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You want to paint models, you want to convert stuff, you want to game, but the Hobby Gods have it out for you. You're scraping off mold lines and you slip and cut into some intricate detail. You try out a paint scheme that worked well on the test model, but it just doesn't work when you take it to the final army miniature. You've finished a model and found you're dissatisfied with the color scheme; after all that work, you have to strip it to preserve your sanity. You go to prime a resin model you converted really well and find that primer isn't taking to certain areas; the horror is realized when you see it's not a cleaning issue, but a casting issue.

Perhaps the most infamous one for me was the first vehicle I ever built; a Chaos Defiler. I worked so dang hard on that, being only 12 years old and having never used plastic glue. I put him together really well, and I didn't mind the melted edges from the plastic glue because I had a Nurgle army at the time. Then I dropped him down the steps, the loud sounds of plastic against hard wood floor as he tumbled down a twenty foot staircase. His arms were bent, his gun was bent, his head was snapped off. I don't think I've ever been more frustrated with a hobby situation than that time.

I've been running into a lot of these hobby roadblocks lately. Models that just aren't cooperating or ideas that just won't pan out. It's times like these that I have to look for outlets to vent the frustration that this wonderful hobby can incur, lest I get burnt out and go on one of my infamous hiatuses from the hobby. How does the Dakka community handle these situations? Those days where nothing seems to go right with your hobby time and you just want to flip your hobby table. I just wanted to make a thread where my fellow Dakkanauts could vent their hobby frustrations, and share stories of unfortunate happenstances that have happened in their hobbying careers.

If hobby frustration of any kind (tabletop games, videogames etc) reaches a point where its sucking the fun out of the hobby and making you hulk out into a rage monster or curl up under the table in the fetal position and cry, the best thing to do is just take a break.

Taking a break and doing something different will usually help you let go of the frustration and hopefully trigger some hobby inspiration too. Sometimes you can just push through your hobby frustration but when you can't I think it's best to just step back.

Personally I'm more of a hobbyist than a gamer so my most frequent frustration is time. I have the final result envisioned in my mind but given work and family responsibilities it takes several evening just to take all the pieces off the sprues, organize them, figure out what pieces I need from which kits to do whatever kitbashes/conversions I want, organize those pieces together, shave off all the mold lines, test fit, trim the pieces, glue the pieces, decide if I like the pose or if I have to redo it, then repeat the process until I have the whole unit ready to prime and batch paint. That usually takes a few weeks, IF I can consistently get some hobby time in each evening. Then the realization hits that I haven't even started painting yet, that I still have other partially painted units to finish that date all the way back to 2nd Ed 40K and that my pile of shame continue to grow in the meantime and I just want to tell the hobby to go feth itself.

The most recent hobby failure that caused a temporary ragequit was when I didn't shake the bottle of Reaper flesh wash adequately enough and didn't realize it until I had washed a handful of barbarians that I had spent the past 3 nights painstakingly trying to get the skin highlights correct and they came out all gakked up. I still need to go back and redo them.

Ooooooooh!

I am right there with you.

MB

My frustration is that I am in the clutches of a years-long painting slump. I can assemble and convert all night long, but the painting is coming so friggin' hard and seems like such a huge chore, which is horrible considering it follows years and years of painting with no problems.

I can spend hours converting a model and have the exact scheme of painting in mind, and then I am ready to start and just everything turns to "meh".

Problem for me right now, is that there are quite a few minis that I just want to paint up like a couple of them... but they're in boxes of a bunch more than I want.... Or, I've seen a picture of something online, and I want to paint it, but I cannot find the miniature I just saw painted.


So, for me, right now, I am digging the Wargames Factory Colonial America era British and American Independence troops figures, but the boxes are like 10-20 miniatures, and I don't really plan on gaming with them, so I don't really particularly want to do the entire box.

The other thing, I've been getting more and more interested in the Landsknechts... but the few minis I've seen are fugly, except for one that was beautifully sculpted and painted, but I cannot find the shop for it (even through the link in the picture)

This happens to me all the time. A common one is finishing an Infinity model, being pleased with what I did, then going and looking at Angels official models and almost throwing them into the stripping jar.

This is why I also video game. When I find that I'm just getting frustrated for whatever reason, I can go play a game.

I just either stick a drill bit through the end of my finger pinning hands on Flayed Ones recently, cut a "mouth" at the end of my finger where I need to go to the team medic to sew me up.
Those are temporary set backs, but the real frustrating thing for me is these after market part kits you see guys use, I buy a couple and they're just garbage kits! Like the one for the Stormraven...
It does take some skill and patience to complete those kits, so I'll let them sit and think about the approach, perhaps I'll figure it out.
Oh, and I have an intimidation of those big beautiful Forge World Titans, and large tank models. They look so good and painting them just intimidates the heck out of me! I've had a Warhound Titan for years that's unfinished... I just need to buck up and get it done!