Search the Community

In response to @R2ED's question in another thread about converting that large pile of unpainted minis into a large pile of painted ones, I thought I would create this thread for us all to share our tips. Here is what I have found works for me. YMMV, and I hope others share their tips for what works for them, so that everyone can find something that works for them. Tip #1: Play games. My primary motivation for getting things painted is to play on a regular basis. Nothing motivates me to get a painted mini done like have an upcoming game to use it in. Tip #2: Set achievable goals and track them. At the end of 2019, I decided that I was going to give myself a hobby goal for 2020 of painting at least 1 RPG related mini, 1 unit for a wargame and 1 terrain piece every month. When we moved into our current house about 5 years ago, the previous owner's pool table area became my gaming room/painting area. At one end of the room they had left a white board on the wall, and I decided to leave it up for gaming related info. To assist with my painting goal, I used that white board and drew a grid on it to track my success. The pandemic almost killed my drive to paint, and it would have, had I not had this chart to motivate me. I don't have a picture handy of my 2020 progress, but you can see my 2021 progress below. You'll note that i wasn't always successful in attaining each monthly goal, but overall, you can see that on average, I exceeded them. Some of these months I only attained what success I did by grabbing something half painted from that sperate pile of shame of half painted minis, and quickly finishing it. I should note that my categories are somewhat flexible here - a Unit can be anything from any wargame rules that can be fielded separately under those rules. So a single hero model for 40k or Star Wars Legions would satisfy my classification as a "unit", and indeed, some months were just that. Likewise with an RPG model - at first I just meant character models, because I had a bunch of PC & NPC models I needed to finish, but once those were done, I expanded the category to count any model i would paint for an RPG, such as a monster for an encounter. Confession - I do have a couple of months where I was able to count some models twice - both as a unit for a wargame and as RPG models - August and March, IIRC. I also expanded Terrain to include vehicles. I did have to set myself a hard specification on what constitutes a completed mini - for me, that was spraying it with a clear coat. Upon reviewing my success with 2021, I decided I want to be a little more ambitious for 2022, so I added two more category goals. First category I added was I wanted to try and do at least one display model each quarter. I realized my display models were being ignored in favor of gaming models. Second category I added was my 40k Sisters of Battle force. I was looking at my old 90s era 40k armies, and thought "You know, I'd like to actually finish a couple of these armies." In looking at the options (Eldar, Imperial Guard, two Space marine Chapters and my Sisters of Battle) I decided that the Sisters of Battle force was the most achievable of the goals this year. So here's my chart for 2021. As you can see, I had a good start with January (I did nothing but paint New years weekend), but I'm already falling a little behind with February. These charts have helped me get more painted in recent years than I did in the decade preceding them. Anyway, that's what I've found has helped me reduce my pile of shame (OK, not really, I'm still buying/printing more than I'm painting). What's been working for you?