"How Big is Your Lead Mountain?" Topic

Currently I'm looking at about 600+ figures that need painting!

Right now I have no idea of how long it's going to take to get around to all of them, and yet I'm still adding to the pile! :D

How big is your pile?

What's your plans to get of all yours painted?

We live in a small place so it takes time to set up to paint, then paint, then clean everything up.

Any ideas for those of us, living in spaces.

Currently we are plannnig to move where I will have a room solely for gaming, but until then any ideas would be helpful.

My lead mountain is a couple units worth of 6mm Napoleonics. That's pretty much it for figures. I have a dozen bits of terrain I need to finish. I do have several piles of unpainted lead – they would probably all fit in one medium size box – but they are mostly leftovers from lot purchases at flea markets, or excess from packs (I need 4 and the pack has 8) – that kind of thing. I could fit the entire lot in a small suitcase.

As for living in a small space….if you can find a place for it, but a "computer armoire." It is like a desk/cabinet combo. But it closes up so when not in use it just looks like a nice cabinet. I used to use one (mostly so I could lock it away from our daughter).

They range in price from $150 USD to as much as you can spare…here is a picture of one:

Here is how they look closed up:

Don't know if this will help, but I also have limited space and use a "lazy susan" for baby food bottles to store my paint. I placed matboard on the flat surfaces for more storage space. All I have to do is pivot it for the paint I want. I also took an old plastic medicine bottle and put it in the center of the top to store my brushes.

mine is under control somewhat, I have about 50 SM 15mm civil war (love those guys) and about 500+ Crimean War, mostly French (all arms) and the entire Russian artillery arm. I fight off distractions daily, it took me a long time to weed thru the clutter crap and such to get it under control. thank the Lord for C&C Napoleonics, because that would add about 1200 pennisula war in 15mm if it were not for that. after CMW and ACW, am going to do Sudan in maybe 20mm? TSATF of course.

Lead (& plastic) mountain – is Everest like.

My plan is to paint what I can, then die and leave it as someone else's problem. (really need a weak wry smile, but a wink will have to do)

It'd be nice to get it down to from the current peak to about Everest Base Camp. I doubt it'll ever get to sea level.

I've probably got about
-500 28mm figures
-15 28mm vehicles
-10 large 28mm scale mecha
-110 10mm sci-fi units
-15 spaceships
-Many, many terrain projects.

Really no specific plan to get to it all, but I know that parts of it will get painted over time as move through various projects. I've got many years to paint and acquire and don't worry about it too much.

Unfortunately I don't have any good suggestions for storage. I've got an area the size of a very small room on the porch with all my various projects, finished and unfinished.

I'd venture to say its several thousand at this point. Much of it is just going to have to go.

Sold almost all of it off because it was too depressing to look at. Until you get your lead pile under control, my advice is to stop buying figures and to save your pennies so you can ship stuff off to be painted.

(Enter mob shouting "Heretic! Witch! Burn him!"

I'm right there with you 79thpa it's gets to be a bit overwhelming then it's not fun. I need to pare mine down so that it's fun again.

Let's just say, probably more than I can ever paint. I don't do the "let others paint them" thing. Just a sampling of scales:

10mm
15mm
20mm/1/72
25mm
28mm
54mm/1/32
1/35
Gave up on 6mm when I could not tell the difference between troop type and sold them.

Plastic, lead, resin, all of it.

I am very susceptible to "OOHHH shiny"!

I also have a wife who is a keeper. She enables me to buy. She even bought me a 2 storey building to work/play in. I know how lucky I have it. We all should have it so good.

I can see over the top of the lead pile……..to the endless slope of plastic…..I thought I had a good week last week, varnished and 'stored' some fifty odd 20 mm vehicles……started on some spaceships…….and another one arrived today!
The pile does change shape …..rarely shrinks!

All I do is 6mm Sci-fi … and it is pretty darn BIG !!!!!!!

Over a thousand across resin, metal and plastic. Did a big sell down a while ago, things were way out of hand, but kept those periods and scales I knew I'd only buy again.

For some reason have held on to the bulk of my terrain and scenics, find it hard to part with painted terrain but have happily sold of painted armies.

Also with 79thPA, best to stop buying more lead and focus on painting or getting painted what you have.

Put your stuff into storage till you have the space you need, and if find you don't miss it then you know you can sell it.

my dusty lead pile is a molehill not a mountain. I haven't counted it but probably only scores, not hundreds….

I measure mine in terms of time…probably 20+ years.

I forget, wasn't someone supposed to be setting up a wargamers retirement home so we could bring our collections and have this awesome game room?

hehehe. the guys in my wargaming club refer to my garage as the garage 'o lead. In addition I have 3 closets full of painted and unpainted figures and two full sets of bookshelfs filled with figure boxes. Hello, my name is Dave and I'm a wargame'oholic

I'm in the galvinm camp, less the 2 storey building.

Most of my miniatures are 28mm, and I have around the same quantity as I have painted – around 3000 I guess, but it could be more.
PLastic is a minority: one box of Victrix and two boxes of Wargames Factory.

And then around 1500 unpainted 15mm. And more comming, around 200 from a just finished kickstarter project.

I forgot mentioning that I also have a closte full of unpainted collector miniatures. Mostly unpainted Lord of the Rings stuff.
Some is dating back to the seventies (Heritage), but also some recent(ish) GW stuff.
And several hunderds of Mithril Miniatures.

But that's for collecting, so don't count in my lead pile!

Well, this week it got a bet higher – picked up some 15mm Sassanids of the Marketplace. Turned out to be a combo of Arabs and Sassanids, but at the price…

At any rate counting horses separately, not quite 700 figures of which 35 horses and an elephant were already painted (rather well). Productivity wise I got a triple DBA Early Arab army (43 camels and riders, 63 infantry) about half done.

But next week will be better…

I probably have three lifetime's worth(to paint).

Somewhere between 8-10k of 28mm metal plus about 500 hundred plastics. I need to par it down somewhat… especially as I have some KS turning up, Reaper II and Crocodile Games Amazons, amongst others.

If I had to guess I'd say the lead/plastic mountain is around 10,000-20,000. So far this year I've painted about 20. Everything from Armorcast Titans to microarmor.

And yes, I've started buying less and selling stuff off. For example, I now have WW2 in 15mm and 25mm, I sold the 20mm stuff.

I have a painting table permanently set up in the basement.

@Huscarle – I'm regrading my Everest to a Ben Nevis I think !

I can point at your post and say "See, there are people on TMP with worse piles of unpainted figures. By comparison I hardly merit a mention…."

Over a thousand easily. mostly 15mm, and the Bones KS stuff (and a new box due soon!). May need to "review" it soon

I probably have around 1000 all scales and eras.

Enough to give me cover from a small-yield tactical nuke – if I crouch.

I have about 100 figures for a new Battle of Puebla project. I have had them for about a month. I will get around to painting them mid-October once I move to my new house.

it's not a mountain it's an entire mountain range!

Mine was starting to get out of hand, so I had a good long look at it, and sold most of it on ebay. I had to be ruthless, or it would just get bigger….

Of course, now I have generated some funds, the ooh shiney has started all over again and parcels arrive every few days containing more stuff…..

Steve

If we just count lead then probably 1000 or so 15mm, perhaps 2,000, I don't count them.
Add in plastics and the number increases substantially.

Some of you guys are making me feel good about my mountain.

About 15,000 15mm figures, with another 2,000 due from an ancients kickstarter in a couple of months.

I have to stop buying more, as my painter can only do about 1,000 a year for me.

Well. Ouch.

If I paint a mini a day, and only count those minis I plan to actually paint, I am looking to around 10 years of painting.

Small problem: The number I plan to paint is a minority of my heap, and currently I do not manage one mini per week…

I should not have answered this one…

Several hundred figures, and that's just for the WW2 Soviets. Got that many more FJ, and that many more again Panzer Lehr PzGren. Plus Brit 8th Army and Omaha Beach Americans. Plus some various platoons, Bersaglieri and DAK PzGren.

Vietnam I have 7 UH1Ds, 2x UH1Bs, 2x AH1Gs, 2x OH6s, plus one crashed OH6 for an objective. Should have at least two platoons of American infantry, and that doesn't count the tracks. 3 Sheridans and 4 M113s, I think.

Platoons for almost everything scifi.

And probably 500 1890s NWF Brits, plus Baluchis and Pathans.

A lead mountain isn't fun, for me it's a huge pile of guilt and frustration. I like to have some bits and pieces in the pipeline, so there's always something I can do without it feeling like a burden.
Though I am in the happy position of only needing [I use the word very loosely] a few extras for my core interests.

Plastic rather than lead….probably close to 1k figures.

To me – it doesn't matter – it is part of the hobby. If I see a new set of figures I like, then I will buy them. EG Victrix new Roman sets – I'll buy them despite the fact I have enough figures to keep me going for years. However, if I do buy a new set I always test paint a couple of figures regardless of what project I am in the middle of.

My metal pile alone is 2x2x2 feet. But it's not waiting to be painted 'cause it's not meant to be…. ;-) (Collectible stuff, you know)

I recently discovered that I still have a lot of 28mm figures to get rid of, about 300-350 in various stages, from unpainted to nearly finished.

As for my 15mm collection, it stands at about 500 so far, with only very few of those painted.

My available space is very limited, so I definitely need to get rid of most of my 28mm, with the exception of a few choice pieces.

Dan

I'd rather not think about it.

Hundreds of metal, hundreds of plastics.

I have 4 different painters, that I send hundreds of figures to at a time, painting for me. And I still could commit suicide by jumping off my lead pile.

The Over-Under is probably around 8 thousand or so.

I have over 200 miniatures to paint for other people on my table right now. I have between 5000 & 8000 to paint for myself. (That number includes over 2000 6mm alone.) I have all genres and sizes. But then I have been painting/collecting miniatures since 1980.

The only time my wife thought about divorcing me was when she came into the painting room during an inventory. I have about 20 large plastic tote boxes full of miniatures. Even-though I explained that we could use them to line our basement during a nuclear war to reduce radiation exposure or build a small shelter in the aftermath of a natural disaster…it still caused her some serious consternation and questions as to whether miniature hoarding is a physical or mental issue. I don't inventory anymore.

Wow, I don't feel as bad as I did now, I did get an computer armoire of sorts just for painting and such but the wife took it over and of all thinks she's using if for a computer go figure, so selling any off any would just mean at some time I would just end up buying them over again and as far as slow down my buying, let me think about that,

mmmmmmmm

No!

Hello my name is Doug and I'm addicted to lead.

Mine is not that bad, but only because it's mostly 6mm minis.

Doug

At one point 34 pounds, or 15.5kg.

I know because I put them all in a box and weighed them before giving them to my local gaming store.

around 1000 or so…

50% 15mm Napoleonics
25% 15mm WW II vehicles
25% 15mm WW II personnel

Mike

LOL About 6 spaceships at present.

Then again, I'm out of work and it's been one hell of a year.

Wow, reading this thread has been good therapy. I suddenly feel a bit better about myself and my situation.

I think my mountain is still quite modest and I try to keep it like that ;).

There will be around 360 15mm coming up via the War and Empire Kickstarter and I have another hundred still lying around waiting to be painted.

Then we have around 200 28mm Bones miniatures and a select few metal miniatures.

What I would like to add to this is a full contigent of Reichsarmee Eureka SYW stuff, so about another 200 minis or so.

I'm more concerned about my resin mountain than the lead one…

From boy wundyr x "I forget, wasn't someone supposed to be setting up a wargamers retirement home so we could bring our collections and have this awesome game room?"

Excellent, how do I book my place??

I now have a "to sell box". It's big, but compared to the other boxes of toy soldiers it's like a needle in a haystack…