Paint & Ramble: Hobby Pressure

Ultimate Goblin Mode

This is my new favorite way to paint—hunched over, extreme back pain, goblin mode. It’s strangely comfortable until it’s not.

The Hobby Pressure Spiral

I was talking to the Ice King about hobby pressure. Here’s what happens: You have 10 minutes waiting for a meeting, can’t paint for real, but you could build a guy. You think it’s better to do something than nothing.

So you build three guys today, five tomorrow. Suddenly you have a second army ready to paint when you haven’t touched your actual project. Now you’re excited about the new thing.

You get an hour to paint and you prime the whole new army instead. Then you’re back to having no time to paint, but five minutes here, ten there—you build more guys.

Do this for five years and you get tons of half-built, half-primed, half-painted army projects going nowhere.

The Paralysis

Now I’ve found time in my life to paint, and I sit there with so many cool things looking at me. How do I pick one? I spend all my available time just thinking about that.

More Than Just a Hobby

This hobby is a lifestyle. It morphs your life. This is where you find joy, creative expression, where you fill your bucket back up. We’re artists here.

It’s not like sitting down to play a video game. This is my spiritual practice. This is what I do to survive. It’s that one thing that’s for myself, by myself.

It keeps you sane—until it doesn’t. Until you have a pile that weighs you down and owns you. Then this thing that should be nothing but joy becomes stress.

The Arbitrary Deadline

Finishing these goblins before October was an arbitrary deadline. I don’t have anyone to play Old World with. I’m going to use the Hobgoblin solo rules. It doesn’t actually have to be painted—as soon as it’s based, I could play.

But for some reason, I prefer to stress myself out. That doesn’t make any sense.

The Plan

I’m going to do a purge. Sell everything I have no chance of painting this year. Sell what I could easily buy again. Keep sentimental stuff and what’s already painted for display.

Going into next year with a fresh slate, no hobby pressure. Pick a single Warmachine faction and stick to it. Really focus on getting good at painting—maybe only paint 5-10 models next year, but make every single one display quality.

I want to do something else that makes money so I can pursue creative things however I want, without tying a price tag to painting. I can just enjoy it.

Transcript

This is my new favorite way to paint. Just uh hunched over ultimate goblin mode extreme back pain. I don’t know why, but uh it’s strangely comfortable. Uh until it’s not, but this is how I’ve been painting all these guys. Just really getting into goblin mode.

Uh and I just I had a great idea. Instead of just rambling, I could be painting goblins while I was rambling and then just go back and and cut things out. But really uh I it’s just like I was talking to the Ice King about this like the concept of having hobby pressure and eventually like you just get so many ideas and so many projects in your head. And for me, what happens is I’ll only have like I got like 10 minutes or 5 minutes or like I’m waiting for a meeting to start or I’m waiting for an email reply or I’m waiting for something to load and I’m like I can’t I don’t have time to like paint for real, but I could build a guy, right? And in my head I’m like this this is some progress.

So like it’s going to be better to do it than to not do it. So then I’ll build a guy and then maybe I’ll build like three guys today or like five guys tomorrow. And then suddenly I have a whole second army that’s ready to paint when I haven’t even touched my the actual project I was excited about. And now I’m excited about the project that I just built. So I’ll get some time.

I’ll get like an hour or two to paint and I’ll prime a whole army at once. And then I get back into the point where like I use the time that I could have painted something to prime the last thing that I built. And then I get back in that cycle where I don’t have any time to paint. But I’ve got five minutes here, 10 minutes there. And I build a guy.

And now I have three armies that are built. And I get an hour or two to bait and I prime that army I just built. And you do this for five years like I just did and you get a ton of half built, half primed, half painted army projects that are just going nowhere. And you and now I’m at the point where I’ve made time in my life to paint or not I found time in my life where I can paint and still do everything else. and I just sit and I’m like, I have so many cool things that are looking at me.

How do I pick one to paint, you know? And then I spend the whole time I have available to paint just thinking about that. So, we really I really just got to do something about it. Uh, so I’ve I’m going to do a purge. And really, it just comes down to like I got to be more disciplined.

I got to be more disciplined in the hobby. I got to be more disciplined in my life. I’m over 50 now, too. I don’t know how many days it’s been, but I’ve gained 15 pounds since starting the channel. And I was I was not a small dude before I started the channel.

So now, uh I got to like I got to get some exercise back in to the day. So now it’s like I got to find the time to do that. And it’s and it’s like it’s becoming a problem. Like I feel like garbage all the time. And that coupled with like the lack of sleep.

So making the videos has added a ton to my life and I still like no regrets. Uh everything is going to be like making my life work around a daily video. But posting a daily video to the internet is going to make me get my [ __ ] together. But but now I’m like I really got to have the discipline and the time management to like handle the family responsibilities, handle the money-making responsibilities and handling the hobby responsibilities. And also like I I think if you’re like watching and you’re not maybe if you’re new to it or if like the hobby is just like another kind of activity that you do that might sound ridiculous and maybe it is ridiculous but I think if you are somebody who got into the hobby as a kid and like it become like it’s a lifestyle hobby right like it’s a you it morphs your life to be like this is what you do you And this is where you find joy.

This is the creative expression. This is where you fill your bucket back up. And you know, like some some people are artists and we’re artists here. Some people write books. I think a lot of us probably overlap there.

And we’re just this is the way that we create. And we’re able to have that outlet, right? So you it’s not just like it’s not just like you’re sitting down to like play a video game or read a book or something. It’s something so much more than that. I don’t really know how to articulate that, but it becomes a point like it’s the med it’s this is my this is my spiritual practice.

Like this is what I do to survive. And it it’s like it sounds ridiculous and I’m rambling painting this goblin uh just saying what comes into my head but like I mean really like truly uh but this is like that one thing that it’s for myself by myself and that’s important and this is like it’s what keeps you it’s what keeps you sane until it doesn’t right until you you have a pile of things that just weigh you down and then they own you and then this thing that should just be nothing but a source a source of joy and love and awesome is like stress like it’s stressing me out thinking about all the stuff to do and even like finishing these goblins before the end of October was an arbitrary deadline like in reality I don’t have anybody to play old world with. I’m going to use the hobgoblin rule set and play myself use their solo rules to play myself, you know, so I don’t have a deadline. It doesn’t actually have to be painted. As soon as I had it based, I could start playing with it.

Uh, but for some reason, I just prefer to stress myself out about it. And that doesn’t make any sense. So, uh, I’m just gonna stop doing that. You know, I’m going to sell all the stuff that I have no chance of painting this year, and I’m going to sell the stuff that I could easily buy again in the future if for some reason I wanted to paint it. I’ll hang on to the sentimental stuff.

I’ll hang on to the bulk of the stuff that’s already painted and that I can put on display in my my shelves and the rest of it is gone. And I want to go into next year with a with a fresh, clean slate and no hobby pressure and just be able to come in and focus on some very key projects that I want to do. And next year uh with the I’m going to pick a single War Machine faction and I’m going to stick to that one faction and War Machine is going to be my main game. There’s a couple other games I still want to try and whoops that I still want to try and figure out and definitely play there. Uh and then I will buy anything that Sean Sutter sells.

So, I know he’s got a plastic battle pig set that’s going to be coming out in 2026 and he usually does a yearly Kickstarter and in my opinion he does Kickstarter, right? Like he he does all the work before the Kickstarter starts and then the Kickstarter helps with distribution. So, I I I will back anything that guy does for Relle Blade or any of his other games. And then I obviously I’ll back anything by Trent at Miscast. And uh occasionally like I’ll find indie indie creators and I’ll definitely get their stuff, but I I’m not gonna do any big major purchases next year.

And I next year is going to be my year of [snorts] of just every everything I got has got to be painted. And I’m not going to purchase anything else until what I have is painted. And I really I just want to like spend a year of not purchasing for just a variety of reasons and get back fully into like what the hobby is and creating and making the best of what you have and getting games in and getting better and like getting competitive and not like just chasing projects or chasing whims. Like I really want to lock in on a single war machine faction and I just want to spend the time like I want the satisfaction of being very good at playing a single army and I think it’s hard to get that kind of feeling if you haven’t been a competitive player of anything or of even like a sport. I just want to sit down and grind out getting good.

Same thing with painting. Uh I don’t I’ve done a lot of speed painting. I’ve done a lot of army painting like this kind of thing. And I want to finish up all my army painting by the end of this year. Man, some of these I swear I’m having the worst luck with this basing material.

Thought I fixed them all. Uh I want to really focus on improving as a painter and getting getting like real good. Like so the next year maybe I maybe I only paint five or 10 models. That’s not true. I’m going to paint whatever the MarkV I’m going to switch I’m going to commit to a fully MarkV faction.

Um, so I’m gonna I’m gonna paint that army, but even that, like I I want to paint every model in that faction as best as I can possibly paint it. So maybe I only paint, I don’t know, 10 or 20 models next year, but I want every single one of those models to be display quality level and really focus on getting good. Um, I’ve got I’ve got a two infinity commissions I’m going to finish up before the end of the year just so I can get done. And then I probably I don’t think I’m going to take commissions next year. Uh cuz I really again I just want to focus on getting my stuff painted and getting really good at painting.

Um I said I’ve already taken like one commission for next year. Uh but I’m not going to take any more commissions for next year and really just focus on getting a grip on everything because this commissions are cool and like you think it’s cool to get paid to paint. Uh, but I again I just want to go the route of I want to do something else that makes a ton of money in a small amount of time. So I’m free to pursue the creative things however I want to and I don’t have to put the money. I don’t have to tie a price tag.

Like I don’t have to think about how much I’m getting paid or how much painting this little goblin makes me. I can just enjoy painting it. But all right, I think that’s enough rambling for today. >>