So I went in the loft on Sunday and glanced around and thought how much stuff do I have, unopened boxes with models in, terrain 1/2 finished etc etc I'm now at a cross roads with the hobby and I could easily take either path. Path 1. Sell all the things I won't use and can't be bothered finishing Path 2. Work my way through everything and don't buy more. It's making it harder because I don't get enough time playing the games, Archie can't be bothered helping paint and has lost interest. Do I just paint minis now and forget about playing. I was going too do a list of what I have to finish but there is so much stuff I don't know were to start! So guys how do you keep motivated?
Honestly, unless it's a model you want to use or has some value to you/your army, get rid of it. The way to keep interested will be to finish the stuff you want to, then buy new stuff that you will use. Then paint that. Small batches of new interesting stuff. Otherwise you will have an insurmountable task that just feels like a chore instead of a fun project. Play the game(s) and just have fun. If the kid feels he has out grown it, put away the playable stuff and just paint the models you want to paint. Get rid of everything else, and then when the boy is older, break out the armies, or take them into the game shop and see if you can find people to play against. Even if you provide the armies. See if your local store will let you hold a free to try games night. Or advert a mini tournament and give some of your unpainted models as prizes to all participants.
Also, stop buying things as you see them want them. Put those on a wish list. Earn them by finishing your current painting project. One box or two characters at a time. You will find that given that extra time, you will end up taking things out of your cart that weren't as interesting as you first thought. That will prevent buyers remorse and more storage!
Loft is packed to the rafters with stuff, I need to be disciplined and get rid of stuff I won't use, guess my painted Arkhan is going on ebay!
@Bowser couldn't have given you a better advice: I completely agree on what he said. If you already know you have some models you will never paint/play with there's no real reason to keep them! And it's much more satisfying to get some occasional model, paint it and then repeat the process with another product, instead of buying tons of things immediately... this means killing the hobby! Regarding what you said about having less and less time to play: haven't you got the possibility to go play at your local store even just an evening a week? I don't have the possibility to play with my minis very often too, but I think it's nice to play whenever I can: our hobby is "paint 'n' play", if you sacrifice one, you are loosing 50% of the fun! Lastly... I haven't understood what "Archie can't be bothered helping paint" means. I don't know how you usually paint, but by what you write I imagine Archie could have lost some interest because he wants to do some more than just "help painting", like maybe painting independently the models he wants, no? Spoiler: ... obviously hoping they are not rats!
Has he lost complete interest in the hobby (painting, playing, lore, etc)? I thought he was loving KoW?
He wants to play and he is up for doing terrain but we have all the terrain we need and getting time to play is the problem atm. I think if I have a clear out and then let him start his own terrain project instead of helping me that might spark his interest again.
He hates painting, he usually ends up with blue hands because that is more fun to him, he loves terrain so I will try and get him started on his own project.
That's a good idea... let him explore in his own unique direction. The creativity might very well spark his interest.
I'm in a similar situation. I recently sold off a pretty big Necron army because I realised that I hadn't played it in 2 editions, and I still had stuff I bought for it from the first wave of new models that was still on sprues. I still think Necron are awesome and I had put in a lot of effort to the army background and worked out some really good army lists and planned the future for it... but I knew deep down it would never eventuate so I sold it off. I done the same thing about 4 years back with Space Marines. I had around 3000pt worth that I had literally never played with. I painted (most of) them and kept them around as a "house" army for friends to use, so I sold them. I HATE selling minis because of the effort put into them and all those little personal touches. I'm really starting to reign in my spending and focus on painting projects 1 at a time instead of looking at a codex/army book and saying "I'm going to make the biggest formation/batallion in this book. That is a good idea." then never getting round to it. I play so few games these days that it's basically a non-issue. @Bowser 's point on not buying new things until you finish painting existing things rings very very close to home for me. I actually don't know how much Chaos Space Marine stuff I have to paint because there's so much half done. So yeah... listen to everyone who isn't me basically. I have a proven track record of being really bad at this! If you see me start to post Sylvaneth in my paint log you have my permission to hit me repeatedly with a foam bat.
All valid points and taken on board, I started looking seriously last night and although I have loads of stuff around 70% is painted. Seraphon, 8 knights to paint, multibase trees to finish Ogres, completed Undead, 6 Zombie trolls, 60 ghouls, Orks, Starter box and 10 boys Goblins, 60 Dwarfs, none painted but this is my KOW project Terrain, AOS completed, KOW tower to paint, rest are side projects like battle boards etc. So I feel better but I still have too much stuff so I need to look at getting rid of some of my painted stuff, Seraphon and Undead are staying, might have to be ogres and Orks, arghhhh!
There you go, after the golden serpent is done you can have a new terrain comp, this time with a destroyed theme. Prizes could include and then you and the kid can work on some terrain.
I also have that problem ( all of us do ) and I decided to only allow myself to buy a box after each 2 completed, otherwise I,ll drown in a sea of unpainted plastic.
I need something similar to do.. Paint stuff and not buy to much stuff Also in my schedule I try to pain some of the new stuff I have and pick up something old to paint per month as well to try and work through the back log.. As for buying I need to figure out how to do that.. But models are on a low now as I want some books first... But still I need to steer clear of the awesome new models (Sylvaneth).. But buying the Silver tower was also not very good for my grey plastic model count..
This is actually a really great way to go about purchases in general. I'm super impulsive, and have used similar reward systems to not go too far overboard! As for all the stuff you have, I'd look to sell it. As a general rule I try to stick by is if you haven't used it in 6 months you can probably part with it. Not sure the forum rules, but maybe you can post what you have? I'm sure a few people may be interested in taking care of your spare boxes!
I'm in control! Bought the Silver tower game but I got it for £50 so now I'm purely painting what I have and only buying paints etc. I'm testing the market by putting some items on ebay.