How to keep yourself motivated when your painting en masse

Movies, music, literally anything. I can never line paint cause I get too fidgety. What do you listen to or watch?

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Usually early morning or late evening are my productive times, I rarely put on music as I'll find myself looking for juust the right track and not getting work don, or losing my train of though when a shitty remix sneaks into the playlist.
I watch the models.

Do it with other people. Paint parties can be just as fun as playing, even if the pace might slow down.

This. Or else batch paint in odd batches. What I mean is, instead of painting all shirts one day, stagger your batches. Make a quarter shirts, a quarter pants/boots, a quarter weapons, and a quarter hair/face or whatever. Alternately, get on something like Discord and chat with friends who are also doing other things, if music/movie background noise doesn't entertain you enough. You can also just not batch paint and do a model at a time, which is slower, but you can turn out more unique looking stuff, since everything will be a bit different, even if you use a similar color scheme.

I dunno what else to tell you; different strokes for different folks.

listen to audiobooks, ideally about the conflict your're painting miniatures for, or at least something that interests you. Audiobooks are great because you dont have to watch them like a movie, and you actually learn something from them, unlike music.

There's a bunch on youtube, and audible is good. Try to stick to ones that are longer than 3 hours (like a 30 hour history of modern china or something), and only allow yourself to listen to them while you paint. That way you want to listen to the audiobook, so you bust out the paints

I enjoy painting.
I could not fathom someone playing a mini game with minis that need painting if they did not enjoy painting.

This comes in strangely appropriate, painting a little unit of clanrats right now (which means around 40 models)

I usually listen to old '50 and '60 swing/blues/soul music, and I found a little radio station on mixcloud that does almost only that. (is called radiocore, if you're interested)

This.

People buying painted armies are literally hitler

May your foes be many and grey as apathy.

If we're talking about painting en masse, and not just 5-6 miniatures, then for me it's more about discipline. I designate a (realistic) goal - like, "this miniatures should be painted by the end of the week". Then time - not just "evening", but "everyday, at 20:00 I'm going to start" (just an example). Then i stick to the plan, whether I like it or not. At the start you may feel like you're "working", not just "doing something for fun". But you may like it in the process. And satisfaction will surely come when job will be done.

Audiobooks. They go really well together.

The Lies of Locke Lamora is on Amazons thing. The actor reading it is pretty good. Pretty sure they still give you a free book for signing up.

Terry Prachett's books are also good for audio.

I listen to audiobooks of classical manly pulp fantasy or science fiction.

everyone has a favored aspect of the hobby they enjoy. Some love gaming and really dislike painting, and yet dont feel like splashing out on pre-painted minis. For them painting is a chore.

Its like telling someone to "enjoy caviar" when they said they dont really like it. Not very helpful.

Put a movie on that you've seen before. That's what works best for me. That way I can still focus on the painting and I'm not focusing on the movie too much because I've seen it before.

Its not great compared to some of the other suggestions on this thread, but it works for me.

Personally, all the nitpicking that Veeky Forums does about how people paint not being exactly up to snuff with world-class painters doing stuff for white dwarf etc is a bit much. If you're line painting, that means you're probably tabletop-quality painting. So long as you're not doing the 12-year-old mistakes like slathering on unthinned paints, I don't think that not wet-blending everything is a cardinal sin.

Personally, I did a lot of throwing on movies in the background while I painted. I also found social situations where I could shoot the shit and not really put huge amounts of thought into what I was saying makes the chore go faster.
Admittedly, I usually find the base color painting to be painfully boring, and I try to motor through it in order to get to the final detailing. I love the jewelling and putting silver on the guns.

I'm not good at it (yet?) so it stresses me out, like I imagine it also does for OP.

On the other hand I'm not good at actually playing 40K either but it doesn't stress me out because tiny army dudes dying left is no big deal when they'll be back again next week anyways.

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This is getting my 30k legion painted

Podcasts like joe rogan experience because they're like 3 or 4 hours long. Or comedy sets like dave chappele. Basically anything over an hour that'll entertain you.

I just paint. It's almost a meditative process, I lose track of time in the repetition. Sorry I can't give more advice than that.

Also I like your burly shirtless man image.

sauce?

I have the same problem and I'll be watching this thread for inspiration.

I take my adderol 30 minutes before I start.

I'm very good at it. My problem is I'd rather spend 3 days on one model than an evening on 5.

I get a bit ocd and find painting multiple models with matching colour schemes almost daunting because I like to just mix and blend colours as I want them rather than planning things.

A really long-form information-heavy solo LP, or a ttrpg podcast.

Brad Kalvo fucks Mike Dozer

Once i had problem like you.
Then i got an airbrush and completed a 300 model strong skaven force in a week.

ill never paint with a normal brush again (unless its a wash obviously)

pic related was the motivation pic of why i bought an airbrush.
then i followed his tutorial and im an airbrush fag now

forgot pic.

You are a cock tease sir.

It's more like wondering aloud why someone 'would own a car when they did not enjoy mechanical work.'

Yeah, if you love getting into that engine and spending your weekends covered in grease, your car is probably going to run better, but fuck man, some of us just like to drive.

care to share?

This isn't about not being able to do your own work on your car. People who hate painting and play a shit game like 40k unpainted are basically like people who buy shitty junk cars that drive like shit.

You're not a driving enthusiast because the car sucks ass.
You're not a mechanical enthusiast because you never pop the hood.
You're not even in it for hard parking or aesthetics because you bought a piece of shit.

This is why people who at least have commissioned armies are okay, because they enjoy playing the game, and with a painted army even if they hate painting they at least have a nice looking game.

40k's rules are not good enough to make enjoyable games if the armies and table aren't painted, and even if all you do is enjoy cheese spam, it still looks better painted.

Painting without anything playing in the background is too boring and quiet, but playing something too interesting is too distracting and I constantly stop to watch or even rewind.

I find my best material is just listening to a YouTube video commentator I enjoy but whose content I don't really care about. One example of this is pokeaimMD doing commentary while he plays competitive Pokemon battles online with teams that I'm not inerested in. I don't really care about the battles but having someone talking in the background helps and I sometimes catch snippets I can follow without having to look up.

My main media to watch while painting is Futurama reruns since I have every episode. I've watched them so often I can usually picture the visuals without looking up at all.

Seems like you'd need a big table and tons of supplies for this to yield good results. Otherwise it'd just be a bunch of dudes in a cramped space dicking around and not really getting any quality painting done.

Link to tutorial(s) plz.

And yet people claim airbrushing isn't easy mode.

I paint before I go to work (night shift) and I throw on two episodes of house. The first episode lets me know I've got time to spend and the second makes sure I don't start something too intensive. By the end of the second episode I've snapped WIP pictures and started cleanup. This works for almost any hour long program that's mostly talk.

Mostly just chew through podcasts. The F Plus and Schemes and Stones are my go tos, but I recently got introduced to Last Podcast on the Left and am digging their paranormal stuff.

If I'm max comfy, I always put on a few episodes of Bob Ross, but never more than 3 at a time. One does not simply binge the Ross.

Documentaries about history and engineering projects are my crack. Wings of the Red Star was my jam when I was painting some X-Wing stuff. One of my favorites that I'm actually sad I'm up to date on is The Great War series on youtube from the It's History! people, all of which I highly recommend.

>why someone 'would own a car when they did not enjoy mechanical work
to get around. This is actually a very good analogy. Many many people own cars as a necessity and dont have the faintest inclination for mechanical work. Anything goes wrong - off to the mechanic. For them a car is not a hobby or an enjoyment, its a tool. Likewise the gamer who doesn't really like painting. The miniatures are tools for playing tabletop games.

Most people dont paint their car.

>40k's rules are not good enough to make enjoyable games
100% agree. One of the most unbalanced system ever written.

Not him, but airbrushing changed my life.
literraly decuple my skill within a month..
the blending, aging, hue gradient, NMM, osl.. everything is mere hours away when you got an airbrush.

Yeah, for some reason I'm like the only person willing to admit airbrushing is a "crutch". But you'd be stupid not to airbrush. Yeah, it takes some practice to learn new skills, but if you have a high quality dual action, the easiness and speed of doing good work is so ridiculously stupidly easy.

Paintbrush is like difficulty: 10, results: 7 while airbrushing is difficulty: 5, results: 10

People need to stop fucking lying to non-airbrushers. Every time someone points out how stupidly good airbrushing is you faggots just go "IT'S JUST A TOOL LIKE A PAINTBRUSH". No, bitch nigger faggot, airbrushing blows regular paintbrushes out of the water for everything except microscopic detail work.

>Seems like you'd need a big table
Like the table you play on?
>and tons of supplies
Like the supplies that each person owns for painting their army.

Can you post some pics of your minis?

>Like the table you play on?

Not everyone has a table at their house.

>Like the supplies that each person owns for painting their army.

Host won't have your colors, and not everyone wants to lug all their shit to someone's house.

>lame excuses
This is why you don't get shit done.

Sort a table and stip plaing in store, it's a shitty environment to play.

How is bringing your paints and a few units harder than bringing a whole army?

Most people have army transports. Most people don't buy transport for their tools.

Because putting a small box in a backpack or in your vehicle is really challenging?

goddamit get a grocery bag.

>Documentaries about [...] engineering projects
Any particular ones you'd recommend?

>You're not a driving enthusiast because the car sucks ass
>If you're not enjoying your hobby the way I define then you're doing your hobby wrong
Classic Veeky Forums.

Extreme Engineering, Wings of the Red Star/Discovery Channel Wings, James May's Cars of the People come to mind. Discovery Channel and History Channel stuff from the early 00's is top shelf, pretty much all of it is uploaded to youtube in complete playlists.

Thanks a bunch. Will check out.

Pleb
>Dips roll-brush in can of paint and proceeds to ruin factory finish

Think it was pretty obvious the car in the example was so bad it didn't drive well.

Play a game that doesn't require tools. Playing 40k without enjoying painting and building the models is like driving a car when teleporting is available.

>How to keep yourself motivated when your painting en masse
Best thing is to make a schedule and keep to it.
Or make it a daily habit.
If you sit down each day and do anything at all you already won.

It's a clichee, but also true: The hardest thing is sitting down.
So before you get up and end your session leave your table in a somewhat orderly state, so you can pick up where you left off without cleaning up for 10 minutes.

That's basically it. Most productive time of my life, hobbywise was when I made it a habit and incorporated it into my daily routine. Sometimes you just do 20 or 40 minutes, but even just 40 minutes a day are 20 hours of hobby time.
Come to think of it that way I spend a lot of time masturbation each year.

>40 minutes a day are 20 hours of hobby time.
a month.
Damn, I have the attention span of a goldfish sometimes.

I try to paint 1 to 2 models a day. I don't have an airbrush, so I do it the old fashioned way. For vehicles, try priming them in a color that's close to your base coat to save some time when you do basecoat those big surfaces. Also since my laptop broke, I started my job and my kid was born, I actually get more hobby stuff done. I guess having less free time means I really cherish the moments to paint that I do get.

this, it's absurd but understandable. Airbrushers want to feel like their work was a struggle, yet comparatively it wasn't

To make airbushing good you have to learn and understand it just like you you need brush control to make a clean straight line with a regular brush.
They're different tool, but you have to learn how to use both. That's what that argument is about, nobody ever said airbrushing wasn't faster or more convenient.