The Only Way to Fail in Your Hobby 

I would add one thing that is not a failure but not mentioned. Mental health. If you have something like depression and you want to paint, build, etc, but can't (depression is evil) you have not failed. You tried and depression (or whatever) stopped you. Keep trying and you are succeeding. This comes from both personal experience and my partner, whom deals with very bad depression at times.

Uncle Atom: The philosopher king of wargaming.

You have to be the most charismatic hobbyist I have witnessed so far.

I am definitely somewhere along one of those spectrums that realised it some time ago. ^ this is a valuable message. In military terms they say 'know your role'. In hobby terms it should be 'enjoy your role'. I'm a slow ass display painter. When I paint to a time frame, I dont enjoy it. When I paint to make something I like to look at, I enjoy the process. Uncle Atom ain't wrong kids.

Hi! Today is the day I am finally going to travel to Games Workshop and start my AoS journey! Nervous and excited 😁

7:19 almost made me cry it was so on the nose. I largely don't believe in failure but just over a decade ago I failed in my artistic aspirations. "You can fail in your hobby. And the way that you fail in your hobby is that you have the passion and you have the interest and you enjoy doing it but something, whatever it might be, stops you from doing it and you let that thing stop you." Absolute truth, Atom. Absolute goddamn truth.

Sometimes things interfere with our goals, do not equate temporary set backs with failure.

I started in the hobby when I was 14 or so, and my dad suggested I use his old enamel paints. I quickly learned that was a mistake, and my minis looked awful. I accidentally chose a glossy red, and the paint was so thick it globbed up all the detail. Classic case of a young painter starting out. The difference is that even after I switched to Acrylics and got good painting technique, I was too scared to paint my models "wrong" and so my army stayed grey for years. I failed at my hobby. Don't do what I did. Even globby enamels looked better than grey. Now I'm getting round to doing my guys up properly, and the only reason they're still grey is because of all the gaps I have to fill with green stuff.

I've been stuck for so long wanting my minis to look perfect. This is exactly what I needed to hear. Thank you

Cheers, bruv. I’ve just started painting my first army, the Adeptus Astartes of the Raven Guard, and this really helps.

One important thing I've learned, don't pressure yourself when painting an army. In my local area, almost nobody has a painted army and that's ok. I was always concerned with this, but eventually I learned to relax and just paint what I wanted. After 8 months of just painting when I felt like it, I had a 2,000 point Space Marine army finished. Some armies are much more time consuming to paint, and can take even longer. It's a marathon, not a sprint.

Me: I'm gonna stop sleeping so I can hobby some more My brain: Wait, That's ilegal!

This is an incredibly profound thought. That just untangled some of my sticky thinking. Thank you

I've been drawn into Warhammer by the Conquest collection magazine that's currently running in Germany. I've started painting a few months prior to improve my tabletop roleplaying games, and when I saw that Warhammer magazine, I jumped onto it as well. It's been going for 10 months now and I haven't once played a game. I'm just reading the lore, building and painting. I still have a mild interest to play the game one day, but it's not a priority for me. Painting is great to do for an hour or so in the evening with a podcast in the ear, to get the stress of the day out. I love it. And with the Warhammer minis, I have stuff I don't necessarily care about too much for them to look "perfect", so I can get some practice in. And I'm okay with that :) And even then, I find that I enjoy building more than painting, interestingly enough.

Awesome social commentary, thanks! And that, is why I have a dedicated hobby desk - so that when I have some time, I can just carry on with it, without spending time on setting everything up. Not being able to hobby for a while can feel like failure, but luckily it always comes back somehow, and then all is well again!

This is way too real a definition of failing at hobby to me, I have too many things I love and want to do (paint, game, music) that I never seem to be able to find the time to do even though I have plenty of free time after work. Thanks for this kick in the butt Atom, hopefully I can sit down and think about why that is and how to stop failing.

I got into miniature painting and playing AoS from your videos. It’s been great during this pandemic

Anyone else notice that uncle Adams miniature advice is also just amazing life advice?

Hit a pretty low point with my depression this last month, and this was very encouraging and enough to inspire me to pull out the paints again. It was a temporary failure and a setback, but not a total defeat. It hit pretty hard, but I felt as though you were the coach in the corner, and your words inspired me to keep moving forward, only quitters lose, and I wanted to say thanks for this 🙂👍🏻

More fine words on a Friday. Thank you 🙏 As a motorcyclist I'm aware of the idea that it's the journey that matters, not necessarily the destination. I use that in my gaming. I don't win very often but it's the playing that has to be enjoyable for me, regardless of whether I win or not. I will now also apply this to my painting and stop worrying about what the end result will be Thanks again and stay safe

I have almost half a century in wargaming, and have found out over that time is to play multiple games. Currently I am doing Battletech, Malufaux, Napoleonics, Ancients, Naval world war one and two, American Civil War, Wammahordes, and Starfleet Battles. I play with four different groups here in my home city and two in a city about an hour away. Variety adds spice to this hobby, my most recent addition is a 28 mm World War 2 Marine platoon assembled primed and base colored.

"Any kind of forward movement that you make in the hobby that you enjoy is never failure." - Uncle Atom

Been into the 40k lore for a while now. Just a few weeks ago I took the plunge and bought a bunch of the minis and supplies to paint them. I honestly love it, but recently I've begun a new exercise/meal program and I've kinda run out of extra time and energy to do it :/ It's still so much fun

You’re right, I wasn’t expecting that answer. I thought you were going to talk about losing your first 100 games before your first win. Great advice. This is definitely something that I need to remember.

Acknowledging that I don't have to play the game is what has gotten me back into this hobby. I didn't like feeling like I needed to buy and paint certain models that didn't necessarily interest me just because I felt I needed them strategically. When I did play, I found myself frustrated and not really having fun. I've never been crazy about battle strategy and spatial relations are not my strong suit. So I put it all aside. For Christmas, my brother gave me an Adeptas Sororitas Exorcist-- my first 40k model. This is the first model I've painted just because it was cool and I wanted to. I've had so much fun with it that it has me looking back on my incomplete models and wanting to paint them. It's so freeing to paint for the sheer fun of it. I've decided I'm only going to paint what I find fun to paint. I see a lot of crazy vehicles in my future!

As someone who has been putting off painting to the point where I have almost cleared my backlog of models, I needed this. I used to love painting, but as I am getting back into the hobby after a long break the thing I've been the most afraid of doing is painting. "What if I'm not as good as I was? I forgot all of those techniques I tried so hard to learn. Are my paints still good?" Have all kept me from painting. Tomorrow I'll finally paint.

I think it’s important to have hobbies like this because it involves the real world and not just the cyberspace

I agree 100%, You are the only one that sets up for failure by placing obstacles that hinder you from success as you have mentioned in the video.

Im painting a bust right now - a dwarf with a fez. Finished the fez yesterday and Now i tought about making the fez like uncle atoms. Got damn it.

Thanks for this video, I am having a hard time with the things that you talk stopping me to spend hobby time and this video really open my eyes.

I remember when I got into the hobby, just 4 years ago, saw a GW store while on vacations. Walked in cause the mini's looked cool, walked out with a AoS starter set! Hooked with the story, loved the models, fond a local store where they played AoS and where excited about the Generals Handbook. Love the game!!! I've since expanded into 40k, Frostgrave, Warcry, KillTeam, Warhammer Quest!

great advice as always :) i took your "Why Don't You Just Start?" video to heart, and did just that: went out, got some miniatures i liked and started building and painting again, met some new people and even joined a club recently

It took me a good long while to be satisfied and accept with how much time I had to build/paint/play and to stop comparing myself to others who are able to do it so much more. It's a very important thing to learn. Great video.

Thanks for the video and the great advice! I'm the guy that loves to build and paint but never plays. Maybe someday, but heck, I'm nearly 60 years old. Currently working on Space Hulk Terminators from the box set. Hoping to play this awesome board game when finished!

Spot on. Personally I believe my biggest fail at the hobby is failing to properly manage my time, I end up trying to cut corners which more usually than not result in loosing even more hobby time.

I painted 40 models in the first part of this year. I've taken a bit of a break but could pick it up where I left off at any time. I only really play Gaslands these days anyway, so I feel very little pressure to paint my 40k and AoS minis sitting half complete on the shelf above my workspace, admonishing me daily;" paint us!" It's a long winter in my neck of the woods, plenty of time to get to them! In the meantime, I will continue as a " Hobby butterfly" lazily, and erratically getting to where ever it is I'm going! Thanks for another thought provoking video Atom!

Talking about the working together with a buddy bit around 4:00 - I absolutely love converting and I'm a decent painter but put much less time aside for it. One of my buddies is a phenomenal painter but can't work with fiddly bits to make cool characters. So I made him a full command squad for his Space Marines with a chapter master and he painted them all up beautifully, came out even better that I imagined.

As someone really unsure if I want to jump into this community and hobby, your videos are really cool and informative of the hobby. Thank you Atom. You're making excited and boosting my confidence to getting into the Warhammer hobby

Great and positive advice in these strange times. Thank you Uncle Atom!

7:28 so true! For me, it was taking on commission work for painting. Absolutely ruined my desire to paint again and I didn't touch minis as a hobby for about 6 years. This was after loving the hobby, winning competitions, playing regularly... it just forced something I had loved, to eventually become subconsciously linked with high stress and constant deadlines to where a purely leisure activity ripped me out of the comforts of leisure. Am... testing the hobby waters again, and found this channel. 🤞

Believe everyone needs to watch this video. Insightful and encouraging words.

I'm always beating myself up about that I should be painting more often. But I do enjoy doing it when I get a chance to build and paint. This really has made me think more about it and changed my mind that I should not be too hard on myself.

I really needed this, honestly. I got back into Warhammer again after a long hiatus. I had also been back into Magic for the last several years, but I plain stopped enjoying magic lately. I don't enjoy deck building, I don't even enjoy playing anymore. But I was having fun kit bashing my way through a death watch kill team, have a few friends that love to play "for the fluff" and I've always loved painting minis and models. I've been considering just selling off my magic stuff other than a few decks I'm sentimental about and using that to have more kits to mess around with. But I was hesitant. Worried that I was failing on a hobby I once loved and now almost hated. But if I'm not enjoying it, it's not a hobby anymore. If I'm not enjoying it, there's no shame in moving on from it. SO thanks, Uncle Atom, for some needed sage advice.

This is fantastic Unc. One thing I realized awhile ago is I enjoy skirmish games way more than full out 40k (as an example). The only failure was on my wallet, but not a single regret! It helped me become a better modeler, kit basher, etc. thanks for another great video! In the vast darkness of the universe- there is no failure.

It always amazes me how much philosophy and life advices there are within this hobby :)

I enjoy hobbying and wargaming so much (and maybe even a little bit of the lore. Just enough so that I can add a little narrative to the games) but having two small kids and working full time during crazy lockdown times has made it hard. I try to find a little time to at least do one thing to help my hobby move forward every night. Some nights I only have 10 minutes, that's fine! I can use that to wash brushes or clean out my wet palette so it's ready to go next time I do have a bigger block of time. Sometimes I just tidy up my hobby desk. Sometimes I re-organize my paints. The little things add up so that when you do find that big block you get tons of stuff done. The last big block I had I finished two models in because everything was ready to go from all the little things I'd done.

Great advice. Thanks a lot. I think the hard part in this hobby can be to not let the bad parts take away the joy from the bits you do like. Finding a way to 'cheat' your way through the 'not fun' parts may be the way to solve this. Never let anyone tell you that your cheats/shortcuts are bad when they allow you to focus on the things you do enjoy. Things like 'contrast paints' may have helped solve the problem for those of us who don't like to paint. Single piece / easy-build options give options to those who don't like building. If only games had pre-painted / pre-assembled minis as a 3rd option ...

One of my best buds called me out on this the other day and I completely agree that I have failed at this hobby before. Wife went out for a work function this week and I sat down, and just went to town on some gluing, and silver arm painting for my Deathwatch. So much happier that even those couple of layers are going to show for this weekends games! Heck even 30 minutes for a touch up or paint of one item can just reignite that hobby flame to just push you to finish.

I think the only exception to this is if you stop doing a thing you love to do another thing you love even more. Like, I'm spending way less time playing videogames now, because I'm enjoying model stuff more, but that's hardly a failure.

Uncle Adam says its gunna be alright.😎

Wise words. As I always say, it is a matter of priorities. If the hobby is a priority, you'll find time.

Thank you Atom. I have been in and out of wargaming numerous times. I love the hobby, but the difficulty of doing the hobby due to storage space has been a major influence. However, I'm going to see what I can do to participate. One thing I could do is try using a smaller scale of miniatures.

Probably not going to play my first game of 40k until next year at the earliest due to covid and the fact I have a ton of unopened models, but I really like building (including magnetizing which some people seem to hate even when you do it), I really like painting, and the game sounds pretty cool too. Overall it's given me something new to look forward to and be passionate about during a time when I would otherwise be in a really bad state. This is a hobby that even if I leave it at some point for whatever reason, I see myself coming back to it again and again.

Great video as always, Uncle... Guy With the Fez. Motivating as always!

This time last year, I absolutely hated painting. Now I'm getting to the point where, yeah I probably don't enjoy it as much as the modelling side of making the models or writing up fluffy and narrative driven armies to play on tabletop, but I've come to find it pretty therapeutic. The best thing I can honestly recommend from the way I learnt to paint models (though I must add, I do have an art background like Atom mentioned in this video) is to pick up, or convert some models, even if they're not something you can field as part of your army, but for something you really like the look/lore of, for me that was Inq28, and the Blanchitsu movement, which allowed me to just play with the paint on the model, rather then worrying about getting things to the perceived 'tabletop standard' and my painting models has significantly improved having done a dozen or so, and become more enjoyable as a result. Also if you have a small group of close buddies in the hobby, share your work with them. I've quite recently gone from thinking I was a terrible painter because I don't have the patience for the (Admittedly fantastic looking) 'Eavy Metal style of pristine edge highlighting and my tendency to go for minimalist highlighting and realistic looking grunged up and battle worn models, to my gaming group seeing some of my models on the table and thinking I'm one of the strongest painters of the group, which is utterly humbling, and I've still got an absolute tonne to learn. So yeah, TL;DR, If you can, pick up some cheap brushes your not worried about and a model or two you like the look of, even if you can't field said model in a game, and just have a play around without worrying about batch painting or getting the model on the table. Also Watch video tutorials on techniques you like the look of, often then not they're far more simple then they look! Hope this helps someone out there that was in the same position I was this time last year :)

My brother in law got me into 40k not too terribly long ago and I just so happen to love building the models and he loves to paint them. It works out because just as building them and working with my hands is therapeutic to me painting is the same way for him. I finished my 2k pt Raven Guard chapter and I’m now moving on to my sisters of battle.

My primary focus of gaming has always been the game. I used to pay people to assemble and paint my stuff, and we had a Golden Demon Slayer Sword winner in town who painted commission. I was single, had extra money, and had the best looking armies in town. I learned to paint, could do a yeoman's job, but was never that good. Which is fine. I am happy enough with battle quality paint jobs. Fast forward 25 years and I am returning to 40k for the first time since then. My eyes are much older, and I have arthritis in many places, including my hands. So what I can put on the table these days is a far cry from what I used to put on, even things I painted myself. While this is a de-motivator, the focus always has to be on the goal, which for me is the game. I admit I would be pretty depressed if my goal was painting, because not only is it hard to do, the results just are not what I used to be able to do, and certainly not what I used to play with. It is still a little prone to procrastination, because it is so hard, but I chip away at it.

I just started panting and it's beautiful see this video exactly when my journey is starting.

This video, and the "just start" video really helped me get back into the hobby in a much healthier way. I tend to be perfectionistic and hate losing to folks who game the meta and run soulless, nonsensical, hypercompetitive lists. Getting into the "hobbying" side of things, starting new with an army that I truly like, looking at the hobby as something that I can put genuine time, effort and enjoyment into instead of feeling like a model-producing robot -- that made all the difference.

God danm this speaks to me. I just got in recently due to covid giving me more free time than I know what to do with. Started making an ork homebrew but quickly started to persue a homebrew idea I have been sitting on for a while. 3rd party stuff wasn't cutting it, got a 3d printer. As I listen to this video, I am almost done modelling a truckk. It's front end is based on the Canadian (not Cadian) C15TA while the rear is an American M2a1 halftrack. When I first had real success with my 3d printed stuff, I eagerly posted it on r/orks. I've stopped posting on r/orks a while ago, looking at the stuff other people can kitbash together with far less money spent is just demotivating.

It's always good to watch these pep talk videos from time to time :).

This. Great life advice, and something I needed to hear today. Thank you for this

Thanks Adam. I find your work inspirational both in and out of the painting/playing miniature. I'm huge into scale RC airplanes as well and a lot of your pep talks carry over. Comparing my work to Top Gun masters is silly. I keep doing a little better in each build and take what I learn along the way. I have found that I have gotten much faster and more efficiently. But most importantly I'm having so much fun. Due to the pandemic I have not played a game with miniatures since last January so I lost the drive to build and paint. I have my first game scheduled next week and now I want to jump right back in and start painting up a new Kill Team. Thanks again for all your great content -Matt Stay safe, I know WI is going through a rough time right now.

Thanks, man. Today was a tough day. A tough week. Your advice comes just in time.

I've been a professional (means commodification!) artist and illustrator for 20+ years. Gaming as a hobby since 1984. Commissioned work is the hardest. Creatively we can end up commissioning ourselves, as in the pressure mentioned in this video. We have a culture of achievement we compare ourselves to others, this is dangerous for things we should enjoy the process from. In every case sometimes the process is difficult and challenging. However, with time as an important factor it's the ability to look back after 6 months at any achievement and you're always satisfied with the 'work' you produce. Sure, you could have done things 'better', but it's done, it's finished, it's in the past, and the sense of accomplishment and completion is real. The creative process is a massive part of the hobby, and it's a minefield, but the rewards are as much a part of defeating it's challenges as defeating your opponents on the tabletop. Welcome to the world of artists and illustrators, actors, directors, story writers, musicians and every RU-vid presenter. These stumbling blocks you're experiencing are what these workers cope with on every project. It's acclimatization, practice and perseverance.

I love to paint, I don't mind building. I wish I was better at converting but I'm too scared to try more than mixing and matching parts within the kit. I love painting amazing models and I'm willing to try again and again, trying new stuff, etc to get better at painting my models. I played 40k when I was like 9 to early teens or so and I painted then; I feel like I was pretty good for that age. I quickly caught up to and surpassed where I was as a 23 year old now. I look at pros who have been painting for years and years and I look to them for inspiration. I know I will never be as good as them but that is ok. I enjoy painting my models to the best of my abilities or to whatever suits my needs. I like painting to paint. I like painting to get my army done. I bought some models to make a diorama out of. I'm going to try as hard as I can to paint them to the highest standard I can get to and you know what? I'm going to have so much fun making and painting the diorama that I don't give a shit how it actually turns out. I love painting. But, I would also 100% commission some models or an army to get done when the time is right for me. I like to play the games as well. So many games draw my attention that I want to play so many of them! Build, paint, read the lore, play the game. Be part of the community in any way you can and you don't fail at the hobby.

So much wisdom in these videos. I really needed to hear this as I haven't done much miniature painting in past couple of months.

Thank you for this video. I feel there’s too often the mindset in the hobby that you need to paint if you want to enjoy the gameplay, lore, strategy, etc of a game, when not everyone wants to

I would say for myself, the biggest barrier to getting started is coming back and getting blown away by everything new. With WH40k in particular, I stopped playing and doing anything with the hobby back in 2013, during 6th Ed. Mostly it was disgruntlement over the rising prices. Recently, my interest has rebounded, and I've been watching vids like these and checking up on GW and FW's websites to look at things. And I'm blown away...We're at 9th edition now, with all these extra things, where did the time go? Names have changed, Mechanics have changed, I don't even know what Kill Teams is, or a lot of the other stuff. A friend told me Space Marines are all primarily Primaris now, so the majority of my old models are obsolete. There are cards now? And GW puts out new 'dexes every month? It;s very overwhelming, and I quite frankly dont even know where to start. It feels like I'm a noob all over again.

So far, I've found that I love building and painting. However, grad school means that I only find time to enjoy the hobby once every 3 weeks, give or take. Sometimes this makes me sad because I feel like I'm not investing the time I "should" into the hobby. This video made me feel really good about where I'm at. I feel alot more comfortable with my pace now!

I needed to hear this today. I am saving this to rewatch when I need the motivation but can't find it myself.

Tings that come to mind while watching this video, which rises very good points. This is not a hobby for instant gratification. You only grow when you move out of your comfort zone. Personal enjoyment and motivation is key. Don't overload yourself with goals and time-frames, work to your own schedule. Regards of how big or small, progress is progress, and you should be proud of that.

Best advise I believe I saw you say in a prior vid was about setting time aside to spend an hour doing it. I’ve been trying to do it it’s hard but if you can’t always it’s not failing.

Thanks for the advice, definitely helps out a new hobbyist

Clever way to mask mental health tricks as a wargaming channel 😂 This channel rocks, dude. Been into warhammer for 18yrs now.

I have a kind-of, maybe counterpoint. Maybe just a rephrasing. Here 'tis: Not recognising you are doing something you enjoy, because you're always thinking of other things you want to be doing as well. I'm decidedly middle-aged at this point, and it took me most of my life, and still a lot of self-talk to this day, to remind myself that if I'm doing what I enjoy, I don't have to let thoughts of not doing something else ruin that. It's okay to play a video game even if you paint fewer models. It's okay to switch to a side project even if it slows down progress on your army. Every hobby goal is self-imposed, and imposing goals that ruin enjoyment of the time I've spent doing things I really do enjoy doing has been a major challenge for me.

My failure is "painter's block". I was so excited to pick up Idoneth Deepkin because I could finally paint something in crazy bright colors but then I could never decide on a color scheme so they've sat assembled in a case for the last year or so. That first mini is always the hardest.

I paint to destress, usually caused by work. I don't always paint when I get off from work, but I do always paint on my days off. But every so often a friend of mine will get me into a video game and I'll go all In on that game. But every day I play it and don't paint, I see the shelf of stuff I have prepped just waiting on me and I'll start to think "I need to get back to painting". And everyday I play and don't paint, the desire to paint gets stronger and stronger, until eventually when I'm asked to play the video game, I will say no, I need to do some painting today. And then I play very little or not at all and just paint. Everything is cyclical, for me at least. I don't paint well, but I'm not painting to win awards, I'm painting for my mental health. And This is a long about way of saying thank you for your videos and the Every Other Sunday Show (which I listen to while I paint). They cater to every type of painter, not necessarily those just trying to be the best. You have tips and tricks to help everyone get better, and faster, which is really all I'm looking for and honestly, I feel like most people are looking for. So again, thanks, and I look forward to your next video.

I'm one of them "don't much care for painting" -types and being local store's 40k-evening helper, event and small scale tournament organizer, I try to cultivate a community where there is really no de facto "wrong way to hobby". I help organize campaigns and leagues where we give points and prizes to people who paint, encouraging even the more seldom painters to do it (heck, even I get to painting occasionally due to them [still the running joke is that I keep watch over events all about painting and am at the same time one of the laziest painters we have]). But I think one of the biggest reasons why people are giving up and saying that they are "failing at hobbying" is simply GW (being one of the biggest in this market) telling us pretty straight that... "If you don't paint, you're doing it wrong." They have had at least one article where they straight sais that it was okay to bully others if they had not finished basing their minis, even if they had actually painted them. And giving outright victory points for painted armies is really sending the wrong kind of message to people. It's not that you should paint and it would look great if you did. No! You paint, or you lose points. But take heart, you can still play even games with the other... Not saying losers, but... People who have "excuses to not hobby". I have personally promised even that if I ever was to be near having a fully painted army, that I will out of sheer spite leave a single weapon from the army unpainted, thus rendering me not "worthy" of the extra 10pt. And I will allow my opponent to gain it, no questions, if they have themselves a fully painted army. But in my books, if they won just because of that, I will only recognize their victory by the merit of painting points. I will not recognize their victory as whole, for if they had lost to me without those exta 10pt, then they did not win the game. They just won the system. Still overall. Paint your minis. They will look better, trust me. Yes, even the "melty cowmen" like certain Tuber called his earliests. Never start comparing yourself to others to put you down, but for something to strive towards. And don't let others do it for you either. You do what you can do, and that failing, you can usually hire someone to do it anyway. Sure it costs more, but this ain't a cheap hobby to begin with. XD

Thank you so much for this video, really needed it as i get ready to put myself and my content out there with the hobby :)

The man with the fez is totally right! Thanks for that video.

i 100 percent agree , im a painter , building can be fun at times but painting is my personrnel heathen , gaming id love too try it . ive painted minis 20 plus yrs , great video Sir glad i subbed.

I got into Wargaming when i was about 14.At school we had a Wargame Club that met on a Saturday,i would go past the classroom to hear the rattle of dice and heated debates over Cataphracts and Slingers.One day my interest was piqued and i went in.I ended up playing a Wild West RPG game and that was it i was hooked,that was back in 1974 and i am still proudly a Wargamer Hobbyist.

Love you're vids. I actually needed to hear that. I've been away from modeling for so long, i really miss it

This needs to be said more often. Good on you sir! Keep up the good work.

This video is timely. I have been painting Warbands recently and have not been happy with the quality of my painting. I have also been staring at the Indomnitus box. Trying to not be so hard on my results. Thanks as always for the excellent video topic.

That's a great way of looking at it - Thanks Uncle Atom !

I started painting 40k figures not too long ago and have been looking at guides on youtube. Of course the videos that jump out have some amazingly painted minis which and despite rational judgement I think I started comparing a bit and focusing on what I did wrong too much. Af it is something I have to do and succeed at and not a hobby one should enjoy at all. Thank you for your video. i need that. I hope to have fun painting my Necrons in a simple, but cool way I like.

Love the Punk Rock at the End! The Fez is pretty stunning!

Here is a topic, what to do when you can no longer paint as well as you used to? Be that through health, aging, motivation, time commitments ect? Its quite a demotivate to battle to paint to 50% of what you could 10 years ago.

Some very good points there :) Thank you for another great motivational speech

It is practice, time and patience 😊 If you do something you love over and over again, you will get good at it. It is your hobby, just have fun and relax a bit ✌🏻

Great topic Uncle Atom, really appreciated this one.

I got into this hobby over 30 years ago because I liked to paint miniatures. I didn't get into table top gaming until way later. When I did, I had a bunch of friends I gamed with want me to paint a fig for them. I liked the fact I was into the whole paint thing more than the gaming, and I could do something for them. I think a lot of painters are overwhelmed by seeing the incredible painting done on the internet, and say " holy cow, I'm never going to get that good". I still paint no matter what.

I have failed at model painting, I’ve never got beyond tabletop standard. I’ve failed at generalship, I sit at 50:50 in most of the games I play. I have failed at focusing on just one game and becoming excellent. But... I have amazing adventures in LotR, Spacehulk, At43, Imperial Assault, Warhammer, Black Seas, Saga, Bushido, Steamwars, En-Garde, Hordes, Kill Team, X-Wing, Battlefeet Gothic, Elder Scrolls, Warzone, Flames of War, Ragnarok, Warband, Confrontation, Cruel Seas, FoG, Aliens, Wings of War, Warmaster and ASoIaF and some more I’ve forgotten... I’ve come to realise that my success is not in painting and winning, but in putting together a great table with armies that pass the 2 foot test and enjoying the story of gutsy charges, last stands (I have a lot of them), a well executed plan and a poor plan well executed. I suppose I’m a success at the story on the table and in my head.

Great video as always, but I think you missed a couple common 'failure points' which are a bit more complicated than lack of time. Social pressure, like people telling you your hobby is dumb, and money. I think these are common issues that could do with being addressed.

Uncle Atom makes me feel better about the fact i hate painting but i love everything else. yet i get flack for not liking to paint.

I really needed to hear this. Thank you!

Amazing words of wisdom! Another great video!

Thanks for giving me the go ahead to stop painting... I just like the lore and actual playing of miniatures games. Iv never been a fan of painting. Iv tried for years... and iv never enjoyed it. Now I can focuse on playing games. Im not a WAAC player.... I enjoy the thrill of victory and the the agony of defeat.... Im all for not painting and playing more gaming. Even if I have to deal with all the BS im going to get from not painting. Its not going to stop me from playing games!