"One 40 year olds tale of trimming the fat...." Topic

41 to be exact, and not speaking about a new exercise routine (though I need one of those too!).

Starting last year I came to the realization that I had not finished a miniatures project since my 20's when I completed several 40k armies.

When I got rid of the 40k minis and settled into historical gaming. I began collecting minis and rules for MANY periods and many scales. But never once did I collect and paint 2 armies (as a solo gamer!) to completion.

I did at one point purchase 4 15mm medieval armies but alas never got around to gaming with them and sold them.

Last year I took stock of the mess that was my "War Room" and its "gaming table" which had never seen a game played on it since moving into my home (9 years ago).

After having sold off the lions share of my my miniatures I still lacked a focus as to direction for my numerous "projects" (my adult ADD at work no doubt!).

So, as of last night I sat down and wrote out my top 15 projects I would like to wargame (believe me, it was difficult to get down to 15!).

I then divided my projects into categories to see where I was with each project as follows:

Have I picked rules for the battle/period?
Have I selected miniatures for the battle?
Have I purchased battles for the battle?
Have I "prepped" minis for the project (cleaning, priming, etc…)
Have I begun painting & basing minis for the project (each project that made it this far I assigned a % of how much of the overall project, including terrain, was finished).

I then took the 10 projects with the most figures finished and itemized them in terms of priority. Those with the most finished = highest priority, those with less figures finished = lower priority.

I then decided I would list the top 10 projects for me to work on based on priority. I decided I would not allow myself to purchase minis for a project that landed in 6-10 in priority until I had finished one of the top 5. I was actually please with the results of my little graph, and "yes" I would probably never have gotten anything done if I hadn't sat down and sketched it out.

Heres the final results of my top ten priority list, #1 being the current closest to being finished and therefore highest on my priority list (where their is a battle or conflict listed I am painting both sides of the conflict!):

#1) Nagakute 1584,15mm minis link
#2) Barnet 1571, 15mm minis link
#3) Company level Battle for Terra 30k, 28mm mimis link
#4) Multi-Legion level Battle for Terra 30k, 6mm minis
#5) Bosworth 1485, 28mm minis, link
#6) Yi Dynasty Koreans for Hideyoshi's Invasion 1592-1598, 15mm minis, link
#7) FPW Sedan Campaign 1870, 10mm minis, link
#8) Sekigahara 1600, 10mm minis, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sekigahara
#9) Towton 1461, 10mm minis, link
#10) Plancenoit 1815, 10mm minis, link

And there you have it! Other battles from my top 15 that didnt make my "Top Ten" projects but I have decided to keep the minis (in case I get wealthy and can afford to have them painted for me) are:

WWI 1914 Eastern Front (10mm Austrians & Russians in Galacia),
Dunbar 1650, 28mm minis,
15mm Ming for the above listed Korean Invasion,
Flodden 1513, Will use my 15mm or 28mm WotR figures for the English,
15mm Aztecs Project (waiting for 15mm Huaxtecs to be produced),
Anglo-Zulu War in 28mm.

So there you have it. The top ten projects alone will probably last me well into my 50's, and by then I'm sure I'll have some new favorite ideas!

I'm about to do a similar exercise, closely followed by a small slurry of "final" purchases. 8-)

I'm still selling off some of the fat at TMP and on Ebay:
TMP link

So at least my "final" slurry is being paid for in advance by Paypal slush funds, rather than by grocery/lighting money!

I am about to do the same thing, but not by my choice.

Started clearing out items I will not get to anytime soon last week.

While mine was technically my choice, the economy and my wife were strong influences to get organized!

Man, I can't get over how similar we think Uesugi. I've been considering doing what you have (organizationally speaking)… and oddly there's a lot of overlap in interest too.

I know I need to do this but it saddens me to think of cutting down my miniatures collection.

Cool, good of you to inventory what you have and what you have to finish. I too have too large an inventory of items to finish, but I have a different solution. I purchased a Warhammer Fantasy Empire army which I will most likely never finish – so I am turning it over to my son to have fun with. I never really got into the game as the rules were always a bit wonky and something I didn't enjoy. Too many "super units" flying around the board destroying all in their path. Made the game no fun for me – points do not equal points when some of them are "super points" under the rules. Chaos knights, High Elves, Vampire Counts leading the offender lists for my personal taste. So, technically I am cutting my collection, but I am starting someone else's collection – I hope my kids enjoy the figures!

"and oddly there's a lot of overlap in interest too."

Sick minds think alike ;-)

"so I am turning it over to my son to have fun with"

Bravo! Good one on you! I have been considering doing the same for my 11 year old nephew who got his interest in gaming and minis from his Uncle Kenshin. The only prob is he is WWII crazy at the moment and I have no such minis to dole out!

Well done, your statement " I had not finished a miniatures project since my 20's " probably applies to more people here than they'd care to admit.

But I notice you are doing Wars of the Roses in three different scales? Sounds like you haven't quite beaten the ADD monster yet, my friend!

Now I do have those 3 different scales in my top 10 because they were 3 of the more "completed" projects at the time of my graph making….but yeah, Ive given Samurai and WotR special treatment in my "new order" too, lol.

What can I say? WotR are the reason I first walked into a game store to buy minis ( I had bought games there before, but never minis) when I was about 16 years old. It was all because of my love for the boardgame "Kingmaker". I thought, "Well that would be even more fun with toy soldiers!" Th hobby shop didnt even carry historical minis at the time, just D&D. But they gave me a catalog for a tiny British company called "Essex". And so "it" started.

Once in college and having seen the movie "Ran", I fell in love with all things samurai.

So yes, I will never probably totally defeat the ADD, but WotR and Samurai are my two guilty pleasures even my wife understands and appreciates. Those two will never go away (or the wife, hopefully!).

One of the rather cheeky (and ingenious, if I do say so!) things Ive done with my 15mm samurai is to NOT place back banners on all the samurai for the specific clans at Nagakute. Instead, I have simply made a single banner-bearer with the correct "mon" for each unit in each army. The banner-bearer is then placed behind the appropriate unit to indicate who it is (but it is not permenently attached to any of the units bases).

That way, when Im done gaming my Nagakute project and its time to move on to my next historical samurai battle, I neither have to paint all new minis nor repaint the back banners. I just paint up enough new banner bearers for each unit in the new battle.

The armies might suffer a bit aesthetically speaking, but its a great way to reuse the minis for multiple battles while still being able to incorporate the correct heraldry (ie. Mon). It also saves alot o' cash, which is one of my main goals from here on out!

Thanks for the comments.

PS. While IM cleaning out and getting rid of lots of unfinished projects, that doesnt mean YOU have to! So help me get rid of some of mine:
auction

I need all the help I can get ;-)

As a 50+ all I can say, don't worry about it you'll get over it.

The day I finish a project is the day they put me in the ground.

Then may you never finish a project my friend!

;-)

I sold off my entire collection in a "fit" of frustration after years of stumbling around failing to meet expectations and finishing projects. I intended at that point to just start from scratch, with a different, more mature, and measured attitude.

A year has passed and I havent even purchased a miniature, instead spending what little gaming time I can muster in the occasional boardgame. Im not sure now if Ill ever go back.

Maybe it pays to start late. I didn't start miniatures until I was 45 though I have played wargames since I was 12. I have focused on WW II and vietnam 15mm on land and 1/300 WW II in the air for the last 3 years. Yet to buy something I haven't used though my Finnish army is on the back burner. Rules on the other hand…

Joe