Abandoning a project

[Shecky]

I'm done with projects which don't bring me joy.

I've wanted to build a TYW era army for a long time and with the recent release of Renatio et Gloriam I finally found rules which I feel do that period justice.  I purchased some sample Spanish and French 15mm figures to help me determine which army to build.  However I've decided to abandon the project before finishing a single figure.

Here are the issues which factored in to the decision:
1. The figures weren't difficult to clean but had just enough flash to be a pain. 
2. Figures are OK but not great. There's nothing about them that makes me want to paint them. If I have to paint 250+ then it will feel more like a chore than enjoyment.
3. Lack of a plan to paint them. Other than red accents for Spanish and blue accents for French, I didn't have a good plan to paint the uniforms. They're turning out to be drab, uninspiring units.


So, I'll go back to painting my growing pile of 10mm Napoleonics.

Anyone else have similar stories of abandoning a project because it seemed like an energy drain?

[fsn]

I have projects for which the time is not yet right - Swedish Napoleonics for example, or chariot armies.

Projects stop at various times ... I thought I'd like a Chinese WWII army but read around it and the idea never caught fire with me. My experience of painting white uniforms means I either need to change my approach or give up on Saxons, Spanish and Italian Nappies. I have gone as far as buying sample packs, but as long as they don't put me off, it's full speed ahead! 

Rule sets don't bother me as I write my own. I only buy Pendraken figures 'cos I can rely on the quality and the service. That's probably lazy, but I haven't exhausted the Pendraken catalogue yet.

[Shecky]

I might only play a handful of games a year so I spend most of my hobby time painting.  I use painting as a way to decompress and in some ways is like meditation.  It focuses my mind and as I paint I feel sense of accomplishment as I see the final product coming together. These figures were just causing me stress.

[steve_holmes_11]

I might only play a handful of games a year so I spend most of my hobby time painting.  I use painting as a way to decompress and in some ways is like meditation.  It focuses my mind and as I paint I feel sense of accomplishment as I see the final product coming together. These figures were just causing me stress.

In that context, it sounds like a wise call.


Do you have plans to sell the figures on? - I hasten to add I'm not offering to buy.
This ability to pass figures around seems to be a great feature of club membership.

[Orcs]

I might only play a handful of games a year so I spend most of my hobby time painting.  I use painting as a way to decompress and in some ways is like meditation.  It focuses my mind and as I paint I feel sense of accomplishment as I see the final product coming together. These figures were just causing me stress.

I find painting is a real switch off, to the extent that Mrs Orcs can tell when I have not painted for a while and will send me to my room to paint for an afternoon. - Is this a painting  addiction? 

I think that is the correct decision.  I find that I do not paint stuff even to my standard when not enthused by it.  On the odd occasion that I have had to paint something it takes me forever to get round to it and like you I do not enjoy it.

[Shecky]

No plans to sell them yet. I only bought enough for sample French and Spanish pike & shot units plus a cavalry unit for each army.  They'll probably sit in my unpainted bin for a few years until I decide to clean them out.

[steve_holmes_11]

No plans to sell them yet. I only bought enough for sample French and Spanish pike & shot units plus a cavalry unit for each army.  They'll probably sit in my unpainted bin for a few years until I decide to clean them out.

No plans to sell them yet. I only bought enough for sample French and Spanish pike & shot units plus a cavalry unit for each army.  They'll probably sit in my unpainted bin for a few years until I decide to clean them out.

No real harm if it's a sample size.
I think you've demonstrated considerable wisdom here.

• Decided it's not your thing before sinking big money and long hours into it.
• Shown the maturity to throw in the towel, as opposed to carry on regardless.
• Hobbies should be enjoyable, fun and relaxing. *

 * I occasionally visit another forum where I'm concerned about members showing off unhealthy obsession.
    Now I know that everybody needs a hobby, and it's up to them to decide what they enjoy.
    But then I see things like.
    1. The guy with a collection of 250 Deuce and a half trucks (20mm I think) who is reorganising his house for the next 50.
    2. The ones who've been painting for years in preparation for their grand replay of Leipzeig / Kursk (Other enourmous battle).
    3. The guy who recently posted an 8 page manifeto of his plans to overhaul horse and musket wargaming.

    Maybe they are having fun, but it isn't for everyone.

[paulr]

I might only play a handful of games a year so I spend most of my hobby time painting.  I use painting as a way to decompress and in some ways is like meditation.  It focuses my mind and as I paint I feel sense of accomplishment as I see the final product coming together. These figures were just causing me stress.

As others have said, a very sensible call

A hobby should be enjoyable and not a chore

I also find painting almost like meditation and it works best when you are enjoying painting the figures

[John Cook]

Anyone else have similar stories of abandoning a project because it seemed like an energy drain?

You are not alone.  I didn't abandon a project, I abandoned wargaming as a whole in the early 1970s.  There is no point, at all, if it isn't enjoyable.  I lost interest in larger figures mainly because they were just too big, and 15 to 20 man battalions were simply not convincing enough.  If I'd had unlimited resources, time and a large enough table, it might have been different but I didn't have any of those things.  The alternative was 6mm but they were too small to be worth painting, in my view.

10mm was a perfect compromise.  After a hiatus of more than 10 years my enthusiasm was rekindled when 10 High ACW appeared in the mid 1980s. The figures were big enough to be worth painting and a 10:1 ratio produced 50-80 figure battalions, which looked the part. 

But, it has to be something that sparks my interest and even 10mm have to be right too.  I almost gave up on a Maida project using Magister Militum figures.  I can't put a finger on it but painting them was a struggle.  This was before Pendraken, or anybody else for that matter, offered 10mm Napoleonics.  I'm presently in the middle of a Talavera project using the new Pendraken Peninsular range which are easy to paint and I've not tired of them yet. 

Painting gives me as much pleasure as anything else.  I realised some time ago that I collect armies almost as much as wargaming with them.  Among my SCW and WW2 1940 projects there are artillery units with guns, 8" howitzers, for example, that you'd never deploy on a wargames table, unless it was the size of a tennis court.  But I had to have a representative unit. 

When it comes to the table top, you are right about rules too.  They need to be dynamic as well as simple.  I boggle at the apparent complexity and inflexibility of BKC IV, judging by the recent conversations about it anyway.  Rules have to be easy to use, unambiguous, intuitive and, above all, they have to reflect my perceptions of the period in question.  I've been using the suite of Computer Strategies computer moderated rules for about 30 years now, originally in DOS format.  They cover every period you can think of, 15 I think at last count, and the system is the same for all of them so they all have a familiar look about them and switching from one period to another is not an issue.  They suit me, in part because they reflect my perceptions and are easy to use, but also because they have an increasingly sophisticated solo mode.  The advent of touch screen tablets also give you something that is much more portable than even the smallest conventional laptop.

There are periods that still leave me cold though.  The Crimea is one, AWI is another, WW1 after 1914, late WW2 and everything post WW2.  So, to answer your question, yes, I empathise entirely.

[mmcv]

Definitely, if it's not your thing then best to leave it. Seems sensible that you're putting them to the side rather than discarding them immediately. I have plenty of projects that I start and have interest in only to put to the side then come back to much later. I find making myself paint something I'm not that into can be a bit demotivating. It's okay when you're maybe pushing to get something done for a game and want to finish out a few units, but when you're just looking to paint for the pleasure of it, it's not worth making yourself do it.

I'm in a bit of a quandry myself at the moment as finding it hard to get motivated by any of my ongoing projects. I've a few hours tonight free for painting but have no idea what I want to actually paint, and don't want to make myself paint something that then comes out looking awful because I wasn't that into it.

[DecemDave]

Seems like the OP is actually typical rather than alone!  I'm a "me too", I once had an enormous collection of 1/72 figures but after the multi-year effort of creating two DBM/FOG sized armies while working, I sold off two crate loads to a dealer and pruned the remaining planned ancient/medievals to "basic impetus" type size.
Of course, I then retired and discovered 10mm (replacing some more 1/72 on the way) and so have far more figures to paint now than I did originally.  Hey Ho.     
It is also demonstrably true that I spend way more time researching, collecting and painting than I do gaming. Once rulesets run to book size rather than pamphlet it seems more like work than work did.

[Big Insect]

Who was the 15mm manufacturer - so I can avoid them please ?

It does sound like a good idea to ditch the project if your heart is not in it.

I have often 'outsourced' the painting of a project that I like the idea of playing with, but I know that the painting will drive me nuts! Or I will disappoint myself with my own attempts to do the army justice. Like a recent 15mm Zhou Chinese army for example.
I found great figures (in this case Essex Miniatures) but the thought of 1st constructing & then painting 14 x 4 horse chariots each with 3 crew and 2 large flags was daunting. Especially when the chariot horses have lion, leopard and even tiger pelts (!) as comparisons (eek). So I found a good painter - and stumped up the cash to get them painted. I did the subsequent basing and built a baggage camp for the army - but the end result is a joy to look at and is fun to play with.

I did the same with a 15mm TYW Protestant German army - all blacks and brown & greys - but lovely flags.

But I am still working - so I am time poor but have the cash (to a certain degree) to indulge this approach.
And it is not for everybody.

Mark

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Not abandoned but often put aside projects.

[hammurabi70]

Not abandoned but often put aside projects.
Quite so.  In the 1980s, after doing the ECW using MINIFIGS I started with 80YW and added figures for expansion into sixteenth century armies; 30+ years later the project is still incomplete.

A hobby should be enjoyable and not a chore
I think we are all Epicureans.

[Raider4]

I think we are all Epicureans.

(Quick read of Wikipedia . . .) So:

• Pleasure is the chief good in life.
• Live in such a way as to derive the greatest amount of pleasure possible during one's lifetime, yet do so moderately in order to avoid the suffering incurred by overindulgence in such pleasure.
  
• Emphasis is placed on pleasures of the mind rather than on physical pleasures.
• Unnecessary and, especially, artificially produced desires are to be suppressed.
• Political life could give rise to desires that could disturb virtue and one's peace of mind, such as a lust for power or a desire for fame, participation in politics is discouraged.
• Epicurus actively recommended against passionate love, and believed it best to avoid marriage altogether.
• Recreational sex is viewed as a natural, but not necessary, desire that should be generally avoided.