Its honestly really refreshing to see a video like this where the tabletop painting take a backseat; where we kinda see it from a more un-attached perspective. I like to think that hobbying really isn't the end all be-all in itself, but rather servicing a much larger need; and its really nice to just step back sometimes and evaluate what is and isn't working in terms of your own "enjoyment." The grey plastic mountain might not be conquered today, but the view from where you are on it, is nice.
Just seeing the potential on the shelf makes me happy because I know that whenever I want, I can grab it and go. It sings to my ADHD in a way because I have 0 barrier to starting something up when it’s already on my shelf.
There was one point in my hobby journey where I didn’t touch a paint brush is over a year. I had just finished two big armies for a friend, and honestly, I was really low. But what got me out of it was actually finding a new game, I got into Battletech and rediscovered my hobby joy.
that advice of not being afraid of your army's colours changing is the absolute best advice. i began getting tired of painting my Dark Angels tan, black, and silver over and over. so i eventually decided "this squad i'm gonna paint red" then i painted another squad red, and another, a handful of characters red. and now i have an infiltrator squad that has escaped the pile of shame, i have a whole cool phobos portion of my army, plus i've moved on to painting some dark blue devastor and hellblaster squads. my army went from feeling rather bland to a colourful concophany of different companies with each their own theme and paint scheme.
One thing I think can be helpful for a lot of people is trying a different artistic medium to help get you over that slump. I don’t even mean “try a different style of painting” I mean try doing some writing or drawing or (big one for me) playing an instrument for a bit. Letting that frustration out through a different outlet can be very helpful and lets me move that negative energy I had to a different topic, so that when I do come back to painting minis again, I’m coming in refreshed and at a nice starting point. I wonder if Jazza gets like that
Or even going to another type of thing rather than just mediums. I stumbled on some cheap "fairy houses" at Dollar Tree a couple years ago and noticed that the sculpts were actually rather good with a bit of cleanup and a more solid base to put them on...I've grabbed their new ones to repaint every year since. A more whimsical set of stuff there than my usual stuff. Making and painting terrain also tends to be different enough that it distracts and refreshes me to get back to things.
This is BRILLIANT. Most content creators rush through this. But you guys went through the different types of burnout and then tons of strategies for dealing with burnout. So good. Thanks tons!
The joy and enthusiasm everyone at TTT show for their hobby is what got me into mini painting and world building in the first place. The fact that all of you try and be as honest as possible about anything, whether it's about the models or how you're doing is what made me stick around and watch the videos. It started with Jazza's channel, then it came to the TTT channel, and I'm stuck. Thank you for being as candid as you are. Take care of yourselves ❤️
I really hope the Real-Talk Tabletop Time "series" feels really great to do, because I really love them. Its comforting to know that professionals of your standard go through it as well. Getting past the "if you're not doing something, you're wasting time" as well as the general feeling of never being good enough/ constantly comparing yourself to your peers or people you surround yourself with, as Jenn mentioned, has been a massive challenge. I don't even have a majority of my older models because I just threw them away because I didn't want to look at them anymore. I regret that a lot. I know I've mentioned this a few times in the mini discord, but I've been really looking forward to trying the Murray method. I think I have a really great model to test it on as well. Something that's been sitting for months because it's something I consider to be way above my skill level - but just looks like a lot of fun. Taking your word, Dave, I'm going to try to paint it regardless : ) I would really love to see this become an ongoing series. I appreciate your insight.
I had a good bit of hobby burnout as of late, so I joined a gaming club and that has gotten me back into the swing of painting again. Having a purpose or direction to my painting gives me some focus. Plus seeing everyone turning up with beautiful fully painted armies inspires me to finish my own.
I prefer the term pile of potential over pile of shame and if it gets bigger then a pile i have a tower of ambition to scale. RPGs made me go back and look over my collection of unpainted minis and let them both be part of an encounter i have planned or let a mini inspire an encounter and paint them so they are ready for the next session. We wont talk about the seraphon starterbox i got just because a module i wanted to run had lizardmen in it...
Thank you all for sharing this video. I've put down my hobbies/art/writing for years, then picked it up again, then put it down...it's a process, even when you make a living from it. Also the transitions in this video are awesome.
This video came at a great time for me, because I know I'm gonna burn out soon. For Christmas I'm doing a painted mini for a bunch of my friends(I'm no golden demon winner, or tabletop time level painter, but I'm confident enough that these'll be good gifts) and my only break is really Right Now while i wait for some HeroForge minis to ship. So this advice is gonna come in handy when im about ready to spike a mini at a wall in frustration.
I love the idea of thinking of the Pile Of Potential as a wood pile for during the winter. It’s there for when we need it. That’s a real nice way to put it. I’m gonna use that from now on if I can :)
You have no idea how inspirational this is to me as someone who is new to this hobby after watching this I have decided to paint my centurion captain in my own color scheme that me and my buddy made
This video really hits home for me. Hobby burnout in any shape really does sap a lot of the joy from the entire process. I remember starting my hobby journey during quarantine and going hard on the entire hobby for a solid year (40k, SW Legion, Etsy minis, etc). And just as fast as it started, I remember not having any motivation to touch my brushes or look at my models for over a year. And as silly as it sounds, it took collecting the Power Rangers HOTG board game for me to fall in love with painting again and whenever I take breaks from 40k and Star Wars, I always know I have some simple and fun minis to bash out in a day and feel great about it.
Had something similar myself...I rushed through 2 of the Star Wars Legion starters when that game came out along with a few expansions for it...racing for a the deadline of the stores first tournament. It was a MAJOR mistake. Getting deeper into D&D and similar painting later on helped me get back into things there.
I'm part of the r/minipainting discord and it's allowed me the motivation to push myself at my pace in my painting hobby. It's been great to pressure me to speed up or slow down as different paint alongs happen at different times of the year.
I LOVE this. I'm coming back from a year long break due to hobby burnout caused by speed painting a 3000+ point Word Bearers army for Horus Heresy. Haven't touched a model or paint brush since about October last year and with the upcoming Legions Imperialis release, my hobby juices are finally flowing again! I can't think of a better time to get hobbying again as being a new game, there's no events to paint for, everyone will be starting fresh so no need to worry about keeping up with everyone else etc. I'm really looking forward to sitting down and knocking out an army again
Choose a room without distractions. When doing a large batch of models, make sure every other model is complex/simple and fun/painful. Dont do a bunch of the same type in a row when assembling/painting. Try to not enlarge your pile of shame. Dont be afraid to take a loss and get rid of models you aren't going to use. If you have a large pile of shame, break it up and set some aside, leaving only thoae you intend to work on be visible. Try and do one faction at a time until completion so that you feel like you are making progress instead of doing only a little of each faction and getting unable to ever use them.
A friend of mine recently used the term "pile of opportunity" as opposed to "pile of shame". It really changed my perspective on this, and its true. It is a pile of opportunities for realizing ideas within a hobby, not a list of chores that needs to be dealt with. Very important to mentally make this distinction.
As someone who just likes modelling and painting my little guardsmen I manage it by switching to a project I know I can finish, or just doing something different for a while, whether it's loading a WIP tank up with stowage and MOAR 'heavy stubbers' or switching from painting drab and camo guardsmen to painting up the dismounted pilots of my Inperial Knight force(I have ordered 2 through Hero Forge as a kind of trial, happy to report flying colours!), or conceiving and and modelling units that my forces require, regardless of the fact that they could never go near a tabletop.
For me, I have so many different hobbies that go in cycles. One cycle I will want to play video games, another cycle I will want to do some carpentry, another cycle I will want to 3D print minis and paint them, and then there is a cycle where I just want to chill, and yet there is also the cycle of wanting to go hang at a game store and game. Having worked in the business for SCALE75 helping them get their start in America, and setting up Scale Games and help writing Fallen Frontiers, and then later working for Happy Games Factory, and traveling the country for both setting up a booth and selling stuff and giving demos and just hanging with the fan base. It can get overwhelming too. But I have met so many great people in the hobby that there are times I missed doing it. I want to add something that I learned from the masters in Spain, Mohand and many others along the way... Dont worry about all the models looking alike, they should have variations as they are individuals even in great armies. They would paint in slight colorations and would add small personal markings to set each unit as an individual. So you worry less about matching everything and just have fun painting each unit. Two bits of advice... THIN YOUR PAINTS, and DONT EAT YOUR PAINT! Even more so if you have moved on from pots to more traditional Acrylics like Golden or Liquidtex. That model turned out great!
personally, I really love just getting D&D monster minis as fun one-off Minis to paint. Usually pretty colorful and unique model, often not so crazy detailed as the mechanical detailed newer warhammer models are. I don't play TTRPGs with models but I still really enjoy having those models on the shelf. Even got some of my characters custom printed (for me and other party members) as those are awesome mementos to the sessions spent with them. Plus if I do the monsters, I can still feel like they might be useful someday in the future if I do end up playing TTRPGs with models. I've also painted a couple models from standard Board Games (that aren't like Miniature focused) which elevate that game on the shelf and it's a fun thing without any expectations.
When you talked about not trying out new technics or just trying to get better in general because your army may look different, I was like 'so I'm not alone!' That part really opened my eyes now.
I don’t know how many times I’ve gone through hobby burnout in the last 4 years. I volunteered at an LGS but recently that changed. I would always rotate between the different games we had to kinda help keep things fresh. When I first started, one of my main tasks was to start working on terrain for 40K and AoS. I got a lot of it done but then I had to paint them. It took a year plus to even think about finishing two sets of awakened wyldwood sets (6 trees with a TON of leafy branches). One of my bosses told me that we needed to get it done sooner rather than later after that initial year and I could sense his frustration. Thankfully he recommended that I had one of his buddies (one of my buddies too but he’s know him longer) who runs our local Warhammer store. Not only did he recommend a different way to finish most of the trees, he volunteered to help me out and said he’d show me how to do the rest of the building and whatnot. I think had he not been so willing to help I would’ve never finished. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever done terrain for myself 🤣🤣 I also recently took up building a yugituber’s sisters army and I could feel myself getting exhausted by the 3rd or 4th squad. I really wanted to get him into the hobby so I knew it was pretty important but I didn’t wanna touch another 40K army afterwards for a while. Now I’m on Seraphon for myself and I’ve never been this excited to build a model and I’m super eager to paint them too! Tons of different reptile skins and patterns that will still a cohesive army (in my mind as long as the metals, bits and bobs are standardized I should still have a solid idea!) I don’t have to worry about large mono colored armor clad marines or standard issue uniforms with the guard. Just reptiles. This has really reignited my love of the hobby big time.
I had like 5 leman russ equivelents and a pair of macharius tanks in my 'assembled and ready for paint' pile of shame. I really love them. When I put that coat of matt varnish on them and looked down to this beautiful armoured battle group it was the best thing ever. I can since then say the same for my imperial knight which had languished in a box for like 5 years. I look at it standing proud in the cabinet now, polished gold shining bright and heraldry resplendent, war penants flapping in the wind as the engines churn black smoke into the sky the little aquila mounts you are meant to put on the frame proudly jutting from the trim of its shoulder like gothic gargoyles on some medieval cathedral, interspersed with the with shields displaying the heraldry of worthy opponents bested, I really think it stayed in that box until I was ready. If I had made and painted it 5 years ago I would not have had many of my favorite features. The motto Vae Victis(woe to the vanquished) atop it's shield, the confidence to do the freehand checkers and vine work I painted on its chainsword and shin plate and carapace, the idea of making pennants with paper. It would have been cool, but not the glorious machine of war, the regal king of battles that I had wanted to portray.
I know exactly how you feel. Im on off painting and building my warbringer titan. Ive stopped for a few models now and getting my passion back. First was a batch of heavy weapon old scal mk3 marines for HH. I very fast realised i hate batch painting even for just a 10 man squad. So now im painting chapter master raldoron. I'm loving painting him up! I'm remembering my fave techniques for my blood angels characters and blending them with new ones. Its not too big a model but has a great amount of detail im in love with. And ill be getting my legions imperialis which i cant wait to jump into!
When doing my Imperial knights especially the Cerastus Lancer when I got tired of doing the trim on all the armour panels I actually took my time to change my scope and do the pilot on the inside which really helped me to get through with the project
Best "burnout cure" model i ever had was a pink chaos warrior. Just an absolutely silly little guy, and a far cry from all the black, bronze, flesh, and grey i was normally doing. Helped a ton, and while i did nothing special with him besides a change of scheme, it was really all i needed to push over that burnout id been feeling. Its always the simple things
I painted 1600-ish points of Tyranids in one weekend, I was so sick of my bugs that I couldn't base them (still have not based them but one day I will). I didn't even want to look at the models, nor play them. So, I switch from Tyranids to Chaos Knights and found I really enjoyed painting big models and slowly built up to 2000 points of knights and really got into 10e that way. I've now switched back to Tyranids as Wardogs are impossible to find at MSRP, I simply needed that short break before going back to my favorite army.
Satisfying to finaly see somone else giving Arkhad some love. The details are so patchy for them but the basis of their story from the old imperial armour books was very compelling when I first found it. Think you've done a more accurate job of representing them than I have. because I started before I really knew what I was doing. Deeply tempting me to go back and adjust everything XD
Thank you for doing this, it's really and refreshing to see this type of video and it has helped, so thank you. My last burn out resulted me in leaving the hobby for a good 8 years. I'm not fussed about playing 40k, I'm in for the model collecting, painting and the lore. So it was the GW staff that started my burnout, by pressuring everytime I went in to play games get this army, get that army. Then my friends started to pressure me into doing tournaments which I didn't find fun at all. Most of my army was illegal anyway do to being conversions and custom made parts. So I had got to a point at one tournament I didn't want to be at but felt I had to, and was like nah I have had enough and walked. Fast forward from 2015 to 2023 and I've started getting back in but this time I am doing what I want to do, stopped going to my local GW store and just ordering models online as I get they have a job to do but I don't like being pressured into doing things I don't want to. There's no fun in it. And if I want to make my iron warriors army try and redeem themselves i will, who's GW to say they can't.
I did a burnout on a birthday terrian piece after completing one, I had an odd shaped generator looking build that also looked like a futuristic triage center. I didn't know anything about battletech and knew much about gift recipient. He likes challenges were you have to defend a point and both options would be great and give a sense of urgency. Knowing that I only did the basic steps to get everything protected and up to a full metal, the gift recipient could take it from there. I've yet to see a game where he used either terrain pieces, but now they are his to do with and I don't have to think about what to do anymore.
Love 1k sons in HH, love Zhao Arkhad (my knight house is painted in their colors), love this video! Myself, I've struggled all year with hobby burnout - after having pushed through my Chaos army for Adepticon in March, I haven't actually painted a single model the rest of this year, nor gotten a game of AoS or 40k in, instead trying to focus on my other hobby, video games - but even there, having little interest in new games like Tears of the Kingdom, or the new Assassins Creed, or the DLC for Horizon Forbidden West - things that used to bring me relaxation and joy, now feeling like big commitments that are overwhelming instead of fun. This video has given me a bit of relief, just reassuring myself that everyone feels that burn out, that its normal and natural, that putting things down for a while to pick back up later is OK, and that there really is no deadline - its OK to get to a video game a year after it releases, or to paint a model you built in 2020 in 2024, or to enjoy other games and hobbies and not force yourself to play a specific game with any frequency. Cheers!
I really like this video. It helps a lot hearing others talk about the unreasonable obligations we build up in our minds. If left unchecked that can grow into insane perfectionism. Most of the time I realize that when I see my reaction to someone saying what they enjoy about a hobby. This thought of "ooooh... yeah maybe a hobby could also be something that brings you fun and joy". That is when I take a break from something particular and just do something completely different where the perfectionism has not piled up yet again. Also, I think a lot of your tips also apply to non-hobby burnout. Somehow it never occurred to me that finishing a small part of a bigger project might be also helpful aside from painting and crafting. I tend to work on every part of research paper/proposal/project at the same pace and trying to get a draft where everything is at least somewhat finished. And if I imagine painting that way I know that it would be incredibly frustrating to spend so much time without getting anything really done because it often looks bad until that last moments where you place those highlights and final details. So, for my hobbies I use the same approach as Dave's advice of picking an area and completing it. Why did it never occur to me that maybe writing science might also be more fun if I finish some part of it completely as a treat for myself instead of spending months in this state where everything is started but looks sooo bad. So, what I want to say. Thank you so much. I will now get back to what I should have been doing the whole time anyway and get a specific section of my funding proposal done...
What killed my love of some of my armies was the paint schemes I came up with. To clarify: I was (and still am) SUPER happy with the paint schemes, but I am not a batch painter by nature, and it is very hard for me to think in that mentality... so to that end, a great example is my goblin army. A friend and I bought the Battle For Skull Pass box when it came out and traded so that I ended up with all the goblins from said boxes. Now, each and every single model was due for a multi-step paintjob yes, but also: conversions. All my goblins were (/were going to be) converted to be "Undead Coffee Drinking Goblins" so not only corpse-fying them, but also giving all of them coffee mugs. I finished MAYBE half of the lot before I lost all of my willpower and never touched the project since... it has now been about 15 years since last painting a single model for this project and it played a large part in my burnout from the hobby I loved so much. I stopped painting my Space Marines, my Eldar, my friend's Tau, my fantasy Khorne army.. it all just kind of vanished. NOW, I found Tabletop Time this year. And watching your videos has pretty much single-handedly got me to move toward getting all my miniatures from storage and start up again. I cannot thank you enough, because this was something I sorely missed and cannot wait to also get my spouse interested in the hobby (the Tau I have should be right up her alley, I just know it).
A lot of good advice here, good video. I struggle with burnout a lot as a commission painter who also has a full time job. I've done a lot of these things myself and they've worked.
Mental health is so important! Thank you for sharing this with us! For me, it isn't always about the hobby, but about my job. Sometimes I'm just too mentally or physically exhausted to do what I love to do. But I also have several houseplants that kinda forces me to do something outside of what I have to do to keep my body alive.
Its nice to hear some tips, personally I often experience burnout as a multi creative person, no matter the art, medium and craft.. I think ill buy some figures that I can play with, print some fun busts, and focus on a fun scheme or a technique, and ill remember this can also be used in my other hobbies, we are here to have fun, not to burn out
I honestly think that breaking Fulgrim into a two part video would have been fine as it’s such a big intricate model. Break it into two videos so you can give it the love u have for it ❤❤❤
I find a lot of satisfaction in figuring out a recipe for a certain effect, like cloth in different colors, or interesting looking black armor, or ork skin. just tickles the rube goldberg part of my brain, and then I write it down and have it ready to be referred back to in case I abandon that project for a couple years. the burnout hits once I got the solution down pat, and then want the rest of my little plastic goobers to all look cohesive, so I have to do that recipe for all subsequent models... and very quickly the process that was so fun to discover and work through, becomes a chore to struggle and work through... the tip of having some smaller/one off projects in the pile is exactly what tends to help me as well, that's one of the reasons I like scouring ebay for "singles" listings, so I can dip into much more varied model ranges and try something completely unrelated. at least if you can find them without getting raked over the coals on pricing and shipping, oof... but sometimes it's worth it :)
A wonderful video. I'm coming into it from a different angle. My passion used to be photography, and then I started trying to turn that into a full time job, and I became jaded because its not paying the bills. Its now a chore. Whilst i scrabble around for money, my wife buys me the starter set cuz she knows I used to do that. Then I bought the Leviathan box set... and nothing has progressed. I feel I can't enjoy photos anymore, because its a mean to an end. If I could bring myself to paint a miniature I could take photos of that. Else my 90s army of orks are currently being stripped, and again, i cant bring myself to clean them and restart. I will try and put into place some of the comments. And again awesome video.
About six months ago, after almost a decade away from any sort of scale modelling, I finally decided to take the plunge into the wonderful world of tabletop gaming. in the gaps between my real-world commitments I have managed to paint ~120 miniatures, It was almost therapeutic, it was very relaxing and I loved every moment of it... Right up until the last 3 squads of Clone Troopers. Those three squads took me almost two weeks, for 21 guys, they were converted, primed and base coated, but every time I picked up the brush to start doing any of the detail work... nothing. Hobby Fatigue can be a bitch, especially if you don't recognize the signs early enough. These last five weeks or so, after 'finishing'(the bases still need a little work) those last squads, i didn't have any 'Pile-of-Shame' to speak-of, so I instead refocused my efforts onto terrain, repainting my older terrain, making some new custom terrain and other similar craft projects, and it's done me good, I am now once again excited to return to my miniatures, and perhaps even acquire some more.
I've started painting each space marine model from each squad as a survivor from a different chapter, that have joined forces, I don't play competitively, and there are so many cool schemes to try out, im 42 so im not gonna have time to make 2000 points for each chapter, so by doing this I have got to try out harder paint schemes and the easy ones when I needed a break, it does look cool to have a splurge of colour on the table as well.
I know what I have loved has changed over time a bit. I used to love playing the game, and kitbashing and painting. Kitbashing remains a strong love but between 4th Ed and 9th Ed gaming took a back-seat as I came to love painting more. At first, I felt like a terrible painter but have come to enjoy painting a lot more, and now I don't want to use an army unless everything is painted .
My strategy is, just take a break. I dont play competitive nor am i planing to do. I will watch videos or look at photos of other awesome painted miniatures to get inspired. For example, i like to watch videos of you guys, building extremly cool miniatures and then i play it while building. Sometimes, all I need to have fun is watching and getting inspired. I pick up cool models, like the ballistus dreadnought and start customizing its base. No painting, just costumizing.
Dave, this video was perfectly timed for me as I have hit that wall. Just finished building my HH army, primed most of it, and I am ready to start painting. However, I am not looking forward to diving in with the brushes. Now, I think I will look into my other, numerous, piles of "inspiration" and see about doing something completely different. That Infinity game looks kinda interesting...
I recently had a real struggle with depression and anxiety. Among other things, I started wondering if I still enjoyed the things I enjoy. And I mean everything; music, anime, video games, rpgs, etc. Basically, do I still enjoy the things that makes me, well me? That was not an enjoyable thought, as I think you can imagine. This was a symptom of my problem, not the problem itself (although it could *become* a problem if I let it), I recognized. I don't want to go into it in detail, but suffice to say dealing with it required help. Mental health issues can strike you where you least expect/want it to. If you're feeling burnout, take some time to reflect and assess if it might be a symptom of other issues. Even if it's not, it'll be worth the effort.
Hey I have a question to anyone listening, I’ve recently chosen a new space marine chapter called void tridents, their a canon chapter but don’t have much lore backing them can anyone help me find sources to read more about my favourite chapter?
I don't care about playing Warhammer but i love kitbashing and worldbuilding and i've spent hours looking at all the different kits trying to figure out which faction i wanted to start building. Got insanely overwhelmed due to the massive range of options, until i realized i might as well stop trying to figure out which faction i liked most and just buy any random kit i really like the look of. I'd rather end up with a kit of each faction that i truly really like the look of rather than pumping money into a single faction and hoping to keep things cohesive while also trying to make the units unique. Got a box of Catachan because i think they're super charming, then went on to Kroot because i thought they'd be good companions for the Catachan and would fit in a jungle theme, and that developed into me currently building a kit of Ork Boyz that also fit into the jungle theme that could serve as enemy units. To keep the Boyz in line I went way off script and instead of coloring their armor red/yellow/purple/blue etcetera i'm giving them different skin tones depending on their role with green armor instead. It's weird and unconventional but it's fun and original to me, which is the most important thing about the entire hobby. Especially if it's not your job, do what seems fun first rather than what's needed
what my biggest hurdle is time basiclly as i have a job were i travel to other countries and most of the times im home its just over the weekend and most of my time them goes to prepare for next weeks work (washing clothes, repack suitcase, clean etc. and i dont have the time when im away working either to paint beacuse i get up at 5 and work to like 5. so when i get back to my hotel i just take a shower and eat and then im to tired and need to go to bed so i can get up in the morning. so the little time i have in the evnings usally ends up with me plunking my ass down to relax and recoup, and have tried to do that and paint but i can never find the energy even if i long to sit down and paint. and i sadly havent found a way for me to find the energy/time to paint and it sucks! but its nice to listen to how you deal with burnouts etc as i try to se if there is something i can use to fix my thing
I've been struggling with this for a long time now. I got into the hobby just before 8E dropped and I generally painted the things I got. I definitely accrued a pile of shame, but I was picking at things everywhere and always had something to do. Eventually I got burnt out and stopped assembling minis and stopped painting. A year or two passes by and now the thought of painting fills me with anxiety because I know for a fact I cannot paint to my normal standard any longer, I'm going to hate what I see, get discouraged, and stop painting again so why start in the first place. I honestly don't know how to address this, but the best idea I've got is to paint some of the new Necrons. My first army was Necrons and they were all the old 3rd to 5th edition sculpts so I figured I could paint these new Necrons and since what I have to compare to is some of my oldest painting I should be okay and can maybe get back into the groove.
Thank you for this video. One of the problem I had (and you put your finger on it) is that it wont be the same as another of my unit that I did in the past. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and methods of thinking
I went through burnout with modelling for about a year and I just had no interest in making the concorde kit that was sitting on my "to-do" shelf. I got back into it about 3 weeks ago after seeing a new hobby shop open up in my town centre, I went in a saw the concorde kit and something just clicked in that moment. I went home and started concorde. It's now finished and sitting in it's new display and now I'm starting an airbus a319. It's odd that seeing the same kit that I have in a new shop just made me want to model again.
I enjoy building the models the most, deciding the poses picking the parts out kitbashing all of that, playing is also fun for me and painting usually is alright I also love Just looking through my finished modes, but painting camouflage on 50 guardsmen got too old too quick, so I've thrown in 1-3 guardsmen of different regiments in every squad to allow myself to have one guardsman as a pallet cleanser to take a break from the repetition I also paint whiteshields when camo is Just gonna be far too tiring for me to do for a while
Well I mean at the end of the day the hobby did become a job for you, as I am sure the YT channel is a full time gig. Therefore, the burn out is even worse as it is a chore, or a job or something you have to do...I for one experienced that about 1 year after starting our channel and print shop, and I am glad to say it wasn't for long, but I feel this. Thanks for sharing.
I felt the same at some points I found that driving into a different theatre of the hobby was a great re plen. I would love to see some lore vids from you guys. Maybe that’s the passion yourl find to read the lore and then gets you back into the modelling side 😊 love all your vids
Two things that came to mind. When it comes to color variations in armies it's "comforting" to remember that in, for example, WWII tanks had a fixed color they were supposed to be, same with what color camo was supposed to be, and they got official paint to paint it with. But how the paint was made changed all the time, storage change it, and the soldiers themselves had to thin the paint at times and used what they had at hand, be it water, dirty water, and even oil or gasoline, this then created a lot of variation but it was still very much the official colors. The other thing is to simply take a break. For the vast majority of us it is a hobby so treat it as such. I take breaks when I feel like painting is starting to get a bit too much or overwhelming. I then go back to playing more video games, or watching movies in the evening, or playing games online with friends. So just take a break and do something else for a little while and recharge the hobby lust :)
Hey! I watched that Fulgrim video. I loved it, it was fun and enjoyable and entertaining. I liked it a lot. Take care of yourself, so that I can watch videos such as. I know thats selfish, but why else would we want people to take care of themselves other than we get to see them more. thank you for your videos, Stay blessed and healthy
This video has helped me to a degree i actually started to feel emotional about it.... wtf? 😂 been feeling down because i've started putting an army together, whilst also doing the stormbringer magazine series plus the cities of sigmar models which i adore. Been working on my custodes army for way too long. Nothing is finished yet and i dont like painting armies where each model is just painted just for tabletop, i like them to really stand out.. Think its safe to say when i've finished my custodes im sticking to painting display pieces
My tip that i do ever so oftern to break things up, Eveything in warhammer especially is so emotionless. theres not much there to wokr with, so i like to try and think of an emotion and how to capture this in a mini with GW parts. it gives a fun challange Both the times i've done this to deal with burn out, the models just paint themselves and i find myself done within a day or so.
Good tips, my process is to just push through the roadblock with zero expectations. Often I’ll find that the fire comes back once I make it over the hobby hump.
I am practicing new techniques on my Ultramarines army. They have shade and highlight, they have contrast, i picked the wrong shade or watered them differently…and I just explain it as “oh..high rad environment bleached the armor” Or “these guys were just deployed…”
With my anxiety and perfectionist mindset if often get burnout and stared at my box of primed models like their taunting me. Though part of the way i deal with that is listen to music for one when im painting. And dig around in my boxes of bit and think okay what can i make this into, that i will like. Whether that be a color i havent used in awhile or just going ham on effects. i even made a full trench out of foam one time which i never done before.
I've just been through burn out. Rushed to get my starting Eschers done and couldn't be bothered doing the rest. I decided to tackle the Red Gobbo for a decoration on my work desk. Really surprised myself with how well he turned out..
Your “pile of shame” sounds a lot like my literal fridge of cheese. So much delicious cheese but so little time to enjoy it. 😅 Gruyère on homemade bread in a grilled cheese is pretty good btw.
For me it was shifting away from painting 40k. Not because the models are not great but because I wasn’t getting to expand at all. It was the same two paint schemes over and over. I shifted to painting models for other sci-fi and fantasy games where I can print models that give me the chance to try something new and paint things just for the enjoyment of painting.
I really struggle with actually painting my models. I always think I'll screw it up; This month I bought and painted a Votann model. No expectations. No army plan. Nothing. Just to have fun painting. And I did! I finished it, even, and it felt great.
Zhao-Arkhad is probably my favourite forgeworld! Alongside it's Titans of Legio Xestiobax, I just think they're pretty neat. Plus, the lore snippet about some loyalist Thousand Sons smacking some over-zealous Dark Angels is a little funny.
I theory craft and build my army based not on rules to any game but what I want to build and what I want to put in my army and what I want to see become a reality(as I don't play I just model, convert and paint) as a result I have a baneblade with a massive cast(milliput over a plasticard frame) turret with essentially 2 large fellblade guns glued end on end and a coaxle hydra autocannon. Imperial guard air defence missile systems, imperial knight armiger air defence missiles, armoured cars, scout cars, 40k ified 1/48th WW2 tanks, 40k ified 1st generation British jets, elite urban assault troops and heavily armoured grenadiers with a penchant for jumping out of their specially modified malcador defenders(side sponsons replaced with troop ramps like on the 30k dracosan) to storm the enemy positions with laser and cold steel.
In Spain we don't say "pile of shame", we say "marea gris" (grey tide). Still shaming tho, but more poetical and inspiring, as a high tide brings fresh fish.
THe pile of Oppurtunity!! Hving burnt out on both my hobby (multiple times) and with my professional life very much learnt that needing to be able to refocus helps a lot
For me Burnout is not only to lose satisfaction of doing work. It is more about losing your creativity, which is very unlikly and destraction for work you. Furthering the point, main problem is not artist can not be glad of his work - problem is artist cannot produce anything with similar qulity or valuable price for him(her)self, for employee, for project etc. I have personal issue, when burnout can be marker or first step to depression, but this is topic about mental health combine with phisical, so does not matter now. Kind regards, for all you guys. Your conten help me to be myself, and fight with some variations of my creative or hobby burnout
I used to think I didn't enjoy playing the game.... Then I tried something other than 40k... Bolt Action, one page rules and Carnevale gave me a while new lease of life.... A change of system was without doubt the best way I managed burnout...
Its honestly really refreshing to see a video like this where the tabletop painting take a backseat; where we kinda see it from a more un-attached perspective. I like to think that hobbying really isn't the end all be-all in itself, but rather servicing a much larger need; and its really nice to just step back sometimes and evaluate what is and isn't working in terms of your own "enjoyment." The grey plastic mountain might not be conquered today, but the view from where you are on it, is nice.
that sounds really nice
Just seeing the potential on the shelf makes me happy because I know that whenever I want, I can grab it and go. It sings to my ADHD in a way because I have 0 barrier to starting something up when it’s already on my shelf.
There was one point in my hobby journey where I didn’t touch a paint brush is over a year. I had just finished two big armies for a friend, and honestly, I was really low. But what got me out of it was actually finding a new game, I got into Battletech and rediscovered my hobby joy.
that advice of not being afraid of your army's colours changing is the absolute best advice. i began getting tired of painting my Dark Angels tan, black, and silver over and over. so i eventually decided "this squad i'm gonna paint red" then i painted another squad red, and another, a handful of characters red. and now i have an infiltrator squad that has escaped the pile of shame, i have a whole cool phobos portion of my army, plus i've moved on to painting some dark blue devastor and hellblaster squads. my army went from feeling rather bland to a colourful concophany of different companies with each their own theme and paint scheme.
One thing I think can be helpful for a lot of people is trying a different artistic medium to help get you over that slump. I don’t even mean “try a different style of painting” I mean try doing some writing or drawing or (big one for me) playing an instrument for a bit. Letting that frustration out through a different outlet can be very helpful and lets me move that negative energy I had to a different topic, so that when I do come back to painting minis again, I’m coming in refreshed and at a nice starting point.
I wonder if Jazza gets like that
Or even going to another type of thing rather than just mediums.
I stumbled on some cheap "fairy houses" at Dollar Tree a couple years ago and noticed that the sculpts were actually rather good with a bit of cleanup and a more solid base to put them on...I've grabbed their new ones to repaint every year since. A more whimsical set of stuff there than my usual stuff. Making and painting terrain also tends to be different enough that it distracts and refreshes me to get back to things.
This is BRILLIANT. Most content creators rush through this. But you guys went through the different types of burnout and then tons of strategies for dealing with burnout. So good. Thanks tons!
The joy and enthusiasm everyone at TTT show for their hobby is what got me into mini painting and world building in the first place. The fact that all of you try and be as honest as possible about anything, whether it's about the models or how you're doing is what made me stick around and watch the videos. It started with Jazza's channel, then it came to the TTT channel, and I'm stuck. Thank you for being as candid as you are. Take care of yourselves ❤️
I really hope the Real-Talk Tabletop Time "series" feels really great to do, because I really love them. Its comforting to know that professionals of your standard go through it as well.
Getting past the "if you're not doing something, you're wasting time" as well as the general feeling of never being good enough/ constantly comparing yourself to your peers or people you surround yourself with, as Jenn mentioned, has been a massive challenge. I don't even have a majority of my older models because I just threw them away because I didn't want to look at them anymore. I regret that a lot.
I know I've mentioned this a few times in the mini discord, but I've been really looking forward to trying the Murray method. I think I have a really great model to test it on as well. Something that's been sitting for months because it's something I consider to be way above my skill level - but just looks like a lot of fun. Taking your word, Dave, I'm going to try to paint it regardless : )
I would really love to see this become an ongoing series. I appreciate your insight.
I had a good bit of hobby burnout as of late, so I joined a gaming club and that has gotten me back into the swing of painting again. Having a purpose or direction to my painting gives me some focus. Plus seeing everyone turning up with beautiful fully painted armies inspires me to finish my own.
I prefer the term pile of potential over pile of shame and if it gets bigger then a pile i have a tower of ambition to scale.
RPGs made me go back and look over my collection of unpainted minis and let them both be part of an encounter i have planned or let a mini inspire an encounter and paint them so they are ready for the next session. We wont talk about the seraphon starterbox i got just because a module i wanted to run had lizardmen in it...
Thank you all for sharing this video. I've put down my hobbies/art/writing for years, then picked it up again, then put it down...it's a process, even when you make a living from it. Also the transitions in this video are awesome.
I am so glad you took a little break and took care of yourself 💜
This video came at a great time for me, because I know I'm gonna burn out soon. For Christmas I'm doing a painted mini for a bunch of my friends(I'm no golden demon winner, or tabletop time level painter, but I'm confident enough that these'll be good gifts) and my only break is really Right Now while i wait for some HeroForge minis to ship. So this advice is gonna come in handy when im about ready to spike a mini at a wall in frustration.
I love the idea of thinking of the Pile Of Potential as a wood pile for during the winter. It’s there for when we need it. That’s a real nice way to put it. I’m gonna use that from now on if I can :)
You have no idea how inspirational this is to me as someone who is new to this hobby after watching this I have decided to paint my centurion captain in my own color scheme that me and my buddy made
Jen, you're one of my painting heroes. Your work is awesome.
This video really hits home for me. Hobby burnout in any shape really does sap a lot of the joy from the entire process. I remember starting my hobby journey during quarantine and going hard on the entire hobby for a solid year (40k, SW Legion, Etsy minis, etc). And just as fast as it started, I remember not having any motivation to touch my brushes or look at my models for over a year. And as silly as it sounds, it took collecting the Power Rangers HOTG board game for me to fall in love with painting again and whenever I take breaks from 40k and Star Wars, I always know I have some simple and fun minis to bash out in a day and feel great about it.
Had something similar myself...I rushed through 2 of the Star Wars Legion starters when that game came out along with a few expansions for it...racing for a the deadline of the stores first tournament. It was a MAJOR mistake.
Getting deeper into D&D and similar painting later on helped me get back into things there.
I'm part of the r/minipainting discord and it's allowed me the motivation to push myself at my pace in my painting hobby. It's been great to pressure me to speed up or slow down as different paint alongs happen at different times of the year.
I LOVE this.
I'm coming back from a year long break due to hobby burnout caused by speed painting a 3000+ point Word Bearers army for Horus Heresy. Haven't touched a model or paint brush since about October last year and with the upcoming Legions Imperialis release, my hobby juices are finally flowing again!
I can't think of a better time to get hobbying again as being a new game, there's no events to paint for, everyone will be starting fresh so no need to worry about keeping up with everyone else etc.
I'm really looking forward to sitting down and knocking out an army again
Choose a room without distractions. When doing a large batch of models, make sure every other model is complex/simple and fun/painful. Dont do a bunch of the same type in a row when assembling/painting. Try to not enlarge your pile of shame. Dont be afraid to take a loss and get rid of models you aren't going to use. If you have a large pile of shame, break it up and set some aside, leaving only thoae you intend to work on be visible. Try and do one faction at a time until completion so that you feel like you are making progress instead of doing only a little of each faction and getting unable to ever use them.
A friend of mine recently used the term "pile of opportunity" as opposed to "pile of shame". It really changed my perspective on this, and its true. It is a pile of opportunities for realizing ideas within a hobby, not a list of chores that needs to be dealt with. Very important to mentally make this distinction.
As someone who just likes modelling and painting my little guardsmen I manage it by switching to a project I know I can finish, or just doing something different for a while, whether it's loading a WIP tank up with stowage and MOAR 'heavy stubbers' or switching from painting drab and camo guardsmen to painting up the dismounted pilots of my Inperial Knight force(I have ordered 2 through Hero Forge as a kind of trial, happy to report flying colours!), or conceiving and and modelling units that my forces require, regardless of the fact that they could never go near a tabletop.
For me, I have so many different hobbies that go in cycles. One cycle I will want to play video games, another cycle I will want to do some carpentry, another cycle I will want to 3D print minis and paint them, and then there is a cycle where I just want to chill, and yet there is also the cycle of wanting to go hang at a game store and game. Having worked in the business for SCALE75 helping them get their start in America, and setting up Scale Games and help writing Fallen Frontiers, and then later working for Happy Games Factory, and traveling the country for both setting up a booth and selling stuff and giving demos and just hanging with the fan base. It can get overwhelming too. But I have met so many great people in the hobby that there are times I missed doing it.
I want to add something that I learned from the masters in Spain, Mohand and many others along the way... Dont worry about all the models looking alike, they should have variations as they are individuals even in great armies. They would paint in slight colorations and would add small personal markings to set each unit as an individual. So you worry less about matching everything and just have fun painting each unit.
Two bits of advice... THIN YOUR PAINTS, and DONT EAT YOUR PAINT! Even more so if you have moved on from pots to more traditional Acrylics like Golden or Liquidtex.
That model turned out great!
personally, I really love just getting D&D monster minis as fun one-off Minis to paint. Usually pretty colorful and unique model, often not so crazy detailed as the mechanical detailed newer warhammer models are.
I don't play TTRPGs with models but I still really enjoy having those models on the shelf. Even got some of my characters custom printed (for me and other party members) as those are awesome mementos to the sessions spent with them.
Plus if I do the monsters, I can still feel like they might be useful someday in the future if I do end up playing TTRPGs with models.
I've also painted a couple models from standard Board Games (that aren't like Miniature focused) which elevate that game on the shelf and it's a fun thing without any expectations.
When you talked about not trying out new technics or just trying to get better in general because your army may look different, I was like 'so I'm not alone!' That part really opened my eyes now.
I don’t know how many times I’ve gone through hobby burnout in the last 4 years. I volunteered at an LGS but recently that changed. I would always rotate between the different games we had to kinda help keep things fresh. When I first started, one of my main tasks was to start working on terrain for 40K and AoS. I got a lot of it done but then I had to paint them. It took a year plus to even think about finishing two sets of awakened wyldwood sets (6 trees with a TON of leafy branches). One of my bosses told me that we needed to get it done sooner rather than later after that initial year and I could sense his frustration. Thankfully he recommended that I had one of his buddies (one of my buddies too but he’s know him longer) who runs our local Warhammer store. Not only did he recommend a different way to finish most of the trees, he volunteered to help me out and said he’d show me how to do the rest of the building and whatnot. I think had he not been so willing to help I would’ve never finished. Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever done terrain for myself 🤣🤣
I also recently took up building a yugituber’s sisters army and I could feel myself getting exhausted by the 3rd or 4th squad. I really wanted to get him into the hobby so I knew it was pretty important but I didn’t wanna touch another 40K army afterwards for a while. Now I’m on Seraphon for myself and I’ve never been this excited to build a model and I’m super eager to paint them too! Tons of different reptile skins and patterns that will still a cohesive army (in my mind as long as the metals, bits and bobs are standardized I should still have a solid idea!) I don’t have to worry about large mono colored armor clad marines or standard issue uniforms with the guard. Just reptiles. This has really reignited my love of the hobby big time.
I had like 5 leman russ equivelents and a pair of macharius tanks in my 'assembled and ready for paint' pile of shame. I really love them. When I put that coat of matt varnish on them and looked down to this beautiful armoured battle group it was the best thing ever.
I can since then say the same for my imperial knight which had languished in a box for like 5 years. I look at it standing proud in the cabinet now, polished gold shining bright and heraldry resplendent, war penants flapping in the wind as the engines churn black smoke into the sky the little aquila mounts you are meant to put on the frame proudly jutting from the trim of its shoulder like gothic gargoyles on some medieval cathedral, interspersed with the with shields displaying the heraldry of worthy opponents bested, I really think it stayed in that box until I was ready. If I had made and painted it 5 years ago I would not have had many of my favorite features. The motto Vae Victis(woe to the vanquished) atop it's shield, the confidence to do the freehand checkers and vine work I painted on its chainsword and shin plate and carapace, the idea of making pennants with paper. It would have been cool, but not the glorious machine of war, the regal king of battles that I had wanted to portray.
I know exactly how you feel. Im on off painting and building my warbringer titan. Ive stopped for a few models now and getting my passion back. First was a batch of heavy weapon old scal mk3 marines for HH. I very fast realised i hate batch painting even for just a 10 man squad. So now im painting chapter master raldoron. I'm loving painting him up! I'm remembering my fave techniques for my blood angels characters and blending them with new ones. Its not too big a model but has a great amount of detail im in love with. And ill be getting my legions imperialis which i cant wait to jump into!
When doing my Imperial knights especially the Cerastus Lancer when I got tired of doing the trim on all the armour panels I actually took my time to change my scope and do the pilot on the inside which really helped me to get through with the project
Best "burnout cure" model i ever had was a pink chaos warrior. Just an absolutely silly little guy, and a far cry from all the black, bronze, flesh, and grey i was normally doing. Helped a ton, and while i did nothing special with him besides a change of scheme, it was really all i needed to push over that burnout id been feeling. Its always the simple things
I painted 1600-ish points of Tyranids in one weekend, I was so sick of my bugs that I couldn't base them (still have not based them but one day I will). I didn't even want to look at the models, nor play them. So, I switch from Tyranids to Chaos Knights and found I really enjoyed painting big models and slowly built up to 2000 points of knights and really got into 10e that way. I've now switched back to Tyranids as Wardogs are impossible to find at MSRP, I simply needed that short break before going back to my favorite army.
Satisfying to finaly see somone else giving Arkhad some love. The details are so patchy for them but the basis of their story from the old imperial armour books was very compelling when I first found it.
Think you've done a more accurate job of representing them than I have. because I started before I really knew what I was doing. Deeply tempting me to go back and adjust everything XD
Thank you for doing this, it's really and refreshing to see this type of video and it has helped, so thank you. My last burn out resulted me in leaving the hobby for a good 8 years. I'm not fussed about playing 40k, I'm in for the model collecting, painting and the lore. So it was the GW staff that started my burnout, by pressuring everytime I went in to play games get this army, get that army. Then my friends started to pressure me into doing tournaments which I didn't find fun at all. Most of my army was illegal anyway do to being conversions and custom made parts.
So I had got to a point at one tournament I didn't want to be at but felt I had to, and was like nah I have had enough and walked. Fast forward from 2015 to 2023 and I've started getting back in but this time I am doing what I want to do, stopped going to my local GW store and just ordering models online as I get they have a job to do but I don't like being pressured into doing things I don't want to. There's no fun in it. And if I want to make my iron warriors army try and redeem themselves i will, who's GW to say they can't.
I did a burnout on a birthday terrian piece after completing one, I had an odd shaped generator looking build that also looked like a futuristic triage center. I didn't know anything about battletech and knew much about gift recipient. He likes challenges were you have to defend a point and both options would be great and give a sense of urgency. Knowing that I only did the basic steps to get everything protected and up to a full metal, the gift recipient could take it from there. I've yet to see a game where he used either terrain pieces, but now they are his to do with and I don't have to think about what to do anymore.
Love 1k sons in HH, love Zhao Arkhad (my knight house is painted in their colors), love this video!
Myself, I've struggled all year with hobby burnout - after having pushed through my Chaos army for Adepticon in March, I haven't actually painted a single model the rest of this year, nor gotten a game of AoS or 40k in, instead trying to focus on my other hobby, video games - but even there, having little interest in new games like Tears of the Kingdom, or the new Assassins Creed, or the DLC for Horizon Forbidden West - things that used to bring me relaxation and joy, now feeling like big commitments that are overwhelming instead of fun.
This video has given me a bit of relief, just reassuring myself that everyone feels that burn out, that its normal and natural, that putting things down for a while to pick back up later is OK, and that there really is no deadline - its OK to get to a video game a year after it releases, or to paint a model you built in 2020 in 2024, or to enjoy other games and hobbies and not force yourself to play a specific game with any frequency. Cheers!
I really like how the advice can be taken even if you don't like mini painting and used on other hobby burnout
I really like this video. It helps a lot hearing others talk about the unreasonable obligations we build up in our minds. If left unchecked that can grow into insane perfectionism. Most of the time I realize that when I see my reaction to someone saying what they enjoy about a hobby. This thought of "ooooh... yeah maybe a hobby could also be something that brings you fun and joy". That is when I take a break from something particular and just do something completely different where the perfectionism has not piled up yet again.
Also, I think a lot of your tips also apply to non-hobby burnout.
Somehow it never occurred to me that finishing a small part of a bigger project might be also helpful aside from painting and crafting. I tend to work on every part of research paper/proposal/project at the same pace and trying to get a draft where everything is at least somewhat finished.
And if I imagine painting that way I know that it would be incredibly frustrating to spend so much time without getting anything really done because it often looks bad until that last moments where you place those highlights and final details. So, for my hobbies I use the same approach as Dave's advice of picking an area and completing it.
Why did it never occur to me that maybe writing science might also be more fun if I finish some part of it completely as a treat for myself instead of spending months in this state where everything is started but looks sooo bad.
So, what I want to say. Thank you so much. I will now get back to what I should have been doing the whole time anyway and get a specific section of my funding proposal done...
What killed my love of some of my armies was the paint schemes I came up with. To clarify: I was (and still am) SUPER happy with the paint schemes, but I am not a batch painter by nature, and it is very hard for me to think in that mentality... so to that end, a great example is my goblin army. A friend and I bought the Battle For Skull Pass box when it came out and traded so that I ended up with all the goblins from said boxes. Now, each and every single model was due for a multi-step paintjob yes, but also: conversions. All my goblins were (/were going to be) converted to be "Undead Coffee Drinking Goblins" so not only corpse-fying them, but also giving all of them coffee mugs. I finished MAYBE half of the lot before I lost all of my willpower and never touched the project since... it has now been about 15 years since last painting a single model for this project and it played a large part in my burnout from the hobby I loved so much. I stopped painting my Space Marines, my Eldar, my friend's Tau, my fantasy Khorne army.. it all just kind of vanished.
NOW, I found Tabletop Time this year. And watching your videos has pretty much single-handedly got me to move toward getting all my miniatures from storage and start up again. I cannot thank you enough, because this was something I sorely missed and cannot wait to also get my spouse interested in the hobby (the Tau I have should be right up her alley, I just know it).
A lot of good advice here, good video. I struggle with burnout a lot as a commission painter who also has a full time job. I've done a lot of these things myself and they've worked.
Mental health is so important! Thank you for sharing this with us! For me, it isn't always about the hobby, but about my job. Sometimes I'm just too mentally or physically exhausted to do what I love to do. But I also have several houseplants that kinda forces me to do something outside of what I have to do to keep my body alive.
Its nice to hear some tips, personally I often experience burnout as a multi creative person, no matter the art, medium and craft..
I think ill buy some figures that I can play with, print some fun busts, and focus on a fun scheme or a technique, and ill remember this can also be used in my other hobbies, we are here to have fun, not to burn out
I honestly think that breaking Fulgrim into a two part video would have been fine as it’s such a big intricate model. Break it into two videos so you can give it the love u have for it ❤❤❤
I find a lot of satisfaction in figuring out a recipe for a certain effect, like cloth in different colors, or interesting looking black armor, or ork skin. just tickles the rube goldberg part of my brain, and then I write it down and have it ready to be referred back to in case I abandon that project for a couple years. the burnout hits once I got the solution down pat, and then want the rest of my little plastic goobers to all look cohesive, so I have to do that recipe for all subsequent models... and very quickly the process that was so fun to discover and work through, becomes a chore to struggle and work through... the tip of having some smaller/one off projects in the pile is exactly what tends to help me as well, that's one of the reasons I like scouring ebay for "singles" listings, so I can dip into much more varied model ranges and try something completely unrelated. at least if you can find them without getting raked over the coals on pricing and shipping, oof... but sometimes it's worth it :)
A wonderful video. I'm coming into it from a different angle. My passion used to be photography, and then I started trying to turn that into a full time job, and I became jaded because its not paying the bills. Its now a chore. Whilst i scrabble around for money, my wife buys me the starter set cuz she knows I used to do that. Then I bought the Leviathan box set... and nothing has progressed. I feel I can't enjoy photos anymore, because its a mean to an end. If I could bring myself to paint a miniature I could take photos of that. Else my 90s army of orks are currently being stripped, and again, i cant bring myself to clean them and restart. I will try and put into place some of the comments. And again awesome video.
About six months ago, after almost a decade away from any sort of scale modelling, I finally decided to take the plunge into the wonderful world of tabletop gaming.
in the gaps between my real-world commitments I have managed to paint ~120 miniatures, It was almost therapeutic, it was very relaxing and I loved every moment of it...
Right up until the last 3 squads of Clone Troopers.
Those three squads took me almost two weeks, for 21 guys, they were converted, primed and base coated, but every time I picked up the brush to start doing any of the detail work... nothing.
Hobby Fatigue can be a bitch, especially if you don't recognize the signs early enough.
These last five weeks or so, after 'finishing'(the bases still need a little work) those last squads, i didn't have any 'Pile-of-Shame' to speak-of, so I instead refocused my efforts onto terrain, repainting my older terrain, making some new custom terrain and other similar craft projects, and it's done me good, I am now once again excited to return to my miniatures, and perhaps even acquire some more.
I've started painting each space marine model from each squad as a survivor from a different chapter, that have joined forces, I don't play competitively, and there are so many cool schemes to try out, im 42 so im not gonna have time to make 2000 points for each chapter, so by doing this I have got to try out harder paint schemes and the easy ones when I needed a break, it does look cool to have a splurge of colour on the table as well.
I know what I have loved has changed over time a bit. I used to love playing the game, and kitbashing and painting. Kitbashing remains a strong love but between 4th Ed and 9th Ed gaming took a back-seat as I came to love painting more. At first, I felt like a terrible painter but have come to enjoy painting a lot more, and now I don't want to use an army unless everything is painted .
My strategy is, just take a break. I dont play competitive nor am i planing to do. I will watch videos or look at photos of other awesome painted miniatures to get inspired. For example, i like to watch videos of you guys, building extremly cool miniatures and then i play it while building. Sometimes, all I need to have fun is watching and getting inspired. I pick up cool models, like the ballistus dreadnought and start customizing its base. No painting, just costumizing.
Dave, this video was perfectly timed for me as I have hit that wall. Just finished building my HH army, primed most of it, and I am ready to start painting. However, I am not looking forward to diving in with the brushes. Now, I think I will look into my other, numerous, piles of "inspiration" and see about doing something completely different. That Infinity game looks kinda interesting...
I am sooooooo impressed and I just love the humour and real discussions you guys have. What a special paint job.
Fantastic paint job and great suggestions on how to recover. Thanks!
Phew… I really needed this guys. Thank you so much 😊
I recently had a real struggle with depression and anxiety. Among other things, I started wondering if I still enjoyed the things I enjoy. And I mean everything; music, anime, video games, rpgs, etc. Basically, do I still enjoy the things that makes me, well me? That was not an enjoyable thought, as I think you can imagine. This was a symptom of my problem, not the problem itself (although it could *become* a problem if I let it), I recognized. I don't want to go into it in detail, but suffice to say dealing with it required help. Mental health issues can strike you where you least expect/want it to. If you're feeling burnout, take some time to reflect and assess if it might be a symptom of other issues. Even if it's not, it'll be worth the effort.
Hey I have a question to anyone listening, I’ve recently chosen a new space marine chapter called void tridents, their a canon chapter but don’t have much lore backing them can anyone help me find sources to read more about my favourite chapter?
I found that my blackstone fortress box has been great for a break from my eldar, and I have an ever growing pile of killteams built ready for paint
I don't care about playing Warhammer but i love kitbashing and worldbuilding and i've spent hours looking at all the different kits trying to figure out which faction i wanted to start building.
Got insanely overwhelmed due to the massive range of options, until i realized i might as well stop trying to figure out which faction i liked most and just buy any random kit i really like the look of. I'd rather end up with a kit of each faction that i truly really like the look of rather than pumping money into a single faction and hoping to keep things cohesive while also trying to make the units unique.
Got a box of Catachan because i think they're super charming, then went on to Kroot because i thought they'd be good companions for the Catachan and would fit in a jungle theme, and that developed into me currently building a kit of Ork Boyz that also fit into the jungle theme that could serve as enemy units.
To keep the Boyz in line I went way off script and instead of coloring their armor red/yellow/purple/blue etcetera i'm giving them different skin tones depending on their role with green armor instead. It's weird and unconventional but it's fun and original to me, which is the most important thing about the entire hobby. Especially if it's not your job, do what seems fun first rather than what's needed
what my biggest hurdle is time basiclly as i have a job were i travel to other countries and most of the times im home its just over the weekend and most of my time them goes to prepare for next weeks work (washing clothes, repack suitcase, clean etc. and i dont have the time when im away working either to paint beacuse i get up at 5 and work to like 5. so when i get back to my hotel i just take a shower and eat and then im to tired and need to go to bed so i can get up in the morning. so the little time i have in the evnings usally ends up with me plunking my ass down to relax and recoup, and have tried to do that and paint but i can never find the energy even if i long to sit down and paint. and i sadly havent found a way for me to find the energy/time to paint and it sucks!
but its nice to listen to how you deal with burnouts etc as i try to se if there is something i can use to fix my thing
Well said on changing your paint scheme & taking risks on new techniques! Keep it going glad you guys are out of your ruts
I've been struggling with this for a long time now. I got into the hobby just before 8E dropped and I generally painted the things I got. I definitely accrued a pile of shame, but I was picking at things everywhere and always had something to do. Eventually I got burnt out and stopped assembling minis and stopped painting. A year or two passes by and now the thought of painting fills me with anxiety because I know for a fact I cannot paint to my normal standard any longer, I'm going to hate what I see, get discouraged, and stop painting again so why start in the first place.
I honestly don't know how to address this, but the best idea I've got is to paint some of the new Necrons. My first army was Necrons and they were all the old 3rd to 5th edition sculpts so I figured I could paint these new Necrons and since what I have to compare to is some of my oldest painting I should be okay and can maybe get back into the groove.
Thank you for this video. One of the problem I had (and you put your finger on it) is that it wont be the same as another of my unit that I did in the past. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and methods of thinking
I went through burnout with modelling for about a year and I just had no interest in making the concorde kit that was sitting on my "to-do" shelf. I got back into it about 3 weeks ago after seeing a new hobby shop open up in my town centre, I went in a saw the concorde kit and something just clicked in that moment. I went home and started concorde. It's now finished and sitting in it's new display and now I'm starting an airbus a319. It's odd that seeing the same kit that I have in a new shop just made me want to model again.
This helped as I am about halfway through painting over 120 skaven clanrats which has started feeling like a chore
I enjoy building the models the most, deciding the poses picking the parts out kitbashing all of that, playing is also fun for me and painting usually is alright
I also love Just looking through my finished modes, but painting camouflage on 50 guardsmen got too old too quick, so I've thrown in 1-3 guardsmen of different regiments in every squad to allow myself to have one guardsman as a pallet cleanser to take a break from the repetition
I also paint whiteshields when camo is Just gonna be far too tiring for me to do for a while
Well I mean at the end of the day the hobby did become a job for you, as I am sure the YT channel is a full time gig. Therefore, the burn out is even worse as it is a chore, or a job or something you have to do...I for one experienced that about 1 year after starting our channel and print shop, and I am glad to say it wasn't for long, but I feel this. Thanks for sharing.
I felt the same at some points I found that driving into a different theatre of the hobby was a great re plen.
I would love to see some lore vids from you guys. Maybe that’s the passion yourl find to read the lore and then gets you back into the modelling side 😊 love all your vids
Two things that came to mind. When it comes to color variations in armies it's "comforting" to remember that in, for example, WWII tanks had a fixed color they were supposed to be, same with what color camo was supposed to be, and they got official paint to paint it with. But how the paint was made changed all the time, storage change it, and the soldiers themselves had to thin the paint at times and used what they had at hand, be it water, dirty water, and even oil or gasoline, this then created a lot of variation but it was still very much the official colors.
The other thing is to simply take a break. For the vast majority of us it is a hobby so treat it as such. I take breaks when I feel like painting is starting to get a bit too much or overwhelming. I then go back to playing more video games, or watching movies in the evening, or playing games online with friends. So just take a break and do something else for a little while and recharge the hobby lust :)
Hey! I watched that Fulgrim video. I loved it, it was fun and enjoyable and entertaining. I liked it a lot. Take care of yourself, so that I can watch videos such as. I know thats selfish, but why else would we want people to take care of themselves other than we get to see them more. thank you for your videos, Stay blessed and healthy
I have a lot of unpainted Seraphon and what I do is just take a skink and paint it. They are really small and don’t take that long to paint.
This video has helped me to a degree i actually started to feel emotional about it.... wtf? 😂 been feeling down because i've started putting an army together, whilst also doing the stormbringer magazine series plus the cities of sigmar models which i adore. Been working on my custodes army for way too long. Nothing is finished yet and i dont like painting armies where each model is just painted just for tabletop, i like them to really stand out..
Think its safe to say when i've finished my custodes im sticking to painting display pieces
solid vid bro. gotta look after your mental health no matter what you are doing.
Great 1! Shared with my group of fellow painters.
My tip that i do ever so oftern to break things up, Eveything in warhammer especially is so emotionless. theres not much there to wokr with, so i like to try and think of an emotion and how to capture this in a mini with GW parts. it gives a fun challange Both the times i've done this to deal with burn out, the models just paint themselves and i find myself done within a day or so.
Good tips, my process is to just push through the roadblock with zero expectations. Often I’ll find that the fire comes back once I make it over the hobby hump.
I am practicing new techniques on my Ultramarines army. They have shade and highlight, they have contrast, i picked the wrong shade or watered them differently…and I just explain it as “oh..high rad environment bleached the armor”
Or “these guys were just deployed…”
With my anxiety and perfectionist mindset if often get burnout and stared at my box of primed models like their taunting me. Though part of the way i deal with that is listen to music for one when im painting. And dig around in my boxes of bit and think okay what can i make this into, that i will like. Whether that be a color i havent used in awhile or just going ham on effects. i even made a full trench out of foam one time which i never done before.
Dude, the Project Timeline is the story of EVERY PROJECT when you have ADHD. 😅😅😅 Great video as always, TTT. Keep on rocking!
I've just been through burn out. Rushed to get my starting Eschers done and couldn't be bothered doing the rest. I decided to tackle the Red Gobbo for a decoration on my work desk. Really surprised myself with how well he turned out..
Lovely stuff! Great to hear from the team on how you all approach burnout. Very helpful.
Your “pile of shame” sounds a lot like my literal fridge of cheese. So much delicious cheese but so little time to enjoy it. 😅 Gruyère on homemade bread in a grilled cheese is pretty good btw.
"I don't care about actually playing the game." GW couldn't ask for a more perfect customer! 😄
for me having a ton of projects takes away from doing a project... just do what you intended as it feels much better, no guilt.
List building and playing the game is what I enjoy. Building and painting is a pain. But kit-bashing keeps it fun for me.
i had finish some minis start 3 or 4 years ago and i'm glad to have wait when I wasen't sure how
I want them.
That's every week for me. That's why I cycles through a lot of different things pretty frequently.
Hey you looking at this, like the video
Burn out comes with any hobby.
Good advice.
Happy Modelling
Excellent paint job on this!
For me it was shifting away from painting 40k. Not because the models are not great but because I wasn’t getting to expand at all. It was the same two paint schemes over and over. I shifted to painting models for other sci-fi and fantasy games where I can print models that give me the chance to try something new and paint things just for the enjoyment of painting.
Thanks for this vid. A lot of advice here that's readily transferable to other hobbies or crafts.
I really struggle with actually painting my models. I always think I'll screw it up; This month I bought and painted a Votann model. No expectations. No army plan. Nothing. Just to have fun painting. And I did! I finished it, even, and it felt great.
It's way too easy to work oneself into a corner with too much pressure. Thanks for this video!
Zhao-Arkhad is probably my favourite forgeworld! Alongside it's Titans of Legio Xestiobax, I just think they're pretty neat.
Plus, the lore snippet about some loyalist Thousand Sons smacking some over-zealous Dark Angels is a little funny.
Have you ever heard of the Marvel villain Stilt-man. That character gives be big stilt man vibes.
I think Murray might be my hero and I just haven't fully realized it til now.
This is so valuable. Thanks for opening our eyes :)
I theory craft and build my army based not on rules to any game but what I want to build and what I want to put in my army and what I want to see become a reality(as I don't play I just model, convert and paint) as a result I have a baneblade with a massive cast(milliput over a plasticard frame) turret with essentially 2 large fellblade guns glued end on end and a coaxle hydra autocannon. Imperial guard air defence missile systems, imperial knight armiger air defence missiles, armoured cars, scout cars, 40k ified 1/48th WW2 tanks, 40k ified 1st generation British jets, elite urban assault troops and heavily armoured grenadiers with a penchant for jumping out of their specially modified malcador defenders(side sponsons replaced with troop ramps like on the 30k dracosan) to storm the enemy positions with laser and cold steel.
In Spain we don't say "pile of shame", we say "marea gris" (grey tide). Still shaming tho, but more poetical and inspiring, as a high tide brings fresh fish.
THe pile of Oppurtunity!! Hving burnt out on both my hobby (multiple times) and with my professional life very much learnt that needing to be able to refocus helps a lot
For me Burnout is not only to lose satisfaction of doing work. It is more about losing your creativity, which is very unlikly and destraction for work you.
Furthering the point, main problem is not artist can not be glad of his work - problem is artist cannot produce anything with similar qulity or valuable price for him(her)self, for employee, for project etc.
I have personal issue, when burnout can be marker or first step to depression, but this is topic about mental health combine with phisical, so does not matter now.
Kind regards, for all you guys. Your conten help me to be myself, and fight with some variations of my creative or hobby burnout
I used to think I didn't enjoy playing the game.... Then I tried something other than 40k... Bolt Action, one page rules and Carnevale gave me a while new lease of life.... A change of system was without doubt the best way I managed burnout...
great concept for a video - even though i paint in oils the reward yourself with fun elements advice is great - also very cool model