Anyone feel they are always painting the "wrong thing"?

[grant]

I always get going on a project, and then have the rest of my group say "Hey! You're painting WWII, well, we want to play ACW!" And if I had known that, I could have been painting ACW. Or Napoleonics. Seems like I can't keep up! I always feel like I am "out of sync" with my painting.

About the only time I don't feel that way is when I am painting GW, as I only have a couple of armies on the go. With GW armies, I will work on an army from start to finish.

Maybe I need to apply the GW approach and just finish a project completely, no matter what distractions come around?

Any thoughts?

[BigMike]

I know exactly what you mean! I always used to be pretty good at finishing whatever i had bought and then getting something else, then i discovered i had a whole salary and worked for GW and it all got a bit silly from there! and i just found myself with 4-5 different units or armies or bit on my paint station and ended up making no progress anywhere. then after one Christmas my mate and I decided we were going to try and do a 3 month 'hobby project' each, focus on one army each for three months and then move onto another one. Our rationale was that after 3 months you're either totally finished with the army (We found we had quite a lot of spare time on our hands) or you have just a unit or two left. then we'd set a short project for a few weeks or a month and knock out some outstanding units for a different army and then start a new project.
My mate got fed up quite quickly and slipped into the old 'one paint tray-many projects' scenario but i managed to stay quite disciplined and got a few big armies done that year. 2000pts of Lotr Mordor, 2000pts of WFB dwarfs, 1000 points of Great War Germans, etc. which wlas really good for my sanity and looked great in the store as these armies got bigger and bigger.
After i left GW i've managed to keep this system up, just modified so i set a target for completion before heading onto the next project. Last year all i really played was ECW, so i just churned out units all year, and got going with War of the Roses at the end. Having completed-ish a 3 divisions HC War of the Roses army (4th division will be cavalry when they get released) I'm currently on Ancient Greeks. I've got 2 divisions nearly in the bag and plan to move on to finishing a couple of Saga armies next.
Having rambled for ages i would say that being a bit disciplined in what you paint when did make me much more productive while keeping the fun aspect of it going.
The other thing which really helps me is having my paint tray in the lounge so i can paint most evenings. After all, there's so much rubbish on telly you're as well to listen to it as background noise while you do something better anyway

[carvel2]

No. Romans
I know what you mean though. This web site is terrible for that...so many nice things to have a go at and be tempted by. Fortunately my only opposition remains (fairly) focused too!
I'm sure there's a classic military dilemma- faced by overwhelming odds approaching from different directions, concentrate your effort and resources on one thing at a time.
Unless the objective is to dance round with lots of different ideas cos that keeps you happy
I think you are 'behind' because you are more sage like Big Mike/Grant...you consider your options very carefully, come to a decision and then apply yourself to the plan. Lesser minds have, by that time, moved on.

[BigMike]

No. Romans
I know what you mean though. This web site is terrible for that...so many nice things to have a go at and be tempted by. Fortunately my only opposition remains (fairly) focused too!
I'm sure there's a classic military dilemma- faced by overwhelming odds approaching from different directions, concentrate your effort and resources on one thing at a time.
Unless the objective is to dance round with lots of different ideas cos that keeps you happy
I think you are 'behind' because you are more sage like Big Mike...you consider your options very carefully, come to a decision and then apply yourself to the plan. Lesser minds have, by that time, moved on.

I like to call it the 'hobby butterfly' effect!!

[mikeland]

@ Grant, like your new avatar, big improvement on the previous one...

Back on topic. I really do relate to your problem, many years a go when I played games regularly I used to fall into this problem a lot, I had many half finished armies for all sorts of historical and fantasy stuff. this can be quite dissatisfying. Now I really paint and model as an end in itself so it doesn't matter what I do. Like Carvel, I only have one opponent and all the minis are mine so... easy win there, that said I have only actually played 1 game in recent history.

Ramble aside, a s someone who prefers multiple era projects on the go at one I have a couple of thoughts.

1. Have a plan, stick to it. I consider in on sense non of my armies are ever finished, I will probably always add to them but I do have staging posts of finishedness in mind. For Example my ECWs are both nearly at that point. I set out to have 2 armies, each with 2 large foot regiments, 1 large horse and 1 small horse regiment, a couple of cannon each, skirmishers and dragoons in small numbers. Then I decided to do a band of Mercenaries and a band of club men as complementary floating units. After about 2 years I am now virtually at that point. With just dragoons and some ordinance to go. I will however probably be adding more foote and horse over time, but I have two armies I can be pleased with. The same goes for all my projects, at the start I decide roughly what I am aiming for and try onto to get distracted until I reach the staging post.

2. Have a fixed limit of 'projects' (my projects are by era not army). I have mine at 4. Romans & Celts, ECW, WW1 and WotR.
The ECW & Romans are bigger projects aiming to have full armies, the WW1 and WotR are smaller. I have done a viking project (Just a small one, 60 minis, 1 ship). When that was finished I started the Romans one, and a Napoleonic one I abandoned and then started WW1.

3. Paint for yourself, not for others. Do what you want, and enjoy. If you start painting armies because other folk have an interest int era, not yourself, then you will soon get fed up. Most wargamers have a 'oooh shiny, newness' gene, that will be invoked when they see you beautifully painted army, they might want to follow you, not visa versa, if not, at least you have something complete, that you are pleased with.

[Centurio Marcus T]

I have a few projects on the go at once and can find it hard to stay focused on one army so i feel your pain Grant.I agree with Mike go with what you want to do and once completed show them off and then hopefully others will follow.I also find smaller numbers easier to accomplish without losing intirest and more apealing to new comers

[clivethecelt]

The butterfly effect? Yup, that's me! To quote Mr Wilde, I can resist everything except temptation! But ... because I don't have time to paint regularly, regardless of how much I'd like to start on a different genre, I envy those who, like mikeland, can have four different painting projects on the go at one time, because I just cannot. That may be because I'm more a gamer than a painter/modeller, but I suspect it's that I've not trained up my painting "muscle" (unlike those who do paint regularly), as I can cope with different rulesets or histories. Besides, though I enjoy reading others battle reports, I don't feel that my honourable opponent and I have played enough games to do justice to the work that's gone into the minis to flit to a different period.

[Stuart]

Sometimes I feel I'm doing the wrong thing, not because the rest of the group has moved on to other periods as I usually do my own thing, (most of us do actually, it does mean getting both sides of a period but it gives us a wide spectrum to game with that way), but more because I get drawn in by pretty pictures on websites and mag's, for example the Perry WOtR came out and after seeing a big spread in W.I. I went out and got a few boxes but 6months later they were still sat there so I traded them in and put the money to something else. There was nothing wrong with them, they're fantastic figs I just realised that preiod in time wasn't for me. So now, to have a bit more self control, if something catches my eye I leave it a week and if I'm still interested after that I then buy a small amount, (not with the recent Legions of Rome deal I just ordered though but this is something I've been meaning to do for a while). I find an easy way for me to work is to have two projects on the go one big (Romans) & one small (currently Shangani patrol), fortunately I get to paint every evening as it's just me and my wife, this way I can switch if I get too bogged up in one thing.

[mikeland]

... I envy those who, like mikeland, can have four different painting projects on the go at one time, because I just cannot...

Envy not, it's just that I have the attention span of a very small goldfish!

Seriously I have fought hard to resist forays into WW2 British commandos, Plastic Zulus!, Samurai and Greek Hoplites, in just the last two months. I need to stay away from the internet, and hobby shops, and magazines, and history books, and the history channels.

I have a decent Warlord/Perry stockist 7minutes walk from where I work, so good, but so very dangerous!.

[Deadmanwade]

As a hobby butterfly myself, I find that if I have a reason to get stuff painted and a fixed deadline I will do so. This usually takes the form of a local event and I have found it a great motivator. Of course, here in Japan we dont actually have many hobby events so I had to start running my own. So far I have run 2 big gaming weekends (and several smaller ones) and painted up 2 full armies to use at them. I am currently working on my 3rd army for next years event and if I have time I also plan to paint up some warlord figures so that I can run demo games of Black Powder or Hail Caesar (or even the Warlord WW2 game if its out in time).

Now, I am not sure about everyone else on this forum, but I figure that those of you in Europe/North America should have plenty of events they can go to if you want to. Pick a gaming event, be it a tournament, free gaming day or just a themed day at your club and work towards that.

As for your friends saying "We want to play X," you should talk to them and say "Ok, lets play X in 3 months time" and then get to work. Alternatively, do what I do and 'persuade' your friends to play Y with you whether they like it or not.