Old blogpost from the blogosphere, wise advice: ‘How To Finish A Wargames Project’ from Wargaming for Grown-Ups. Trebian writes:

In practice there is nothing more difficult in completing a wargame project than there is in giving up smoking or losing weight. You just have to want to do it. (…) The simple answer is decide what you want to do, buy the figures and paint them. Don’t buy anything else until you’ve finished what you’ve bought. (…) What are my other handy tips? 

• Firstly, now, I buy all the figures I think I’m going to need up front. I’ll have worked it out from the rule book or from what I think my rules will look like when I write them. That means, when I finish them, that I’ll actually be able to use them. (…)
• Secondly, when I worked out what I wanted I did it on a spreadsheet, so I know exactly what units I’m aiming to paint and can track them if I need to. (…)
• Thirdly, particularly with figures sold in packets, I open the packets and sort them into units and put each unit into a ziplock bag. These then go into a box, lined up so I can see what I’ve got to do. (…) I usually also put them in the order they need to be done. Consequently I’m not just painting random stuff, I’m painting to a plan (…)
• Fourthly I have a streamlined painting system using tinted varnish to finish the figures off [ed. dipping]. (…) I long ago gave up trying to paint all that detail on 28mm figures, or even to paint like people who paint them (…)
• Fifthly make sure you have a regular painting slot and your partner agrees that it is your painting slot (…) One of our group who is retired gets up an hour earlier than his wife and just “potters about”. He then complains he doesn’t have time to paint. Why not do it then, before breakfast? The important thing is that everyone who has calls on your time understands that this is your time to do this one thing. The Quid Pro Quo is to have time for them when it isn’t that time. Otherwise you have a painted army and a note telling you you’re being divorced.

Full blog here.