LEARN to Take the WIN 

My wife and my friend’s wife has been trained when I show her a model to take the model, look at it, turn it around to look at all angles, count to 3 in her head, say it looks good, then point out one detail on it. Fun for us all

Just be careful with social media if you are just starting out. Nothing is worse than expecting positive reinforcement and then receiving nothing, or even negative feedback as the result. I would recommend starting out slow with making a post of a single model at first. Displaying bigger projects will completely take the wind out of your sail if they don't achieve your set expectations.

Hobby communities are great things. The sub communities that pop up around specific factions also tend to be pretty good from my experience. You show the World Eaters fans your first Khorne Berzerker and they're gonna be hype for it and same for any army or game system. They'll just be keen to see anyone engaging in their shared interests.

More people in the hobby need to hear this. One of the prominent reasons I shut down my Instagram account was due to how much pressure I had felt to keep a continuous upload of finished projects. The stress of 'finish a model, post the photo, move on' was becoming less enjoyable, and eventually felt like I was doing a job I wasn't being paid for. It was almost an addiction. Nowadays, I find that keeping my hobby buddies updated through our Discord, when I want to works much better for me, and provides feedback that I actually care about without any of the pressure of catering to a larger following

The company I work for uses Slack for communication, and they encourage employees forming non-work related channels for shared interests. I started a Wargaming channel, and I was surprised both by the number of folks who subscribed to it, as well as the encouraging and constructive feedback given to those who share paint jobs there. Much more inclusive and receptive than I've found the internet at large to be

I post pics of my painted minis on Facebook, particularly for the Warmachine groups. It provides a nice ego boost and hopefully helps motivate others to paint and post as well.

My wife and I met through a gaming group. We share a painting table, and sit facing each other. It takes us about twice the time to paint that way, but I would not trade it for the world.

I've been following your videos for some years now, but this one was an eye opener. Doing something for the hobby is better than doing nothing or being scared of the backlog. So I am trying to switch to the mindset you are advocating herein, every small win counts. I even started an Instagram account to share my wins. Thanks, hobby hero!

Im a part on like 4 shops' Discords (including one from the other side of the country) and a few subreddits that i post to Its nice having little pockets of folks to give and receive praise or ask and answer hobby questions

I'm not into war gaming... Yet. You've got my attention with the OPR stuff and painting tutorials. I completely agree with your concept here. I started painting miniatures last year (at age 45) for DnD (well actually Shadowdark) and I get a lot of joy from showing my work to my family and friends.

Very interesting. I've never needed much external validation, but I understand those who do. I will admit I do sometimes get a kick out of showing my work to non-hobbyists because they're almost always amazed at painted miniatures.

This video comes like rain on a barren land! I was actually considering to make a dedicated Instagram account for my Imper... i mean, Astra Militarum project, but i'm always like "nah man, look at the incredibly high level around, bla bla". Thanks a lot for the tips, this helps me to make my mind about it and finally make the step. And Instagram communities are indeed really supportive, regardless of the model's level. Cheers!

I share my creations mostly with my friends, hobby group, and with family also. You get to be proud of your work, and then you get to be proud again when other people like them. :)

I needed this sortof motivanal talking to, especially from such a wonderful tone 🎉

I have a few discords that I post finished pictures on. These are great groups that are always supportive.

I absolutely enjoy sharing my minis. I made an Instagram earlier this year just to have a single place to throw all the finished stuff I paint. There are plenty of discord servers too, several FLGS - actually I'm one of a smaller handful of people at my FLGS that are super concerned with putting lots of time into my paintjobs, so they'll actually ask me if I've got anything new to show fairly regularly which is super encouraging to have people asking about it.

Great advice! I have found that the best painters are the best helpers too. Most of the "haters", as the kids say these days, don't have a ton of Golden Demons to show. Non-hobby people are quite supportive too. My daughter tells me I'm the best painter. That means a lot.

Thanks for the video, really interesting. I share my finished projects on a crafting discord server I'm on and on a messenger conversation I have with hobby friends for constructive criticism and "expert" point of view. I also share it on a messenger conversation I have with my wife and her best friend because they are not hobbyist and they, 99% of the time, don't see the problems I see so they are super nice and always give great positive feedback. I feel like I have found the balance for me with this system.

I post pictures to my Facebook page, only thing I ever say is what unit it is, I also post on one Facebook group. I also normally show my wife and my kids, part of my reason for showing my immediate family is my wife is a paint on canvas painter, and three out of four units I paint are for the armies played by my sons.

6:49 mind blown! I rarely browse Instagram because it didn't show me what I wanted. Freaking game changer!!

I share with my family, a buddy from the hobby shop and sometimes on Instagram.

I often show my wife, including during the process, mainly because being colourblind I rely on her to let me know if the colours make sense. I also share on Facebook which is, barring Discord, my only social media. This is both the painted pieces and the 3d prints. I don't usually do it for validation as such but just to share something I am happy with.

Great video, Uncle. I’ve started a hobby Instagram account recently. If nothing else, it’s a great place to see others work and get inspired, which motivates me to try new things, hear about new games or get involved with competitions and challenges. I’ve been burnt out on social media before, but taking it slowly and in small doses and not worrying about getting likes and just enjoying being part of it is definitely the way to go.

In my "my space" I have a shelf just above my monitor where my finished project hang out for a while (before they are stored) so I can often enjoy my wins ;-) Friends and family do like to look at those as well. Not really looking for motivation and cant really be bothered by posting. But I do like to look at the shelf!

Well, apparently, I watch *you* while hobbying. :)

Uncle Atom "maybe you'll convert your family" Me, looking at my son. Then my bits box and then back at my son. "Tempting"

Me and my extended friendship group have a private Facebook group we all post pictures of what we’ve been painting.

I used to share everything on Instagram, but they started removing all my posts form the hashtags. The post was still there, but it wouldn't show under any of the tags so my views dropped to nothing. So I stopped using Instagram.

I tend to do both. Sharing my work and also just moving on to related projects.

You can get a lightbox at Wal mart for $20, light boxes will help your photos 100%. I started a Twitch channel to help me get my "W" in that Its two nights a week that I HAVE to hobby, otherwise I'll just veg out watching old sci-fi movies. Then I started a hobby specific IG and a Discord. There is a sort of organic quality to these things.

Hey! That Instagram tip is a life saver. I hit the subscription button. Also great video. Wise words truly appreciated.

What about getting them on the table for a game? For me that is the best reward, especially if i play with some unpainted

I took some Mansions of Madness minis to my grandad's on Christmas eve and painted them there. My Grandad was going through dementia and I thought that maybe it'd be stimulating for him. It was so good because he came round for a bit as he was really interested by the painting steps as I painted up the faces. It was so nice because shortly after he ended up in hospital which accelerated his decline until he died soon after.

I actually had the necessary to make a hobby account on Instagram. I dont post almost none finish model. Basicly i post The process of assemble and painting steeps. Im ok with that... Maybe One day i will do proper photos of my miniatures but thats not só much were Im into... More about The process than The finish model is were i am right now .. and still learning!

got an insta for my models, it's mostly just my mom that likes thm, but it's nice to show them of

I don't typically share "publicly" as in on Instagram/reddit/Facebook. I do typically share on discord though with close friends and the local hobby store.

Ahhh, Solitude! The highlight of everyday!

Thank you, excellent advice.

Instagram used to be a good place to reach people through hashtags, but not really anymore. Since about last year, some posts weren't appearing on the hashtag pages (what some call shadowbanning). Lately, they've removed the hasthtag page where you could see all the new posts - they replaced it with "recent top posts" which is very different if you look at the dates that appear. Also, the "Following" mode that you mentioned doesn't show any of the hashtags you're following. It might be time for a new platform (Tumblr? Pixelfed? Mastodon?).

I always share my finished projects. On my youtube channel and in our Ork Facebook group. It's always satisfying once a project is done, to share it with others. Especially if those others find inspiration from your work. That always feels like a W.

Thankfully I have a great bunch of people who are subbed to my channel who always encourage me and I do with them. I am not into critical comments. I find something good to say about a persons project (and you can 99% of the time do this) or I don't say anything. As a kid and young teenager my dad's critical nature caused me serious issues in later life and still does. So I don't do it to others and expect teh same in return. Our own worst hobby enemy is probably ourselves. "I will never be able to......That looks so bad I should have...." and so on. But here is no denying a group of like minded friends helps a lot to encourage you to sit down to do the hobby you enjoy and even to push the boat out to try something different.👍👍

The Instagram community is super wholesome and respectful in my experience. Tons of great artists to take inspiration from and interact with.

I had a massive 'W' this week: I wrapped up a commission painting project that had been haunting me for over 6 months. The project consisted of models that really intimidated me, and completely sucked away all my motivation. Upon my completion of the project (~20 hours), it felt as if a huge weight was taken off my shoulders, and I was suddenly incredibly inspired to work on my own models...something I actually WANTED to do.

Back in Japan i used to be in a painting/gaming group where I had a ton of good times with good vibes. I was also posting on Twitter back than but it was not my main source of motivation. Now, after moving, there are literally ZERO wargamers around me and I tried to rely on Twitter to keep the mojo up... To say that Twitter is a dumpster fire is to be very polite... Let's just say it is a very exclusive circle of people where you are not welcome unless you tick their specific boxes and if you don't, you're practically banned from discussion and deliberately ignored. This took all the wind out of my sails. Algorithms in social media changed a lot since the beginning and now you need to piggyback already famous accounts to get the traction you need. If you don't, you will be simply shouting in the void. So, IRL sharing feels more "real" and I miss it so much.

I'm part of a FB group called Miniature Mumblings. It's a nice, supportive group and that's where I post my stuff. It's definitely given the hobby a new, enjoyable facet. :)

I recently started posting to Instagram. The best part is discovering folks whose work is inspiring. The likes and comments are a plus. Kind of like the flag of Switzerland. Cheers!

Wow, I sub to another channel that's masculine geek, and watching this one today of yours , I except I am a middle aged geek. It was when you were talking about having photos on my phone of my hobbies and reading a room. I don't read rooms sometimes ( no, I don't have an "ism") I just don't care, I enjoy hobbies and you never know who is listening and some one will always ask me about it later. Any ways, thanks for the slap in the face this morning, I needed it! 😂

'read the room' for sure. I remember taking a kitbash airspeeder with me to my job to show my crew mates and only one of them actually being jazzed. I got branded the weirdo nerd from that point on but I didn't mind. Oh yeah, this was back around 2nd edition 40k. IG is pretty good. I've yet to have any trolls in my comments. Most times I'll just get a bunch of likes and a new follow. I don't post much anymore though and I don't do WIP. I found it's better to do a multi image post with key steps before the 'reveal' as viewers like a complete story ...at least based on LIKES and the rare comment. The FB groups, if you can find one you're comfortable with and understand their expectations, are amazing, though. Lots of constructive opinions, helpful tips and loads of inspiration. That's what gets me to the table more often than anything else: INSPIRATION.

This video should be the first video anyone sees on utube. I don't care if you're just here for the Kardashians, YOU NEED TO SEE THIS! ...Sorry about the yelling.

I would avoid Instagram. My account was 100% dedicated to my miniature painting and it got shutdown because it did not follow the community guidelines. 40k and LOTR plastic toys are offensive?? No one replied to what my account was flagged for and in a day i lost everything... so yeah be careful if Suckerberg's platforms

I share on social media to hopefully help get over the stage fright of starting a RU-vid channel. I share with my family and friends. I just went to my LGS to paint but it doesn't have a paint scene 😬 I've been sharing on TUP Facebook and other miniature groups.

I just finished my Skaven Blood Bowl team Tuesday last week. Then I went to the Tacoma Open BB tournament. And I didn't finish last! Woohoo!!

I've been using Tumblr to show off my projects and also a weekly "WIP Wednesday" post on a local group where lots of people show off what they've been doing.

I show off my work in person, but am bad about taking pictures right away. I am not happy with my picture results, and it kind of dulls my wins. Hoping the video paw-chow helps, but I probably need to dedicate time/money/training to photography.

+1 for separate social media accounts for hobby. If you follow only hobby accounts and don't engage with anything off-topic, your social media experience will be much less of a dumpster fire.

In my experience Instagram is perhaps the most broken platform of all. I have around 5000 followers on Instagram and I get maybe 100 likes on a post. When I had a couple of hundred followers I got 500 or more likes on every post. As time went by the quality of my work has increased and the engagement has tanked. On a random reddit post I can get 30k views, with no established audience. Instagram reel with an established audience of 5000 followers gets maybe 1k views.

Building the minis = uping the motivation Painting the minis = motivation drops below hell Playing with the minis = motivation is back sadly true in my case

I run a private group on FB that focuses on Strength Based Feedback and encourages painting (and playing games). I've been on other groups there that are full of really awful people. One of the Infinity groups I was part of was exceptionally toxic. If you're in a group of people and your strengths as a hobbyist aren't being pointed out then you aren't going to learn, you're going to quit.

I unfortunately cannot enjoy the hobby (miniatures nor model railways) without constant W's in the form of validation. It's a problem.

Great video! I just found your channel and I really appreciate all the tips for photographing miniatures. Did you ever get a chance to film the video showing exactly how you go about a miniature photo shoot, start to finish?

My FLGS has a group chat on Facebook messenger and I post my models there. My twin brother and I also share pics of our painted models over Discord. But for me, the biggest motivator for hobbying is ... well, that's a lie. I was going to say getting things tabletop ready, but the truth is that the biggest motivator is when someone is commissioning me to paint their models. I'm a completely average painter and I don't charge much, so my locals will have me paint stuff for them in exchange for new minis. I enjoy it because it allows me to paint models outside of my factions so I get to paint something new. And even though I give the models back, I still get to keep the photos forever to remember that paint job.

So true about photos on your phone! I can't tell you how many times talking about hobbies or random questions like "what have you been up to?" resulted in me passing my phone over to show pictures and they're genuinely surprised. When you're surrounded by fellow hobby folks, it's always a great feeling to get feedback from people outside of the space that are genuinely amazed at something you created - especially if you don't come off as the creative type.

Thx for the instagram info, Looks like I've got my real feed back. More ppl in the hobby need to know this cuz Its a pretty common complaint.

I have a Discord with my hobby group where we share out projects, discuss different games/rules, and generally talk smack to each other. It’s really good sometimes to see a friend working on something and gets you to the hobby desk.

Spending just a few bucks on background is so worth it as well. It typically costs under 10 bucks for a nice graduated piece of cloth. Or even using some scenery to photos helps, too.

I'm the one person who still uploads photos to Flickr, I tend to upload all of my completed miniatures there. Since Instagram made their browser/PC interface more useful I have also started uploading there and that does seem to result in more people seeing things. I occasionally share to Reddit too, which is where I may actually get some comments rather than just a handful of likes, especially if I post to somewhere like the Warcry subreddit, rather than just the occasional like.

Great stuff friend 👏 👍

We all need to take our Ws but I'd advise doing that yourself rather than relying on social media 'likes' to rate your wins. You're the one that knows what you're capable of and know if that last skeleton/marine/tank or squid was a breakthrough in a technique etc. and you're the one that has to pick up the brush again. The dopamine for advertising exchange of social media is not something you should link your motivation to.

Sharing model pictures in the Star Wars legion communities has been super positive. when I recently posted warhammer stuff it’s been a bit more negative experience

I just got into the Hobby. Finished a small project of 6 models. Was feeling kinda poopy about it if I'm honest. A good friend showed me this video, and now I want to keep going. I took my 'W' and on to the next. Whatever that ends up being.

Thanks for the heads up about the instagram layout options, that being said, I find a ton of additional hobby folks to follow by scrolling the default being that most of the suggestions are related to what I am posting and browsing. There are pros and cons to either style of browsing.

I typically share my finished work on Discord servers and Instagram, Facebook groups are “a long wait for a train won’t come” as some would say.

Hey Uncle Adam just wanted to say thank you for being a positive force in the hobby community. You are a great channel for people coming into tabletop gaming and veterans of it as well.

I usually show to friends that are in the similar hobbies. I have been thinking about posting in different Facebook groups, discords, and subreddits just to get a broader audience response.

I don’t post pictures of my work because I am not very good and hobby intimidation is a thing. I try to take the win for myself and maybe share with a few friends via Messenger.

“Finished Work” to “Significant Other”…what euphemism can I come up with there?

I post finished models and wips on Instagram. It's nice to see my chronological improvement in painting and taking the photos. Plus a few likes here and there is always nice

I put my photos on Twitter, but you shouldn't rule out Facebook - in some cases it only shows you the kind of content from your friends that you yourself show an interest in, so if you upload some hobby photos you're more likely to discover a friend that also takes part!

A good and insightful video as always. And I'll tell you who doesn't like tiny fireworks. Tiny dogs!

I’ve been posting mine on Instagram for about a year now. Before that, it really was just me sending photos to friends and families.

I run a Tumblr blog where I post all my models. It's got tags like Instagram to make it easy to sort and stay in your space, and an active community without all the tracing and data mining and drama that comes with Instagram

I tend to post to my Instagram and a few discords I am in that have art/ttg channels. The only thing I would say with sharing online is you have to post it and forget it, that way you don't get discouraged it there are none to low reactions to it because that will happen. I have had things that i posted that I thought were cool that and they got only a few engagements but then the next thing I post gets massive numbers. Some times its just out of your control and dependent on time, what everyone else is sharing and hate to say it the algorithm. but ether way if you are proud of the mini you finished post it and take the win

Good ideas, thanks!

"Don't need (want or desire) other peoples opinions". Awww, it's like you understand me! 🙂

I've recently started to photograph my projects once they've been completed and then post them to my FB feed.

I used to enjoy sharing on the Tabletop Minions fb page, but it seems to have dwindled over the last year or so.

i just painted and based 10 Seraphon Saurus Warriors so I am a little happy with that.

Thank you for this. Uncle Atom.

I took the W once. I didn't pay for it and my mom made me bring it back.

I definitely prefer showing my work to non hobbyist. Everyone is always so blown away and amazed and always wonders how something like that could be achieved. In reality its barely above a tabletop standard and would get shit kn by all the hobby snobs out there.

10:38 mmm that sweet sweet dopamine. Straight to the vein!

Thanks for the video, I have been considering making an Instagram account for my hobby, maybe this video will be the motivation I need.

Getting together to paint in person with others is definitely great, well worth doing to knock out some stuff without feeling so lonely or bored, and it has the benefit that you can borrow paints and supplies from people there. I have one other way to motivate myself which will sound a little mean, but it works for me; I save photos of badly painted minis. Obviously I'm not leaving any disparaging comments for the person who uploaded them or anything like that, but if I'm ever feeling a little frustrated or disappointed in my paintjobs, comparing them to something that I think looks bad can be a real pick-me-up. It never fails to make me feel quite satisfied with what I've done.

I like to share my work because I get motivation from others and like to think mine can do the same for them 😊 I usually post on Instagram but a couple of months ago I noticed hashtags stopped doing what they are supposed to do (reliably) so I went to reddit to find out if others were having the same issue, I ended up typing something along the lines of "it would almost be better to just share somewhere like reddit" which made me pause... and so I did... I got soooooo much more visibility and interaction from reddit so if you are looking to share with people outside of your friend group I highly recommend reddit over Insta, since then every post over there has had orders of magnitude more visibility and interactions than on Insta and so far (touch wood) have all been very friendly and inquisitive, which is exactly the sort of thing I was looking for (how did you do that? what colours did you use? etc.)

I really hope you don’t refer to defeat as ‘taking the D’.

Great vid Uncle Adam. I totally agree having a Discord hobby group for the different games I play is an awesome way to display, get feedback and a win when completing protects 😁👍👏

Uncle Adam proving once again why I always suggest him as a good channel for beginning painters. Not just for painting, but for things around painting that make painting possible or better.

This is a great video not just as a gunpla enjoyer, but also as a hobbyist music producer. It's easy to be my own worst critic but there is definitely practical benefit to just considering a project DONE at a certain point.

I share most of my hobby winns with my wargaming friends, mostly on Discord. But I also share some of the finished miniatures on Instagram. But recently a couple of us started hobbying together once a week and that is super fun and rewarding.

I have to say, only getting the "aww it looks so great" or "u are so talanted" dosn't give me motivation really. What really motivates me, is when someone, better than me, gives me advice for improvement.