Painting Motivation: Points-based Systems

I have long painted in bursts.  I’ll have a month where I am extremely productive, painting an army in a month (as I did with my first batch of Maggotkin, my Squigs, and my Sons of Behemat), and then several months of pretty much nothing. 

This year, I’m doing a it better at being consistent. I have unproductive weeks, but month to month I’m doing alright. I got lots done in January, a fair it done in February, and then March has been pretty productive. Here are some highlights from the year to date:

Not bad, and I’m well on my way to averaging at least a model a day over the course of the year!

I’ve spoken (well, written) before about motivation when painting. There are lots of different motivations to paint. Sometimes it’s the painting itself. Sometimes it’s the satisfaction of sharing your finished minis. Sometimes it’s the visual spectacle of using your painted armies on the tabletop. All of these are totally valid, and they also apply to me.

Something I’ve not mentioned so much before are points systems hosted by different communities. Two Discord servers I frequent (Woehammer and Midwinter Minis) use points systems. They have a slightly different focus. Woehammer’s system is largely about clearing backlog and throughput, whilst Midwinter is entirely about output. This means that if I bought 40 models in a month and painted 10 of them, that would be seen as favourable (due to the painting) on Midwinter but less favourable (yay, you painted, but you added to your backlog) on Woehammer. Given my well-established bad habits, I’ve engaged more with the Midwinter Painty Points system. I do feel the Woehammer one is ‘healthier’, though.

I’ve actually won on Painty Points twice. Once was back in January of 2022 when I painted my Sons of Behemat. The second was last month (March 2023), largely due to all the goblins! All the goblins…

There’s also a lifetime leaderboard, where I moved from 7th to 5th last month. That felt good!

I don’t think that painty points make a difference to how often I paint, or what I paint, but it feels nice to submit finished models for points. Points are cool. And, hey, it might help drive someone else on with their hobby, which is great! The prizes aren’t really a motivator as such, as there’s n real value to it. It’s just a wee Polaroid from Guy, the host of Midwinter Minis. So it’s a cool little thing for fans, but not something big and valuable that would encourage people to either pressure themselves or cheat the system.

It’s a bit of fun, really. That’s all, and that’s all it has to be. That’s enough.

Other than the big ol’ pile of Shootas, the next pile of points for me will hopefully come from me finally getting going with my long-threatened Genestealer Cults. I’ve been gathering stuff for a while:

The upcoming new edition of Warhammer 40,000 is a good push factor!