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Just my 2 cents here.

1) If you love it so much, why curb your enthusiasm? Happiness is fleeting. Do it while you're enjoying it!

2) Finishing stuff. I have a nice large Ork Army which I've taken about 10 years to put together. The funny thing is that only in the past couple of years am I actually completing some of the units. I have units I started LONG ago which were under max size. Some needed Nobz. Some needed 'Eavy Weapons. Some needed just MOAR BOYZ. And now, it's funny because I am finishing them up one after the other - BAM Stikkbombas done. BAM Shoota Boyz done. BAM Stormboyz done.

So my advice: paint what you like. It's nice to focus on what you can use in-game of course, but really, you can get away with not painting as long as you've assembled models. If anything, having more projects helps to guarantee that there's always SOMETHING you'd like to work on when it is painting time.

NOTICE: if you have WAY MOAR than you will ever paint in your life anyway, why not trade some of those Orks (or better, donate) to old Solorg? They'll go to a good WAAAGGHHH and you can chuckle your way along as Solorg tries to figure out how to paint an ever cooler yet ever expanding collection. See my sig for trade offers.

ph34r wrote:Solution, buy less models, use money saved to pay for models to get professionally painted to a decent standard?

Ugh, perish the thought. Then I wouldn't have armies, I'd have someone else's armies.

I definitely belong in this thread.

I have tones of unpainted minis and am always looking at something new and think "must have" despite not needing it.

I have drawn a line though and am trying my best to paint up a few armies before starting/bying something new (I really want to get a dreadknight and convert it but must resist!).

One of the things I am doing is tidying my man-cave, thus removing all destractions. I have alway found that when something starts to drag I see something else (another half started project!) and flit over to that. Rinse and repeats until nothing has been finished for a while and I get demotivated.

My solution is to have each project in a seperate box (I use the Really Useful 4 litre boxes). This enables me to crack on with it while I can and then put it away easily each night(I also have a 2 year old on the loose - safety first!). With nothing else on the desk I have no other distractions except the PC which usually has DAkka/music playing. If I do want to do something else, this box goes away and another comes out.

I have found that this new approach is really working for me. The result of which is a finished projects, currently a FoW Brit Airborne platoon - my first ever, in record time.

An added bonus includes the Mrs appreciating the tidy room and less mess as it tends to fall into the project box.

I still get the desire to buy some new stuff but have managed to hold myself to supplies only for quite a few months.

I know this feeling. I _FINALLY_ got 2500 points of Guard (and that's just a small fraction of what I have) assembled/painted/based, when, like a moron, I try a new paint scheme on my baneblade, you know, to celebrate my getting an army painted. Turns out I love the new paint scheme and I now want to paint all of the remainder of the drab green tanks I have to a sharp urban camo. Sigh. I also have 15 pewter GKT, 30 pewter GKPA, and several inquisitors/assassins I need to paint. On top of that, I haven't finished my Relictors army, and Hive Fleet 'Primer' is still looming in the distance.

The good news is that I can't think of any other armies I'm interested in. The bad news is that I'm also wanting to get some terrain done. :(

I agree with notprop. I use a similar strategy. I leave out only 1 project at a time and put all the rest (there are LOTS) where they can't be easily seen. This way, I tend to focus on one.

Re: the latest and greatest, I curb my desire to visit the gamestore. Because there's ALWAYS something cool there that I want. Sometimes I try to remember (re: older projects) the enthusiasm I had when I picked it up and this inspires me to keep going to completion. It works surprisingly well. Old projects can be cool again. Spend about 15 minutes daydreaming about it and imagine the coolness on the battlefield when it rolls out fully finished. Think about the fluff behind it. Think about your new unit charging to the rescue during the crucial moment of a game.

I call it project discipline. I put everything else away except that weeks project. Then I set a goal for that week that must be completed before I can get back in and pick the next thing. I also try to stick to not playing anything that isn't completely finished and sealed first. I use the motivation of wanting to run something new and different at my FLGS on Fridays to push me to finishing projects. It's easy to get too many irons in the fire but when you see the results of focused work it becomes addictive, I floundered with completing my first army but once I had 3000 points all painted I just wanted to do it again... and again...

Usually time and money keeps me from splurging on too many projects at once. Often I feel the desire to start some new army, cause I think the models are kickass or something, but I take a long time (a couple weeks) to reflect on if I really wanted it. Most of the time, they're just fleeting fancies that I end up having no real interest in later on. If I had acted on my urges, I probably would have over a dozen half-assembled, half-painted, half-completed armies by now and I couldnt stand that.

I would keep to 2-3 projects or armies AT MOST. It's a good number, not too large, and you can rotate through them when you start feeling burn-out with one army.

As a kind of visual empathizing...

The unfinished pile



and the finished pile:

I have way too many projects too. I used to be the kinda guy that wouldn't play with a model unless it was painted.. not anymore!

I only have 2 armies fully painted.. nids and chaos marines. Both of which I pretty much don't even play anymore, but I keep the models cuz I like em. My main 40K army is imperial guard, I did have everthing painted till they redid the codex and I bought too much stuff, now I have to paint a valkyrie, basilisk, baneblade, 10 ratlings, advisors and comissars and a few HW teams. They've been waiting for paint for about a year now.

I have my lizardmen that were mostly done, till my friend decided to sell his army and I bought about 80 skinks and a lot more stuff, so now I have a ways to go.

And now i'm just starting a night goblin army.. i should have it painted in about 8 years....

My pile is huge. I have nids, high elves, Tau, marines, and fateweaver to paint. I spent my 'Ard Boyz winnings on marines, and I do agree with the idea about rotational painting, I am so sick of painting daemons, that after I base the last horrors, I think fateweaver will still be silver by next round of Ard Boyz.

Also, I can see people selling old armies and stuff, I mean my beautiful soul grinder is likely covered in dust, as my daemons haven't been used in 40k in almost a year, but they get almost all of my fantasy play time.

I started 40k about 7 years ago, but ended up quitting after a couple of months due to money/time constraints. I got a nice bonus in February and spent far too much of it on models to the extent that I have about 2000 points of SWs that I'm working on, 1000 DE, 2000 GK (I'm on the bandwagon mostly because the models are AWESOME), and am working on about 2500 points of Skaven.
Once I saw someone play TK, and looked through the book, I knew I had to draw the line. No more models for me (barring the occasional shiny) until all of my current models are built to the point they are playable. My SW and DE are about 15% painted, my GK are about 10% assembled because I can't decide on my army list, and my Skaven are mostly assembled...mostly because my 2.5k list has 300 models. =/
So...the point is I'm too easily distracted and have decided no more until I get everything playable. Hopefully I will be able to hold off until I get at least one army painted, too. Of course, the problem there is I will get a model 95% painted, and then I will be undecided on the last couple of details, so they just sit there...I mean, just what color should that gemstone be, anyways?

After 23 years of being part of this hobby I can safely say that there is no end to the painting to your armies. This happens due to codex changes and rules changes. Now I got one army, my all metal, Rogue Trader Necrons completely finished years ago but I know over the Horizon, the new codex will be out and of course I'll just have to buy those models that would suit that particular flavor of Necrons.

Then of course real life does get in the way. You can not ignore Real Life for if you do, Real Life might bite you in the Ya-ha's

My advice to you is to paint what you can. Enjoy the hobby as best as you can and don't worry about finishing.


The Job will eventually be done... just in time for the next revision of your army.

Well I've got some focus now. Right now I'm committed to one of my Space Marine armies because I actually have a deadline for when it needs to be done. I've also am trying to keep my involvement with other projects strictly at codex reading and list building. There will still be the odd purchase every once in a while but work for now will be on my Space Marines.

Luco wrote:As a kind of visual empathizing...

The unfinished pile



and the finished pile:

I did laugh at that, I think if this image was repeated in my mancave the Mrs would be beating me senseless because of the waste of money or something!

Although my "to paint" pile exceeds that by a few magnitudes since stripping all of my old metals ( ) it is all discreatly hidden away in boxes and cases.

To update on my earlier post, I have managed to paint an entire FOW Airborne HQ and Combat platoon in 2 weeks in 1-2 hour bites a day. Enabling me to start building more unit for a forthcoming 40k Tourney with time to spare. I really should have organised myself years ago!

Isn't too many projects synonymous with too little time? I haven't touched anything model-wise in over a year, I don't want to abandon the hobby (as much as I liked the dust test).

spyguyyoda wrote:So...the point is I'm too easily distracted and have decided no more until I get everything playable. Hopefully I will be able to hold off until I get at least one army painted, too. Of course, the problem there is I will get a model 95% painted, and then I will be undecided on the last couple of details, so they just sit there...I mean, just what color should that gemstone be, anyways?

I hear this. I sometimes like to fuss over little details like this. In the end, I just paint it. Any color, who cares? 99/100 I never look back. Because why? Because DONE BABY!

Brother SRM wrote:Just work through your armies like crop rotation. You could also start by tackling smaller armies first - I'm sure those Warmachine armies are significantly smaller than your IG and Orks.

+1 to this. It has been said before, but it is the ground level foundation of actually getting armies painted, and can't be restated enough. Like the OP, I've been in the existential painting angst of having too much and not going in any direction with it.

Commit to an army, concentrate all your effort on painting one squad or one SC from that army at a time. Don't get flighty. When you're working on your ten guardsman or whatever, don't look at the FW GUO half-assembled across the table. Then you'll just wind up with two half-painted units and an incomplete army. That's been my strategy, and for the first time in my gaming history I'll actually be playing a completely painted army to varying from extremely well painted to high tabletop by summer.

I use my sig as motivation. I post what I have done in there, with the goal to paint a mini a day for the entire year. That way I will clear my back log and allow myself to buy some new stuff. Currently I've got about 20 orcs and goblins to do to finish my backlog for that army, and then some chaos. After that, it's Space Hulk and the few mantic bits I have (but I'm slightly intimidated by them because I want a particular type of look and I have to experiment to find an easy way to achieve it.)

Seconding the "keep your workspace clear of everything but your current project" advice, and also adding that you should never buy something you haven't thought about for at least a month.
You should sell stuff you're not using or that you feel unenthusiastic about though. I sold off my Beastmen, Lizardmen, Gothic and 40K Chaos stuff, as well as all my D'n'D minis. Felt AWESOME.
Work has been pretty crazy the last while and my weekends have been taken up with other stuff, so I'm behind right now, but I'll catch up, eventually.

Just a comment regarding "reality" of being an adult with finances. Having responsibilities and a more moderate amount of disposable income has little to do with how much unpainted lead/plastic you manage a to acquire.

I'm a full time dad but also an inverterate bargain buyer and though I resell alot, I keep the stuff I want. Besides the Gladiators/Junkers force on my workbench right now, I've got waiting:

1) 40 Spacelords Sardaykin Power armored troops
2) 30 Shockforce Megacom Tac and Light troopers
3) 15 EM4 Troopers waiting for conversion
4) 40 warzone troopers wating to be converted into an additional IG platoon.
5) For my various skirmish games, gang sized (6-8 model) warbands of:
-Sci-fi Scavengers
-Wastland nomads
-Bikers
-Survivalists
-Woodland animal people

Even though I've "finished" 2000+ point armies of BA and IG, I've still got
6) 3 term squads, a few charachters, 15 assault marines, a rhino and a jumpack command squad
7) Russ, Hellhoud, 2 Chimeras, Ogryn, Inquitor and retinue, and a valk

Those are just the figs and models that have definite "projects" there are many more that I just have.

It just doesn't stop.

Have you inventoried your minis, and worked out on paper reasonable project goals? I find planning projects helps me remain focused.

You must constantly tell yourself that finishing the current project will be more rewarding than any amount of daydreaming of future ones.
Stop thinking in terms of armies, and just focus on one mini-or unit at a time. For me, a completed mini in hand is waaaay more satisfying than buying a whole army of figs, and letting them collect dust on the shelf. One can get overwhelmed to tackle a backlog of projects, slipping into a " all or nothing" mode that makes it hard to get psyched up to actually start working. Its counterproductive.

Also you may tend to shortchange the quality of the army you are working on now because you are thinking of the one you want to do next time. Don't think how cool it will be to have a new army to introduce or impress others at the gaming table. In a word, commit. Stay committed to your original enthusiasm that encouraged you to buy the minis in the first place.

I have several projects, that are almost complete and a few older armies that I have decided to strip and repaint.

I find switching between systems is one of the best ways to keep painting, something.

And at the end of the day, collecting, building, painting, gaming are all individual hobbies, that are somewhat collected together. Is it wrong to enjoy any one of the parts of the greater whole?