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Hi i am really struggling with my hobby at the moment . I have very limited time to hobby and im putting off important work in the hope of getting all of my armys painted .However im still have so much to do .

I have an eldar army thats almost finnished i just have the specail models left to paint fw avater ,lynx ,hqs and warlocks. And ive got aload of touching up left to do ive got to strip 10 wraithguard . A tau army ive got 1 stormsurge 3 riptides and 3 broadsides to left to paint, . Ive got a whole spacemarine army to paint 6 rhinos 1 landraider 3 droppods 40 guys and a fw dread, a deamon nurgle army that need heavy conversions glotkin magoth starter sets defiler into the fw plague and wolfs to turn into spawn .i have a whole nid army 2 flyrants that need conversions finnishing and then a load normal guys then the little ones.
Thats not including my old painted spacemarine army that ive put in a display case that needs models adding to it to finnish it off. I have so many models left in my conversion box and so many ideas i want to make ,ive got a 10 man bike squad to convert into librains tech marine and a command squad . Ive got a landraider to convert into a fw one .and lots of other stuff ive been planning todo .

Sorry for the rant but i feel abit better for just getting that list out of my head . Now i know that im not going to beable to get that all finnished any time soon and im still buying more models. How does everybody feel about having models that wont get finnished anytime soon .And do you even plan to finnish them because at the moment i just feel overwelmed by the amount of work i have to do and that not even inculding normal life

Thanks for reading my little rant

I understand you completely, years ago I had the same problem, not enough time to dedicate to the hobby.

I chose not to paint and to dedicate all the time available to play 40k games. I always loved converting and scratch building so a huge amount of time goes for those purposes. I took a decision to continue the hobby but with unpainted miniatures.

Many people would dislike my choice but I litterally have not time for painting if I also want to play and have a normal life.

Personally?
Relax, your not the only one with the problem, it's a lot more common than you may think.

I went through a phase of being able to speed paint a 2k army in a week.
Naturally I upped my buying to accommodate this.

After around 2 months my painted pretty much stopped due to a change of work hours and since then I can barely paint a tactical squad in a week.
I now have around 12k of unpainted models that nag at me constantly.


My advice?
get all of the unpainted models in a drawer out the way and paint a unit at a time.
Staring at a pile of unpainted models is daunting and enough to make it seem a lot longer.



If you need a kick to get yourself back to it then trawl through websites etc to find a miniature you really love the look of, then paint that up.
I find this gets me going again with my painting pretty well.

I feel your pain. Some great tips on this thread:

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/715883.page

I also succumb to the "new shiny thing" sickness, so I have a to-do list that always seems to be getting longer. One day I'll make a dent in it

Everyone has different ways of keeping motivated. Here are some things that work for me.

Keep a blog. I’m OK with letting myself down. I’m not OK with letting other people down. Working in a public space helps keep me honest with my goals and progress.
Make obtainable goals. Don’t set them so high that you can’t reach them. When I was on point, my goal was 4 minis a week. These days, I do one mini a week. And I count vehicles as 4, bikes at 2. (My current pace is about one and a half to twice that, but it’s my goal). At that rate, you can get 40 marines with 3 transports done in a year. That’s a battle demi-co with full tacs, half am/devs, and transports for the tacticals. Decent sized army. While I say 1-a-week, it’s more 52 a year. Recognize that there are going to be bad weeks.
Mix up your paint schedule. You don’t want to burn out. Reward getting though the rank and file with a character. Change up armies on the bench.
Batch paint where you can. But not so large that you go insane. I try to keep 2-4 minis actively getting paint at a time.
Play games, read fluff. I love all aspects of the hobby. The visuals are a good part of that. I only play painted, and as WYSWYG as I can. Thinking about what a squad could do once it hits the table is a great motivator. Read the fluff to hear about their in-universe exploits, read/envision tactics for what they will do on the table. Want that full 10 man sternguard squad at full strength so they can combat squad out of a pod and deliver the Emperor’s wrath? Get painting!
Keep track of what you’ve done. I have a Year to Date shelf, where the new stuff goes. It’s great to see the progress. Plus they get first dibs for inclusion into lists. Got to get then bloodied on the the field of battle.
Sit down at the paint bench. You will get nothing done if you don’t start. Just sit down, and put one color paint on one model. Do that every day for a week, that’s probably a mini done. If there is something keeping you from painting, try to identify it. I had a drop pod that was keeping me away. Hate those things. So I exiled it to the back and started painting other stuff. When I had a color out that it needed, I’d slap a little bit on it. Went on for months, but I was getting other things done as well, instead of just avoiding painting. At one point I got past the tipping point. My desire to get that 3rd pod on the table fired up the gamer in me to override my painter’s hate of the damn thing. Finished it up in a couple of days.
I include in my yearly resolutions to "Paint more then I buy”. Not only is this a way to keep the pile of shame in check, and even get it smaller, but can be a motivational tool as well. Want the new shiny? Need to make space in the pile for it. Reward yourself for getting those squads done with that cool new HQ they just released. But don’t pick him up until you are done.

The long and short of it is - you're directly in control of how you spend your time, and how much stuff you buy in relation to how fast you can paint it. That may seem oddly harsh, but it's just a reality for almost all of us.

Stop buying stuff. Try to align your plans with your foreseeable schedule. If more time opens up later, awesome. Heaps of plastic, etc. don't do you any good sitting in a closet. The old adage of "eyes bigger than your stomach" can apply to wargaming.

Chill out, stop buying stuff and organize a plan for accomplishing the most you want to do in a reasonable amount of time. You don't "need" any o f this. After all we're talking about playing with toy soldiers. I fully understand your lack of hobby progress. I went from painting 100+ figures a year to 30 when I changed jobs. I almost never got to play a game of any sort. It happens to everyone. Unless painting miniatures is your job/livelyhood...it's all just toys.

I will say though that I'd follow a key rule I use for myself: don't build stuff till it's ready to paint. Simple as that. Some people (who like to play with grey plastic) will build an entire 2000-3000 point army and then gak themselves when they realize they have to paint it. That's just psychologically sabotaging yourself.

Keep that gak in boxes. Build and paint a unit at a time. Trust me, five models sitting on your hobby desk with zero clutter is far less intimidating than a kitchen table covered in grey-plastic (and god forbid you change your mind about the army half-way through and want to sell it off...).

Thanks for all the tips its been really helpfull

Break it down.

I'm painting the bop.

Om doing a a power Sgt and a corpral.. (no rules, more fun), a termy Sgt and a sos at mo.

However if you keep your numbers smaller, a squad or a smaller group you see progress and get one block done.

Then starts the next block.

Say 5 models at a time. Easy goes it.

I second Jackal's core principle - put most of the unpainted masses out of sight, so you can focus on a small number of models and work on a squad at a time or similar, avoids the swamped feeling, and lets you focus on the simple things.

1.) Spend too much on models.
2.) Realize you now have no money for bills, food, rent, etc.
3.) Paint models from your stash because you can't afford to go out.

But seriously, focus on one model at a time. Or a small unit, as others have said. Keep the others out of sight and away from your work space. And don't project hop. I'm bad at this; it's difficult. Consider multi-tasking while doing certain tasks, such as cleaning mold lines while watching TV/movies. Preferably something that doesn't require your full attention (reruns, B-movies, etc.).

without reading everything else in the thread,

I think its a good idea to paint for a list, so for example I am painting three harlequin troupes, 4 skyweavers, and a void weaver as my list is using those models, so once I finish my army will be closer to fully painted, giving me another starting point.

It also helps with moderation, and seeing painted models on the table is always wonderful.

 gummyofallbears wrote:
without reading everything else in the thread,

I think its a good idea to paint for a list, so for example I am painting three harlequin troupes, 4 skyweavers, and a void weaver as my list is using those models, so once I finish my army will be closer to fully painted, giving me another starting point.

It also helps with moderation, and seeing painted models on the table is always wonderful.

This is the approach I take. I have a lot of gray models and piles of unopened boxes. When it comes to painting I create a list I want to run and paint just those models.

^^^^ Paint for a list... yes.

Paint in broad swaths. Get the army to a table top quality that's ACCEPTABLE to you. NOT perfect. I can paint an assembled riptide to a tabletop standard in 2 hours. I can paint 3 assembled riptides to a table top standard in 3 hours. You should be able to do this too.

Use techniques that speed the painting process.
- Batch
- Zenithal Technique
- Paint entire army (or list) in stages
- Plan the painting.****


**** For instance if you are going to battle damage your tau or marines or if you are going to checker your entire harlequin troupe, for god's sake don't start on that. Lay the ground work for the checkers and move on. Then when you are super motivated, go back for the eye-crossing detail. Don't start there. Don't expect every model to be there simultaneously. BUT expect every model to tabletop. Once you start. You'll be motivated.


Currently I have 100% painted and based Orks, Tau, Marines and Eldar. I get compliments. They look coherent. Are they all done? No. All my tau are un-damaged. I plan on going back and making them look beat up. But they are done... enough... Enough for my OCD to be satisfied. That's the balance.

Just Start.

Dude I have a whole top of a wardrobe full of models that need painting, and when I say top its a tripple wardrobe and these are sat on top.

Pick either one unit or all of your HQ types for one army that need your attention and focus on them. I currently have a Daemon prince that needs some work done on him before I glue and paint him, a biker lord that needs to be sprayed and painted up and a sorcerer to finish painting. I have Cypher and Arimon sat on the shelf next to my bikers (who need painting and finishing) and some of my Gates of antares models too

Just relax and break it down. I am going to finish painting my chaos arm then move on to my Judge Dredd models then onto my infinity models and so on.

Just break the job down