"Apparent Lack of Enthusiasm" Topic

Years ago, the Michael Wood series on the Trojan War came out on PBS. I was excited, and promptly started looking for Trojan War figures.

Only there weren't any at that time.

So, I bought some figures I thought had some conversion possibilities. Since I had plenty of other figures to work on, little progress was made.

Then Bull Dancer brought out a lovely line of Trojan War figures, and I bought up a bunch, enough for two large ancient armies. Two or three got painted, but mostly they just sat around my house. For about 20 years.

I sadly concluded that they weren't going anywhere, so I sold them off. I ploughed most of the money back into buying Foundry Mycenaeans, thinking I could do rival warbands for a game like Saga. Now, they have been hanging around the house for several years, like Penelope's suitors, and I haven't shown much enthusiasm for painting them. This spring, I decided to make an effort, and completed five figures in two months.

I am starting to conclude that they aren't going anywhere, either. It strikes me that, if I were to paint two or three more figures, I would have enough for a warband in a small skirmish game, like Blood Eagle or Lion Rampant.

Anyway, have others out there had similar problems? Were you able to develop a strategy to get around the problem? Are there maybe some other Mycenaeans out there that I might find more exciting?

Grelber

Yes, knuckle down & do the work. When painting armies, I batch paint: Skin tones one day; pants (or skirts for Mykeneans) another day; bronze weapons next, etc.

You should have them painted in no time…

Damon.

You might look at WarGods of Olympus from Crocodile Games. Trojans are one of the main options.

I hardly ever paint two or three figures. Try taking a batch of 24 on Garand's program.

I also batch paint. I find a beer flat (cardboard box holding 2 – 12 packs works best. Do not crowd the figures – about 40 to 60 figures in the box.

Bronze age Greeks are a piece of cake to paint up. One of the fastest armies, I've found.

Like Garand and others, if I have units to paint, I paint whole units.

Even if I'm painting miniatures in civilian clothes or something like mercenaries in non-standard kit, I usually have several going at a time. Wash them all (i.e., with water to de-grease). Prime them all. Do all their bases. Then base coats. Then they may get more one-at-a-time attention.

I actually do have some 25mm ancients, all of which appeared as PCs or NPCs in D&D and other RPGs a very long time ago, and all of which I carefully painted one-at-a-time.

Maybe you should have had them painted by a pro. Instead of them lying around you would have been gaming with them all this time.

I do try to paint groups. In the case of the Mycenaeans, I put 16 or primed figures on the desk, and started to work, painting the skin, hair, and eyes. Then, I just kind of wandered off to paint other figures I was more interested in getting done. Finished 24 of the other figures in April. Something similar happened again in May.

Perhaps it is worth another try in a month or two. I'll try putting out eight warriors (a Saga unit) and see if I can't get them done. They aren't uniform, like Colonials or WWII, but thy do have a lot of common colors, and a limited number of other colors.

Grelber

I think you have to find a balance wrt batch size. Too small and you end up inefficient. Too large and rewards in the form of finished figures become too infrequent to maintain motivation.

I suggest reading the history about period that your figures represent. I find this motivates me to paint several battalions of figures.

I'm w/ the Iron Duke. Was reading the history of the Roman 3rdC Crisis this past two years, and so… Bought A&A figures and got them worked on.

But… Not in EVERY case is the stimulus focused. Was recently re-watching The Great Wall and Forbidden Kingdom. Am also currently reading some of Ralph Sawyer's translations of Chinese military classics. These two experiences have brought me back this summer to my unfinished project of the Bronze Age Shang Dynasty…

I myself find my motivation in books. If I want to paint some figures I read a book about the period. I buy books on everything interests me, and then I read about the stuff I want to paint!

I'm also a big fan of reading on the same subject I'm painting. That includes some pre-build research. The composition of my samurai army was nothing like my original concept after doing the initial research. On the down side I did not do the upfront work on my German colonial army and by the time I did the figures were no longer available. That army was sold off a few years ago.

It is interesting to move from military history of a painting project into the political, cultural, religious and art history of this civilization. I have recently started a Sassanid Persian army and I am fascinated to learn more about the Sassanian Empire in general.

I go through this all the time. I recently bought a large batch of the lovely Bloody Miniatures ECW figures, along with some Bicorne minis to flesh them out. Painted them up in around ten days, that is about 50 28mm minis. I've played with them once so far, a couple weeks ago. Now they sit in a drawer.

Nnascati, you are allowed to play with them more than once ;)

Don't feel too bad. I started painting a batch of zombies about 4 years ago & just sort of stopped when it came to painting their shoes (couldn't decide which colors to paint them.) They are still gathering dust… ;-)

Motivation is the key. If you are excited about a period, been reading the books, etc., then you will be able to plow through the painting. Depending on period and rules there may be a minimum threshold of figures needed to play: there's your goal. Yeah it's work but there is a light at the end of the tunnel!