Painting Warhammer is a lot of work. Let’s face it: you have to build the thing, then paint the thing. And that can take a lot of time and energy. Sometimes I find this overwhelming. It’s really hard and it’s way easier to buy more minis. It’s easy for me to lose my Warhammer motivation and it’s difficult to find it again. I want to paint more minis, not buy more minis.
Last week I really wanted to paint something. I had a free evening after work and my wife was looking after the baby. I had the time, I had the space. But I didn’t have the motivation to get started. After much tribulation, I cleared my desk. I set my paint station in order. That alone really made me want to put brush to hand and get painting!
So what do I do when I lose my hobby mojo? In this article I’ll try to explain my method. You’ll be surprised how easy it is to implement! I call it the Paint The Boot method.
Motivation is a lie
The first thing to understand and keep in mind is that motivation is a trap. Motivation is a fickle lady. See, you can’t really rely on it when you need it, because it’s not always there.
It’s an emotion that tends to always run away the moment you have time to hobby! It happens to me all the time. Picture this.
It’s a Sunday afternoon, I’m free from chores and I can do whatever I want. Result? I just watch TV all afternoon. When evening comes around, I’m frustrated. I haven’t done anything meaningful with the time I was given. Yes, well said Gandalf. I was waiting for motivation to arrive and do some hobbying, but it never showed up.
How to keep your Warhammer motivation up?
The secret here is that you can create motivation yourself instead. No need to wait around – just go and do it. The phrase that I really like to remind myself is this one:
Activation comes before motivation.
That’s right, you have to kick yourself into gear first, then motivation will arrive!
My trick for this is to limit my expectation to only do one very small thing. I call this the “Paint The Boot” method.
The “Paint The Boot” method and how it can help you paint more minis
The name of the method should already tell you all that you need to know. Just Paint The Boot!
By setting my expectations low, I can just focus on one small thing which is really easy to achieve. This way I’ll get my dopamine hit as soon as I finish painting the thing I set to paint. This kickstarts the motivation I need to carry on!
For me, this looks like painting one boot on one miniature. I sit myself to the desk, then force myself to paint this one boot. After that’s done, I want to go ahead and paint the other boot. Then I’ll finish the trousers. And so on…
And just like that my 10 minutes painting session becomes a 2-hours one!
Adapt the Paint the Boot method to your needs
Now, the method states to Paint A Boot. However, you don’t have to be so restrictive with this method. You can adapt it to better suits your needs. In fact, you don’t even have to paint anything. As long as you sit down and do something with your hobby, you are winning already.
Here are a few example variations of my method and how I like to change it up to keep me motivated and paint more minis:
- Tidy up the hobby space. This is a great one if you are feel sluggish. It helps a lot when feeling burnt down as you don’t have to paint anything. Just make your hobby space nice and tidy.
- Build a model. Again, this is a great one to get a break from painting. I really enjoy building minis because I don’t really need to think about it, I just do it.
- Prime minis. I like this one because it really quick! if you have a spray can you can do it in no time. Personally I enjoy using my airbrush for this because, like building miniatures, you don’t really have to think. It’s just one colour!
- Build list for your army. This one is awesome because it hypes me up to get a whole army ready to go.
- Play a game. Nothing better than rolling dice and smash your friends with a fully painted collection. This will absolutely make you want to get to the painting desk!
As you can see you can adapt and change it up as you like. Let me know how you adapt this method to your needs. Always happy to hear how others keep their Warhammer motivation.
Bring back your Warhammer motivation and paint more minis!
So remember, the key here is to nudge yourself to start. This will create a landslide motivation loop that will keep you going without even realising it! You’ll even finish your entire army this way.
What about you? Do you agree with my Paint The Boot method? Maybe you have another way to overcome the lack of hobby motivation? Let me know in the comments! Until next time
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