Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Herzlos wrote:
I tend to only have 1 hobby project 'live' at a time, usually based on what I'm playing currently., with a couple of individual painting mini's kicking about.

The idea is I'll work on a project on and off for a few weeks and when I get bored it'll go back into storage and another one will come out. I'm currently on a drive to get all of my stuff assembled, based and primed, so that it's all at least usable in a game, but beyond that I've got no immediate goals.

This is basically what I am doing as well.

I have limited myself to working on filling out my Middle-earth projects (which is difficult, as I am having to sculpt many of the figures, having rejected Peter Jackson's vision of Middle-earth).

Fortunately, I am working on an earlier 3rd Age Project, set in the 19th Century, during the Wainrider Invasions, and there are several existing lines that work for the Rhovanion forces (which are basically just Goths).

But I switch out occasionally to do 15mm or 6mm Sci-Fi for the Traveller universe.

Amid all of that is getting an organized storage system for both painted and unpainted miniatures.

MB

I don't new shiny plastic/metal/resin crack get's priority over older stuff

I stay focus by doing things in small chunks. anyone can do anything for 15 minutes at a time.

Stay focused? I don't. The time I'm interested in a project almost always is far shorter than the time it takes me to actually finish a project. I usually can't stay focused for more than a few months, by which time I've only painted a handful of models.

I just try and limit myself by not buying anything new anymore, I just jump from one existing project to the next and avoid buying in to new ones, lol.

 Easy E wrote:
I stay focus by doing things in small chunks. anyone can do anything for 15 minutes at a time.

This is pretty much how I operate right now.

MB

The focus is what my friends are still excited about playing.
Then I have a side project to jolly them into.

The "circle of gaming" is:
40k
Battletech
BT-Alpha strike
Bridge Commander (Star Trek)
Full Thrust
Black Powder

New editions:
X-wing
Robotech

The trick is to try and keep to as few different scales as possible.

As if to prove what little focus we have as a group, we might have - by accident, I swear! - started playing Quest pretty heavily. And I also might have, again, by complete accident, bought some models for it. And when I say some...

1x Island of Blood (for the Skaven, a friend's getting the High Elves)
1x Skaven Grey Seer
1x Beastmen Battalion (10 Bestigors, 10 Ungors, 20 Gors)
1x Beastman Bray Shaman
1x Warriors of Chaos Battalion (5 Chaos Knights, 12 Chaos Warriors, 20 Marauders, 10 Chaos Hounds)
1x Slaughterbrute
1x Mutalith Vortex Beast
2x Forsaken (20 Forsaken)
1x Dragon Ogres (3 Dragon Ogres)
1x Chaos Lord (the plastic Fantasy one)
1x River Trolls (3 River Trolls)
1x Goblin Spider Riders (10 Goblin Spider Riders)
2x Savage Orcs (20 Savage Orcs)
1x Spirit Host (3 Spirit Hosts)
1x Dire Wolves (10 Dire Wolves)
1x Crypt Horrors (3 Crypt Horrors)
1x Cairn Wraith
1x Tomb Banshee
1x Wight Lord

*cough*

Again, by accident.

I am very fortunate that the people I game with are all even more myopic than I when it comes to games.

Houston:
• Fantasy Miniatures, using either Frank Chadwick's unpublished Ancient Conquest, Hoplon, or Field of Glory exclusively with Middle-earth (there might be an occasional Dark Ages Ancients game once a year)

Dallas:
• Napoleonic Naval Warfare (I sculpted parts of the ships for Portsmouth Miniatures and have gamed with the owner since I was in my teens)
• 15mm Sci-Fi using Striker or its sequel.

LA
• Flames of War

In the 1980's, we had several other areas of focus, but we tended to have them drop by the wayside as we got older and had less time (and when Tony & Rick went and founded Ensemble Studios and began dragging people into heretical computer games, and away from the sanctity of miniatures)

MB

I try to break things down into a number of projects and then work on goals at a time.

At the moment I have the following on the go

Samurai (for ronin and kings of war)

Swat / police (fist full of Kung fu)

Flame of war british

Infinity

They are the main things I am working on. I have started to split them into more manageable goals when painting. I like to try to finish one goal before moving onto the next.

For I painted and based a flames of war machine gun platoon before moving onto some univeral carriers, I got to a point with them where I needed soemthing else to continue so I moved onto the police. Instead of paitning the whole force at one I painted the five man swat team then moved onto some samurai. Now I am paitning a nine man force for Ronin which will be a playable force for the game.

Once my current goal is done I may either do some infinity, flames of war or samurai monks but I like to get one goal done at a time.

My suggestion is to split things into manageable goals

For example

Paint 10 imperal guard.

If you are sick of imperial guard then paint three infinity guys for a break. If not do another 10 imperial guard.

I keep a tracking list posted near my work station. On it is the main 40K armies I'm working on (Salamanders, Raven Guard, Imperial Guard, Grey Knights, Inquisitors, Tyranids, Tau, and now Eldar) and broken down to the units for each faction that add. These units are either already started in some way or at least purchased and waiting assembly, at the end of the year I remove the finished items and update as required. As I complete something on the list I check it off as completed and move onto something else. This helps me in a couple ways:

1) I can see how many things are getting done as time progresses (The more items checked off the better my moral)
2) When I get bored of painting one type of army, my list reinforces me to stick to something I already have started/purchased.
3) I purchase less items over the year and this keeps me from starting too many side projects (although it still happens from time to time)
4) The longer something sits on the list, the more motivated I am to get it done and over with (as opposed to hiding away in some box, out of sight)

I also do similar things to previous posters and break down bigger squads into smaller groups. Also, when I do this I break up the squad members so that the important members are always in the last batch (10 man Tactical Squad - 5 marines; then the sergeant, special, heavy, and 2 remaining marines) this helps to complete the full squad rather than the bare minimum and dragging your feet for the rest.

As well play with the personal rule of "Everything must be painted and Based", otherwise I seem to be in poor favour of the dice gods, but that's just me.

I cleared out my office/nerd room and now the only TTG hobby things in there are the glass cabinet, painting table and the Infinity stuff I want to paint up.

Such is Sod's Law, since I spent a few hours last week getting it all sorted I haven't actually had time to get stuck in!

how do you maintain your gaming focus?

Time. I have time for my work, wife, and a hobby. Wife gets the majority of my attention when I'm home. I can't possibly have 45 hobbies.

I envy people with time

And they envy people with money

Perhaps you are not a focus type guy? Maybe you just need to organize better so that switching between projects isn't a problem. I have 3 armies on the go. Space Marine, Wolves, High Elves, Skaven, Dwarfs, plus a few Mordheim bands. Plus one more SM army... plus I had Orks for awhile...

That's more than three... darn!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
That being said I have the Fantasy put away for now, still lots to paint but I don't want to continue painting them just now. When I'm doing a project I tend to drool over potential new army additions and well, things look like they're changing. My focus is back on the original marine army, looking at sprucing up bases and such.

Yeah I still drool at new stuff every now and then but there is a voice in the back of my head telling me to sort out the gak I already have first.

Ritalin is good for maintaining focus I hear.

MB

darkcloak wrote:
Perhaps you are not a focus type guy? Maybe you just need to organize better so that switching between projects isn't a problem. I have 3 armies on the go. Space Marine, Wolves, High Elves, Skaven, Dwarfs, plus a few Mordheim bands. Plus one more SM army... plus I had Orks for awhile...

That's more than three... darn!

I think that this is what I need to work on. make my projects modular so that I can swap them out when I want to change

I trade/sell for a new army, or paint a few figures in a different color scheme. Recently I have been taking more of a break from 40k, and playing a lot of Conquest. so much fun to me.

Adderall is also good, I hear.

MB

Staying focused
Im not the best one to get advice on for this im afraid. To give you a rough idea of why I currently have on the go: About 60 High Elves being done to basic table top standard, countless Skaven that I started years ago and have never finished, 2 Ogres im doing for DnD, several skeletons that im also doing for DnD, Goblins im doing for DND too, a Death of Rats model that I scratchbuilt as a tribute to Sir Terry Pratchett, a 1:35 scale Panzer II that im doing as a Kuromie scout tank, a scratchbuilt Tyranid BFG fleet, an M3 lee that Im doing in Rabbit teams colour scheme from Girls und Panzer, a 3 section German platoon for Bolt Action, A pair of Panzer IV ausf G and a whole crap ton more of random stuff.

And on top of this I have just ordered a British platoon, a Churchill VII and a Wolfen SS set for Bolt Action Why can I not just finish what I have started?

I'm bad at stayong focused.

Usualy I paint couple different model tyoes to keep me interested in painting, this way I'm keeping my self from getting bored from one color scheme. My main goal just to keep painting in hope that eventually I gonna paint all my models)