How do you select your next project?

[coggon]

Right around Christmas time I sat down and made a list of unpainted lead and half completed projects, plus stuff I'd like to do. As I had been painting a lot of WWII, I was tired of painting various shades of green, brown and gray, so I stuck a Border Reivers project in there break up the monotony.  And, miracle of miracles, I have stuck to the list, except for adding 3 packs of TAG figs for "Operation Hell+Hound"(Hellboy and Elvis go to Vietnam in search of some ancient evil) The Reivers are now done, and the figs for  Hellhound should be close to done today (I'm home with a sick child today).  

Next up is either my "untitled 15mm WWII project", which is still in need of a basing scheme (and possibly rules-FOW is definitely out, BKC is a possisibility) or a whole platoon of BH 28mm paras. I have sufficient quantities of lead to complete both projects.

So there's the conundrum-more green and brown.  I feel the need to start thinking about the project that comes after these (I need some incentive to wade through all that green and brwon again :: )and I am wondering how members of the LAF go about getting prioritizing and scheduling projects?  I'm not going to ask about inspiration as there is plenty of that on this forum already .  (FWIW, thanks to Helen and Poly I am leaning towards some sort of Great War setting, though I am torn between Palestine and France 1914) (Or maybe the Winter War)

Thanks

Allan

[Vanvlak]

I don't - which means I never get any project ready. I am still trying to finish off my collection of Inquisitor 54mm scale models - of which I have only 1....  

Well, that's how NOT to do it.  

[Zafarelli]

Register your project as a convention game. You'll have a deadline, and you will be ready by then. There might be some sleepless nights involved, and you might not be able to squeeze as much detail as possible in (at least that is the case with me), but the project *will* be completed in time.

[Strand]

The best thing for me is the application of "public pressure". Get your gaming buddies together, agree on a setting, a date and time and broadcast it across a forum (so you will work well into the night before facing humiliation if you don't finish your project). Or choose a convention to attend and present your project. It is a bit fiddly to define achievable work packages, but after a while you will get used to it.
Although this may sound rough, it actually worked very well for me in my .45 Adventure- and LotOW-campaigns.
Of course this will work better, if you are a game-oriented painter.

[Vanvlak]

BUT do not make painting a chore!

[Rhoderic]

I guess I'm pretty whimsical in selecting my projects. However, more than once I've selected a project because it's been trendy with other gamers at the moment, or because a new cool ruleset has been released (or is on it's way). For instance, I had planned to get into Swords and Sorcery for years, but now that Broadsword Adventures approaches, I've actually started the project for real.

Sometimes a project morphs into something else along the way. I got into Border Reivers for a while but didn't follow through on it. But many of the figures I'd bought for that setting got a second lease on life in my swashbuckling project.

[Glitzer]

None at all, the longer a project is fermenting in my storage room (half begun, or sketsches only) the better it gets, just like good wine, you know?

...having a priority list helps a lot. Let's look at my Western Town:
1st priority was building exterior - done that last week
2nd priority is painting the exterior - ...I can do that in one day
3rd priority is interior for saloon, jail and bank (in that order) I'd like to have those, but they are not essential to the game, so I'm sure I'll be working on my SciFi suburb before comming back at this...
4th priority would be exterior details, like baskets with apples for the shop etc. followed by interior for the rest and finishing with interior details...

I'm pretty sure all this will take me months to finish. But for playing LoTOW on a convention this friday all I have to do is to paint my Texas Rangers and the exterior of the town, and I know I can do that

[Jules]

Coggon.. Try PBI for your 15mm WWII its streets ahead of the others and does not require millions of models which allows you to collect different nations,  I have Japanese, US Marines, US Airborne, British 1st Airborne, German SS...I think I will add a 14th Army unit soon and some 1940s french/brits for norway vs motor cycle battalion.

http://www.peterpig.co.uk/range8.htm

[Hammers]

I go into the tipi, lit a fire and throw some peyote on it. Then I "meditate" for a few days and whatever I think of I paint. For some reason it tends to involve dogs.

[Col.Stone]

I just get online whenever i have got my paycheck,
look here and at frothers, maybe at some new release at at TGN or TMP
and go with something that looks like fun,
if nothing grabs my attention i add more to the projects i've already got going

[Lowtardog]

I go with the flow, it may be new figure ranges or a book I am reading or those damnable buggers on ooo what was it again...Lead Adventure thats it :mrgreen:

[coggon]

Well so far Hammershield has the best idea    ::

I often start a project on the impulsive "ooh shiny-must have' principle, but even that is out as my gaming funds for the near future are committed to buying some 1/50 armor from a guy who is selling his collection

[Big Guy]

My new projects usually appear in a zen-like moment half way through a game, a liitle voice says 'What if you did THIS game with THOSE figures and added the new releases you saw last week'  It has quite a success rate, but of late has been held back considerably by by an unnamed UK supplier, who isn't.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

I go into the tipi, lit a fire and throw some peyote on it. Then I "meditate" for a few days and whatever I think of I paint. For some reason it tends to involve dogs.

sounds intriguing, is there any online shop selling peyote ?  ::

[matakishi]

I find my next project usually selects me.