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I feel like I've been in a bit of a funk or a rut recently with my painting. I think the last thing I finished was a short project for battletech to paint up 20 mechs, which didn't take that long, but since that was finished, I don't know, I don't have the motivation to paint, and it's killing me. I have rpg figures to finish for a game of DnD I'm running, space marines, I guess what I'm wanting to ask is, hope do you guys get out of these ruts?

I was in a rut for a while as well. What I did was I bought a box of units I've never painted before. I enjoyed painting something new with a new color scheme. Now I don't even know if I want to paint any more of what I used to paint (marines).

I just stop painting for a while, stop thinking about it, stop looking at hobby stuff, then after a while the itch will strike and I'll find something that catches my imagination to start painting

Yeah, so long as you've not got a deadline like a tournament or anything, the best option is just to step away from the desk for a while, if you try and force yourself to paint the results are going to suffer. Play some video games if that's your thing, read a novel or two, and you'll soon find you want to pick up the brush again.

The other thing as mentioned is to just tackle something completely different. If you're bored of the same old same old, treat yourself to a nice one-off character model or something purely as a painting project, so you don't need to worry about getting it game-ready or anything, just paint for the sake of painting and use it as a palette cleanser.

 FakeBritishPerson wrote:
I feel like I've been in a bit of a funk or a rut recently with my painting. I think the last thing I finished was a short project for battletech to paint up 20 mechs, which didn't take that long, but since that was finished, I don't know, I don't have the motivation to paint, and it's killing me. I have rpg figures to finish for a game of DnD I'm running, space marines, I guess what I'm wanting to ask is, hope do you guys get out of these ruts?

sounds like anything in life. you do what you want to really do. unless you are depressed... thats kinda an odd place ive found. if you are not enjoying it then you wont do it. so dont do it

The long term strategy for this is starting off with a relatively simple scheme that you don't mind painting

Other things I like to do if I'm in that rut is paint either a considerably larger or smaller batch than I usually paint. Twenty infantry guys at once just to blast through them all, or maybe just two to get back into the cycle

Try a different medium! I like doing surreal oil landscapes between bursts of minis.

You need to step out of your comfort zone!
1) Buy minis you'd never normally buy. These don't need to be expensive; buy some cheap stuff from the likes of ebay and paint them up trying new techniques you've never done before/break the routine of how you do things.
2) Build a model kit that has nothing to do with wargaming! Instead of a tank/try a car!
Anything to break the routine.
Let us know what you get up to,we've all been there!

What about starting a blog on here?
Post some stuff up, get some feedback, have some fun with it, try something different.
Might help to motivate you.

If not, take a break and come back in a month or two. Sometimes RL stuff just takes over and one has no head space/motivation to paint. It should pass.

As above, different methods work best for different people.

I'm extremely prone to painting fatigue so finishing projects is always a struggle. I've had 20 necron warriors sat unpainted for almost a year now and necrons are easy to paint compared to other armies.

What works for me is to just rake a break and paint something that I WANT to paint, even if I will never use it in an army.

Also, switching between armies or models/terrain keeps it interesting enough to get it done.

Just don't stress about it and paint when you fancy. Some days you'll smash out hours of work, some days you won't.

Good luck and just keep at it

P.s. I'll let you know when I finish my warriors