"Don't Let the Hobby Get You Down" Topic

Most of the time, this hobby is a lot of fun. Other times, there can be a bit of work getting to the fun part – minis need to be bought, organized, cleaned, prepped, primed, painted, based, organized, stored…

Last week, I did a lot of basing and base repairs/upgrades. I haven't done this for a few months. I typically use a brand of spackle/plaster that turns from pink to white as it dries. When I opened the container, I found that the spackle had turned white, but it hadn't dried out. So I used it.

As I eventually learned, the spackle had indeed gone bad. When it dried, it had no strength and just crumbled. I tried to salvage my work, but in the end, I am having to clean off the spackle and re-do my work from last week.

I guess I could get angry about that. I'll admit it's frustrating. But I guess it teaches me patience, right?

Wrong. It teaches you that when spackle turns white, it's no good anymore.

Or it teaches you that while the Vallejo Earth textures cost a bit more…

Press on regardless!

Press on, indeed.

One of the buildings I bought at Fall In turned out to be a bad resin casting, the frame is warped and it doesn't sit flat on the table.

Am I going to quit? Never!
I am going to build a base that props up one side with spackle (hopefully not bad spackle) and press forward.

Sorry to hear this, Bill. Don't feel so bad, though – at least you can be engaged in hobby work. We're currently having housework done and so are living with my mother-in-law (which isn't as bad as it sounds), which has meant for the past three months I've been unable to do any hobby work at all, and likely we have two more months to go. All my figs, all my books, all my rules…all packed away! (Cue sounds of weeping and rending garments)

In other words you've got it easy. As the others have said, press on, sir!

I held on to my best painted 28mm historicals even as I was starting to transition to 15mm. Well, almost 200 painted Almoravid and Andalusian got flooded a couple of months ago during Harvey, along with many others that were also painted and table-ready (Renaissance and others). So many countless hours of painting and basing lost.

My finished MDF terrain pieces didn't survive either, specially since the water level in the house (the entire neighborhood) even begin dropping for almost a week.

Boxes of decals, flags, and other sheets gone too.

Yep. It sucks sometimes.

Dan

I definitely go into periodic hobby related funks. Usually when there arelong stretches with nothing to paint or failure to sell things.

I tend to game in unpopular scales like 54mm and 20mm. Generally non-historicals. Makes finding people to game with very difficult. As such my projects gather a lot of dust.

It's a hobby, if it isn't fun quit doing it for a while.

@DrSkull,
Why do that? A hair dryer will take care of that.

@DrSkull

Haven't tried the hair dryer, but dip in hot water for a few seconds. It will resume it's not warped position, then dip in cold water, and voila, no more warped base.

spackle lesson learned. You just need to move on. We learn better by mistakes than by successes, so you have an opportunity to learn well in this case. Great to hear you are enjoying the hobby. I am painting figs and planning armies. The planning is my favorite.

learned the same lesson from the purple to white stuff, but I still swear by it. Even more so since I know when it's still good. Chin up and plow forward.

I have the same thing about playing in certain game tournaments.