Losing Steam

With most of the painting out of the way, my competition piece for Wyrd Miniatures is starting to stagnate.



For those who were here the day I discovered the competition, you know how excited I was about it.  It's no secret that I love the things Wyrd Miniatures produces. It's creepy and awesome, and the only bad thing about them is that I don't play their games.

But after I finished painting up Hamelin and his Stolen, the only thing I had left was the modeling aspect of my piece. I've never done much modeling, so from the idea's inception I had no idea how I'd feel about the piece as a whole. It turns out that I'm nothing more than an overly-passionate painter and not the well-rounded hobbyist I hoped I was.

Over the past few days I've been working on my rat swarm. I lost my original mold, so I had to spend some time making two more acceptable pieces before I could start. From there I got my greenstuff and starting making rats. It was drudgery, but it was progress.

Yesterday, however, I had 0 interest in messing with greenstuff or working on the sewer. Instead, I decided to work on my Play It Painted pledge for the month.

When I finished these up this afternoon, I felt good. I don't mind the odd bit of terrain-making or basing, but painting is my passion, and my competition piece just isn't jiving with what I enjoy. That isn't to say that I won't finish the piece, because I plan to. It just won't be done with the enthusiasm I was hoping to put in to the entire thing.

I shared this with my wife this evening, and she gave me some really good insight in to my problem. When I was planning this piece, it was a cerebral experience. I was thinking of all the intricacies I could add to really make the piece look fantastic. I was dreaming, and I was loving it. 

But when it came to the execution, I lost my momentum because I wasn't doing anything "flashy." The rat swarm will look thematic, and the sewer (if I go that route) will look great. But for me, the greatest excitement for the terrain came from the dream stage.

I loved planning out how the rats would look, the details of the sewer, etc. But soon there were no characters to bring to life, and all I was left with was an idea and no drive to execute it. I'm not doing something big and spectacular, nor is it something I will get any use out of later (which is my only drive for doing terrain in any capacity).

Sadly, I'm the kind of learner who needs to make mistakes to learn. In theory, I probably knew working on the rats and sewer would drag me down. If I'd planned my time better, I would have saved the painting for the end. But I didn't, and now it's like mentally crawling through mud to work on it.

I think I just needed to get that off my chest. If the kids weren't home I'd probably just verbally unload on my rat molds and unpainted sewer walls. But alas, you all are my Frustration Relief: Plan B. But lesson learned - if I'm doing a competition, I stick strickly to painting and basing.

See you tomorrow!