The Grind - How to Break Through

Its inevitable that at some point during your hobby life that you will have a pile of miniatures, massive unit or tedious project that will make you want to claw your eyes out while painting. For some its too much and they just move on and never finish the project, but hopefully I can give some tips on how I get through these projects on the desk.

My current painting task is one that would fall into this category. As I am working on my Edge of the Abyss Summer campaign Abyssal army I realized that I needed a horde of Lower Abyssals to finish my Great Arch Host battle formation. Painting infantry is an absolute chore for me, most of my armies are made up of larger infantry or monsters so I get to spend more time on each miniature. Grinding through 25-40 regular infantry is almost as boring as the Business Law class that I am in.

So how do I get past this roadblock:

• Music/Podcasts - one of the things that I do when I paint anyway is listening to music or podcasts. It may seem like a stupid tip but I notice a lot of people who try to paint in silence or in front of a TV and just get distracted by a show. Put some headphones in and get in the zone, buckle down and push through.
• New Project - if you have something else that you are working on at the same time, than grab that and paint it for a little while. Try and make it something that is different than what you are doing, painting the same color scheme or army is counter productive. I try to always have a couple of spare miniatures primed as palette cleanser of sorts.
• Other Hobby - maybe you have another hobby that you enjoy doing that isn't hobby related. I personally love to draw. Its a great way for me to decompress while still being creative, its also something I can do with my kids and have some fun with them.

Not the most ground breaking article I have done, but I think it is an important topic. Getting stuck in painting is a something we all face and sometimes its not as simple as "just do it".

Thanks