"How to stay motivated?" Topic

Recently I decided to begin a Napoleonic British Peninsular army in 1/72 using Hat, Strelets and Italeri miniatures. I plan to used it with Blucher rulebook and I want to stay focus to paint the whole army. For this reason I wrote a little article on my blog. If you know something that I could do improve my motivation, just tell me!.

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Just do a little each day…

And start with a small achievable battle so that you have some milestones to work with.

I paint ONE color on each figure every day. Pretty easy to do because it takes so little time. It also most often leads to an extra color or two!

Even painting just one color every day will bring great results at the end of the week.

Play games and go to conventions. That usually keeps me going!

Skipper John: +1

I'm with TodCreasey. Try tonwork towards having enough for even a small
battle. Just getting figures on the tabletop is a huge motivator for me because then I start thinking about all the units I need to add and how they will benefit me in play. Plus it just looks cool! Best of luck with the project!

I find music and painting are a great combination--or movies I've seen so often I don't have to watch the screen all the time.

Something else you might consider is using the figures individually mounted in small actions--think Blasthof Bridge--until you have enough figures for the Blucher project.

But I agree with Skipper John. A little progress every day gets you there eventually. (Whereas putting it aside until you have more time….I found some stuff in the garage yesterday which has probably been in mid-project five years.)

Thanks to all!. I'm going to try Skipper John trick, it sound easy to do every day!

Playing a period really helps motivate me. I have also learned that purchasing some pre-painted figures in a period helps with the above and allows you to game before you get all of your own painting done. If you have the means, this is a great way to keep you moving.

Keep chipping away at it but don't let a hobby become a rod for your back. If you're not enjoying it there's no point really. If I've really enjoyed painting a unit I actually stop, if even for a week or so until I really can't wait to paint some more.

I don't know the Blucher Rule system although I have heard of it – I noticed your OOB for the Peninsula British army is broken down into Corps. However, the British didn't have corps but divisions instead. I guess that's just down to the labelling used in the rules. At times the army was small enough to pretty much be a corps or two in total.

I think you need to add the Portuguese formations as well to capture the real composition of the army. They usually made up a third brigade in most divisions.

Agreed a bit each day and listening to podcasts helps a lot.
I paint about a thousand 28mm a year. See here for further tips on productivity:
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Timmo uk I'm looking for portuguese miniatures in 1/72 but for now without success.

+2 SkipperJohn
I paint 36 infantry or 12 cavalry at a time, one color then the next on assembly line.

@RafaelO