When it comes to the Hobby, I am bored. Bored bored bored. Booooooorrrrrreeeeeedddddd. Bored. I am finding my painting and modelling efforts to be a source of dullness, tedium, ennui, apathy and an unsatisfying frustration of the most boring nature. Oh, the boredom…

And just after I made all those plans for next year! Typical. I’m still very excited about next year but right now, I am bored. I think it’s down to what’s on my table at the moment – a headless Inquisitor and four sprues worth of Stormraven Gunship. Both are quite crucial. Both require a lot of effort on my part in one way or another. They’re both loaded with stressful moments, long hours and the scope for me to screw up and right now, I just don’t have the enthusiasm, will or inclination to do a gosh darn thing about either one of them.

You may have noticed that I’ve not posted up any newly painted miniatures in quite a while now. Indeed, this has been with me for a couple of weeks, so my productivity has been tanking for spell already. Hopefully that means we’re closer to the end of such fatigue but who knows. At the moment, despite trying to invigorate myself with new purchases, plans for the future and reminding myself of my good work so far this year, it hasn’t done anything for me. Temporarily, and for the moment, I’m out.

We’ve been over all of this before and I know that you go through it too. It’s this blog’s 1st birthday next week and in 2014, this problem has only really cropped up twice, so that’s not too bad a record. Here’s hoping that I can snap myself out of it sooner rather than later, but I wanted to let those of you who come here for my painting know that this is why there has been something of a dry spell in these parts of late.

As with the last post on this subject from earlier in the year, if you’ve got any sure-fire tips to stifle this annoying aspect of the Hobby, feel free to chime in with your two cents below. If we can find a cure for this boredom, we will all be far better off. And if you have no answer, at least spare a thought for your fallen comrade who has succumbed to the draining bleakness of that most wicked opponent – Hobby Malaise…

my painting station – where the magic happens, even when it doesn’t feel very magical

Today, I want to talk about hobby malaise. We all get it to a varying degree and I’m going through it right now. It’s not exactly a funk, but it’s when what you do for fun seems to be making demands on you and that don’t seem right somehow. Basically, it’s when painting isn’t enjoyable.

To paraphrase Burns, the best laid plans of mice and men oft end up as a big pile of unpainted plastic that you hide in a draw and try to ignore. It’s not like I don’t have lots to paint. On the contrary. I have most of the Dark Vengeance Box, my old Emperor’s Children Army to resurrect, a Forgefiend, a Rhino, a bunch of scenery… yeah. But over the last week it has felt like a chore rather than a pleasure and that’s not good.

the drawer is full of things that need painting…

Like everyone, my day-to-day life is full of malarky ranging from the mildly annoying to the down-right depressing. There are plenty of peaks too, but there are as many troughs. There’s the daily commute, the boring lunches, being sat at my desk staring at a screen for eight or more hours a day, five days a week. When I come home (provided I don’t opt for the pub instead) I want to do something that will help me to relax. For so long, painting, playing and discussing 40k has been a great outlet for me. It’s calming, cathartic and, most crucially, it’s enjoyable. Most of the time.

I don’t know why this week. I could try and analyse it and dig to the root of the issue, but I think that’d be pointless. For one thing, there isn’t really an issue. It hits us all from time to time where the sight of our paints and brushes just makes us think ‘meh’. Maybe its my mind’s way of reconnecting with the real world. I’ve done a few things I’ve been meaning to do for ages. Fixed this, called them, watched that… all because I was not hunched over my paints. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that – a bit more productivity in other areas of my life. And that’s a healthy way to look at it, I hope.

Anyway, what I wanted to talk about, was how to get over it. This is not my first rodeo and over the years, I’ve noted a few tips and trends to help get one out of the malaise. Here’s what I hold to be true…

• Don’t force it – Sitting there forcing yourself to paint will not improve your fondness of the hobby and you might just end up doing a poor job because of it. Step back from it and let it happen again when you’re ready.

there’s a whole world out there that doesn’t involve painting miniatures!

• Go outside – We all do it. This self imposed isolation and stuffy rooms, gorging on junk food and ignoring the world beyond the little circle of light that illuminates our efforts. A bit of exercise and fresh air will do you the world of good.

• Enjoy your other passions – We are all deep, multi-facetted humans capable of enjoying more than just one pastime. With that in mind, go and enjoy something else for a while. Whether it’s going to a museum or art gallery, playing football or writing limericks on the walls of public toilets – go do that fro a while.

• Switch up your projects – Monotony does you no favours. If you’re stuck in the middle of a big project, break off and try painting a mini you’ve always wanted to paint. Working on a huge horde of orks and sick of the sight of green? Why not paint a blood angel for a change?

• Set a schedule – This can be a great trick. Say that you’re going to work on your miniatures for an hour and stick to that. If after an hour you find yourself really keen to do more, then the malaise will have left you.

Anyway, this weekend, I’m going to spend some time with some friends I’ve not hung out with for a while, switch up my routine and try to get some exercise as well. So no hobby from me, but hopefully, when next week rolls around, I’ll be ready to crack on with my paints and have a smile plastered over my face as I do so. Onwards!

What do you do to deal with the hobby malaise? Any tips or tricks to avoid the lethargy? We’d all love to hear them so stick them in a comment below!