A whole lot of nothing

Last night I had the opportunity to sit down for an hour or two and make some progress on my army, be it painting or modelling. What did I achieve, I hear you ask? Nothing. I fiddled about, trying to decide what I wanted to work on. I wasted time, chatted with people online, lined a couple of models up on the table, and finally ran out of time and went to bed. It was pathetic.

This effort was nearly matched by what I achieved at Painting Night on Friday. I had hours set aside specifically for painting, and I didn’t even pick up a brush. I did a tiny amount of planning for setting up another unit filler and cut a couple of things off sprues. But then, that was all I had to show for around 4 hours. I’m not sure I would have gotten anything at all done if my wife hadn’t guilted me about my efforts towards the end of the session (can you believe “guilted” is not a word? I am using it anyway. Cop that, spell checker).

So what is wrong with me? Why is it that I can find the time to make progress on my army, then waste it without making any noticeable progress?

I am fortunate enough to have a painting table permanently setup in one of our living rooms, complete with lamps and room for 4 or 5 people to sit around it (when it’s not completely covered in my crap, which is often the case). Normally a would-be painter can waste what little time they have available getting their stuff ready and finding somewhere to sit and knuckle down. I don’t have this problem. I am sure I have made quite a lot of progress I would not otherwise have made as a direct result of having somewhere dedicated to do these things. However, that is not always enough.

I can only assume that I am presently lacking motivation. I find this strange, since I have no trouble thinking about what I would like to do, and how I want the finished army to look. There is some sort of disconnect between envisaging the final product and taking the next small step toward that target. It could be just that I have a whole range of options in terms of what I should work on next, but no clear direction.

I will probably find that once I force myself to start a unit, I will be able to focus on that (as a default course of action if nothing else) and get it done. At least, I am hoping this will be the case. Maybe I should keep working in Halberdiers, even if I have to alter already assembled models in order to me satisfied with them. Or maybe I should get to work converting some ogres to go in the army. Or I should put together the unit filler I started planning on Friday night. Or there are the Kislevites…