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I've been feeling this one for a while. Just can't get enthusiastic about painting. Struggling to find the time and motivation to do anything, and feeling the weight of the backlog. Haven't painted at all since I did a bust of Gandalf for my dad for his birthday at the start of the summer. He, a long-term LOTR fan since forever, opened it and said "Oh that's nice. Is it... Merlin???"

Doesn't help that my 'regular' opponent (we've yet to play a game of 10th ed 40K, and maybe played 3 or 4 games of 9th!) is an incredible painter, both in terms of quality and speed.

So... Any tips for getting out of a major slump? General commiserations also very welcome...

I feel you. Back in the Covid lockdowns I was going to do so much painting but quickly ran out of impetus.

Option one is to find a figure or two that you'd like to paint. Browse your Treasure Horde of Possibility to see if something strikes you. Paint something you like regardless of army or (ugh) meta.

Option two is to let it go. Free yourself from the obligation. Don't paint. Let the Muse come to you, rather than chase it.

I feel for you, definitely have been there multiple times as well.
I think the most important advice is don't push it. This is a hobby and should remain a source of joy, not a chore, and trying to force through the slump is probably not going to work, and result in an even worse burnout.

As MarkNorfolk suggested, changing what you are doing can be helpful, doing something totally unrelated or why not something for a game you don't own, just because you like the sculpt or want to try something for fun (such as learning a new painting technique...). Or switch to something else hobby-wise, such as assembling minis or scratch-building some scenery...

TableTop Minions (https://www.youtube.com/@tabletopminions) has some good videos on staying motivated : https://www.youtube.com/@tabletopminions/search?query=motivation

I'm liking the sound of embracing my inner Elsa and letting it go. But I'm a bit worried that if I do that I'm going to end up giving up the hobby altogether... And I'm not sure I want to do that.

But damn it life gets busy - for background, am in my mid-40s, married with 2 teenage boys, have a full time career-job and a house full of other jobs that need doing...

Seconding 'letting it go'. Forcing it just makes it another chore, and no longer a hobby you do for fun.

Maybe spend the time introducing the teen sons to the game?

Do you display any of your previously painted miniatures anywhere? I know my own cabinet filled with the things I'm most satisfied with gives me plenty of joy everyday and sometimes inspiration strikes when I spy a miniature that would look good next to all the rest.

Also, have you tried having a painting session together with your friend? Or your sons even, if they're interested! Sitting around, having a chat and perhaps a snack and something to drink makes anything seem like less of a job.

OK, yeah, my eldest also plays Warhammer and has a decent-sized Necron army. He's been in a bit of a slump too since focusing on his GCSEs. I think he was planning on doing some painting over the summer but I don't think he's done much.

Youngest bounced off 40K but has a major WW2 fixation, so we bought him a Bolt Action starter box for his birthday earlier this year. He's still building, haven't got to the painting stage yet.

And yes - have done painting sessions with my 40K buddy. One of my sons' best friends also collects and paints, and we've done big group painting sessions with him and his dad too. I will try organising another one of them - it's been a while, was on hiatus for the aforementioned GCSEs...

In my experience with hobbies its important to learn when to let it go for a bit.

Sometimes you can push through a small bit of mojo loss; but if its becoming more and more of a problem it means you just need to pause, put it down and pick something else up for a bit.

Give your mind something fresh to latch onto.

This doesn't mean selling your stuff or putting it into storage or anything. It just means tidy it away so that everything is neat and ordered and easy to come back too and then let it go for a bit and pick something else up. It could be as simple as doing some walks; reading books or engaging with family time or such.

I also find the cleaning up/tidying up part of it quite therapeutic and helpful too; plus its nice to come back to everything and find stuff easily and quickly to restart.



Sometimes just letting it go for a bit and focusing on something else will recharge you superfast and in a week or two you're back at the hobby; or it might be a longer gap.


In the end go with what provides YOU fun/relaxation/fullfillment etc... with your hobby. We can all suggest ideas or fixes or ways around it or such, but in the end you gotta do what's right for you

I'm going to offer an opposing view: get in there and get painting. Force yourself. Pick up the brush, put some paint on that mini. But, stop as soon as you want. Beyond starting, have no obligation regarding time or subject, or even quality at the beginning. Just get that brush in your hand and keep it there until you feel done. You may find yourself going longer than you thought. One last highlight, maybe get all the skin basecoated, stuff like that can occur naturally. Starting is the hardest part, so make that your only concrete goal. Anything after that is gravy. Good luck in getting your mojo back!

It's perfectly normal, take a break or extended break and do other things like prepping the models for painting or gaming. But first make sure your painting pots are all preserved for future painting sessions, add some distilled water and a few drops of acrylic thinner medium to each pot.

I’ve been suffering a serious lack of hobby mojo this summer too. Finally managed to do some stuff recently, so here’s what I found helped; I built some kits rather than painting. It’s a different element of the hobby (and the bit I prefer anyway), so not hit in the same way. And it’s nice to clear a little space in the pile o’ shame and throw the empty box away. I also finished painting my Aeronautica bases, which is a bit different to normal models. Simpler, more repetitive and more tolerant of minor mistakes / variations in quality. Terrain would be my other go to for that same experience.

I’ll tend to do a few things- some might be repeats from earlier posts:

- look through my collection for previous models I’ve painted. sometimes I’m surprised at how well I did and sometimes I’m like dang I missed a spot. Usually that gets the gears moving.

- watch painting videos of models I’ve given thought to painting and just didn’t want to start. After watching for a few minutes I’ll generally convince myself that it’s not that bad/hard and I should go ahead and just start.

- assemble models. I have a very specific way that I put together models and it helps me get interested in doing the hobby. I also clean my desk and get everything set up a when I assemble. Which why I’m lazy when it comes to painting? Maybe I’m worried I’ll lose a bit or something when assembling?

- play a game. I want to play with painted models so getting my wife to play a quick match helps me refocus on what I need to paint.

One size doesn’t fit all and in my opinion don’t force yourself to do something you don’t enjoy, especially a hobby.

This usually happens when you've done too much of the same, such as painting a large unit that takes a long time, painting a large batch of similar units, using the same palet over and over, its moreof a sort of exhaustion of expression really.

To renew such, try painting singular smaller units such as leader mini's, or some singular units from a completely different army and thus palet.

Another way is to literally re-saturate yourself by walking in nature and taking in the enviroment, looking at the stones and leaves and how colors to it blend and layer both individually and as combined.

Kind regards.
Helveine.

I also often had (and currently have) times where I rarely find the time to paint. What helps me personally to get back in there is to take even the smallest time every day to paint just a little bit. Like... ten minutes, OK, that's enough to paint the helmets of that squad. Next day another ten minutes... enough to get those lasguns going etc. Or "today I'll just paint everything that gets leadbelcher and then call it a day".
It's usually little enough of a commitment that it doesn't feel like forcing myself, but even if the pace is slow, it gets you over the finish line with your current project eventually and that gets me right back in there. My heaviest slumps were when I finally tackled a rather large terrain project I had been avoiding for a solid 2 years and another time when I wanted to rebase 30 guardsman to pretty djungle bases that got a little bit too repititive after a while and both times the above mentioned strategy helped immensely.

 Pyroalchi wrote:
I also often had (and currently have) times where I rarely find the time to paint. What helps me personally to get back in there is to take even the smallest time every day to paint just a little bit. Like... ten minutes, OK, that's enough to paint the helmets of that squad. Next day another ten minutes... enough to get those lasguns going etc. Or "today I'll just paint everything that gets leadbelcher and then call it a day".
It's usually little enough of a commitment that it doesn't feel like forcing myself, but even if the pace is slow, it gets you over the finish line with your current project eventually and that gets me right back in there. My heaviest slumps were when I finally tackled a rather large terrain project I had been avoiding for a solid 2 years and another time when I wanted to rebase 30 guardsman to pretty djungle bases that got a little bit too repititive after a while and both times the above mentioned strategy helped immensely.

That's exactly how I've been handling 20 sisters of the watch (I seriously advise anyone against buying 20 of them at once to paint because you will lose all your happiness), currently only still have to do their heads and bows' but whenever I did do something of them it was literally a -single paint- to put on some spot (gloves, capes, etc) on all of them and then quit again.

Then again this project has so far taken me one and a half year and I get bummed out quickly everytime I work on them heh.

20 heads is especially dreading.

Right, been looking through my stuff to find something small I can just Get Done, and it turns out I've nearly finished my Hero Quest (original 80s!) set. I need to finish off the gargoyle and paint half a dozen orks and a couple of fimir and then It's Done. Let's see if I can bash them out this weekend...

Join (or rejoin) the monthly painting challenge here on Dakka! You get a theme so it’s not like you’re 100% staring at a blank canvas or overwhelmed by what from the pile of grey shame to start on, and it’s motivation to paint at least one mini a month with a fabulous community of folks to provide advice and encouragement.

Crispy78 wrote:
Right, been looking through my stuff to find something small I can just Get Done, and it turns out I've nearly finished my Hero Quest (original 80s!) set. I need to finish off the gargoyle and paint half a dozen orks and a couple of fimir and then It's Done. Let's see if I can bash them out this weekend...

Sounds like a great idea!

 Gulgog TufToof wrote:
Join (or rejoin) the monthly painting challenge here on Dakka! You get a theme so it’s not like you’re 100% staring at a blank canvas or overwhelmed by what from the pile of grey shame to start on, and it’s motivation to paint at least one mini a month with a fabulous community of folks to provide advice and encouragement.

Seconded, the challenge thread really helped me get through some units I otherwise would've been too intimidated to start on.

Didn't get as far as I had intended, but we did have a hectic weekend. I got the orks and fimir cleaned off, zenithal primed and the skin done. I say done - ork flesh contrast. If I get particularly saucy I may highlight it, but it will do as-is. I also did the dreaded brass edging on the gargoyle - painting it as a sorta hybrid gargoyle / bloodthirster, as that's clearly what the model is based on. I couldn't find my preferred brass paint though, and had to use my old bottle of Vallejo brassy brass. Amazingly this fails to cover well despite having a consistency of gritty cream cheese...