Painting blocks

[Doomhippie]

Terror lies in numbers for me. I've tried painting a German force for T&T but after 26 or so minis I almost start shaking and crying just thinking of "Germen Fieldgrey"...
I actually start getting nervous painting up a six model group of explorers for DA.

[oxiana]

Numbers.

Until relatively recently I used to have a really good focus: base up and prime half a dozen minis, and then paint them until finished: job done. Now, for some reason, I seem to have become really bad at polishing them off. I've nearly a dozen on the go now and however much I try, none of them ever seem to get finished. It's driving me mad! I think I started on several minis that actually I wasn't too bothered about to start with, plus a couple with tricky/fiddly paint schemes, so the more I look at them the less motivated I seem to become...

[Skrapwelder]

Getting the first color on the figures. Once I clear that I can have the ten or twenty figures on the table done in a weeks worth of evenings. Its the initial commitment I have trouble getting to.

Not having a specific project to work towards slows me down as well.

[Wirelizard]

The German infantry I did for one LPL3 round were the first historicals I've done, ever, and I found them unexpectedly intimidating... dammit, there's actual books about these guys, with colour plates and even photos, I can't just invent stuff out of my head and plow onward!

So I appear to have the opposite problem to a few people upthread who are fine painting historical uniforms but bad at painting off-the-cuff...

The Germans were also tough because the dark feldgrau took more highlighting, shading and blacklining than I usually use to make it look anything other than flat & dark.

Eyeballs used to block me, but I've got a good system now that doesn't actually use a paintbrush - I take a toothpick, sharpen it to a pinpoint, and use that to apply first white then the black pupil. Much more controllable than a tiny paintbrush!

[Terrible Tim]

Just curious, what things put bumps in your painting production lines?

The only things that stop me from painting are children, only picked up a brush twice in the last 6 months... On those occassions for a whole 20 minutes a time! Supprisingly I haven't finished much so far this year.

For some reason twins in the house seem to make everything else seem like a distant dream, painting, hobbies, relaxing, sleep...

I could not agree more. A wife and few kids slow me down.....but they are good fun. I find now I paint in spurts....I am having a small lull at present. 

[Orctrader]

Just curious, what things put bumps in your painting production lines?

This damned heat.     I haven't painted anything for almost a week.

Heat-wave over.    Hay-fever back under control.    painting resumes tonight...

[Cosmotiger]

I have problems coming up with color schemes, AND with painting in numbers. 

I've also tried using sci-fi art books as inspiration.  Sometimes that works, but other times I've come up with weird looking schemes that I hated.

[archangel1]

Heat-wave over.    ...

What is the English version of a heatwave? At this time of year, Toronto's usually dripping with sweat but not this year.  We're sitting at about 25°C at the moment, which I find comfortable, but we are often 30­° or higher in July-August.  A lot of rain this summer, too.

[Captain Blood]

As a Canadian, you would laugh at our definition of a heatwave.

But not as much as you would laugh at our definition of 'a severe winter' 

Two inches of snow and the whole country grinds to a halt.

[archangel1]

Two inches of snow and the whole country grinds to a halt.

Two inches and I tighten the laces on my running shoes! Truthfully, I haven't worn winter boots for at least a decade, in spite of several attempts by Mother Nature to persuade me otherwise.  Last winter's driveway clearing left a pile on the lawn that was literally over my head (I'm 6'4"!) and I'm out shovelling in my runners!

[Ray Rivers]

Getting the first color on the figures. Once I clear that I can have the ten or twenty figures on the table done in a weeks worth of evenings. Its the initial commitment I have trouble getting to.

Not having a specific project to work towards slows me down as well.

Same goes for me.

Determining which project to do is the most difficult.  Once I have decided on the project, then I'm off painting blocks of 10 to 12 figures at a time.

When I first started wargaming... in the 70's, we played on ping pong tables.  Yea gotta have a lot of troops to do that.  When I'm painting only a few miniatures I feel like I am almost wasting my time...