We all have one, some worse than others but in tough economic times you should always weigh your purchases against your budget or the "why" factor. "why" as in "what the hell do I need this for?" Gaming/ Hobbying is like a drug addiction, it slowly pulls you in, 40K is ultimate gateway drugs to all kinds of other games and before you know it, you playing a half dozen different games with boxes and boxes of unbuilt stuff and not enough time to play most the games you've bought product for.
Personally although I've been really good on my budget spending only about $185.00 the last two months $109 of that being Space Hulk. That's somewhere between my own self imposed budget and the actual reality of what I was spending Bi monthly up until earlier this ear..Overall I want to keep to $100 or less a month..I still need some paints this month and one cheap WFB kit but that's about it. My own Project Backlog is bad..not as bad as some people I know..but I considered it bad none the less. Being a terrain builder with constant ideas of cool things to build but none of the time only compounds the issue..So looking into the closet this where I am at.
I've prioritize this based on my own plans.
Warhammer Fantasy Battles
Empire 4000 point completed..
I have a few new models I want to do this year
recent news has me planning more for next year
No idea where this will end..but its one army I have most control of.
Daemons of Chaos- 2500 built about all of it primed and base coated
only about 25% has final paint. I dont play DoC much as there so stigmatized as being busted..I'm sure I will break them out for fun soon. I'll buy that plastic Daemon prince when it finally comes out..but I'm not buying anymore of these guys I got plenty. ( I have box of Daemonettes I dont need) and I wont play them outside of casual games, when I finish painting them who knows..
Lizardmen- I have a Stegadon, a Battalion, an extra box of Skinks and Saurus
all sprued plus 1 Kroxigor...A handful of models are my Blood Bowl Team
everything else is sprued..leading candidate for my next WFB army which gets started post Adepticon next year.
Vampire Counts..whoa boy Spearhead, 2 extra core boxes of Skellys, Box of Grave guard, 40 zombies, lots of Characters..fighting with lizardmen as next army..I'm keeping these around..the main thing holding me back is horde aspect
I should have started these guys instead of DoC but two of my freinds were running VC at the time and Daemons where tempting me..
I've also got Dwarfs and Night Goblins mainly unbuilt for sale.
I also have several unbuilt box terrain kits (Chapel, Arcane Ruins, some Trees)
waiting for use. I am glad I didn't buy that Chaos Temple I need that like a hole in the head right now.
Warhammer 40K
Space Hulk.. I want to paint the models..which a decent sized project..it will take me a month
just to do the Marines if I work straight thru..the Nids should take less time for more models
but its going to awhile before this gets done.
I have bunch of unbuild SM stuff for sale...I have gotten rid of a bunch of it, holding on to some
for some future 40K skirmish action
Lord of the Rings-
I've sizable amount of Mordor and some Grey Company with Hordes of Orcs, Rangers and another troll to complete. War of the Ring is off the table for me at the moment. I have enough unpainted but built stuff to do around 1500 of Mordor in WotR...I have plenty painted for the Skirmish game but not competitive armies and most of my painted stuff is the pricey characters. I need to paint what I have for future SBG events.
Blood Bowl- Got a team together 12 models, one Skink done...Krox on the paint bench, Saurus primed...remaining skinks in coversion status and they all have some time consuming green stuff work going on (helmets and pads) I've meant to buy the game but havent yet...enough people have it that with my grandiose plans to build a pitch..since I have the rulebook I may not.
Pirates- Legends of the High Seas- To pirate ships to finish..I knocked out a ton of terrain for this game earlier this year....I have a good two dozen pirates painted with a crew of British Navy and another Pirate Crew sitting in blisters plus bunch of tribals from Black Cat bases I got from Tim K.
Warhammer Ancient Battles- Oh boy, again where to begin, Wargames Factory screwing up their initial releases combined with my lust to try the game really did me in, I ended buying
both Warlord Games and Wargames Factory celts combined with some Renegade stuff I had
andI got in trade and I even got the WF celt Cavalry..in short I have about 1000 points of models assembled and unpainted..I've got over 1000 points in boxes/ unassembled..biggest problem is they are very time consuming to assemble and I dont particularly love the plastic models I have a ton of Celts making zero forward progress on this- this is a disaster..kind of waiting on the new rule book to get me going here.
Flames of War..I have the books, a box of Brit Paratroopers and 4 or 5 Sherman tanks..I did actually model up one stand of guys..it took way too long to paint as I went to the extent to do camo on the all the guys, etc..I've never played a game and don't have a clue how...it still interests me so I am holding on to them for now.
Terrain-
Osgiliath Table- the tile project is of course bogged down, all the city terrain is basically complete.some just needs detailing, I have some unbuilt kits to add to it if I want but dont need them. I have completed just 1 of 12 tiles..I may actually move this to its own table, I'm past my 1 year to complete this schedule..the tiles really bring the thing to the next level. I want to finish this ASAP. I also need to rebuild the top of my 4X8 (I used pink foam insulation and a couple years of continous play and my cats its trashed..time up upgrade to MDF.)
Reading all this in the long form is depressing but somewhat motivating..I'm going to kick something in the butt this weekend.
Ok thats me, what about you I'd love to hear some similar horror stories about your own over indulgence and what can be done about it?
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Looking into the Closet - a.k.a. Your project backlog
Posted by JPL at 12:43 PM
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12 comments:
I'm pretty good about buying only what I need, so it's not too bad for me.
I just paint so slow. Mainly due to the fact that I don't have a ton of time to do it.
Also, this year I vowed to paint only daemons, so I have a ton of CSM stuff that will have to wait for next year.
I guess another fortunate thing is that I've accepted the face that I only have time for 40K and have stayed away from other game systems. Though, like I said in your last post, those skaven look mighty tempting.
Haha sound familiar :D Warhammer is killing my wallet :P I have so many ideas and plans but very few free time to make it real. Terrain is on of the worst in my opinion. Every single piece of anything that can be found in DIY shops look so usefull :P Same with miniatures. I have SM and Tyranids in progress, but I guess i should call it prog-less :P Space Hulk shuld be in my hands in few days. Im thinking very seriously about Necromunda and Mordheim. Recently I discovered some nice company called Iron Pig :P and today i found a pile of brand new GW WH40k boxes :P in my closet which is enough for me to sit and paint for whole year to finish them. Sometimes it's better to not think and just enjoy hobby :D
Oh did I mention i need to buy some parts for my bike :P ?
And lottery coupon I guess :P
When I returned to the hobby after a few years away, I vowed to be very "controlled" about spending. And that lasted for a few years. I think I've blown that a bit in the last year.
My "active" projects are:
WFB Empire
25mm Medievals
25mm Rome & Enemies
Every time I've seen some of the older multi-piece Empire figures, I've grabbed them & squirreled them away until I recently realized I had enough for an entire second army. Other than that, I've been reasonable with it. Same with the medievals & ancients.
On to the guilty parties, however...
WFB Wood Elves
Enough for an army. I wanted something that would play entirely different from my Empire & Skaven "hordes." Haven't assembled nor painted anything yet other than having a few old painted figures from over 10 years ago. I don't feel too bad, most of this has been prize winnings that have all been put towards "the next army."
15mm Medievals
I swore I wouldn't go back. I hate painting 15's. The deal I found at Historicon was too good to pass up. Almost bought a Parthian army, too. Everything still in the bags. Will probably remain there for the next decade.
WFB Dogs of War
This one deserves some sort of "WTF? Award." Can't help it, some of those figures are great. Need to figure out how to complete them.
Small stuff:
Small group (<30 figures) of old '80s lizardmen. Recently painted 1 & posted pic.
Unit of 20+/- old 80s chaos dwarfs. Started painting some of them a few years ago. Still somewhere in the vicinity of the desk.
About a dozen half-sculpted figures. Big plans, little time to execute them. Recently managed to finish one and send it to a caster.
Terrain & table: I'd like to do a new, basic textured & painted table top. I've also got some half finished terrain pieces, and supplies for a bunch more. And a list. A big list.
...wow, that looks long...
You asked for it, though. ;)
The costs really add up fast. Probably drop 100 or right before the last price increase(June) then probably another 40 on some blood bowl boosters in July, and now space hulk. Oh and then about 10 paints so add another 30, etc, etc. Nothing new after space hulk until christmas, ok maybe the spave wolves codex to see how they are compared to codex marines. Purple puppies for the win.
I plan projects much faster than I paint. It's as simple as that.
Since I stopped working for GW I've only bought a Stompa, the new army books and codexes, and Space Hulk. Before that I had the third highest purchase total amongst all our customers...
...in two years
...with the discount.
I won't need new models for the next decade.
I posted my nightmare of backlogged projects here:
http://strangevistas.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/the-project-backlog/
I've had to stop buying completely. I just recycle old stuff now and finish off what's not already done. And that's a huge pile of junk on it's own.
Money is a little tight these days for me even though I really do want a copy of Space Hulk.
Owning a game store creates a very large project back log. Well having a wife that owns a game store and feeds my habit anyway.
Funny you should mention FoW Brit paras, I was just working on them tonight getting ready for the Polish airborne infantry with the FoW Market Garden release at the end of this month. That's my current focus - and uh the genestealers from the new Space Hulk. Along with my Chaos Khorne Terminators with accompanying FW kitted Land Raider and 7 new Leman Russ tanks, 3 Hellhounds, and 2 more Basilisks (with FW Medusa conversions). Fortunately almost all the Guard troops to go along with the tanks are just about done. I won't even get into my Warmachine and Hordes projects that rear up from time to time.
But I did acquire and complete a German Panzerspahkompanie (about 30 vehicles) this past week for a mid-war FoW game last Friday. I learned that you do not bring armored cars to a tank battle.
And I too fell into the Historicon 15mm medieval scene this summer - I got Mongols and Samurai plus all the laser cut bases from GF9. That's a project for this winter. Not to mention the Age of Sail British ships I have still in blisters. That'll be fun.
I try to spend at least 2 hours a night painting, 4 if my commute agrees with me (or I telecommute). I tend to blast through projects but even so I still get a back log.
I paint very slowly, mostly due to a lack of time (late evenings only), so I have a fair backlog.
I try and do little but often. Having a backlog (I think of it as a hobby treasure-chest, not a backlog) is much more manageable with this approach, I find.
One thing this post has made me want to do is compile a list of projects on my blog, so that I can get a clear idea of where I am and what remains to be done. I shall do this.
Warhammer is, unfortunately, the most fiscally painful thing that I do, seeing as how I am THE WORST impulsive buyer in the world when it comes to miniatures.
I still have a good 2000+ points of Space Marines to be painted/primed (and a few infantry who need assembling as well!), my set of AoBR Orks needs painting, all of my Genestealers from Space Hulk are still on their sprue and everything from the set needs painting/priming, and lastly I just picked up a box of Scouts to begin my next army.
My impulse shopping combined with classes means that I am not likely going to be catching up anytime soon.
Squirrel_Fish
I keep obsessive track of how many models I paint / buy and am continually breaking promises to myself to paint more than I buy.
Right now I've got 481 unpainted models in the pipe. Around 150 Empire, around 100 Daemons, about 150 LoTR (spread over basically every faction) and around 50 others (some Space Marines, some Mortal Chaos, some random figures).
Those totals don't include my half finished terrain and Hirst Arts projects.
Impulse control, how I miss you.
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