Community Posts of Note - Sons of the Fang

Here we have another of my vaunted 'Community Posts of Note' - only a little different.  This post I found was actually so good (or at least, resonated with me to the extent that...) I decided to just steal the entire post, and put it on my own Blog! [With permission, of course!]

While I maybe wouldn't say I felt EXACTLY the same, any post I tried to write would end up being too similar to be more than derivative, and this helps to promote a smaller blog than mine, so I'm happy with doing things this way around.  Plus, I am at an Xmas party tonight, so having this ready to post saves me the effort of writing an article! All-round-win!

"Motivation! Progression!

Purchasing a new kit feels good (except maybe in the pit of your wallet).

Building the new kit is a good feeling too.

Painting, for a beginner, may not feel so good.

There is a definite difference in skill required between assembling miniatures and painting them. In other words, the average Joe can put glue to plastic and make sure the head goes on the shoulders.
Painting miniatures is just not something the average Joe is going to be very good at without practice.

I believe this is a factor in why a lot of people play with their armies unpainted. Beyond this, I believe there is a mental phenomenon which I will call 'reverse inspiration.' This probably exists in some psychology textbook, but lets not dabble in that dark art :)

What I mean by 'reverse inspiration' is when you see the army of a veteran painter sitting on the table (or, more likely, on the internet) painted to an astounding standard, looking uniform, 100 percent complete, flocked and based, with unit markings - you know, fancy stuff! There are two things which can happen inside your head at this point;

1) Inspiration - "Wow, my army is gonna look just like that one day" and then you set about on your merry way, painting up a storm.  :)

2) Reverse Inspiration - "Wow...I will NEVER be able to do that" and your army stays grey.  :(

I've felt reverse inspiration. And not just in this hobby.
I used to play a few instruments, namely guitars and bass. More often then not when I heard some music which really blew me away or even worse, one of those damned child prodigy players, I wasn't exactly encouraged. I felt inadequate and untalented. Sadly, this feeling combined with being a full time student has basically destroyed my musicianship.

Luckily for me though, I've broken the 'reverse inspiration' trend in my 40k hobby-ing.
This was all because of one model that I painted up the other day. Its isn't astounding, its probably little more than table top quality, but to me, it was real physical evidence of my progress as a painter. I took this Wolf Guard model which I had just finished and compared it to one of my old Death Guard marines. The Wolf Guard had shading and highlighting, clean lines, realistic metal, and the face came out quite well. The Death Guard was chalky, with shining streaks of ink and the scheme was generally unpleasant, even for Death Guard. These two models were worlds apart, and yet, they were both painted by me.

This has given me enormous encouragement, the kind that nobody but yourself can give you. With this, I want to offer you my own humble encouragement: paint your armies. If they don't come out to your liking, fix them until they do. You will be enormously satisfied when you are finished.

Happy gaming,
Varg
                                   "