put together some small objectives or scenery pieces together in a night, and even paint them too.
This sometimes gives me the buzz as I've achieved something whole.

The other option is start a Dakka blog. When I was updating my IG blog earlier in the year, the positive comments from our fine community really spurred me on to do more work, and be showered with more praise

Go grab a single mini, assemble him and start painting. Take a few shots of the process, and at the end of your session, upload them to the gallery and start a thread in the P&M section. You'll get back in the swing in no time!

Take a proportional break. If you've been painting non stop for 5 years, it's fine to take a few months to a year off to recuperate. I get a lull in my painting every year for about a month or two because of burnout. Ain't no thang.

I tend to try find something that inspires me. Like for the last few months motivation to paint stuff was fairly low until I saw that the 2nd wave of Daemons was due out. So that gave me enough motivation to get some more CSM stuff done before buying any new Daemon stuff.

Theres simple stuff you can do as well like if you are painting a squad of 10 or 20 models only having 2 or 3 in your painting area at any one time. And making yourself paint 10 rank and file etc. before painting a character as a reward.

Thats another good point.

I never start out with centerpiece models. Those are saved for "breaks" (cause I really enjoy painting them). So ill paint a good 40-50% of my army, then do a HQ or rhino or something that takes a good 15-20 hours.

I just take a break. After coming to University, the weather makes it almost impossible to actually prime anything here (it's just absurdly windy in Lethbridge), so I'm just taking a break for now.

I second the "it's okay to just take a break for awhile", the "have something else on in the background" (it's how I read the Iliad - thank you local library's book-on-tape collection), and the "only buy what you're going to paint" suggestions.

Get rid of things which hamper your motivation (like piles of grey minis, painting models you don't want to, etc.), and do other things to help your motivation (refusing to play with unpainted minis, painting with friends, etc.)

Ailaros wrote: painting with friends

This is one of the best suggestions that I forgot to mention in my post. I can't tell you how much stuff I got painted rewatching seasons of the Venture Bros with one of my best buddies back home while we painted.

Dashofpepper wrote:And here I thought we were going to be talking about the video game Burnout. Sweet game. Especially Burnout 3! Did anyone else wonder that?

That was exactly what I thought Dash and yes, Burnout 3 was awesome.

Anyhoo.....
Being bored of painting was the reason I started my Eldar and my IG and my Chaos Daemons armies
Mixing up what your painting (different colours, power armour vs carapace or deamon fleshy-ness) makes it a lot more tolerable.
granted I not have 4 unpainted armies, but I enjoy painting each one, and when I stop enjoying it I turn back to one of my others.

When I paint, I complete a section of one army before moving on to the next. I don't unbox stuff until it's on deck to paint. for example:

Death Company and HE mage awaiting varnishing(bloody humidity, and when was good to spray, had to prime stuff for the GF.)

Tau Commander - In progress
6 flamers - Primed
On Deck: 3 Raveners or some shrikes.

All good advice here.

I rarely watch sports without painting anymore, I've conditioned myself so well, but no matter what else is going on in the background it helps to have something there. I find it keeps you engaged in more than just the tedium of painting the same things over and over, which helps fight off burnout.

Organizing and stripping down your work area is a big help. I used to suffer from a terrible case of the sea of grey. To help me get over my last bout of burnout I took everything off my table but the one unit I wanted to get done. I even went so far as to strip down entire boxes, organizing all of the bits so that all I have to do when I want to assemble those models is pull out the appropriate drawers of my bits cabinet. Until then, out of sight = out of mind.

Deadlines can be a great motivator, especially if there's a negative consequence. Find some friends that are lacking motivation and set up a painting challenge. The only time I've ever painted an army in a short amount of time, then called it done and set it aside was for the "Paint or Die" challenge GW used to do (GW Canada at least, not sure about anywhere else). Staff who didn't finish had to buy a Baneblade for everyone who did. I'd recommend a less harsh punishment.

And of course, as already stated, if you need a break...take one! Absence makes the heart grow fonder, blahblahblah!

hungryp wrote:
I rarely watch sports without painting anymore, I've conditioned myself

I know, right. I used to watch football all of the time. At the end of the game, I'd feel a little guilty about sitting on my ass for 3 hours. Now, I have something to show for my time (instead of a beer gut).

I've been in a slump for almost two years. The most I have done is primed some assault marines a couple weeks ago. I'm pretty sure part of it is being unemployed as it really cuts down on your purchases. But now that I am gainfully employed, I find that I'm starting to get interested in finishing my space marine army. I've been trying to price out what I need the past few days.

I tend to struggle with painting, mainly because my personal life gets in the way, either with work, my wife or some random family related event.

Last thing I painted was some Bloodletters for my WFB Daemons for a tournament I was going to in July, but they were dipped (like the rest of my army) and got done in a few hours. I'm aiming to teach myself how to paint properly but it's finding the time to do it! :(

I'm the other way. When I buy an army it gets built and painted double time. There just aren't enough armies!

So far for 5th I've built and painted 8000 points of marines, 3500 points of orks and 2000 points of guard.

As soon as I can lay my hands on a DE codex it'll either be that or regular eldar for the next project.


Fortunately I've got lots of product designing keeping me busy for the moment.

For me I have to enjoy painting the army.

I have about 4000-5000 points of skaven that I dont think will ever get painted. I dont mind painting the centerpiece stuff, but I cant stand painting clanrats.....

I figured out if I do the fleshy part, then the fur, then paint the armor and dip them in dark brown they look decent. Its fairly quick, like 10-20 an hour depending on my motivation, I just cant stand doing it.

However my Daemons... I love painting them, I have knocked out about 3000 points worth in 3-4 weeks. They are fun to paint.