Don't Worry, Be Happy

MichaelStockin

MichaelStockin

Lord
I like my hobby to be laid back, not competitive.
There is pressure to be exceptional at everything, life, work, hobbies, all of it.

You don’t need to be the best painter, best strategist, best modeller, etc.
You don’t need to be so good at your hobby that you can turn it into a business and make money.

Do it for the sake of it.
It’s perfectly ok not to be the best.

I like to think that most people here would appreciate anything we share which we have done, don’t be afraid to post what you have done.

So don't worry if you are not the best painter or modeller, I am not and I know that with practice and refinement I could get better, but I am ok with not being the best I could be, that is ok.
If you enjoy what you do, keep doing it.

That is not to say you should not want to be improving, but don't feel obliged.

It is not a crime to be content.
 
basically agree even though I can't fully agree, in that I can get really stuck and.. have issues with some figures. I got a figure I need to get done for Saturday but just been dragging too long so it's gonna be.. a bit rough. But I try ^_^
 
Agreed on every point. We are our own worst critic and tend to compare our painting, converting and whatnot to those of others. And we absolutely shouldn't. Do the hobby the way you enjoy it, don't be anxious about sharing your stuff for others to see. If you're proud of something you've done, why not share it.

I've actually wrote about this topic before:

"In the end this is a hobby and as such meant to be enjoyed, thus any level of painting that painter themself is happy with is the best possible result this aspect of the hobby can result in."

"Comparing makes sense when it results in inspiration, motivation or learning something. Comparing and feeling lesser is not motivational.
It's good to remember that no matter what you do, there will always be someone better than you. Again, it's all about mindset, accepting own limitations and embracing the current skills we have."
 
I agree. This is a hobby. I can be too critical of myself, and I expect that's true of most of us. But the whole point to it being a hobby is that it's not the serious stuff where I really do need to keep improving. It's the fun bit; the relaxation where I don't have to worry. Or that's the theory, anyway. My hobbies have a way of crossing over into obsessions, which is maybe dangerous. Thank you for the reminder to take it a little easier. :)
 
For this reason, I rarely go back and fix models that chip on the gaming table. And rarely do I fix “mistakes” once I’ve put a finished model away

Oh well - fixing chips or mistakes isn’t fun, and I have much more to paint.


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MichaelStockin said:
You don’t need to be the best painter, best strategist, best modeller, etc.
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Very true, to be fair I'm glad that I am the best painter, strategist and modeller, but I can imagine what it must be like to be less god like ;)

Seriously however totally agree with all this. Hobbies should be fun and enjoyable, for me that's a lot of the draw of keeping my wargaming more in the oldhammer camp. The general ethos is much more around crafting a story in playing the games and that appeals so much more than "just winning".

Totally agree that the same goes for painting. No matter how skilled you are it should be fun. I do get a bit of painting burnout, so my speed isn't great, but the last thing I want is not to enjoy my painting time.

MichaelStockin said:
I like to think that most people here would appreciate anything we share which we have done, don’t be afraid to post what you have done.
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I love seeing everyone's efforts here - no matter if they are ready for White Dwarf or a first attempt. Hell I'm okay seeing bare lead if it's an interesting model! :) Absolutely no one should worry about the "quality" of their work when posting here I think we all enjoy seeing other people enjoying the hobby.

Orjetax said:
For this reason, I rarely go back and fix models that chip on the gaming table. And rarely do I fix “mistakes” once I’ve put a finished model away
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This is totally me. I do touch up chips, but often it's only popping on a dot of black! I must have so many minis which I think - I must go back and tidy up such and such, I never do :)
 
Maybe there's a difference between friendly competition and cut-throat (GW tournament style) gaming. We do (sometimes) play games with dice where (maybe) one side wins and (possibly) the other loses. Sort of. After a fashion. But if you do it right everyone walks away happy, so the winning and losing part isn't important; ergo it isn't competitive.

My hope is that even the painting competitions can be like that. Yeah, somebody (nearly everybody on here) is better than me. But we all learn something, even the best people, from one another. Collaborative. Not competitive. I hope. Maybe I'll toss my hat in the ring this year.
 
symphonicpoet said:
Maybe there's a difference between friendly competition and cut-throat (GW tournament style) gaming.
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I think this is very true. I did a GW doubles tournament at Warhammer World once (years ago) and that was very laid back and friendly, there was the odd "player" everyone somewhat rolled their eyes about in Bugmans afterwards, but the atmosphere was very "oldhammer" so to speak. The guys I was with had done a few other GW tournaments which were straight up one on one and the atmosphere was rather different and much more competitive. So I think there must be quite a lot that rides on how something is presented and sold to the participants.
 
^The last few games I've played I can't even recall who won what. I think I might have won one or two of them, but most I'm confident I lost. And some where just unwinable "last stand" scenarios where you know you're going to die, but you get to laugh when someone pulls off something particularly epic along the way. There was an especially memorable moment in a game of Vietnam era USMC vs. genestealers (honest) where PFC Trung's teammates shot bugs in close combat off him not once, but at least three times: once with an M-16, then with a mortar (I kind you not), and finally with a grenade launcher. Trung died, as did all his teammates, but he SURVIVED burst fire and explosions that killed the bugs attacking him fair and square for about a turn and a half. Didn't mind the fact that I didn't make it to the LZ one bit. It was incredible! That's the kind of game I want to play. One where nobody cares who wins or loses, but everybody is cracking bawdy jokes, sharing a beverage, and laughing uproariously the whole time as who knows what ensues.

20250704_162540 (Large).JPG
 
Having lost every single game of the friendly TOW campaign I am taking part in, if I was trying to be competitive I am obviously not doing too well at it… Fortunately the campaign has been designed to not simply favour winning, points are there for participation, painting and narrative too. However, I can’t lie that loosing consistently is starting to get rather disheartening after putting in hours into collecting, painting and playing. Not sure whether it’s the swinging nature of the turn based gameplay, bad luck of the dice, or perhaps just my bad decision making that make this worse on the table.
 
Eric said:
I think this is very true. I did a GW doubles tournament at Warhammer World once (years ago) and that was very laid back and friendly, there was the odd "player" everyone somewhat rolled their eyes about in Bugmans afterwards, but the atmosphere was very "oldhammer" so to speak. The guys I was with had done a few other GW tournaments which were straight up one on one and the atmosphere was rather different and much more competitive. So I think there must be quite a lot that rides on how something is presented and sold to the participants.
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I remember doing something very similar back in 2016, 2017 or so at a 40k "tournament" at Warhammer World. Everyone was for the most part really lovely, with only one of our 5 games being against some sweaty powergamer and his (blessedly seemingly clueless) accomplice, which I thought was quite funny
 
symphonicpoet said:
^The last few games I've played I can't even recall who won what. I think I might have won one or two of them, but most I'm confident I lost. And some where just unwinable "last stand" scenarios where you know you're going to die, but you get to laugh when someone pulls off something particularly epic along the way. There was an especially memorable moment in a game of Vietnam era USMC vs. genestealers (honest) where PFC Trung's teammates shot bugs in close combat off him not once, but at least three times: once with an M-16, then with a mortar (I kind you not), and finally with a grenade launcher. Trung died, as did all his teammates, but he SURVIVED burst fire and explosions that killed the bugs attacking him fair and square for about a turn and a half. Didn't mind the fact that I didn't make it to the LZ one bit. It was incredible! That's the kind of game I want to play. One where nobody cares who wins or loses, but everybody is cracking bawdy jokes, sharing a beverage, and laughing uproariously the whole time as who knows what ensues.

View attachment 13872
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One of the most hilarious moments of my Warhammer 40,000 games was, when in a very small game using 2nd edition rules, the Marines had a Rhino on the table, and the hardest hitting weapon of my Orks (mind, Orks - not Orcs) was a melter. The melter was not able to penetrate the Rhino's armour. Except the turret armour. Bravely, my Ork Boss moved in front of the Rhino, fired the melter, hit the turret and penetrated the armour. The roll on the armour chart caused an explosion which triggered another roll on the body damage chart, triggering an explosion in the body as well which resulted in the crew getting killed and sending the Rhino out of control. The brave Ork boss was rewarded with the out of control Rhino careening around him, rolling randomly across the board for two turns, before crashing into some trees.

I can't remember who won the small skirmish, but I will never forget this highly improbable chain of events :)
 
I rather like competitions or tournaments and have rarely taken part in any I didn't enjoy.
I'm not really competitive though. I don't expect to win and don't mind if I don't - I consider myself the standard to beat. If anyone wants to style themselves as 'good player / painter / whatever' he has to go past me 'cause I know I ain't good and therefore, nobody can be good who can't beat me. I know what I can do and I'm rather fine with it.
Whenever I am properly invested in some kind of minis project, I like to post results here so I can proove to myself that I'm not somehow insane for enjoying the results of my labor. No, I'm not some kind of weird maniac who as a grown man gets all excited about painting crazy toy soldiers, there are in fact others who don't find those crazy at all and indeed write nice things about 'em.
 
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