Three Points and One Rule

Purgatus of Yes The Truth Hurts (apparently it is supposed to be missing that crucial comma) has recently given forth some helpful advice on hobby project management for those of us who find ourselves committing to too much at once.

As a man with half-painted Dark Elves (Been Painting: Cauldron of Blood crew), half-painted Skorne (Been Painting: Cyclops and Titan) and, VERY SOON NOW, half-painted Tyranids* (About To Be Buying: Cheap Nids), and limited time to work on any of it, this sort of thing is highly beneficial.

The first stage of Purgatus' three point plan involves finding a little time every week to do something.  My times, at the moment, are Wednesday night (I'll be running a school club as of next week, and so have a couple of designated hours to work on models while refereeing for the kids - we'll see how well THAT turns out after this Wednesday) and a good chunk of Saturday (early afternoon's working quite well, that seems to be when the new living room gets the sun), and I try to have a couple of models on the go during those times so I can work on one while another's drying.  I painted the first two beasts for my Skorne army and the Cauldron crew over the course of last weekend, and while I now have red fatigue, they look pretty good (pictures when I can get to a decent camera).  This week I'll probably be building/priming Tyranids and painting another Cyclops.

Second stage: don't get judgy about unpainted models, as long as progress is being made.  A few years of living in the Real WorldTM  has more or less cured me of any painting snobbery, but there's still the ghost of a hang-up in there.  As long as a project is making progress, as long as slightly more stuff is painted this week than last, it's okay: hence devoting some time to the Dark Elves last week, since they'd been neglected since I left Plymouth.

Third and most crucial stage: don't neglect playing.  Playing games is important because it gives the painting a purpose (unless you buy to paint, in which case you probably don't have the obligation, the need to learn to love the grey), gives you some motivation, gets you all excited about your Dark Elves (which reminds me, I've a game report I still haven't written) again and willing to put a lick of paint on them.  There's a similar, inverse effect from knowing that you have a game coming up and you want to paint something for it; witness my actually bothering to base the rest of my Cryx army because I knew there was a tourney in the offing.

There you have it.  How to stop worrying and love the grey.  I think it's important to have a Frugal brake on the proceedings, and mine is the Rule of One: one army per game played, which is holding up fairly well (if you consider Hordes and Warmachine as one gaming system, I'm cheating a bit, but I think the dynamics are different enough to get away with it, and having a small Hordes army does have the effect of reminding me how the Hordes rules work, thus improving my game).  I've been in Purgatus' shoes, where I've had seven or so armies on the go but haven't actually been able to pay the rent, and I don't want to go back there again.


* - yes, I did say it was going to be Orks, didn't I?  My next post will be on the various reasons why I changed my mind, as well as the plan for keeping the project moderately Frugal.  There's no lying about it - it's definitely a breach of protocol, but it's for professional reasons (school club a-go-go!) and the original plan to manage expenditure should hold up for them better than it did for the Orks.