Hobby Butterfly Syndrome

[Deadlift]

So after about 7-8 years now back in the hobby, I have come to realise I may have a problem. As the title suggests I am a serious hobby butterfly and I was wondering how you guys who may have the same problem get round it or do you just live with it :)

Here is a list of projects I have on the go at them moment

Salamanders.
1 Tactical Squad, painted
1 Terminator Squad, painted
1 Captain, painted
1 Plasma Dev squad, painted
2 Storm Talons, still in box
1 Tactical Squad, still in box
1 Sniper scout squad, primed
1 Vulcan Heston on sprue, finecast.
and lots to buy on a list.


Grey Knights
3 Purifier Squads
1 Land Raider
1 Dreadnought
1 Contemptor (used as ven dread)
1 RB
1 Finecast Crowe
1 kit-bashed Crowe
1 Librarian with 3 servo skulls
1 Vindicare
all this is painted and I have boxes of stuff under my bed.

Flesh Tearers (just started)
1 Space marine Battle force on order
1 Gabriel Seth on order
3 sheets of transfers, on order
1 Squad of assault marines, built
1 Squad of terminators all with chain fists, built
1 kit-bashed Captain, built

Orks, Dread-mob
Deff Dreads x 3 painted
6 boxes of killa kans under the bed
1 FA IA 8 (I think)
Lots of Orks from AoBR

I wont go into WFB, I don't even play the game despite having 2 Ogre Kingdoms and Chaos Warrior armies partially painted and built.

The thing is with me and I suspect some of you is that I get all jazzed about most of the new stuff that gets released and end up buying something from most armies. I am currently eyeing up DE and Chaos Space marines when they come. The temptation is eye watering and its very difficult to know where to draw the line. I lost count of how much I have sold on ebay, but its in the £0000s easy. Forge world don't even go there, they cost me a fortune.

In the past I have had, Death guard, Blood Angels, Dark Angels, Tau, Eldar Ghost army, Iron hands, Space wolves, Tyranids, Iron warriors, High elves, Empire, Dwarfs the list goes on and I have just sold my necrons.

So how do some of you guys keep going with one army and stick to it. Some I go back to, some I sell but I really would like to make myself persevere with at least one army and manage to have at least 3000 points of something :o

Hobby butterfly syndrome, addicted to plastic crack and GWs shiny new stuff. I have it and I have it bad.

I suppose if the rumoured allies in 6th is true then that at least will help me.

I know I am not alone.......over to you guys.

[Tzeentch's Dark Agent]

I suffered with that problem for years. Then I put all my will into 1 project and ever since I have been doing that. Completing 1 and then moving on to another. :D

[Wolfshade]

I suffer from this, though lack of funds is keeping it quite tame recently.
But, I've a blood angel army that I play and add to and have been doing so since I got into the hobby (and consequently some shocking paint jobs). Around the time of 4th I got a deamon hunters army so several GKs both termies and powered armoured and Corteaz & co,
Then the new BA bookcame with the lovely new models Storm Raven anyone so that encouraged another group of boxes
I've just started some orkes and they were all painted, then I got a tax rebate brought too much stuff and now have too much to paint again :(
I keep saying to myself no more stuff till you finish painting what you've got, but that doesn't work

[david5th]

I suffered with that problem for years. Then I put all my will into 1 project and ever since I have been doing that. Completing 1 and then moving on to another. :D

Same here - begin one, complete one & then move onto the next one.

To quote the mighty Yoda: “Control, control, you must learn control!"

[Chris Copeland]

I am a schoolteacher. This problem sorts itself out for me because I just cant AFFORD to do it. :)

Cope


PS: I'm not being completely honest... what happens is that I still have multiple army projects sitting around, just smaller ones...

[Daemonette666]

I stayed primarily with Chaos Space Marines Mostly. I have expanded which Legions, and Renegade Forces I collect a bit, but They are all Chaos Space Marines, Even the Super Heavies.

3 years ago I started to collect sisters of battle/slaanesh, Chaos Daemons for 40K, Adeptus Arbites, and traitor guard. Each had its own reason why I started to collect them. The sisters because GW was picking on them and not producing them as much, and there was the rumour they were going to be dropped. The Daemons I started because I wanted Lesser daemons, and the new Demon codex came out. The Arbites because of the BOLS mini-dex, and because I remembered them from 2nd edition., and lastly the Traitor guard. Those I started because I wanted to fill out my Lost and the Damned data sheet for Apoc,. When FW released the Vraaks series of books I then had a proper army list to fill out the rest of the army.

I was looking to get some Grey Knights, but paint them up as Word Bearers (this army was discussed in another thread in the conversion section. The short story for this army is: Fabius Bile got hold of Wordbearer DNA Glands, and mixed them with the DNA of one of the Emperors children - see Sensei, star child, illuminati,inquisition - then he was able to build up a force of Chaos Marines who raided a Grey Knights transport/barge. They won the battle stole the technology, and had Dark Mechanicus loyal to Fabius, to reverse technology build it. This way they are not Grey Knights but have equipment similar to theirs with powers like theirs. I have not started collecting models for this army yet.

I recently bought some miniatures from Scribor miniatures, and on Ebay for both Sisters of silence, and Adeptus Custodes. I wanted them because they are no longer supported by GW, and I can paint them in Slaaneshi Pastels (purple plumes and robes with gold armour.

I had also planned on building a Dark Mechanicus army, why - because GW does not support them and there are heaps of really well designed mini-dexes out there for them.

My Emperor's Children Battle Company Army is nearly painted, the Death Guard and World Eaters Battle Companies are almost fully collected, and 50% painted. The Night Lords Battle Company has been collected but not even undercoated yet, and all the rest are in various stages of painting, collecting, and planning. Most are because I want to get the best miniatures for the project, and have to search around a bit on non GW/Forge world websites.

Since most of the codexes/mini-dexes I am using are not supported by GW anymore it does not matter that I use miniatures from chapterhouse, Scribor, pig iron, puppet wars, kromlech miniatures, etc.

I have not sold these off on E-bay to keep the numbers down. Each one I have collected, and plan to build paint and eventually play games with. I do not know if that make me a hobby butterfly though.

[chromedog]

How do I keep at a project?

Rigid self discipline.

Although I usually only have TWO projects on the go at a time (I usually play a GW game and something else to relieve the tedium from those dicefests) and this allows me to take a break from one while continuing the hobby stuff in a different direction.

After 20+ years, I still only have three 40k armies (SM, Eldar, GK - the IG have since been repurposed to another game since it had bugger-all GW models in it anyway) and ONE fantasy army (although it's a generic elf army for whatever fantasy battle system I happen to be playing, not a GW one).

[Kawauso]

Ugh, I so have this problem.

I have about 9 armies right now, ranging from my Necrons which are easily 9000 points or more and my Space Wolves which consists of an entire Great Company to my Dark Eldar which, thankfully, is only a couple of squads right now, or my Thousand Sons which are currently just a (huge) stockpile of bitz, awaiting a new codex.

And almost any time a new kit comes out for one of my existing armies, odds are I want it. Stormtalon? No idea what I'd do with it, exactly, but I want one.



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To say nothing of armies I have -planned-. I want to do a Grey Knight army at some point because the models are great and I'd love to do them with a grey colour scheme instead of the usual silver. I also love the idea of making a crazy Inquisition army of some sort. Heck, I've even thought on more than one occasion about how to do a Deathwatch strike force, though I can never decide on what rules I'd want to use.

I snatched up 2 of those limited-edition transfer sheets for the Aurora Chapter because I think they have a nice, vibrant look to them and they're an armour-heavy second-founding chapter, which gives me a perfect excuse to create a vehicle-heavy SM army with lots of Forge World models and parts down the road.

I also know for sure at some point I'm going to be doing an Eldar army, and I've routinely been tempted by Black Templar, Dark Angels (evidently I really dig Astartes), and even on occasion Orks and Chaos Daemons. If Sisters of Battle ever get the respect they deserve and a big wave of plastic kits, I won't be able to help myself.



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Never sold an army - don't know that I ever could, since I like them all so much and I've put lots of time into them (well, parts of them...I've yet to paint a full army).

However, I will say lately I've been a bit more measured and reigned in my butterfly tendencies somewhat. Part of this is due to budgetary constraints of late. More than that, though, I've really been hunkering down and sort of forcing myself to focus on getting models done.

I'm still a slow painter, but it's coming along nicely enough: I started re-painting my Necrons when the new book dropped (my old models were awful) and I'm quite happy to say I've surpassed how much of my old army I had painted. Granted, I've added a lot of models to it, as well, but nevertheless...I've made a good dent.

I think part of what's helped is that I've come up with ways of applying my paint scheme differently throughout my army, and giving certain units entirely unique painting schemes. This has gone some way, I think, to keeping me from getting tired of painting the same thing quite so much. The heraldic colours of my Necron dynasty vary in the way they're displayed on certain units, and a number of units (Deathmarks, Praetorians, Flayed Ones, Destroyers, Crypteks) are thematically outside help for my army, so they all have their own paint schemes to help shake things up a little. It certainly doesn't hurt to add a bit of dynamism to the army as a whole, either, and they're all tied together by a few basic elements: lots of bare metal, dark grey weapons, and lots of glowing green goodness.

I've also found it's good to focus on painting small chunks of an army at once. The ideal for me seems to be 5-6 infantry models at a time or 1 large model, such as a vehicle. Oftentimes I'm tempted to do something else while I'm at it (and will sometimes even start work on something new), but by sticking to this rule, generally, I'm able to get through units at a decent pace.

I have taken a break from my Necrons recently, just to recharge a little, and I'm painting some models from one of my SM (BA) armies in the interim, but I don't think I'll be staying away from the 'crons for long. I have a job to do! I'm hoping to be able to stick to my Necrons for the most part at least until a new book drops for one of my armies, and I'm glad to say that I've found a system which so far seems to be working.



Always a struggle dealing with hobby butterfly syndrome, though. ;)

[Chaoschrist]

Lot of people said it before already; self control.

I'm quite sure GW doesn't want you to be like that, and everytime they promote a new product you just have to buy it. If it sits on your shelf unpainted, more power to them, they at least sold you an item.

But why don't you paint what you have before buying new stuff? Tell yourself "no money for this"... or does that interfere with the motivation to even stay IN the hobby? If so, that's... well... a serious problem. If buying stuff is more fun than building/painting/playing... but you're probably the perfect target for GW's product launches, lol.

I remember years ago when I had my first run since my start in the hobby. In about 4 years I collected;
- 2000 points CSM: Slaansesh
- 2000 points CSM: Nurgle
- 1500 points CSM Tzeentch
- 1000 points CSM: Khorne
- 1500 points CSM: undivided
- 2000 points Dark angels
- 2000 points Ravenwing
- 1000 points Ultramarines
- 4000 points Imperial fists
- 2000 points Vostroyan firstborn
- 500 points Dark eldar
- 2000 points Traitor guard (eye of terror codex)
- 1000 points Dwarves
- 1500 points Warriors of Chaos

Then I quit and sold it all off.

Yes, that's quite a lot. But I did rarely have a box unpainted. Of course, painting standard might be open for discussion. Also, even with that amount I had on shelves/cases/boxes there were a few armies I'd like to do.

But like I said, rarely had anything unpainted. I didn't really care for GW's marketing scheme that much. I just bought what I thought was cool... ok ok... I got tempted by Vostroyans as well as a plastic Baneblade kit back then, but I didn't hop onto every army launch.

I managed to paint all that by spending lots and lots of time on painting and not going anywhere except for GW and my job. Painted about 4 to 6 hours during weekdays, 16 hours on weekends, but that's how I made sure I could both maintain a stream of new mini's as well as not keep a big pile of "the grey horde".

Right now; I got back into 40k just as a side activity... I need to paint something (or have something else to do). I don't care for videogames that much, so that's something that's out of the equation.

That eventually led me to start Grey knights (an army I wanted to do years ago, but didn't cause of the cost and metal models), for a low model army. When my intended list was almost done, I went for Deathwing... upping the modelcount a bit, but since my painting habits and skills picked up a bit again I finished that army as well in about 2 months. And to be honest 2 months is slow for that little amount of models and the time I can (and also; the time I did spend) spend on painting now. Now I moved onto Orks and yet again I'm out of models, and not out of time. Well, rather I'm out of financial resources, lol. But painting them up to a reasonable tabletop standard, I went through both the entire set of AoBR orks and a box of boyz in 3 nights. But looking at it... I don't really have the tendency to start a new army everytime. I start a new one as soon as I'm near 90% of completing my current list/army, just to close the gap of "not having anything to paint". Sure, I can dream and look at new armies, but that doesn't mean that I should rush to the store right now and buy boxes, should it?

So, actually... why don't you finish before you buy more stuff? And also, how often do you paint? Having limited paint time, I'm just guessing that it's a no brainer people will have lots and lots of models around if they buy more than actually complete/paint. Also; do you start your army/project "big"? As in "ok... here's 2000 points... for a start, wel'll see where I go from here"? You could start 500 points and up that in increments. That way you could technically abandon the project for a while without having 1000 points of models unpainted.

[pgarfunkle]

I find the best way to control my plastic addiction is just to avoid going into GW completely otherwise I can't help myself, I go in looking for a couple of paints and come out with something new and shiny.

I'm currently rotating between my blood angels, wood elves and Lizardmen. My current flat has limited space which helps contains the hobby but in storage at my folks is a part assembled guard army and a tyranid army lurking somewhere.

I've been avoiding the stores recently because some of those Nekron models are looking mighty nice

[the jeske]

So how do some of you guys keep going with one army and stick to it. Some I go back to, some I sell but I really would like to make myself persevere with at least one army and manage to have at least 3000 points of something

all those models and not a single army to play with . brutal . Are you married . because from what I have seen [and it is universal for both west and east players] after getting married , the army rotation changes to . buy sell buy sell buy sell[well in fact it starts with sell sell sell buy ring and pay for trip to europe] . If it doesnt then the question "how do I deal with too many armies" is never asked.

[olberon]

i also had the same problem as the most poster here......

Then due to a sudden decrease in hobby funds i decided to clean up and keep 2 of my armies
- dark eldar Which is mainly boxed and i only have 1000 points undercoated
- crimson Fists also mainly boxed but already hitting the 3k mark due to a major tax refund

All my other armies
- vampire counts
- tombkings
- o&G
- skaven
- black templar
- blood angels

I just sold on Ebay. From that money im going on a holyday with my family

So yes: Keep it simple stick with one or two armies
and max 2 projects at a time.

Currently im working on my new bases for my crimson fists just made 10 of them, still need to make alot more

[Kawauso]

Working on only 1-2 projects at a time doesn't mean you have to restrict yourself to owning only that many armies, though, if you don't want to.

It's only ever a problem if you're spending beyond your means to procure plastic crack. I know if I didn't buy warhams that money would just go to one of my other hobbies. How you spend your hobby money is up to you - jut don't be an idiot and pretend there's any semblance of a conflict if it comes down to hobbies or food.

That being said, to keep it manageable, yeah working on 1-2 projects at a time is the way to do it. Alternate only when you start to feel tired of one thing, and then swap back. Your other projects will always be waiting for you whenever you decide to pick them up again.

[Wildeybeast]

I have 3 40k armies, 2 Warhammer armies, half a dozen Mordheim warbands, 2 necromunda gangs, Dreadfleet, Spacehulk and a couple of Warhammer quest characters on the go, not to mention a good chunk of scenery. None of those projects is fully painted or in any way complete. There is always something else I want to add to it and I usually add stuff quicker than I paint it (it takes me a long time to paint). And I'm personally fine with this. I enjoy working on the projects and thinking about what I'm going to do next far more than the idea of actually completing it. The day I feel a project is finished is the day I'm bored with it and it goes on Ebay. I know this apporach won't appeal to everyone, but I just want to put out there that being hobby butterfly can be a good thing.

[Kawauso]

I enjoy working on the projects and thinking about what I'm going to do next far more than the idea of actually completing it.

I can appreciate that.

But there is something to be said about fielding a fully-painted army that you're proud of (even though I don't -have- one, I can certainly field some 1000-2000 point lists in some of my armies with nothing but painted models). It feels amazing.

[Wildeybeast]

I can appreciate that.

But there is something to be said about fielding a fully-painted army that you're proud of (even though I don't -have- one, I can certainly field some 1000-2000 point lists in some of my armies with nothing but painted models). It feels amazing.

Absolutely. I love that feeling of getting a fully painted unit on the table top for the first time. Most of my armies contian far mroe stuff than I play with in a single game, so I can field an army that is mostly painted, I'm just not sure I'll ever get to the stage where I feel an army is 'finished' andI like flitting from one army to the next. I tend to have 'flavours of the month' as the mood takes me, often based on shiny new stuff.

[Kawauso]

Mmm, shiny new stuff.

Oh Stormtalon and Doom/Night Scythes, how I want thee. Sadly I must wait.

[b-man]

For me it is not that hard to stick with my favorite. In the last twelve years I've had four army's and sold two off. When I first started it was salamanders back at the beginning of third. Then guard ( my fav) then I tryed Orks when the feral Orks list came out, sold before I even played with them. Then my buddy gave me three thousand points of chaos, sold them before I ever played a game. I just fell in love with guard and that is all I pretty much use, that is why I have 14000 pts of them and 12000 is painted. (the only thing i don't have painted is my half done capitol Imperialis 1600 pts) My marines I have no desire to paint and have been half painted for twelve years. But I got lucky and found my guard and it never gets old painting and playing them.

[Chaoschrist]

all those models and not a single army to play with . brutal . Are you married . because from what I have seen [and it is universal for both west and east players] after getting married , the army rotation changes to . buy sell buy sell buy sell[well in fact it starts with sell sell sell buy ring and pay for trip to europe] . If it doesnt then the question "how do I deal with too many armies" is never asked.

That's... why I would never intend to get married, lol.

All joking aside, not because of painting models and all though. But if someone meddles with how I can spend my money, I'm quite sure that relationship is shortlived.

But maybe it's easy to say, Now I'm dating someone who's into a hobby that makes my 40k models look cheap. Word has it those korean resin dolls go for about the price of a decent 40k army... a piece. So, I don't worry about that.

Maybe a bigger thing might be "does your significant other have an understanding in how involved someone can be in a hobby?" (and thus make expenses). Granted; if you're putting GW crack over food and electricity there might be a problem, but I doubt that problem only exists if you're married. You kinda have a problem in prioritizing stuff anyway.

Another thing I found, way back, to be interesting in how I collected armies, looking at it. See if there's armies which you can either play as "standalone faction" or as allies of some sort. Or even as a different codex. Marines in general do this. And with friends there's no problem with either proxying OR... and that's pretty much the topic discussion; buy a box of army specific models (ie. death company; because you want your vanilla marines to play as blood angels) and go from there. In the past it was kinda easy to start Daemon or witchhunters and either ally them with marines or guard. That helped a bit to paint new stuff that wasn't specific to my main army. But allies and all, that's getting kinda slim right now.

Currently I'm halfway fighting the urge if I want to start Eldar. But actually I want an Eldar corsair list from IA 11 (I thought it was 11; doom of mymera, or whatever it's called). Don't neccesarily want the correct FW models for it, but the flavor in general of eldar pirates/corsairs appeals to me. But if it doesn't work out, I could still go "vanilla eldar".

[chromedog]

The other ways I restrict myself are:

1. Can't afford them.
2. Can't fit them into the house without getting rid of one of the existing to replace it with (and I don't like any of them MORE than the ones I have).


Are you married . because from what I have seen [and it is universal for both west and east players] after getting married , the army rotation changes to . buy sell buy sell buy sell[well in fact it starts with sell sell sell buy ring and pay for trip to europe] . If it doesnt then the question "how do I deal with too many armies" is never asked.

@Thejeske: I AM married. The mrs has NEVER asked me to get rid of something of mine to pay for something for her (she knows I won't). I've had my armies for longer than we've been together and have not once felt the obligation to buy/sell cycle them. Then again, my wife likes my hobby, encourages it, and doesn't give me grief about it.