It’s ok to not paint your miniatures.

Transcript

So, I’ve realized that thinking I had to have everything painted in order to actually play a game is really holding me back. And that’s what I want to talk about today.

First example is Infinity. I’ve played a couple of games, really love it. It’s probably the most fun I have played in a very long time. Got some really awesome and amazing models. Got some of them painted, some of them I got in a trade, just didn’t have time to finish painting it. And also like a lot of stuff fell apart when I tried to play Infinity. I joke that like Infinity is cursed because every time I try to play it, my life falls apart. So I’m afraid—I want to start playing it. I’m getting that itch, but I’m afraid that if I try, something terrible is going to happen.

I mean, really, when I started pulling this out, I was like, I don’t—I don’t want to paint this. I want to play it. Like I’m just—I’m not interested in never painting it. And these are game pieces, so like I can still—I can still play them. Like why am I holding myself to this?

And like by that same token, this is an amazing model that I want to paint. And like this guy’s already partially painted. And like this is my cast. I got him magnetized today. Look at this young boy. He’s magnetized. Tyrus is magnetized. This is my 50 point list until the starter set comes out. And I’m like I want to paint these to the best of my ability. So, even if I’m playing Dusk, it’s not going to be painted for like another year, you know?

And then I’m like, wait a minute. Have I been—well, look at that cobweb. Jeez. There’s nothing like recording yourself every day to realize how dirty all your stuff is. At least for me. I got dust or something.

But it’s made me realize that like this arbitrary rule of like I want my things painted and I’m not playing in tournaments—time. And some games I just want to play like maybe once or twice and then like never touch it again, you know? I don’t have to have fully painted stuff. I just need to get it built and—and I don’t mean like—project—trying to balance this like in my head of like I don’t have any intentions on painting this stuff, but I still—I have a lot of intentions on playing the game. And maybe after I play it, like it’ll change my mind and I do want to paint this stuff.

But like Infinity—Infinity is ready to play. Like going through this purge and like I—I—I got to—I want to roll some Infinity dice. I love that game. It’s just very deep and the local group here is great. So I just really want to try to maybe get some Infinity games in.

I am going to play Necromunda next month in a new campaign store right by my house. So it’s great that I’ll finally have a place to do Necromunda at. I want to paint up some Mordheim warbands. I haven’t played Malifaux just because like all these guys are just sitting here still, you know, and that’s silly. Like I can play Malifaux without painting them. They don’t have to be painted.

So now I’m—I’m like I’ve gotten rid of—it doesn’t look like it, but I’m—I’m getting rid of a lot of stuff. And a lot of the stuff that’s out is going to be gone here shortly hopefully. And it’s like I’ve purged all this stuff, but some of the stuff that I do want to keep, I’m not going to paint. And that’s kind of like really freeing in a way. Like I’m not going to buy any more models until what I have is painted, but I don’t have to wait to play with what I’m keeping, you know?

And I think it’s because I’ve gone through the purge that it’s—that’s like—I know what I have is like staying. So, in my head I’m like maybe I spend the rest of the year just building stuff and—and I’m—I’m—I’m like I’ve been committed to like putting a brush—like literally sometimes it’s been like two brush strokes. And that’s why the goblins still aren’t done. I just keep getting like—I’m just having bad luck with work stuff. But so I was breaking it and not working on me.

But just—not—maybe I’m just gonna get everything built that I want to play and then I’m going to worry about painting it next year. And I think that’s maybe the direction I’m going in and just like giving myself the permission—like have fun with my—have fun with my toys. Like it doesn’t have to be so crazy, you know? Like I got to—I got to find the joy in it.

Like it—it’s like so much of it was like man this is like work and not even like the video part of it was fun. I—I don’t even mean it from like trying to think of content because my content kind of sucks, you know? I’m not like planning out I got to paint something for content. I was more just like today I just really like building, you know, maybe I’ll put some model kits together and never—never even try to paint them.

And I really like playing. I want to roll dice. So I’m—I’m like giving—I’m trying to get over this idea that I have to have things painted in order to play it and move on from that. So, that’s the—that’s the thought of the day today.