How do you keep motivation on big projects?!!

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rocketandroll

New member
Hi all...

despite the psychological nature of the subject, I thought WIP was the best place for this..

How does everyone keep up motivation on big projects like vehicles?

I am now about 80% of the way through a heavy tank for Golden Demon Spain (in less than two weeks!)...

I have always had a short attention span when it comes to painting and I always get distracted by \'the next project\' before I get most stuff finished... it has been hard enough getting Demon quality single minis with 50 - 60hrs work in them completed... but having already put 100 - 120 hours into this tank since the end of Dec, and still having 40 - 50hrs to go to finish it and do the base for it... I am just reaching meltdown.

Two weeks solid (5 - 6hrs a day) of weathering rivets just destroys the soul, and now I\'m not 100% happy with the tracks on the thing having been really happy with the chasis which I just finished a day or two ago.

I feel I\'m just gonna ruin it by rushing the bits that are left just to get it finished because I\'m not really \'into\' it any more.

GRRRRRR!!!!

How do I motivate myself again?

HELP!!!



Ben
 
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EclypseDesigns

New member
take a break. If even for a couple of days. If you reach that burn out point it is likely that you\'ll do something you really regret and won\'t have the patience or time to fix it.

IME frustration is a major cause of project stalling. Don\'t get frustrated, take a little break and re-evaluate what you want to achieve for your current pieces.
Is it more important to finish them in time for a rapidly apporaching deadline, or do you want to look at the piece post deadline and feel the satisfaction that you completed something to your own high standards.

Motivation is very much a personal thing and i don\'t think there is a one shoe fits all solution.
 
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rocketandroll

New member
Cheers... those are wise words...

To answer your question though... it\'s better to finish it in time rather than finish it to a better quality later... from my POV anyway...

I only paint for competitions and, having put so much time and money into this project... and having paid for flights, hotels etc to travel all the way to Spain to enter this model... it\'d be a hell of a blow NOT to finish it in time, I\'d kinda feel it had all been a waste.

Having said I get bored with stuff easily, I aslo know I won\'t have a cat in hell\'s chance of finishing anything this big without the motivation of a deadline.

I know I CAN finish it in the next two weeks, I just need to keep motivated to keep up the standard I\'ve started with.


Man, this is meant to be a fun hobby isn\'t it?! :-(


Ben
 
Talonicus

Talonicus

New member
I suffer from exactly the same problem.
I also paint mainly for competitions and rarely finish anything to satisfaction.
I also start all my projects in plenty of time and yet always seem to run out.

My last works for golden demon was a perfect example of this.
With about 2 weeks left I had a huge amount to do.

I made a very thorough list of all the jobs to do and put an estimated time to complete each. I then methodically worked my way through my list. Just got it finished in time.
Yes it is very very hard to maintain focus but not entering something because of it is much more frustrating.

GOOD LUCK.

And bring back something for the UK, would love to go myself sometime.

Nigel
 
JesterzUSMC

JesterzUSMC

Recovering Megalomaniac
6-9 projects going at once seems to be my magic zone...lol.
Less than that and I can\'t get motivated and more than that and I can\'t get focused.
I guess it gives me a break from each without taking me away from the hobby?
I don\'t know. I\'ve also recently learned that the projects actually have to be in front of me. lol, I tried cleaning up my desk, and I just couldn\'t get started. I pulled out my WIPs and suddenly I was trucking along. :D
It depends on what type of person you are.
I\'m the type that needs visual confirmation that there\'s more to do than what\'s in hand. That is what keeps me plugging along. For some it might be a distraction having more to look at than just the one they\'re working on.
Play around, find your zone, when you do, you\'ll find that \"one-ness\" that gets you going like no motivational poster can!
:D CHEERS!
 
B

Bengoodall

New member
Ill let you know just as soon as I finish something, but all the rumours of new plastic space marine stuff, along with finding out how to make pre heresy legions has me not working on anything at all right now :D

Well, kind of, Im bouncing between the soul destroying rivets you are talking about, and repainting my dreadnoughts black.
 
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rocketandroll

New member
Cheers all, thanks so much for your help and support... jeez, this is like painters AA :)

\"Hi, my name\'s Ben... and I have a problem with paint\" :)

Anyway, I think I was just at a bad point this morning.... the workload just seemed too great, the time seemed too short and having been real happy with how the tank was looking, I was not happy with the shiny grey tracks I\'d just base coated. Having now cleaned up the overpainted edges, washed it back with some brown/black mixes, added a few patches of rust, some subtle drybrushing with chainmail to bring up the edges... and then done some trials with Mig sand powders (it\'s a Tallarn desert scheme) it\'s looking really quite sweet.

Oh, and Talonicus... I do exactly the same with lists of tasks :) I actually planned out, day by day, about two weeks back, what needed to be done and calculated I had two days spare... But I\'m trying to get a bit ahead of myself to be sure I can complete the tank and have spare time rather than hit a problem at the end and have no leeway.

I have made one important decision today... it is now getting SO hard to move the tank around without chipping or rubbing areas, I have decided to base it now, and physically affix it to the base rather than leave the base until the very end as planned. I think that will:

A: help me work on it without having to keep on re-doing bit\'s I\'ve damaged trying to hold the tank to paint it and

B: Make me concentrate on the visible areas of the tank rather than wasting hours weathering things that will never be seen (unless the judges unscrew the tank from it\'s base to see JUST how anal I am!!! :)


Anyway, cheers all for your encouragement... with 150hrs+, £80 of custom made brass etch and the cost of the trip to Barcelona all invested in this little toy tank... I really hope it\'s all worth it in the end! :)

I know, it\'s the taking part! :)


Cheers all


Ben
 
J

Jericho

Consummate Brushlicker
Sounds like this is going to be a pretty awesome tank when it\'s done :)

There comes a point in the process where your pride becomes your biggest motivator. I don\'t mean arrogance, I mean you start to get stubborn and tell yourself \"I put so much bloody time in that I\'m gonna finish, dammit!\" Basically stubbornness takes over.

If all else fails, then being a bit of an attention whore seems to be a motivator for me. Hence the army progress on my blog, and painting around friends is good for this too. You can suck the enthousiasm out of other people when you run out yourself :D
 
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demonherald

New member
I am the most impatient bugger around when it comes to it.. I rarely spend more than a day or two on something....

I generally have 2 or 3 projects on the go at any one time and try to make each of them contrats....

for example tonight I am finishing a few army standard bits for a customer , a couple of new characters for ebay, a bust for myself......

The bust issomething that will end up not finished for months and is just something for me.. It\'s there as a break from more mundane stuff or when I know something isn\'t going right...

splitting big projects up into smaller projects helps a lot... like my dread for Games Day last year... basically modelled it section at a time... base/legs /body/head/backpack/arm1/ arm 2
Then split the painting up the same..
evening 1 base
evening 2 legs etc
The splitting up stops that looking up a mountain feling where you have so much to do you struggle to get started....I have checklists that I make each week of what I need to get done and tick them off daily.. That started about a year ago and really helps as when I make the list I can detect the shitty jobs and split them up ..

other than that if all else fails and it isn\'t working then just have a rest ....
 
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demonherald

New member
oh and on the point of damaging the already painted work I now always paint with a surgical latex glove on the hand that is holding the mini and it helps massively.. I pick a point that is gonna be my main holding point and paint that last....
 
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Jericho

Consummate Brushlicker
It shouldn\'t get sweaty if you\'re not doing anything physical. I had to wear safety gloves at work all the time the last couple of years, and latex gloves on their own aren\'t that bad. It\'s when you have to wear another pair of nitrile gloves over top while doing heavy lifting that you start to get sweaty :D

There are some people allergic to latex, but you can get latex-free rubber ones. Make sure you get powder-free ones though, if you don\'t want white crap all over your models.
 
volomir

volomir

New member
Hi Ben! I\'m volomir from Spain, you guys can usually find me posting on the Spanish Team Forum and I thought I could give a chance to de CMON ones. So this is my first post! Cheers to everyone! :beer:

It happens to me a lot also... I get bored really fast when working long hours on the same mini. I think the trick is painting for short periods of time like 2 hours max. When I paint for longer I tend to waste time just by looking at the figure all around watching all the errors but doing nothing about them :D

I\'ll be attending GD Spain of course and I\'ll be looking forward to meeting you guys. Good luck with your tank Ben!! I know for sure you\'ll encounter real good competition!

See you around
 
R

rocketandroll

New member
Originally posted by revmatt
when frustrated:
watch \"Empire Strikes Back\"
then get back to work.
Click to expand...


Too right :)

I find Batman Begins also works wonders :)

Last year whilst trying to get my GD entries done I managed to watch all of Babylon 5.... yes, all as in every series start to finish :)

Didn\'t get much painting done in the end :)


Ben
 
Dragonsreach

Dragonsreach

Super Moderator
Staff member
\"How does everyone keep up motivation on big projects like vehicles?\"


Basically I don\'t. I just grit my teeth to get to the finish.
Unless its a Sister of Battle tank.
 
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uberdark

New member
i just keep multiple projects going at one time. that way i dont get too burned out. i always have another project in the back to use in case the one i am working on backfires. right now i have 8 pieces for the GD this year and i know i will probably only have 3 to turn in at most. but in case one goofs up or another turns out better than i expected i should be fine.


oh and i also watch shawshank redemption whenever i need a burned out.

cause andy always had it worse than i did, \"in the end\"

hehe.
 
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