I don't know about you people, but I am the sort of person who goes about the hobby in fits and starts.
Allow me to expand.
At times I get insane urges to paint medievals, sprint through a few weeks fixating over heraldry and suits of armour, only to have the urge die down and start eyeing that long-stored model in the cupboard. Suddenly I get another insane urge to open that cupboard and get cracking on that panzer or whatever. After some time (during which hopefully the model is finished) I start getting visions of french columns assaulting austrian positions or british lines. So suddenly it's an urge to lunge at my 6mm napoleonic war chest. And on and on it goes. I flit from one thing to the next following my muses which usually only last a few weeks. At times - especially in the very hot and humid mediterranean summers - I just lose my appetite and fall into a lethargic stutter on all fronts, be they figure painting, modelling, or wargaming.
At the moment I have my table set up for Albuera, figures and all, but I just can't seem to find the drive to start playing. Simultaneously, I am in the middle of a long modelling build - an Airfix 1/144 scale Saturn V complete with paper models of the transporting crawler and launch umbilical tower. Once finished, this will be a spectacular build but the question is - when? I am only at the pre-paint stage of the rocket itself, the tower is still printed on its sheets and the crawler is still in the post on its way from California. So this will likely take me well into next year to finish, especially if the urge and enthusiasm abandons me half way. In the summer heat it is well on the wane.
The same applies to my blog posts. Sometimes I just don't feel like looking at blogs. Lasts a few days or weeks and then I return with a post or I just read other blogs. It's always like that, flitting from one thing to another seemingly without a lasting focus.
This may seem like a rant but I am really curious if there are others who go through similar peaks and troughs while expressing this wonderful hobby of ours. I am in awe at those bloggers who constantly churn out unit after unit of impeccably painted figures. Jonathan and Dean come to mind. How on earth do you guys manage to keep your drive without flagging a single moment? I really admire those hobbyists who manage to keep focused for weeks on end without losing sight of the ball.
Anyways, now that that's done I'll step down from the soapbox and leave you all to continue enjoying summer (or winter depending on your hemisphere). Keep well everyone!
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| Albuera all set up and ready to go - but no steam! |
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| Another one of my delusional long term projects? Airfix 1/144 Saturn V |
Your Albuera setup looks fantastic, Mike! I look forward to the day when the battle lurches into action. Albuera is one of my favorites and I await seeing your treatment of this famous battle.
ReplyDeleteAs for hobby lethargy and motivation, these befall us all occasionally, I believe. Hot summers with many outdoor activities vying for our limited time are typically a slow period for wargaming.
For me, I fight off these tendencies by painting a little, often. That, and I have many varied projects to work on so that burn-out or boredom is rare. I also do not tackle HUGE masses of figures at one go. Typically, I paint just enough figures to field one unit at a time. That way, my mind is convinced that I am making constant progress and am rewarded with finished results regularly.
As for putting me into the same category as Dean, well, he and you are master craftsmen, I just paint quickly...
Nice table Mike, the Kallistra is very good at modelling contours. Fits and starts is fine, because it is a rhythm that works and your stuff looks lovely when done. For myself, I am drawn in ten different directions at any one time and I service that by going to bed thinking of wargames and waking up thinking of wargames :-) My one dimensional life however is nothing for others to aspire to :-)
ReplyDeleteWell don't fret. It's a hobby - not a job. I run multiple long term projects which are all gradually progressing becasue I also bounce from one to the other.
ReplyDeleteHi Mike, your modelling fits and starts describes my wargaming to a tee.
ReplyDeleteMy blog, I forget I have one sometimes.....
Regards
Peter
Man, I had a long BRILLIANT response but the internet ate it. ☹️ I’ll try to summarize;
ReplyDeleteWhile I know a lot of gamers who do things in bursts, I am (perhaps) unique in that I’m a constant trickle. In fact, I would be a lot more productive in the hobby if my time was not taken up so routinely with real world responsibilities. Everyone has them of course, so I try not complain. 😀. So my interest doesn’t really fade but my free time does. Family is the biggest thief. 😀
I’m also a little unique in that I tend to focus on one genre for a long period of time. I suspect this is because I’m a paint to play guy so my main motivation is to get to gaming. I don’t paint just for the sake of painting so I don’t get distracted by cool models (if that makes sense, I said it better the first time).
But ultimately there’s no wrong way to do a hobby. I was initially hesitant to start a blog bc I knew I couldn’t ‘compete’ with many of them. But I was being silly. 😀
Hi all and thanks for your fantastic encouragement. Jon, I think burnout is the right word, and -yes - summer is a definite distraction. And Stew, you are perfectly right in that worldly activities and concerns (especially domestic ones) tend to ‘steal’ away one’s focus.
ReplyDeletePete, speaking of blogs, it took me a fair couple of weeks to articulte this reply! Says it all I guess!
I’ll do my best to get cracking on Albuera asap. In the meantime the Saturn V is coming along nicely...........😊
Albuera is looking good and the Saturn V ìs ace! I've just finished my first figures for months, I've been doing other hobby things so still alright, just no painting for a while and I'm like you sudden bursts of enthusiasm for a period drives me along until something else pushes it out of the way!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain