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.

I'm sure we've all had them, the days where nothing fits together properly or where a single slip ruins days of paintwork. I've had an awful day modelling and painting today with a razorback model refusing to fit together and the paintwork being ruined as a result.

I was so tempted just to throw the whole thing at the wall. I usually paint and model to relax, but today it's just been getting me more wound up.

What do you do when your hobby works against you and things just don't work out?

I put it down and find something else to do until I feel ready to get back to it. (Which could takes a couple hours, days, weeks, etc.) As you said, a hobby should relax not frustrate.

Take a step back from the model I am working from, and find something else to paint up quick.

Most recently whilst painting up my entry for the monthly challenge, I got annoyed with attaching the base so found a random Grot and slapped some paint on him. A bit of variety helps a lot.

I think a lot of the time that's the only reasonable course of action. Stopping and having a breather, before you make the problem worse.

I went back to the Razorback and its fitted together as well as it can be now and drying in the garage. Feels good to finally get the hull painted.

I've ruined 10 Forge World MKiv from getting frustrated and constantly stripping them, now they are used for testing colour schemes.

My wife usually stops me when I reach for the Dettol and gives me a second opinion before I go back to the drawing board.

 PastelAvenger wrote:
I've ruined 10 Forge World MKiv from getting frustrated and constantly stripping them, now they are used for testing colour schemes.

My wife usually stops me when I reach for the Dettol and gives me a second opinion before I go back to the drawing board.

At least you ruined something cheap. Oh wait...

I get frustrated quite a bit, especially painting. I can never seem to concentrate for long and end up getting sloppy and making mistakes and then get annoyed. So I leave it. And that's why I never get anything painted ever.

I am having this sort of frustration re-learning how to do flesh-tones properly.

Fortunately, I am doing a LOT of Goblins and Orcs (especially the GW LotR Orcs, where having splotchy skin is a feature and not a bug) so that I can practice more on the different methods I know I used to use, to find out why they are not working like they used to.

Sometimes, it requires doing things you think are utterly stupid to figure out what is going on.

But, with the price of toys these days being what it is.... It is hard to have sacrificial miniatures to the Gods of painting in order to figure things out.

MB

My method is less mature. If i get really frustrated with a model, I punish it for its insolence. That means battle damage and mutations. (I play CSM, so i can get away with ripping an arm off and green stuffing a new one on.)

I took a torch to a rhino hull once just cause it wasn't fitting right for some reason. After it cooled, I calmly green stuffed it and painted it's new "Melta" damage.

I've come to realise its the green stuff modeling that calms me down. Somewhere in all the frustration, I end up relaxing and diverting my attention into making a cool customized model and forget why i'm angry in the first place.

Obviously, I avoid the really pricey models when I start getting irritated. So I end up putting it down and punishing a random CSM in it's place.

My path may not be healthy or mature, but it works for me. Getting some cool conversions out of it helps too.

I walk away for a while.
Honestly no good comes,from me getting upset.

Apply bandaids.

The worst example of my hobby working against me is the day I swap out the old, dull hobbyknife blade for a new one. At the end of that day, regardless of what I was doing (I swear, even if the damn knife doesn't get used...!) my thumb and fingers are just shredded. Ouch!

I go and sew. Change the activity entirely. Usually when I come back, it just works out okay again.
There are exceptions.

pancakeonions wrote:
Apply bandaids.

The worst example of my hobby working against me is the day I swap out the old, dull hobbyknife blade for a new one. At the end of that day, regardless of what I was doing (I swear, even if the damn knife doesn't get used...!) my thumb and fingers are just shredded. Ouch!

I usually do it when fitting the blades. I not longer use snap-off craft knives for this reason (and a small line missing from my nose).

Walk away, most times literally i just up and go for a walk, clear my head then when i get back i either carry on or do some reading.

pancakeonions wrote:
Apply bandaids.

The worst example of my hobby working against me is the day I swap out the old, dull hobbyknife blade for a new one. At the end of that day, regardless of what I was doing (I swear, even if the damn knife doesn't get used...!) my thumb and fingers are just shredded. Ouch!

Heh... You can always tell when I've changed my blade, from the bandaid on my thumb... When I'm doing a lot of hobby work, it tends to build up calluses.


For the original question, I've always found the best thing is to just work on something completely different for a while. It helps that I usually have at least a dozen different projects on the go at once...

I punish the model and put it in my time out drawer. Maybe I will come back it later and finish it, maybe it will just sit in there and think about what it has done forever.

Switching models is the trick, really. That and realising that the SUPER HUGE MASSIVE MISTAKE THAT IS SO OBVIOUS is really impossible to see by anyone other than me. Also, oil washes cover all manner of crimes.

i feel your pain. my forge world armageddon pattern basilisk just arrived, and its a night mare. nothing fits together right, and you have to break most of the pieces just to get them off the silly lumps on resin they come on. it doesnt help that you get no assembly instructions either.

I normally channel all the frustration into something else, so a good game of Killing Floor and a cuppa tea usually does the trick for me at least xD