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Ok,
I've noticed recently that there has been an increase in posts from posters who have hit the wall and lost the drive to paint etc... Well, I thought I'd relay my experiences of the very same problem and of my thoughts and advice on how to get back on track, so here goes;
1) I think we all get blinkered into finishing our latest army, I know I did. I also think that army building can be very detrimental to our overall enjoyment, we raise an army with a lot of figures, and perhaps subconciously balk at the thought of using the same colour over and over and over again. At the tail end of last year I began amassing marines from ebay for my Hawklords army, the plan being that I'd use large amounts of parts from other companies such as Anvil(gawd bless ya!)To make them look very different from my previous army builds. Anyway I did this, spent ages tidying/stripping/repairing figures then assembled them. Then after a few weeks of this I finished this part of the process. And I got bored. I hit the wall very hard and lost all interest. 2 weeks later and I'd still not got round to painting them, I actually got a bit stressed about this, knowing I'd spent a fair amount of money and wondering if I'd ever get round to painting them. It was at a low point I learned a valuable technique; step back!
I realise that I'd got too focussed on this project that it was driving me up the wall and I needed to go and do something else for a while. See below;

2) I looked about for other options and I settled on something that I did long before wargaming; building model plane kits. To me, this is far removed from the usual haunts of 40k but still in the hobby genre, that is to say I was still able to keep my hand in. So I got myself several kits. At times it was a struggle learning new techniques (plane kits can be very fiddly), but building them gave me back my patience and I felt my hunger for painting figures start to return. I opted to stay with plane building for the time being. Now, some of you may not like the idea of breaking out of the wargaming hobby but I'd say give it a shot.

3) Planes not for you? Try this. Do not attempt to paint anything related to your army for a couple of weeks. Instead have a trawl through your unpainted minis and select 10 or so. Now these figs have to bear no relation to each other; that is to say they can't be made into an army in any shape or form. They have to be totally individual. I've did this a few times, the first couple of goes believe it or not I couldn't come up with colour schemes as I'd been too locked into army schemes; think of marines, one basic overall colour= little creative thought, now you have 10 figures to paint that will need muliple different colours. It should get you to start thinking creatively again. It may take you a few weeks but you'll get there trust me.

The overall idea behind this post is to get you to realise that there is no real time limit to finishing an army; better to take your time and get it right rather than forcing yourself and making a hash of it.
You've got learn to say "To hell with it!". Remember; having fun is more important than anything else in the hobby.

Now this... Is helpful... Its what I usually do whenihit the wall with my BA

I actually just did this last night. I've been plowing through my Dark Eldar and after basing, pinning and priming some warriors last night I dug out an old 2nd edition Hive Tyrant I've been sitting on and started painting him. I had a blast, too.

I do the same. I like the fact I have multiple armies to work on. If I get sick of painting one I just jump over to another and just do that when I get sick of painting orks, marines, daemons, etc.

I agree with the third point to the dot! Although it need not be 10 models, maybe just 5. This is when backing reaper is going to be really handy.

Only problem is not having a lot of options when it comes to the paints I have. I only have my army colors! And I need to expand that!

 UnCool Villain wrote:
I do the same. I like the fact I have multiple armies to work on. If I get sick of painting one I just jump over to another and just do that when I get sick of painting orks, marines, daemons, etc.

This is the point I'm at now. I just got sick of painting marines so I started 2 new armies and now I can't stop converting, basing, and painting. I just bounce between the 3 and do some when I can and its kept things very fresh and enjoyable.

This is what got me into fantasy.
I could then simply swap between armies to paint.


Failing that, i usually dig through GW's site for a model i really like the look of then buy it simply to paint, even if i have nothing for that army.

Have multiple things... I swap back and forth between types of models to paint.

Also sharing your stuff online can keep you motivated.

Yes, I have seen a few posts of this nature and have had the problem.

See this:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/30/507960.page#5382287

Keep the environment as nice as possible and keep all those unpainted models hidden away.

This is excellent advice for anybody new to the hobby that hits the wall for the first time.

I also have a few different options that I hop around with. Was Space Wolves, go bored and hit the Nids, got bored and hit the Nids Big bugs, got bored and splattered some DE, got bored and splashed some Cryx....

Lather, rinse, repeat. Toss in the occasional lust for conversions (which for me seems to come out of no-where and slam me for weeks lol).

I also occasionally revert back to my Assassin's Creed, nothing helps you relax like stabbing guards through the top of the skull...

My necrons, unfinished and lying in bags. I have no enthusiasm they are to bland to finish.

One other thing: if you have no emotional reaction to any of the standard things you used to like, it could be depression.

May be the time for a vacation or be outside and almost literally smell the roses for a bit. Time with friends in general may be the thing to do.

While building ym UIltramarines i would occasionally pick up an unrelated kit, build/ pain it just to have something different. Not i have over 2k points of ultras, i also have the beginings of an eldar army, and a slaanesh chaos space marine force! I also got the DV dark angels, realised they wern't for me and coverted the bike and tactical squad to Ultramarines.

So although at the time these things seemed a little irrelevant, i now have a good starting point for a couple of other armies which i will slowly build up as "background" projects

For me having tons of armies on the go at once is a good way to never finish anything.

the more you buy the more crap you have sitting around unfinished the bigger the task it seems the less you want to do anything.

best thing to do is buy one kit a month and dont buy anything else until you finish it. grind through your project, get it done. if you cant face it i guess either sell it off or pay someone else to paint it.

you hit the wall because building and painting is hard work. other hobbies relieve stress whereas this one can actually build it if you hold yourself to high standards. and in your case you also get stressed because of spending money but not getting anything done.

 Talizvar wrote:
One other thing: if you have no emotional reaction to any of the standard things you used to like, it could be depression.

May be the time for a vacation or be outside and almost literally smell the roses for a bit. Time with friends in general may be the thing to do.

BAM! I sometimes turn like this and it hits me like a truck. My best remedy for it is just go sleep. Sleep the night away, forget the damn depression and if it's a weekend, I wake refreshed and ready to go ge'em again.

Besides that damn weird depression feeling, painting other stuff really helps. I have been painting mostly necrons so when I got a chance to paint Space Wolves for a friend, I jumped at the chance. It's being refreshing.