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I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but I tend to have so many ideas at a time it's hard to get anything finished!

Right now, I'm working on Fantasy scenery (but made more generic for use in other systems), my Blood Angel blog (see sig), An Imp guard force, 40k scenery, Space Hulk genestealers (to be used in both SH & 40k), a new Tau force and 15mm Flames of war.

Also in the pipe line (my head) I'm planning a Space Wolf & Chaos Marine Kill-team (1 each not joint) plus when I finally get time for another project I'll be getting some GKs.

It's probably worth mentioning that I have a strict painted only rule for myself when it comes to the minis (scenery I'm a little less bothered about but I'm getting there).

So basically with all that going on I just wondered how other people get on when there's so much cool stuff out there?

How do you stay focused on one job at a time?

This is more out of interest that a plea for help but I'm sure some of you Dakkaites will have some useful advice either way!

Cheers All!

I don't.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Tactical_Painting_Doctrine:_Work_on_Multiple_Armies_Simultaneously

Nice link!

Cheers! ;-)

I don't either. I alway have about 5 jobs on the go at any one time. I tend to flit between them depending on what inspires me at the time.

I'm currently painting up a crashed aquila lander set I picked up cheap on ebay. I have a number of parts on order for some thunderwolf cav I want to try (and I don't even play SW), and am greenstuffing a tervigon. Awaiting me i then have some scout bikes in need of renovation and half a dozen heavy weapons teams. I am also thinking of some scenery with water effects as I've never tried this before ...

I am also totally with you on only fielding painted units!

ruminator wrote:I don't either. I alway have about 5 jobs on the go at any one time. I tend to flit between them depending on what inspires me at the time.

I'm currently painting up a crashed aquila lander set I picked up cheap on ebay. I have a number of parts on order for some thunderwolf cav I want to try (and I don't even play SW), and am greenstuffing a tervigon. Awaiting me i then have some scout bikes in need of renovation and half a dozen heavy weapons teams. I am also thinking of some scenery with water effects as I've never tried this before ...

I am also totally with you on only fielding painted units!

Would love to see your tervigon, my friend plays nids, but his girlfriend does most of the painting and he uses my sm dreadnaught for a tervigon, we keep saying about making him one if he buys a couple of kits to bash together but im not sure where to start, \i thought the easiest way would to get a carnifex and make him wider bigger and more gribbly with marbles for the egg sacks. And in regards to the thread I have so many unfinished projects its intense, I find just get done wot you can when you can, its a hobby not a job, dont stress your self out dude!

Without a dead line - I don't get anything finished. Pick something public as a finish date - tournament, convention, blog, etc ...

gingermist wrote:its a hobby not a job, dont stress your self out dude!

This is what I tend to forget, I'm always just looking around and getting stressed cause there's so much to do. But then I have to remind myself, I'm not going anywhere and I don't have to do any of it! It is a hobby and I need to remember that!

Cheers!

I give myself guidelines.

1. I will not buy models while others need assembled.
2. I will not assemble anything before I am ready to paint it
3. When an entire army is painted, 6 months off from painting to avoid getting "burned out" on the process

they help...

I keep a small spiral bound notebook with me and when I'm bored or when inspiration hits I sit and sketch something out or write simple note. When I don't have that handy I just jot it down on my BlackBerry which is always in my pocket. That way you at least don't have to worry about forgetting your cool new ideas while you build other things (which were at one time cool new ideas too!)

My hobby space is primarily given over to storing the copious volume of tools and supplies I've accumulated, so my actual workspace is limited. If I'm working on a project, whether it's a build or painting, it takes up most of my usable space, which doesn't let me start anything new. This way, if I want to jump to another project, I need to spend the time and effort finding a place for the old one, which makes me pause and think whether it's worth jumping around or finishing the WIP.

For example, right now I have a bulky scratchbuild in chunks on the table, with a trio of lootas primed and ready to start painting stashed off to the side. They can switch places without too much effort, so I can choose to paint or model, but even that takes a bit of shuffling. I've got another scratchbuild planned, but now I'm far more likely to finish one of the two current projects before moving past the planning stage of the third than I would be, otherwise. Once I finish one of these, I'll want to use up the foam for the terrain piece I have planned to clear up that space.

For me, compartmentalization and limited space puts a cap on the simultaneous projects I can reasonably have, which gives me options (so I don't get burned out), but not too many (so I never get anything done).

[edited for a missed pluralization, because I'm anal]

I can never stick to 1 thing, even before i've finished priming 1 thing up, i'm allready thinking of doing this that and the other, i have 1 idea tho! Just buy 1 thing at a time, but once again, having the idea and sticking with it is another matter lol!

I've learned to embrace my hobby ADD !!

And keep notes of what all the piles and bags of bits were originally for !!

But, if I really need to get something done, having a "hobby buddy" to motivate me like a gym buddy would has worked. Unless he's as distracted as I am by shiney new models ...

Discipline or a limited disposable income is the solution. I tend to buy only when im nearing the end of my initial project....at least that was my philosophy when I started. I stuck with it pretty closely. But now, I have about 14 characters and a rhino to complete to call my Blood Angels done and I have about 2500 pts worth of various other army's to start building and painting. Its hard to stay on one project at a time. Once I have started painting something though, I dont stop until I consider it good enough to call it table quality.

Self discipline.

Although I have four armies, I only work on one at a time - for about a month to six weeks each. I assemble, paint and play with that army for that time.

Then, to stop burnout/boredom/ennui/whatever, I switch to one of the others if it needs work, then I do that, and play with them for a while.

Most of the 40k armies just don't appeal to me (and aside from certain models in WHFB, the entire range does not appeal), so I'm pretty safe from "gottagetemall syndrome".

RanTheCid wrote:Without a dead line - I don't get anything finished. Pick something public as a finish date - tournament, convention, blog, etc ...

Deadlines do help, I've started an army blog and was updating once a week with progress, any progress really but it helped keep me on track. (Of course job and family issues caused me to run off the tracks for a weekly deadline)
But thats besides the point.

I play a game with myself - for every one unit of Army X I paint completely, I get to paint one character from that army. Once I finish three units from Army X, I can paint one unit from Army Y. Once Army X is done, I start on Army Z, still working on Y as my "reward" army.

Now, with the oncoming release of TK models, I've also added a six unit reward of being able to buy one or two boxes of new stuff. Otherwise, I just get into another situation where I have a jillion things to paint. Like, you know... now.

Current Army X - Tomb Kings
Current Army Y (the reward unit) - Space Marines
Current Army Z (on deck circle) - Dwarves

RanTheCid wrote:Without a dead line - I don't get anything finished. Pick something public as a finish date - tournament, convention, blog, etc ...

This can really be a catalyst for motivation. Though I never get my work done on time. But, I will create a mini list for that days paint work and wont stop painting until I have finished everythign on the list. This is a way to give yourself a manageable, short-term goal instead of setting a deadline for the entire model.

Over on Somethingawful there's the "oath" thread, where people oath to complete X models by the end of the month. This month I have oathed 10 Catachan veterans and a special weapons squad. Since succeeding in my oath puts me in for prizes and such (plus a year-long score) I have extra incentive to finish painting. Thanks to the oath thread, last August I managed to paint over 100 models, plus extras for a commission I was doing. Having deadlines REALLY helps, especially when there's an incentive for success or failure.

I've also found focusing on one project for a few months at a time helps. You can keep cycling projects so you don't get too burnt out on any one army, but you also get stuff done.

With immense difficulty in my case. I've had to be extremely strict lately as I have a huge box of FW stuff that I bought at the end of last year; my rule is that I had to finish everything else before I started any of them (just the two Vostroyan officers left!).

Of course, the fact that I've already got a marine and a chaos terminator lord laid out and partially trimmed isn't cheating, not at all.

In general I don't stick to one thing at a time as it tends to de-motivate me, and that's a bad thing when you paint as slowly as I do. So it's two or three different models at a time and no more batch painting. Of course this doesn't stop me thinking about new ideas and projects all the time.

gingermist wrote:

ruminator wrote:I don't either. I alway have about 5 jobs on the go at any one time. I tend to flit between them depending on what inspires me at the time.

I'm currently painting up a crashed aquila lander set I picked up cheap on ebay. I have a number of parts on order for some thunderwolf cav I want to try (and I don't even play SW), and am greenstuffing a tervigon. Awaiting me i then have some scout bikes in need of renovation and half a dozen heavy weapons teams. I am also thinking of some scenery with water effects as I've never tried this before ...

I am also totally with you on only fielding painted units!

Would love to see your tervigon, my friend plays nids, but his girlfriend does most of the painting and he uses my sm dreadnaught for a tervigon, we keep saying about making him one if he buys a couple of kits to bash together but im not sure where to start, \i thought the easiest way would to get a carnifex and make him wider bigger and more gribbly with marbles for the egg sacks. And in regards to the thread I have so many unfinished projects its intense, I find just get done wot you can when you can, its a hobby not a job, dont stress your self out dude!

Indeed. Marbles are the way! I used one in the hole at the base of the body and then built up 4/5 others and filled with polyfilla. Use green stuff to put vein details etc.