"How Big is Your Lead Mountain?" Topic

7 filing cabinets full.

Thousands of unpainted plastics but I never intended to paint all of them. However I have limited space so I imagine some will have to be sold off at some point or hopefully exchanged. I would rather not just dump unwanted figs in the trash although I'm sure people have done it on occasion. When I started amassing figs the largest amount were Napoleonic because I wanted to collect armies from most of the nations involved in that period. I know realize that I will probably only be able to paint 3-4 large armies. Mostly Italeri, Zvezda & Hat figs. Will have a lot of surplus figs but I also like to set up unpainted armies as well – a nostalgic/ childhood thing. Still will have a surplus though.
I may try to foist some off on my wargaming buddies and they can do what they want with them. That would make me feel better than just turfing a pile of plastic.

Ah, l feel a bit better now that I've written it out!

Pete

Speaking of storage is it possible to store painted, varnished or even unvarnished figs in boxes without having the paint chip off. I don't mean just chucking the figs in a box but carefully so as to avoid paint damage. I have large flat plastic tubs and I would like to store painted armies in these as I have limited shelf space. Thoughts?

Pete

Metallic paper on the bottom of the tub and magnetic base bottoms on the minis. Potentially expensive but probably the best way.

Or the other way around coin or washer metallic bases and magnetic sheet in the boxes/drawers.

I use washers and magnetic stripes on the bottom to hold all my figures in place.

Tsk Tsk Tsk

You are getting off topic – this thread isn't about managing your painted figures, it is about confessing your problems (like hoarding shows on TV)

My issue is not the absolute size of my lead mountain (and plastic rift valley and paint lake) but the rate at which it has grown in the last two years

John

Perhaps, but I figure having too many figs and how to store them kind of go hand in hand. However, I could be mistaken.
Thanks to those who provided suggestions.

Pete

7 filing cabinets full!

Geez I better get hopping I feel like such a slacker.

P.S. I just got a hold of "a" filing cabinet today as a matter of fact but I was going to use it for things like rules I printed off and other paper things.

This year I've been pretty productive (for me). I've finished painting 64 figures! My 14 year old has painted 24 himself. But I also bought 119 new figures during the year.

So far year-to-date, the lead pile is winning by +31. Maybe by the end of the year I can break even or pull ahead???

Then there is the other problem……..Many figs I painted from the 70's, 80's, and 90's sitting around. I KNOW I can do a better job now so want to touch them up, wash them, and do more detail work. SOOOOO….work on the mountain of painted stuff or dig into the mountains of unpainted stuff???

Out of a about 800 figures I have managed to paint a grand total of….

20! So far this year

200 figures painted so far this year.
About 100 bought.

Hey War Monkey! What's the latest on Barge Town?

Too. Damn. Big.

Must disappear family so I can have a chance to paint….

Angry Piper
I haven't had much time to work on it much like my painting efforts, darn four letter words have been getting in the way and they are "work" and "life"!!

I did get another board for making more barges, it's a 1x6 and will be cut down to 12 inches. The others I have cut are 1x4 cut to 12 inches already.

I've been through 4 new phases so far(!) this year, Neil Thomas's Napoleonic's (in 1/72), Airfix Battles (also in 1:72), BF's Tanks! (15mm) and Beyond the gates of Antares (28mm).

I must have brought hundreds of figures and dozens of vehicles.

Some are assembled, no more than a handful base sprayed.

I keep telling myself – "Buy no more! – base and paint what you've got…" but new systems or books / films just keep dragging me in new directions.

It's like having a bloody addiction

Furgie

Right now I am working on terrain mountain- I keep buying static grass and MDF terrain.

I keep my finished figures in smaller boxes but need more as many units have no barracks to call home.
As for unfinished I have never gotten to far ahead in buying and usually finish or close to it before getting more.

I cheat. My Lead mountain tends to be 'in potentia', as I don't like to have too much on hand because of the money it represents. So while I have 50-70 10mm ECW infantry to paint (I have about 600 painted, mostly by the previous owner!), I actually need to throw about another £70.00 GBP or so at Leon at Pendraken to actually have enough figures.

Likewise I have enough Yanks for a basic Charlie don't surf force undercoated (green, to make it easier), I don't have any VC.

I have 50? 10mm ACW part painted to go with the 400 a side I already have, but need maybe 100 per side more, and more cavalry (not much) and a few more guns.

I need more 2mm Cav for the both sides, and more Russian Infantry for LGG, but have been put off by Irregular not having a pay-online system (you email them, they tell you what to pay-pal them)

I have 12 Horse and 36 foot of Perry's WotR left (I've painted 108 foot over the last 2 years)

And I should make a decision on my 28mm Napoleonics, I have a British infantry force playable, but only 24 French!

A dozen true 25mm ECW cavalry would be handy as well.

Oh, I do have most of a Warmaster Elf Army on my hillock too.

As to painting for quick packing I use a Really Useful Box with 2 hobby trays and a stationary tray that hangs over them.

The bottom tray holds the 'WiP' stuff. The stationary tray is supported by the box, so I don't need the 2nd layer, which gives room for the paint pots, and also a gap for sprues for unclipped plastics. Reference papers/flags etc can be put under the bottom layer.

I can have the whole thing tidied up in 5 minutes, all into a secure strong box. For reference the box is a 9 litre one, so A4 size, and would hold 2 packs of printer paper.

Lead pile is still huge, just much more painted. Unfortunatley I ran into all the threads on LAF about converting the current plastic sets and have been hard at that for the last year. Was really putting a dent into my 10mm OG Napoleonics before that. Now, not so much. OTOH, I do have a lot more finished Dark Ages figures painted. About 500-600 this past year. If only I could focus on one thing at a time….OOOH, Conan kickstarter has arrived!

Reduced the mountain to nothing at all…now that SWMBO has taken to painting her figures herself (and who can blame her having seen my efforts) there is a modest molehill of unpainted figures – currently Indian Mutiny – but it's not my responsibility, so that's OK.

Several years ago I had my own "come to Jesus moment". Too much stuff and no gaming partners. I had glass cabinets full of stuff and perhaps two dozen bankers boxes full of painted models as well, plus heaps of 28mm scale terrain. My spending was out of control. So over the last 3 years I sold 8 Warhammer/40K armies and terrain, netting me roughly $28,000 USD (they were all huge). I then converted my hobby into 15mm sci fi exclusively. I still have five painted Warhammer armies left which I often consider selling. However when I look at them I think, "maybe, just maybe I will use them one day." I should probably sell them, net 8-9K and call 28mm scale a day.

Sadly I have never played a 15mm game in my life (due to a lack of interest by other gamers). In the last two years I have painted roughly 1000 infantry, 110 vehicles, 110 Battletech mechs, 40 15mm buildings and 30 6mm buildings, figuring someday I will get a chance to play. As to WIP, I try to keep my pile of unpainted figures quite low. I tend to paint whole armies at once and become quite single minded once I start. This does not go over well with the wife. My current WIP is about 100 GZG 15mm figures, scheduled for painting the week after Christmas. I also have 31 full boxes of Dwarven Forge dungeon tiles I bought 12 years ago. Used them 3 times. I wish I could unload them. I have them hidden away since when I look at them all I see is wasted money. A lot of it!

My leadpile doesnt usually have chance to take over the world- I'm usualy skint so can't buy any, and hate un painted figures, so the ones I do get tend to get painted very quickly.

Recently though it has been building up a little, thanks to overtime (more money but less free time) at work, and having several ongoing projects at once; there must be nearly 400 28mm figs, and many 15mm/6mm figs as well waiting for attention. The overtimes run out now though so the pile will probably not last long!

My plan for after my demise is to will the mountain to my kids if they want their inheritance their going to have to dig through the MOUNTAIN!

First rule of the lead mountain, we do not talk about the lead mountain. Second rule of the lead……….. :D

I collect plastic toy tanks and have about 3K not including plastic toy soldiers and artillery and trucks

Yup, those count!

I just added a little more to the mountain myself.

I have a plan and I'm sticking to it. I flocked & applied magnetic tape to every MDF base I had in the house.They went into slim A4 box files,those hold 35-70 bases each. The box files number 36 so roughly 2000 bases and 28 of those box files are full of based figures.
No more figures,bases or box files will be bought.

I mostly do 2mm Ancients so the lead pile isn't that big.

Yeah so I have a week off from work coming up at the end of the month and I too have a plan to whittle down the lead mountain some.

You just made me check on my lead mountain.. On a rough count, I arrive at close to two thousand unpainted models. But still, I feel this number is kind of inflated; there's a hundred plastic Celts that I don't think I'll ever get around to paint. Almost two hundred Reaper Bones that I refuse to feel guilty about not painting. All in all it's probably closter to 500 minis that I really *want* to paint right now.

I just don't know will it be worth the effort and hassle of selling some of the least wanted compared with just leaving them at the bottom of the pile…

Where do you sell yours (if you do)? ebay? local newspaper? I've never sold a single one yet, so maybe I'll have to experiment…

Nnnnooooooooooooooo! Don't sell you'll just end up re-buying them again down the road for the project you originally started and bought them in the first place..

Literally over a ton of lead
When we moved to NY from Indiana my wife's company did the moving for us and had to weigh my hobby stuff -
I actually have over 1 ton of lead (painted and unpainted )
Somehow I feel proud .

If I retired tomorrow (wishful thinking)and painted every day I could possibly move the lead and plastic and resin mountain into nice display cabinets in about a year. Maybe. As I had completely filled my office, the top of the wardrobes, the inside of the spare wardrobe, and finally the loft with painted figures and terrain I decided it was time to invest in a Man Cave (large garden shed) and move everything outside to give me room to breathe.Unfortunately this seems to have created a vacuum in my office which has sucked in boxes of Perry plastics, Perry metals, Battlefront vehicles, Baccus figures and Total Battle terrain which now fill everywhere, including invading the drawers in one of my desks, and I'm pretty much back where I started apart from the fact that before everything in here was painted whereas now it isn't. Oh there is one small gain in that the wardrobes and loft are now pretty much empty, but on the flip side the shed is now pretty much full and I need a bigger/another one.

Wow! a ton of lead mountain!

and you Sir a shed full of lead!

Gentlemen I bow down to you.

I am proud to announce after passing through the wargaming abyss I have come out the other side.

I have my unpainted minis. down to a few hundred, which I am now systematically going through and finishing in order of preference. Within the next six months my unpainted mini. count will be ZERO. I have consolidated, sold off, and organized my gaming world into a single dedicated room where I can actually have a permanent table set up, with a full stock of terrain for several different seasons of the year, but it's a small enough collection to all be stored under a 4 x 6 table.

My entire mini. collection now consists of five Warhammer armies, two AWI historical armies, and some display minis. from GW's The Hobbit movie range.

I also have a small collection of 50 or so minis. for Frostgrave games, along with a small amount of winter terrain.

My wargaming world has never been so organized and so minimized, and I have never been happier!

It was a huge addiction for the longest time, trying to do five different historical periods EACH in 28mm, 15mm, 6mm, AND do 28mm fantasy. I had rooms and closets stuffed with unpainted and unbuilt kits, it caused more anxiety and stress than I was getting fun out of it, not to mention getting into some serious debt buying things that I was doing nothing but cataloging and putting away, never to see the light of day.

Picking ONE historical time period to game was a huge step in overcoming my addiction. And having only ONE primary set of fantasy armies was another huge step.

I am able to display a good portion at any one time of what I have painted. Two IKEA tower display cases and that's the extent of it.

I cannot tell you the sense of freedom I have now, since I faced my addiction head on and made some hard decisions about what I really wanted out of my hobby. I finally learned to enjoy what I have and I have the added benefit and peace of mind of feeling SATISFIED, there isn't a constant stress and anxiety of what to look out for to buy next. That's because for me there isn't anything to buy next, outisde of actual supplies and paints, etc.

Essentially, I HAVE all of my favorite wargaming needs covered. I can play fantasy games with any ruleset I want and I can play 28mm AWI with any ruleset I want. Keeping it at just that has allowed me to actually enjoy what I have in the hear and now.

Our consumer culture viciously fuels that anxiety, there is ALWAYS the "next thing to buy", and they want us to worry about it and want us to be buried under our own mountains of stuff.

Whether it's clothes, console gaming, stamp collecting, antiques, or whatever, they can all become burdens when they should be assets into our lives. I refused to be another consumer with that packed garage and cellar of "god knows what". My garage is for my car, not for "god knows what". My god knows what is now sold, thrown away, cast into the junk yard. Gone!!!

I simply said enough. I am truly happier for it.

Well done Baranovich, that was a good effort.

I'm the opposite of Baranovich I'm afraid, in terms of periods played – slowly, imperceptibly I seem to get into something new until looking back over 20 years I have 30-odd armies in about 17 different "periods" (though some period do overlap eg Skirmish and Big scale games in the same era) :(

What I have tried to do is buy nothing new until I've worked off all the lead/plastic/resin still in the boxes. It's sort of working in that the pile is reducing – though oddly I find I just have to buy new stuff to reinforce existing armies :)

About a decade ago, I walked into my local gaming shop and the owner told me he had an estate sale: A guy got an ultimatum from his wife and brought several big boxes of unpainted miniatures in for sale. Many vintage Grenadier, Citadel and Ral Partha.

I loved them and made a successful bid on the entire lot. It slowly dawned on me that I had many of the same miniatures, at home, in boxes, unpainted. The only differences between me and that guy? I had more storage space, higher income and an understanding partner. I have worked hard to paint both sets.

I got back into wargaming about 3 years ago after a 30 year break. My mate carried on during this time and has amassed 1000's of figures. I'm now playing catch up over a few periods. Mainly Napoleonic, Wars of the Roses, VBCW, Colonial and ECW. I've got around 300 figures left to do (so far) I seem to paint 10 and buy 20. I just can't resist a shiney thing. Oh I forgot the 15mm WW2 FOW/Blitzkreig stuff, mainly finished thanks to lots of Blu Tack and an airbrush.

You lot are clearly all bonkers. £28,000.00 GBP worth of figures OMG!

I only got back in to wargamming last year with a strict policy of only buying the next set of figures once I've fully painted the previous lot. I tend to buy £60.00 GBP worth of stuff at a time(free postage) and buy the next lot when I'm down to my last battalion. It keeps things fresh and I keep changing my mind what I want so I cant buy to far ahead anyway. I have painted everything* I bought up to about 1 month ago and I'm working on those figures now.

*caveat – Except some greek hoplites which I'll probably never paint because I bought them on a whim because they were cheap. (Hmm – this invalidates my entire post )

Incidentally this thread made me re-look at my lead mountain, and I can honestly report Great Success – it's down to two totally unpainted armies (28mm Sicilian Norman and 15mm Venetian, since you ask ;) ) and two half-armies (need to buy the rest to complete), so about 400 figs with another c 200 needed. Also about another 100 as "last few units" for various forces-in-being.

Now, as to my newer, bigger plastic & resin pile that seems to have grown from nowhere….

My lead pile has increased since my last post three years ago. Just goes to show older doesn't mean wiser!

Let's see …

Several hundred 6mm GNW figures for a project that never got started as my intended opponent moved away. I don't really expect this to ever see paint.

A couple hundred 15mm ancients and medievals for various armies. Most of these should eventually see paint.

A few dozen 15mm GNW figures I was given by someone who'd despaired of ever painting them. May perhaps see paint if the local GNW expert gets serious about gaming the period again.

A dozen or two 28mm figures. About half should see paint in the foreseeable future, the rest are promotionals and freebies that most likely never will.

So all in all I think it's probably in the high triple digits. Over half are unlikely to ever see paint, largely on account of the 6mm ones.

I've got lead and painted lead. 28s and a few 40s. How about 50 of you guys buying it? LOL!

when you count your unpainted minis, do you include the ones the cat knocked off the table that you can't find no matter how long you look?

Still working on it,with the addition of FoW figures and vehicles to my pile,mixing some plastics in there also.

Too much!
Almost everything I have is in 28mm, except some WW2/WW1 aircraft in 15mm, or 1/200 or 1/144.

Quality painted 2500 or so figures mostly WW2 being over half with over 100 painted vehicles, and about 700 painted AWI, with Old West or ACW skirmish, a smattering of Viet Nam, Modern Middle Eastern, and a combined army of Ancient Greece.

Waiting to paint, about 25 early war (France '40, or Poland '39) tanks, Winter or Continuation War Finns for a reinforced Platoon with support, a bunch of Italian Bersaglieri Support to round out about 50 North African DAK, and some early war Marines in 28mm for a Wake Island project for Platoon sized units.

I have enough buildings and terrain to cover a wargaming table for any theatre of operations, and recently finished a custom 10 x 6 table with storage underneath.

It has crossed my mind to sell it all off and do 15mm instead. As I get older, I paint less, focusing, and preparing more terrain, and less figures, which seem to get sent out to get painted more often, instead of doing it myself.

This is 20 years of collecting. I was big into 20mm and 15mm years ago, but sold it all off, and invested the money in 28mm.

or should I just sell it all, so I can start all over with 15mm and take up half the space.

I just wanted to be post 200 🤓

Lead pile isn't any smaller.