Painting miniatures for the sake of it?

[Spinal Tap]

I'm nearing the end of my small post apocalyptic project although, like most people, I'll keep adding a piece of terrain here and a small group of miniatures there. I've already gone through this process with fantasy and sci-fi genres in the past 2 years that I have been skirmish wargaming.

I've found the process quite tiring mentally, in no small part because of my obsessive nature to get things finished, sometimes sitting up all night to complete something and using a hairdryer to move the drying process on quicker so I can finish items. My pattern in the past 2 years since I started miniature games has been to see either miniatures or a rule set I like, research it a fair bit, buy stuff, make stuff, paint stuff until it's done.

This has led to corners being cut sometimes to get things done in a certain timescale and the miniatures have not always been painted to the best of my ability - great for getting gaming but terrible for ego!

I am considering breaking this cycle by playing the games I have and merely painting miniatures that I like for no other reason than I like them.

I have seen figures in all sorts of genres where I think they look great but I have nowhere that they might fit in with the games I play so I have discounted them.I love the look of the Oathsworn animals, Gaslands cars, Brigade's Starships for example but have no real inclination to get more rules and actually play the games.

My intention is to start buying and painting miniatures I love and, perhaps, make small displays, completing only a couple of models per month but to the best of my ability.

Do others do this or are miniatures you buy always destined for a game?

[AKULA]

As someone with a degree of OCD myself, it doesn’t sound like your current cycle of painting is healthy for you.. what you’ve described is “mentally tiring” or a chore, rather than something you enjoy....if anything it is leaving you unhappy.

The time factor sounds like a self-imposed deadline...I can’t imagine that anyone you game with would put that pressure on you, certainly if they knew the impact it was having?  I used to start a new project every year, straight after Salute, with the aim of putting on a new game at the next year’s Salute...again, self-imposed, and it kept me focussed, but lots of the “mental tiredness” you described..driven on by the fear of letting people down once I’d said I’d run a game.  Also, like most gamers, I’m a magpie...something bright and shiney...have to have it, so the side projects piled up at the same time.

About 18 months ago though, I drastically cut down my number of active building/painting projects to just two - Judge Dredd & Game of Thrones - even then I’m only working upon one or the other, at a time, as the mood takes me....and I’ve been firmly in the GoT groove for much of the last year...point is, I can now indulge my desire for completeness but I’m not up against a deadline.

The other change from before is that I also took the decision about the same time to pick a game or two that I’d play, when my lad fancied a game, BUT I’d buy everything I needed for it ready painted - we joined in a participation game of Cruel Seas at the York show, he loved it, so I chose that as a starting point.

Don’t get me wrong, I still want to get the Game of Thrones (and Judge Dredd) on a table, but I feel like I’m only painting for me, so I’m enjoying it more than before....the funny thing is, I’m actually more productive than I’ve ever been in the last 35 years, in terms of painting as well.

In summary, your plan to paint for enjoyment is 100% the way to go.

 

[Emir of Askaristan]

I've been there too - "having to paint" to finish things for a show and feeling self pressured to complete. Usually there were other things going on too and overall it wasn't a good place to be in.

Breaking that habit or chain can be difficult, but your plan is the way to go. Painting for pure fun - a nice mini or unit or something you've always fancied and keeping it to a short amount of painting time each session helps. You'll find you enjoy it and the mindfulness that comes with painting returns.

Good luck.

[Captain Blood]

I usually paint figures that are going to form parts of armies I intend to play wargames with (which don’t always happen ) I guess most of my ‘armies’ end up with somewhere between 75 - 300 figures. Typically 150 - 200.
I have built up around 15 fully painted armies over the last 20 years (my second wargaming life - I had a 15 year complete break after my adolescent wargaming life). My armies mostly include both sides of any given genre or conflict, because I tend to play with small groups of friends who may not always be able to field the opposition, so I build both opposing sides.

I don’t ever regard any one of these collections as ‘finished’ because I will always come back and add a few more figures / vehicles / buildings to any given setting, sometimes years later, if something new comes along that takes my fancy and will fit in.

Adopting this mindset certainly helps counter the ‘I must finish this at all costs’ urge - which normally ends up turning the latter end of any new army painting project into a slog and a chore, because you’re no longer painting because you enjoy it - you’re painting because it has become a task that HAS TO BE FINISHED before you can move on. Which absolutely ceases to be fun.

So perhaps try to think of your collections as ‘finished for now’ rather than ‘finished for ever’. The open ended nature of the former reduces the pressure to round off any given project as a ‘must do now’ - although I’m sure all wargamers and collectors suffer from that urge to some extent.

But to answer your original question (), outside of that army-building process, yes, I also buy random small sets of figures or even one-offs just because I like the figure or figures, and want to paint and own them, even though I have no intention of building an army for that period, genre or setting. I have bought a LOT of Lucid Eye figures to satisfy that urge
And I can tell you that it is quite therapeutic. Just to sit down and paint a figure or a small group of figures just for the fun of painting something that takes your fancy. It provides a relaxing and enjoyable counterbalance to (and break from) the drive to keep painting volumes of figures or models to build out / finish an entire army.

[Plynkes]

I recently returned to the painting table after a long time away, and painting individual figures just for fun has been my way of easing myself back in. Frankly, I'm loving it. Some of the minis I've been doing have been from projects, but I'm  not painting with any particular project in mind, and many of them aren't ever going to be part of any game. I am just painting them for fun.

Actually I do not remember a time when I enjoyed painting as much as I am enjoying it right now. So I urge you to give it a go. If you are anything  like me you'll have a blast.

[Spinal Tap]

Looks like it's nor just me then that's made this newbie mistake; thank you for the wise words of you folk who have been doing this much longer than me.

I guess most of my ‘armies’ end up with somewhere between 75 - 300 figures. Typically 150 - 200.

I can't even imagine this scale of endeavour.

[Captain Blood]

 Well they take me a very long time to accumulate and paint

[Gibby]

So perhaps try to think of your collections as ‘finished for now’ rather than ‘finished for ever’. The open ended nature of the former reduces the pressure to round off any given project as a ‘must do now’ - although I’m sure all wargamers and collectors suffer from that urge to some extent.

This is excellent advice, and about where I'm at with my collections.

Last year I painted nearly 400 figures, all for a few projects I really felt pressured to get "finished". They were pretty much tabletop standard, so look fine, but it is a little bit demoralising knowing that I could've done each one better (albeit slower). I felt the self imposed pressure of HAVING to get stuff done, to the point where I'd feel almost guilty for doing anything other than painting in my free time.

Now I've got a few "game ready" forces under my belt, I've slowed down again to paint for fun and to try my best. I can add to those previous projects (future Gibby can worry about the new figures looking much better than the older ones...) as and when, so the idea that any force is always open for expansion is a good way to take the pressure off. No finish line; no deadline! So long as you have enough to play something with (let's face it, most genres have rules covering tiny skirmishes up to mass battles) then you are also getting the gaming side out of the minis as well.

[Harry Faversham]

As someone with a degree of OCD myself, it doesn’t sound like your current cycle of painting is healthy for you.. what you’ve described is “mentally tiring” or a chore, rather than something you enjoy....if anything it is leaving you unhappy.
 

It sounds worse than working, put like that!!!

 

[Orctrader]

...merely painting miniatures that I like for no other reason than I like them.

This is all I have ever done.   

[PeteW]

My intention is to start buying and painting miniatures I love and, perhaps, make small displays, completing only a couple of models per month but to the best of my ability

Good plan. I consider myself a painter, and paint figures for the enjoyment of it. I don't game at all.
I paint what I want to, when I want to with no guilt regarding unfinished figures. I'm pretty much at the stage now that I only paint 1 figure at a time, so I can enjoy the process and avoid that conveyor belt feeling.

Paint for yourself, have fun, and learn from the mistakes

P

[dadlamassu]

In about 60 odd years of building, painting and collecting I have several armies (both sides in each period) of over 200 figures a few over 300, some in the 50 - 150 and quite a number in the 10 - 50 range.  I am not a great painter and so paint to a fair table top standard for almost all my figures though a few get "superior" paint jobs when the mood or the figure inspires me.

But I also have several groups of figures not related to my collections in 20mm, 25mm, 30mm, 54mm 75mm etc just because I liked them and painted them for fun.  Actually almost all my figures are painted for fun.   

About once a year I painted against a deadline for the public participation games we used run at shows. 

So paint away on whichever models you like, fill the shelves and boxes and cupboards.  It does not matter if they never take the field so long as you get satisfaction from them.  (I have lots of figures that have not seen action yet but will some day ... probably)

 

[Sinewgrab]

I moved away from the painting on deadline a few years ago - I went to a 'making games with what I want to add to my current collections' instead of collecting specifically for an event - and I don't regret it.  As someone who is constantly fighting the "ooo shiny" syndrome, it was necessary.  I've accumulated 30 or 40 armies that have 100 to 200 models painted, and at least that in stuff I didn't get to before I moved on.

Of course, I've been at it since I was 13, and a good chunk of those are Warhammer 40k and Fantasy, which I no longer play, but I can't bring myself to sell off painted figures.

If it tires you rather than relaxes you, do something different.

[has.been]

Paint what you have to = misery.  (I know, I've been there).
Paint what you want = happiness. (That is where I'm at now)

[Spinal Tap]

I've spent a very pleasant hour tabling all the miniatures and terrain I've worked through in the pat 12 weeks for my post apoc games.

Really pleased with what I've achieved (which is part of why I drive myself) but am drawing a line under the project for the time being: I will still be adding things on occasion but not to the exclusion of everything else I enjoy.

Thanks for the input, it's really helped to put things in perspective.