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I just recently got back into the hobby and said I was going to finish my army before I started something new and now I have all these ideas for other stuff and I do not know if i should stick to my army or branch out a little. I will say that there is not a gaming group within an hour from here so I am mostly doing it for myself and the modeling aspect. I am thinking if I branch out every so often it will keep me motivated on all projects and will give me a break from my army so I do not get burnt out. However if I let myself branch out I am not sure where it would end.

I would love to hear everyones comments/suggestions/workloads/stories/opinions.

Strike while the iron is hot.

I flop between projects all the time. Yes, it impacts my turnaround times, but I feel better knowing I put ideas to paper (knife to plastic, brush to paint, etc.) while the creative juice is flowing.

I can't see how having a side project can hurt, if anything it may be beneficial to keeping your interest in the hobby active.

If you are painting 50+ orks/nidz/guardsmen it can get pretty laborious after a while if you are doing it all the time day-after-day. If you have a special character, different army/paint scheme that you can break out into for a few minutes/hours then you will maintain your interest [sanity!] while you re-energise then return to the main project when you a ready to do so and it keeps you at the painting table. If you break off to watch a film then you may well not come back for some time.

I always have had few things on the go [usually too many] and while paint dries on one squad rotate to an Inquisitor piece or FOW, whatever. I know if I go to watch some TV or to the pub then allot of time is lost.

Of course here lies the Dark Side young crossbonesx11 too many projects and you will become like the rest of us with more plastic and lead than we can ever conceivably paint!

edit - Spulling arggh!

I am like Teek.

I usually have up to five projects on the go at any time. For instance, ATM I have the following (in rough order of planned finishing...)

1. My entry to the Nitty Gritty Tanks.
2. Kommissar Kar.
3. Space Pope.
4. Mighty Empires tiles.
5. Quar auxiliaries for Tau (a vehicle and a bunch of Infantry.)
6. Long-term build of an SM army with all modified vehicles.

If I get fed up of one project, I can move to something different and refresh myself. For example, I was all enthusiastic about building Space Pope, then got bored while painting and put him in a dark place for a couple of months.

It does mean I sometimes go a long time between completing something then bash out several things in a couple of weeks.

I have ADD so multible projects work fro

Look a Squirle

Due to having a pretty "full plate", I ,for the most part,limit my 40K projects to focusing on one army at a time (with the occasional side project).
Although ATM,I'm in the process of adding a small bit to each exsisting army I own,and doing a few "test minis" for a new army.
In general though,I try to keep my 40k projects down to one at a time,if not piles of unpainted minis begin to clutter my desk and I end up saying feth it and go play with my guitars.

KK, where are the pics?

Kilkrazy wrote:For example, I was all enthusiastic about building Space Pope, then got bored while painting and put him in a dark place for a couple of months.

The best place for Space Pope really

For my part, I'm forever jumping from army to army and system to system. It might keep me sane, but it's not a good approach for getting anything done!

Manchu wrote:KK, where are the pics?

You will see 1 when the voting goes live.

2. is in my gallery.

3. will be revealed when I am happy with him. (Or maybe reviled.)

4. Some of my Planetary Empires tiles are in the Gallery now, and I just need good light to shoot the finished stuff, which I'll do this weekend.

5. This is going to be a P&M Blog. The infantry figures haven't got here and I haven't started to build the tank, just researched the camo scheme and written a bunch of fluff.

6. Nothing really to show yet. I need to learn how to do resin casting so I can make the engine bits for my all-unofficial vehicle park.

I like several projects so that I can put one down and do something different. Some get abandoned for some time, but I don't thinks things get done any faster if I have only one project. If I'm mainly doing orks and am not in the mood for doing orks that night and don't have a different project, I'll just watch TV or something.

I'd like a secondary project that is not as large or daunting as the primary...so...for example:

I'm building and painting an ork army, it would be nice to have a second building and painting project with a very different like a House Escher gang or a WHFB unit of humans or somefink.

In reality I don't get much time to paint the main army so another project is out of the question.

I used to have 4 or 5 things on the go at the same time and it worked wonders. Just now only my eldar army repaint ison the cards until I decide between taking up WOC or HE again and because when I say army, I mean "collection". Think RT stuff to present. 'Nuff said :(

Here's my advice:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Work_on_Multiple_Armies_Simultaneously

I like to swap it up. After so many orks, I'm kinda burned out, so even though I have bajillions more to paint, I'd rather work on Trollbloods, WOTR or chaos first.
I'm on a week off at the moment and have ploughed through a huge amount of my WOTR backlog, so I'm down to just 16 goblins, 6 Mordor Uruk hai and a shaman! (from like 40 mordor orcs, 24 morannon orcs, 24 goblins, 4 trolls and a witch king on fell beast. I think that was good going!)
I nearly feel up to painting some orks now.

Being one who collects three different armies and enjoys making scenery/cover out of almost anything I can get my hands on, I never run out of projects. The only disadvantage I find is that it can seem really daunting at times. I have however worked on becoming more organized and setting goals for myself so I can actually finish parts rather than ever so slowly doing everything at the same time.

Helps a lot. I don't get burnt out doing the same thing over and over and over. I can easily switch gears and work on something else for a bit.

It's nice having one, although it can get really frustrating. I've had a 1500 point Iron Warriors army on sprue for months, and I'm almost done painting the first 5 Marines. It's not that I'm even tired of painting my Orks - it's just frustrating to see all this unpainted plastic and metal sitting on my desk. Let's not forget the tons of Crimson Fists and Space Wolves I have that need paint either.

Having a side project = good
Having mountains of unpainted plastic and no plan to tackle it = bad

I have one main army (Space Wolves) and one 'minor' army (Emperor's children) I find I prefer to switch around between the two so I don't get too bored, whilst focusing on my main army. I also like being able to view things from a different perspective (Chaos in my case...)

But then again I try not to let it all 'pile up' as it were../

hurts me a TON ill be doing multiple things end up rushing 1 and getting angry and stopping for a while

crossbonesx11 wrote:I just recently got back into the hobby and said I was going to finish my army before I started something new and now I have all these ideas for other stuff and I do not know if i should stick to my army or branch out a little. I will say that there is not a gaming group within an hour from here so I am mostly doing it for myself and the modeling aspect. I am thinking if I branch out every so often it will keep me motivated on all projects and will give me a break from my army so I do not get burnt out. However if I let myself branch out I am not sure where it would end.

I would love to hear everyones comments/suggestions/workloads/stories/opinions.

i am in the exact same boat - i've come back from a 5 year hiatus due to work/etc, but i am loathe to start something new till at least my empire army is done (if not all my other models). grrr!

It's not unusual for me to have 4-5 projects on the go at any one time.

At the moment, I'm working on my Eldar army, my Guard army (new project), my marine army, my daemonhunters and some terrain pieces (40k AND fantasy - although the fantasy ones are JUST woods, so not that much work).

Well, I finished my Ultramarines, well not finished, finished, but I have over 2500pts availible to play with, so I'm going to leave it there and paint bits and pieces when i feel the "urge"....

I've just started an Imperial Guard army, and I must admt, its like looking up at Everest, in painting terms, but I've promised myself this is my last army.....ever!

Once the IG is finished, I will only paint single miniatures and characters (So a game like Infinity is ideal for me )

Funny enough that was the question I was going to post the other day whether or not there is anyone in the community that has successfully completed all of their projects.

Me personally I think if you have too many projects you end up spending your time on several things at once. And although can be fun you can find yourself doing several things but nothing seems to get finished a little bit of self discipline needs to be allocated to the project in hand and making sure you're spending enough time individually so things get finished not just started

Projects never end.

Never more than one big project (army) for me. If I need a break then it has to be something I can complete in a day or two, like building a terrain piece.

As soon as I finish a single project, I think I'd be a happy man.

I use the 'Tupperware Of Shame' method. This wasn't my idea, I heard about it during a 40k radio interview IIRC.

What this is, was a giant tupperware bin full of 40k boxes, sprues, bits and incomplete projects.

Before I could put another project to the wayside, I would try to pull at least one out.

At last look I had a Cadian Heavy Weapons Squad, a bunch of Marine, and Scout bikes, older than dirt Ork Buggies, half the components for a Land Raider, Leman Russ, Terrain stuff, 4 Rhinos.

Yeah, I'm a hoarder. I need help. And with some of the projects I've got lined up for my return home, that box is going to get fatter....

unite all action wrote:Funny enough that was the question I was going to post the other day whether or not there is anyone in the community that has successfully completed all of their projects.

Me personally I think if you have too many projects you end up spending your time on several things at once. And although can be fun you can find yourself doing several things but nothing seems to get finished a little bit of self discipline needs to be allocated to the project in hand and making sure you're spending enough time individually so things get finished not just started

You should never complete all your projects because then you will die.

Well known fact.