How to Stay Motivated in Miniature Painting and Wargaming
In any hobby, I guess sometimes there’s always a high point and a low point. Sometimes you feel so motivated to keep going with full power, sometimes for days, everything seems so slow and low spirits. Especially when you see that there are so many more miniatures to paint. But if you think about it on the bright side, it looks amazing when it’s all finished.
There are few ways I usually push myself and motivate myself in this hobby. The trick to this miniature painting and wargaming hobby is that it revolves around the cycle of modeling, painting and playing. The cycle goes round and round to stay motivated.
If you have a few games, after that everyone will be motivated to paint more miniatures and explore different army list possibilities. For me, I have games from time to time, it all depends on me and my game partners, time and commitment. Before and after the games, my mind is always thinking about the game strategy and how to improve the army list. It also leads to quick thinking about whether it is possible to quickly assemble or paint this or another new unit, so that it can shine in the battle ahead. Sometimes in games, we always joke that, wow, this unit is not painted, that’s why he lost the fight.
When I paint, I revolve around different game themes to paint. It’s like, I feel like painting the vampire army, once it’s done or halfway done, sometimes you get bored. Then I’ll usually switch to another army to paint, like Imperial Guards Cadian or whatever other army you’re collecting. Helps keep the unit going.
Another motivational way is also to read Black Library novels. Especially after reading those novels, wa, you really feel like painting or having a good game. I still remember reading the Black Library novel “Eisenhorn”, after that the inspiration is so great that I wanted to paint more and play a game. It also made me love Inquisition and Demonhunters more. Other reading materials like the monthly White Dwarf also serve as another motivating factor. But I do think that the motivation for White Dwarf is more to entice you to buy more miniatures and collect more.
There are PC games like Dawn of War I & II and Warhammer Online, wow, watching those game trailers also increases the motivation level. For me, it’s not so much about playing the PC games, but watching the trailer of the game, which really motivates me a lot. I can clearly see the trailer for Dawn of War I, where the Commander of the Space Marines yelled, “CHARGE!” and the Orks roaring! So inspired to start painting and have a good game!
Well, this hobby that we all love, once started, we must commit to it. Sometimes we lose our vibrations, we must always remember our commitment to it, so that all the time, effort and money spent are not wasted.