What do I mean by Twilight Zone? It’s defined as: A situation or conceptual area that is characterised by being undefined, intermediate, or mysterious. I thought it summed up where I am in the hobby at the moment.
My hobby situation is undefined, intermediate (coming between two things) and mysterious at the moment. Let me elaborate:
Undefined.
I’m flittering between projects. I’ll start something completely random. My past three projects have been extremely fun but have been unrelated. The Armies on Parade board was created on a whim. Beorn from the Hobbit was purchased because I wanted to add him to my Hobbit collection and the Toxicrene was acquired because it’s new and shiny. Three projects which share no relation to one another. It is three small projects complete, which is fantastic, but I feel like I’ve been unproductive.
Intermediate.
I constantly feel like I’m between projects. Further compounded by the multitude of different projects. I’m a Hobbyist intermediate between the Hobbit and 40k and intermediate between multiple 40k armies.
Mysterious.
I never know what is coming next. I have no long time plan. If I do, it changes quickly. I feel this is partly to blame for the weekly release schedule. Happily working on Beorn and then BOOM! Toxicrene, from out of no where. Obviously I said “partly” to blame, because ultimately I know I’m to blame.
So for those reasons above I believe I’m stuck in a mediocre rut. Flashes of hobby goodness but nothing truly impressive. I am trapped in the Hobby Twilight Zone.
How can I escape the Hobby Twilight Zone?
The first step is address the problem. I’ve done that in this post, so I can tick that box. Reading this back it’s clear that I lack two things: vision and focus. If I had a single, un-compromised vision, I would be able to achieve something truly impressive. With this vision, it would give me a direction. A goal to achieve, a target to aim for. Stahly has told me in the past I should focus on a project. It’s about time I listened to him.
So what should my Vision be?
Thinking big, it should be a new army with terrain and an armies on parade board. I should also make it as exciting as possible so there is no distraction that can sway me from it. I should include Forge World models to ramp up this excitement.
Initial thoughts are an Adeptus Mechanicus Forge World army. It’s totally different from anything I’ve ever done. Or maybe I should do a Ghost Warriors army and buy a Forge World Revenant Titan. Or perhaps I should do an Imperial Knight Army and invest in some of those new Knights from Forge World. Or do I return to my beloved Tyranids?
What will probably happen is I carry on painting the long list of unfinished models in a sporadic way.
What would you do? Do you feel trapped painting the same old stuff?
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I have exactly the same hobby butterfly syndrome and I can tell you straight away that acquiring even more models for more projects is the worst thing you can do. Tried and tested, I now have a pile of models, some assembled, some in their sprues (I still have Dark Vengeance for crying out loud… you at least begun with your Chaos forces!) and some others primed and waiting for paint. Whenever I want to start a new kit I browse through the mountain and pick one then say "no, I'm not ready to paint this to the standard I want" and this keeps me recycling projects as well.
What I found as a driving force was painting for an event, be it a fellow player's birthday, a painting competition (surely you've heard about Bananalicious 2 by now) or the goals I posted on my own blog.
If deadlines is not your kind of thing, how about a new year's resolution, just like the way you and Stahly made during the Tale of Mega Painters Series? That way you have a challenge, a smoother deadline (sort of), a direction (pick a faction you haven't tried for extra challenge… I haven't seen any Imperial Guard from you, right?) and a platform where you can improve your painting prowess (which is already pretty awesome to be honest).
Garfy I'd start with planning out the ad mech army. You need to get into something different that you can basically design, convert, and paint to your desire. As that army is being purchased, build the unbound list from your box sets. I see this as an opportunity to keep painting various armies all at once. The bonus is you release the stress of unpainted box sets. Keep working at it.
I think you would probably benefit from adjusting your attitude slightly. (I’m reading between the lines here) but you seem to be focussed on finishing your projects instead of savouring them. If you constantly focus on goal completion, you’ll suffer eternal disappointment because there is always another project in the pipeline, and it’s one that you haven’t finished yet! Plus constantly churning out projects for the sake of it will surely get boring.
You’ve taken the right first step (picked a project), but now I think you need to take a step back and savour the planning and prep. Do some research, seek out alternative options…maybe look into a building a diorama? What are your terrain options, can you build out a new environment you’ve never made before (I recently tried out swamp basing)? Is there space for conversion or modelling work? You’re obviously a very talented painter, but are there any new painting techniques you are yet to try? How about something completely left field? A new army, vehicle etc…
Whatever you choice ends up being, just take your time and enjoy the process!
I don't rush projects Tom. I do saviour projects. These models are for me. I'm of the opinion that if I'm spending £44 on a toxicrene I'm going to enjoy every minute of the two weeks it took to paint it. I even choose hand brush skills over my airbrush to challenge myself.
As for learning new techniques, I already do this when I start a new army. My necrons for instance were all about learning edge highlights and OSL, where as my black legion were more about darker hues and using blood effects. I'm constantly refining my painting by adding new skill.
Thanks for the suggestions. But you've suggested everything I do already 😀
If you are thinking about a forgeworld project, why not try and recreate a scene from one of the HH books? It gives you a good in into the time line and will look cool as hell
I'm actually not a fan of Horus Heresy. I remember the 1990's when all we got were space marine kits and they just released metal parts for them to slightly change them for a different chapter. The vehicles were the worst, just a marine vehicle with spikes on.
Horus Heresy is the same as that for me. It's the same marine kits with slightly different sculpted parts to differentiate them. It's really boring from a painters point of view.
The ad mec force is totally different and that does interest me. I doubt I'll buy into one though because I already have so much to do, and since writing this blog post I bought deathstorm and smaug >.<
I'm now thinking my 2015 project will be an unbound Imperial Army. I have Space Wolves from Storm Claw, Dark Angels from Dark Vengeance and Blood Angels from Death Storm. I can easily add my Imperial Knight to the project as well.
I agree with most of that, but I do like the primarch models and some of the old marks of power armour.
Smaug has to be the next project dude, it's a truly fantastic model.
I've seen your list of models you're sitting on. Love your retro projects. I say start with that '97 Epic 40k boxed set!
I'm thinking about selling that actually. I bought it with the intention of reliving my youth (like the 40k second edition box set) but I don't think I'll ever get round to it.
I've been painting Eldar for the past 18 months, and at the moment I've got a good army and had some good games. It's not completely finished, but the lack of anything from GW since the Codex release has dulled my enthusiasm.
I've decided, that next year, I'm going to continue my painting of the Deathstorm box and then expand both armies during the year. It's actually exciting me a bit to get started on it.
If you want to clear out unpainted minis do a series of ebay minis for charities of your choosing or even better: do a series of painted mini exchanges with your friends and fellow bloggers. Nothing motivates me to paint well than to paint something for some one else 🙂
That's really admirable of you.
I did a similar blogpost titled "Confessions of a Hobby Butterfly" recently, I plan to list all my current projects, and slowly work on them one by one and getting them complete. Having a blog can be a massive aid to getting stuff done, as you really feel motivated to get posts out with finished models.
It sounds like you're like me, distracted by so many cool models, and not sure where to start/proceed. Out of the Nids, Ad Mech, Knights and Eldar, what attracts you the most?
First, I admire you in stating you are in the Zone second, What is your list of unfinished projects? See if you can make a theme of them. If not lay out a schedule and stick to it. I know that you have done a couple of things at once to keep the interest there, maybe you could do that now. Have you gone to go see the last Hobbit movie? Perhaps that could give you some inspiration. I love terrain pieces, that could push you in one direction or another.
Anyhow, just a few suggestions. You'll pull through.
StevePhy
Unfinished projects are:
Dark Vengeance Boxset
Deathstorm Boxset
Stormclaw Boxset
Space Hulk Boxset
Ghostwarriors Megaforce
Space Marine Megaforce
Smaug
I kinda know how you feel. I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum (I just started the hobby) and it feels like I have ten thousand things I want to do. Like already, I have my own Tyranids (which I have an unfinished Dimachareon, Warriors for an all warriors list, finishing my current list, Shrike conversions, Toxicrene, Maleceptor…), I'm helping a friend paint some of his models (of which I have a Iron Hands Predator, Iron Hands Termies, a Thunderfire Cannon and an Imperial Knight coming) AND I want to start another army (either Tau or Grey Knights).
I feel overwhelmed, and the overwhelmed feeling makes me not work on any of it, which just makes it stack up further. I need to do something similar (hunker down and focus on one project and finish it, then move to the next), but I get caught up on smaller hitches, too. Like right now with my 'Nids, I want to liven up their paint scheme without actually changing any colors, but am unsure what I could do.