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This may be the wrong place, but does anyone set shot term painting goals (like month long) and if so, how do you guys organize it? I was thinking about ways I could do this to motivate myself, and I was thinking of something like "an army list per month" that way the reward is built in in the fact that you can game with a fully painted army when you're done. Anywho, any other thoughts on the matter?

I try to paint one mini a week. I count bikes as two, and vehicles as 4 (so a month’s work). I used to try to do 4 minis a week, but wasn’t able to maintain that pace.

But even at that glacial pace, we’re looking at 52 minis a year. Even swapping out for some tanks/transports, that’s still a fully painted army in a year. And a very achievable goal. If you set too lofty goals, it’s easy to be resigned and watch them go by. Keep things within reach.

I participate in a monthly challenge, and keep a blog. Public participation and shaming helps keep me in line.

I also set point goals to get my eldar army moving. I think it was 1,000 points over last year.

One thing that keeps me going is playing only painted things and WYSWYG. If I want to put it on the table, I need to paint it first.

My current goal is to enter the painting challenge every month with something I will really enjoy tackling and then one thing which I find a bit more mundane, usually more ork boyz or something very similar painting wise (tank bustas, burnas, lootas etc).

Next month I'm heading to WHW for the 'I am Alpharius' event so I'm trying to get another 20 boyz done for that. Having realistic targets for events and such is a great motivators for me. Before my first event I had not a single ork based, in 2 weeks I managed to base 120 models.

I also find it much easier to motivate myself when I have limited things to paint. I buy something and paint it, a few days before I'm finished I'll buy myself something else, currently I have 1 reserve kit too. i.e. if I the order doesn't arrive on time or I don't get to a GW mid week I start on my reserve kit. Not the cheapest way to do it but my attention doesn't wander and this is worth the cost in my opinion.

#1 Thing for me was get the hell away from electronics.

having a PC near by killed my motivation. soo many you tube vids :/

then i started to segment my work and knock out colors in a assembly line fashion.

i try to do at least one color a day for whatever i segment. usually about 5-10 models.

it seems to be working

that seems like a ton of painting for a month but i personally do painting in 2-3 hour sessions with no goal in mind.

I generally break models down by sections. the recent herald on a disc i painted the center disc in 4 2 hour sessions. then i broke the outer disc into all of the outer NMM in 1 day all the innter nmm on another day and the disc was wet blending so it was fast (none of this done in this order). I paint a leg one day an arm the next and a part each day.

thats how i do centerpiece models but troops are dif. when i paint troop models (the horrors/flamers soon) ill prob do colors. one day Ill base everything (base color for all parts) next day ill do shades and highlights for that color etc and so forth

Its funny he mentioned the PC. its such a distraction. i moved my pc down to my gym equipment because i was neglecting workouts reading warhammer 40k stuff.... computers are just too much at your fingertips sometimes to avoid lol. not to mention whatever I'm painting I'm constantly looking up online

I kinda get what you guys mean with the PCs, though I tend to manage to have enough self control to just let youtube run.... sometimes.

Beyond that, I should probably clear up what I meant by 'an army a month"

April, for example, will be my attempts to finish my dread army: 10 dreads, 3 terminator HQs, and 15 other models. once I'm done with this, I'll probably drop the goal down to units or smaller 'formations' simply because I think the idea of being able to field and entire section of painted models when I'm done will be a good reward, if that makes sense.

just feels like so much painting for a month I'm not sure how that can be even done

It can be done. just do it systematically. airbrush or with a big harry strick, the base coat can be done in a day or two for two good coats.

the rest of the details as long as its not super technical can be done in like a day per dread or 3-5 models a day.

I do the monthly painting challenge, but I find a month too long term a goal to set.

I game every week basically, and every week aim to use a new unit or two. That works to keep me painting. Of course, it's harder to get motivated if the system you're gaming you have fully painted.

But that's my system. Paint to game, do it regularly.

I found that goals like that didn't work, it made it feel much more like a job and less of why I wanted to do it.

What I do now is commit to sitting at the desk and doing something, even if all I achieve is cleaning up or looking at what I have to determine the next steps. I also have a little notepad where I write down what those next steps will be so I can better segment my work.

This has made a big difference, because getting the airbrush set up and switching paints and disassembly/cleaning is something I do not enjoy doing, so I want to get it all done at once.

So I will have tasks on the pad in some kind of coherent order, like all airbrushing stuff (and then sorted into how to do it, gloss varnish jobs first, then matte varnish, then light colours, then dark colours), then all painting stuff, and then all auxiliary stuff (like cleaning, molding, masking, whatever).

Sitting down in front of 10,000 points of grey horror is demoralising, but knowing that all I want to get done tonight is varnishing 6 models - well that is easy.

kb_lock wrote:
I found that goals like that didn't work, it made it feel much more like a job and less of why I wanted to do it..

Fair enough. My problem is I'm a lazy bugger. I do enjoy painting, and when I'm in the mood I'll spend hours on a figure.
That being said, if I were to rely on that, I'd get nothing done. Doing 1-2 units a week, I may not enjoy painting them as much, but I do get the satisfaction of fielding a fully painted force, and a sense of accomplishment.

To each their own. Just what works for me.

Sorry, "goals like that" wasn't specifically directed at you matey!

You really hit on it though, paint for a reason and know your reason.

6 infantry per "painting day" which can be subsituted for a tank or a detailed character mini. Easy goals that allows me enough wiggle room to spend time on school assignments.

I break up the monotony of painting nothing but Ultras by working on a Frostgrave guy if I feel like it.

I paint stuff I want to paint That way, the motivation is having a nice mini painted of something I want painted when it's done

When I first started 40k, I very quickly assembled and painted about 50 space marines (so that I could play). That was like, my first army. Then, I slowly replaced models with nicer painted models, and over the years, I've stopped painting quick models entirely. Whether it's a 8 point troop or a 800 point titan, every model just takes as long as it takes, and I'm happy if I get a hobby hit by painting a little weapon or even a head or two.