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As the title states, I feel like I'm kind of falling out of the hobby. It may be because I work so many hours during the week that I'd rather read a book during the weeknights instead of setting a game up, paint, ect. I still love watching Batreps and reading lore. I hope it's just a summer slump. Does anyone have any suggestions to try to motivate myself to paint, build, ect? What have you done when you started falling out of the hobby? I don't want to stop, I have a lot of time and money invested in this game so any advice would be great. Thanks everyone.

I have felt exactly like you mate. The way I got back in to it was to engage in a crazy conversion project which reanimated my inner mek. But I think it is perfectly normal to get tired of the hobby for short periods and maybe you just need a bit of a break and come back to it later.

I get this quite often, what I do is stop painting, and read a horus heresy book, or read some fluff or history of warhammer, this then sparks my interest to paint and model again, also try setting up a pledge with yourself, like a model a week and as you get more enthusiastic again, increase it more and more

Happens to us all. Especially for those who started with friends in their school days. They get burnout and fall out around 18 or so (when they also have other 'interests' competing for their attentions.

Good thing about this hobby is it's still there when you want back in (provided you didn't sell or otherwise dump your stuff).

Take a break, come back later.

I am actually about finished with a Horus Heresy book. Descent of Angels. I really have no interest in DA but just reading the book is getting me pumped again. I currently have a half build Skull Cannon that I think I'm going to make my goal of finishing this week. Hopefully It'll help. But then again, maybe all I need is a little bit of a break.

Templar_Grist wrote:
As the title states, I feel like I'm kind of falling out of the hobby. It may be because I work so many hours during the week that I'd rather read a book during the weeknights instead of setting a game up, paint, ect. I still love watching Batreps and reading lore. I hope it's just a summer slump. Does anyone have any suggestions to try to motivate myself to paint, build, ect? What have you done when you started falling out of the hobby? I don't want to stop, I have a lot of time and money invested in this game so any advice would be great. Thanks everyone.

I have found myself in a similar predicament lately as well. Its been difficult to find the motivation to paint, especially when I am exhausted after work. Just this last week I attempted to paint when I was wiped out & ended up having to strip the model with acetone since I made a mistake that was irreversible. That said, I went right back at it the next day with the same model & damn it felt good when it was finished. It is really satisfying having a finished piece of art that you created yourself. Sure you could spend that time playing video games, watching TV or w/e but in the end I find that I don't get that sense of accomplishment doing those activities. Not only that, but in the event that you wanted to sell your army down the road you are essentially increasing the value of your investment if you take the time/love to paint your army.

Some days I don't paint at all. Largely because I am just wiped out. Its normal. I too enjoy watching batreps on those days & am currently reading "Angel of Fire" when I don't feel like painting. It can be hard between codex releases when there are things you want to see changed as well. I play IG & I so desperately want to see Stormtroopers, Commissar Yarrick, Rough Riders, Ogryns play a larger role in the codex. Its hard to be patient at times. That combined with all the activities that are normally associated with summer its hard to find time to play. I'd say don't stress over it, if you enjoy the hobby you will naturally find yourself involved with it down the road.

Happens to me, on a regular cycle. Go into "hobby hibernation" during the school year, get pumped up again over the summer when my old friends are back around.

Ey, im inthe same same boat, mostly because im working like a dog, but if i want to get back into the swing of things, i have to give me self a hard core 40k boost, play a crap ton on dawn of war and space marine, then i end up wanting to finish my army

Every hobby I have i take large breaks from where I feel relatively uninspired. Itll come back, and like above posters said it usually does after reading a novel or getting stoked up on Warhammer.

For example I just recently finished the book Rebel Winter, and it made me want to start building a Vostroyan force really bad. So i think I have my next plans for an army or allies project.

I enjoy gaming with my friends a lot but find the rules/models/source of the 40k game was irritating me.
See my below post from another forum where I think I figured out the source of "meh".
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/541941/5884826.page

Agreed, if a hobby is getting you down, it is not doing it's "job" for you so a break is good.

I tend to get stuck when it comes to painting, this is what I do to ensure I have fun:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/524849.page#5576730
If painting gets you down X-wing is there for you...

Good luck, find your fun, it never hurts to diversify a bit.

I always have a surge of motivation when I begin planning a new project. See if there is any army you have always wanted, but never bothered with for whatever reason.

See if there is a way to make the army completely unique, whether it be through conversions, painting scheme, theme, etc.

For example, if I had to work on a marine army that was just a commander, some tactical squads + rhinos, and terminators in a land raider painted in some standard smurf or dark angels scheme - I'd get bored and stop pretty early on.

My greyknights encountered the issue above, I always wanted a small terminator force and eventually bought some paladins. I hardly use the army as it isn't unique and generally my paladins don't look vastly different from anyone else (they have halos made out of tips of force staves... wooo)

My other 2 armies though, these I purposely am going all out on - both my Nurgle CSM and Farsight Tau are getting complete overalls (the majority of the models are being completely replaced). The key to my motivation is the desire to open my gaming case, pull out my army and present something that you don't see everyday. This is where forgeworld has really helped where my artistic talent is lacking.

GW plastic kits just don't impress me that much anymore, but I have no problems mucking around for hours with forge world kits. Perhaps an army made of units from FW or some other gaming company (if you don't play inside GW locations) is what you need to get the hobby rolling again.

I feel you, OP. I'm in a similar feeling right now, but because I keep looking at my massive horde of unpainted IG and just get overwhelmed. I'm seriously thinking of selling the whole thing and starting over with a smaller army, which would probably help my motivation on the hobby side.

So I just got finished playing a small game of Killteam. It's a 200 point game. Quick to set up, quick to play through. I highly recommend it if you're struggling getting motivated. I'm feeling so pumped, at least for the playing aspect. Still having trouble trying to sit down and paint. I actually picked up my brushes and just sat there for a few minutes...
I think a part of my motivation issues is I just bought a new motorcycle so all it seems like I wanna do is ride. Maybe in a few months I'll be able to settle a little bit again and get into my more homebody hobbies a little bit.

And I love my Templars but in this new rule set they're kinda lackluster. I've read rumors about some playtesting going on for them though and it's just kind of a waiting game I guess.

Oh yeah, I'm currently going through this "hobby shutdown" you're experiencing, OP. What kinda gets me to this state is getting bored with the current army I'm working on and getting tempted to buy another army or other army models.
I don't recommend anyone does this, unless you're completely sure it's financially viable.
And like some users have mentioned above, reading a good BL book or watching some great battle reports can help one get back into the hobby.
Another problem I also have is not having people to play with.

Perfectly normal, dude. Just take a short break, reading up on the lore and watching your batreps. Just take a speculator's position for a while until you get that nagging feeling inside to jump back into the ring. It'll happen eventually! Just don't liquidate your armies and hobby-related stuff, you'll regret it.

Thanks everyone for your support and ideas

I work for a school district and had the whole summer off. All I have to show for it is one Grey Hunter 90% complete and there is only one week left of break. I know that feeling. Still trying to find a way to climb out of the slump...

I know exactly how you feel, though in my case its because literally all my friends that play 40k have either moved away or no longer play anyone. Coupled with the LA Battle Bunker closing and I literally have no place to play anymore...

That's rough Ferrum_Sanguinis... luckily my roommate plays so I could play just about whenever, but I'm usually just so dog tired after work I don't want to do anything.

Buy a new model. It works wonders for the encouragement!!

I also have phases, sometimes i spent more time on computer gaming than modeling, just go with the flow!

I sympathize, my waning interest in 40k (modeling/painting) is mostly due to the fact that I've moved away from all my friends that play. I can only get games in every few months with people I don't really know and its really sapped my desire to continue the hobby. My suggestion would be to maybe branch out, meet new players, go to some different locations to play?

I played a 2000pt game of 40k back in march.

Prior to this, I hadn't played a game of it in 2 and a half years because I stopped enjoying it.

6th edition did nothing to change that.

Good thing about the gaming hobby is that there's more to it than just GW games if you look around. Getting others to try them is the big hurdle, but lots of people are content to go to mcdonalds and never try fine cuisine, too.

ive dropped out of 40K completly i started playing the Batman Arkham city miniature game which is awesome i may come back to 40k when Orks get a new dex but probably not in the end cost and time got me i only need a few models to play batman so its both cheap and leaves me plenty of time to paint

Templar_Grist wrote:
As the title states, I feel like I'm kind of falling out of the hobby. It may be because I work so many hours during the week that I'd rather read a book during the weeknights instead of setting a game up, paint, ect. I still love watching Batreps and reading lore. I hope it's just a summer slump. Does anyone have any suggestions to try to motivate myself to paint, build, ect? What have you done when you started falling out of the hobby? I don't want to stop, I have a lot of time and money invested in this game so any advice would be great. Thanks everyone.

I think you should try warmachine, flames of war or something else. I usually do that when I am bit tired of 40k and after few weeks I allways come back to 40k.

Templar_Grist wrote:
As the title states, I feel like I'm kind of falling out of the hobby. It may be because I work so many hours during the week that I'd rather read a book during the weeknights instead of setting a game up, paint, ect. I still love watching Batreps and reading lore. I hope it's just a summer slump. Does anyone have any suggestions to try to motivate myself to paint, build, ect? What have you done when you started falling out of the hobby? I don't want to stop, I have a lot of time and money invested in this game so any advice would be great. Thanks everyone.

My schedule has been so full lately I've gotten little done related to minis. I did have 1 Saturday free in July and got a whole bunch of Flames of War and 40k minis built up and ready for priming. You don't have to do something 40k related every day to be in the hobby. Sometimes just sitting back and chilling with a book, especially after a really long day is better than having to focus on painting minis or even playing a game. There is nothing wrong with that and nothing wrong with you for doing so. As is almost always the case you'll get the itch again and before you know it you'll be painting, building and playing again in no time.

Just go with the flow, maybe your mind just needs a break. If you still enjoy reading battle reports and reading the fluffy books and such you haven't lost your interest.

Skriker