This can come in several forms. You might be sick of building your seventieth marine in a row. You might be jaded with your army in game in either it's playstyle or shortcomings. You might even be tired of an entire system. Or, like me, you can get major Painters Block.
For the last couple of weeks, I've really struggled to get back into the swing of things in the new year. Every time I picked up the brush, my brain just hit the wall and I would sit there, staring at the models in progress with no desire to tackle the task.
This can be really demoralising, as for a lot of people (myself definitely amongst them), painting is a very relaxing activity, where I can forget my day at work, forget my worries, flick on YouTube or a Podcast, and just immerse myself in the art of it all. Incredibly relaxing.
So when you find yourself grinding to a halt, where do you go from there? For me, it's a 50/50 mix of stubborn refusal to be beaten and an open mind.
As readers will know, my goal for the first half of 2016 is to focus on my Word Bearers and a Death Grand Alliance army; both ambitious goals with very (shall we say) same-ish colour pallets. Word Bearers, regardless of whether it's infantry, vehicles or hulking daemon engines, are all red and silver. Sure there are little details here and there, but let's be real. Red. Silver.
Death has a little more variety, with its rotting flesh and its spectral entities, but there's also a lot of bone. Now, to be fair, I actually still enjoy painting the Death range. Every kit is new and exciting for me, as I've never ventured into Vampire territory before now. The one thing that has stopped me painting the Death army is something that I acknowledged when I first set this challenge for myself.
After batch painting a huge number of Word Bearers, I could barely wrap my head around tackling ranks upon ranks of highly detailed undead legionaries. I just didn't have the mental stamina, especially after a big day of work. And so I set out upon an artistically aimless adventure through my collection; basecoating random models from different ranges that piqued my interest. I would spend some time working on that model, before briefly contemplating a full scale army based around it. The intentions were well-meaning, of course, until another random model or character caught my eye.
This lasted about a week and a half, a portion of time usually used to crush out a decent sized unit or several characters for a single army, but here I was with a random cluster of models.
Then, out of nowhere, after hours and hours of confusion at the hobby desk, something just... Clicked. I finished off a Rockgut Troggoth (easily one of my all time favourite models; he just encapsulates the era of Warhammer when I first entered the game as a young chap) and finishing him brightened things significantly. 
Nostalgia was strong, and having put the final touches on him, I felt as though it closed the door on Painters Block, with something as seemingly mundane as painting a single model from a random unit in an army I don't really play...
I felt refreshed and enthusiastic about painting once again! The goals that I had set myself seemed less of an unattainable feat and significantly more realistic.
I think my biggest mistake (and what led to the grinding halt of my painting enjoyment, and in turn, schedule) was setting really big goals. I had planned a truly massive Word Bearers project (Aprox. 5000+ points), which was probably a little overwhelmingly optimistic.
So, I've decided to tackle littler goals. I might paint up a Chaos Marine formation, then a handful of units for Age of Sigmar, perhaps even finish painting my Baltimordheim Ravens for Blood Bowl! I've shifted my thinking away from painting collossal armies of massive scope, and more towards painting different units from a couple of different armies to break up the schedule and keep me on my toes.
Well.
That was a bit all over the place!
I think with such a grand and diverse hobby, it's easy to get out of a rut and push through if you have the right mindset. Easier said than done, I know, but after floundering a bit, I feel more focussed and purposeful in my hobby than I have in a long time!
How do you handle getting burnt out on aspects of the hobby? Is it a matter of taking a break, shifting focus onto a different aspect of the hobby, or do you just grit your teeth and soldier on through the down times?
I'll apologise that this post is not as, let's say, optimistic as my usual posts. It's been a grind, and I'm through it now, but I just wanted to open up and be real and honest and let you guys know where I'm at. You guys have always been incredibly supportive, and hopefully if you're going through a hobby dull spell, that you can shake it off and be re-energised for the year ahead!
This has been what feels like a solid wall of text, so I shall bid you goodnight. Enjoy yourselves.
Thanks for reading,
Gabe
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