Chatter Behind The Bike Sheds - Getting It Done?

Reinforcements for the Lead Mountain?

Obviously this post HAS to be about that thing of beauty, The Lead Pile, it sometimes acts as a stimulant, sometimes it drowns the unwary. Mostly it just pisses off the wife ;-)

I am not sure if anyone really understands what drives us to buy more and more whilst other projects remain half finished or even not yet started.

Often we blame being unable to hold onto one thing at a time and that projects that are really large loose impetus and become a bind. These both are true in many cases but I wonder if in fact it's a useful excuse rather than a reason.

What if the true reason is that we simply have more money to spend on our hobby than we have time or interest in painting up? What if we actually tried to only buy at the speed of our painting, maybe just for one year?

Of course this could be a disaster, one main reason for going to shows is the chance to buy all the things we want including more and more lead/resin/plastic. I have to admit buying is a lesser reason to go to the show's. It's obviously the company, those I travel with, as well as those I meet at the show.

But keeping with the horror idea of not increasing the lead pile, lets go further whilst I have you. How about NOT buying figures for a year but still drawing the money you would have spent on figures etc. and instead spending it on

1. Terrain and Buildings. This is for the ones playing on the same old table they have for the past 20 plus years. Look at the hills, roads houses etc. If your using the same five buildings over four periods why not consider such a move. With all the cheaper but more realistic options now available in all scales it could be what you need just to make your old armies just that bit better.

2. Rules and Old Armies. So many armies are sitting unloved and unplayed since that last game where finally the rules drove you nuts or you simply got fed up of the same old same old. Well most modern rules bring a new flavour to the game and new mechanic's that make playing the game so much more fun and/or challenging. Better still if it's Biblical through Medieval and you based for DBA/M then in most cases no rebasing is required. Ok you may want to run a ink wash over your figures and tart up the bases but if you test drove some new rules you may well find the fire rekindled enough to make that a pleasure not a chore. Warning, it could lead to buying new figures to flesh out new options or larger number of figures allowed for that troop type.

3. Painting Service. There I said it. For some reason many of us hate them, well hate the idea of using them ourselves. One good reason is getting the painting service to match your style and skill. Well in today's world with the internet it's so much easier than it ever was. Another issue is pride and expense, so often rolled nto one I include them together. Some how you failed if you use a painting service and worse still your paying good money to feel said failure. Well that may have been a good argument when we had the time to paint and not the spare cash to pay for someone else to do it but for many of us the cost is not such a burden but time really is. What is worse, spending money on piles of figures that IF they do get painted just means lots of others never will. Or diverting that money to getting some of those figures that have not made it to your desk but ARE still wanted to being painted? Don't get them based, do that yourself, it's amazing how much that contributes to making the figures look like the rest of the army.

So how about you all looking at your mountain and I mean looking at it and considering one or more of the options above. I think in the next few weeks I will pull out and list all the figures I have in the pile and predict their future on this blog, dare you do the same on yours?

Relevant to this, next weekend will be Triples at Sheffield. I plan to pick up a Baccus order of the new cavalry I have yet to buy and if all goes well other new French figures which will find their way to the desk PDQ. I have a cunning plan, each month I plan to paint up at least three Battalions of French, Three of Prussian, some cavalry or Artillery and at least one Zulu Regiment all in 6mm until I have all the Waterloo stuff finished and get to Matt the last of his Zulu's, Not at all happy I have not got moving on them so they take a seat up front till they are done. 

On top of that I plan the odd fantasy figure for the campaign and finish off a couple of Sniper Reminder bases part done. After that I will try and get more Snipers done to fund further purchases and get the Winter War started again to get some cash in as well as paint up to keep.

Still on the list but sliding down is the Roman's, by the World's I want to have painted up enough to justify buying more but I think that's a bit hopeful. The cowboys need painting up as I think Lee will be wanting another go at it soon and why not.

One last thing, I don't plan on buying more than I paint once I have these new Baccus in hand, though to be fair I have actually painted a lot more 6mm than bought in the last five months so feel fairly good on that score.