"Projects you've been working on for too many years?" Topic

I came up with the idea of making a mini's game out of an old (1977…) role-playing module. I've been quietly, s-l-o-w-l-y, working to gather all the items needed to pull it off, since around the late 1990's! That's when I found the rules set to pull it off with, but the idea was actually born in the early 1980's when I ran the modules for my gaming group -- back then miniatures were out of my teenaged, financial reach… I've gathered all of the figures that I need, and now I am working on putting together all of the terrain pieces I need for it.

I had hoped to put it all together, and run the series of three consecutive games, more than two years ago. I have the small, local convention venue picked out, and scoped out, to verify it would be a good game for their attendants, and me.

I am now working on making the modular terrain pieces for it, which will be re-hashed through all three modules. I've had the figures needed, fully painted, mounted, and ready to use, for a few years now. The terrain really slowed me down, as I had the final concept figured out a couple of years ago, but it is taking much longer than I had planned. The good thing is that I've improved the techniques for the terrain pieces considerably, without adding too much effort, and time (the first approach proved unworkable, so it was back to the drawing board for many months, until I came across some new techniques on another forum…). Work is progressing, and I realistically feel I might be ready to play-test it come Summer of 2015.

How many of you have gaming projects which you've been slowly chipping away at for many years? I know I can't be the only (lonely) one?… Cheers!

All of them?

I'm very slow about this stuff, though I haven't reached that far back as 1977.

I still need to:

Finish painting my Ogre GEV metals I collected circa 1995.
Finish my ScanFed fleet I bought several years ago.
Tweak GOBS! for a much needed, long awaited revamp.
Put together and paint my forces for Helm's Deep… And create the terrain.
Make my version of The Lonely Mountain for a big Battle of Five Armies. (At least the figs are all painted and based, as are the key terrain pieces; the mountain would really just be for show).

The list goes on and on…

I had quite a few, then I sold them off. I still have a few boxes of Axis and Allies ships, as well as boxes of planes from their air combat game that I haven't done anything with yet, but, overall, I have been very successful in getting rid of those things that I will never really get to. At least it sounds like you are actually doing something with your project.

Sedan chair racing.
Jacobite rebellion.
Leonardo da Vinci.

I can't continue. Too depressing.

I've been writing my own WW2 naval rules for the past years now. Long time of writing, rewriting, adding stuff and starting all over again.

I actually got a working test-version only last month. And to my surprise it worked very well on the first playtests.

So finally a bit of result after a sloooooow process

Really there are only two that haven't gotten far enough to put on a convention game with them for years.

The first one is War of Spanish Succession. I did this in 28mm at first. Once I got enough figures to play a game I realized that doing it in 28mm the way I want to do it is impossible and sold all of it. Then started over again in 10mm about a year ago. I have enough stuff to do the Battle of Boyne now (with inaccurate but close figures) but am still pretty far away from being able to do any of Marlborough's big four.

Crimean War. I've been working on this in 10mm for a couple of years now. I have a sizeable host of Russians for a Balaclava game but still have not finished the British or the Turks. I have two units left for the heavy brigade and one for the light. I have the infantry for the Brits. I also have no French cavalry yet either.

I do still need a bunch more Russians, mostly cavalry and artillery. I could use more infantry but not as much, I could probably get by with what I have by recycling a few units as needed.

Very little is actually "complete" I did just finish my second unit of FFL lancers for my Carlist War stuff so now I can do every battle of that war with 16 figure infantry units and 6 figure cavalry units, so now I need to make them 24 figure infantry units and 8 figure cavalry units.

I really can't list them all, but here is the short list.
15mm Sci Fi. A continuous battle to paint up what I have with out buying anything new. Did much better this year. I think I only bought one thing.

25mm Space 1889 A group of us have been playing TSATF on Mars for many years. I have lots of half painted figures for this. Along with vehicles and ships that need to be converted.

Micro Armor Both modern and WWII, I have a bunch down ( this is my 2nd oldest project) but I keep buying more. At least I put a modern game on last year.

DBA I have upwards of 30 armies that are unpainted. Some day…..

Spacecraft. I took all my Star Fleet Battles ships, (my oldest gaming endeavor from 79) re-primed them, bought more which doubled what I already had. Bought decals and paint. Also have 5 fleets of Full Thrust ships that are primed waiting for base coat. One which has its base coat. Total of at least 400 ships.

Lucky for me my Holiday break starts tonight. Once I am done with the holiday visits on Tuesday night, I will be able to clean up the work area in the basement. build my airbrush booth and start painting.

Well maybe after I paint some more 28mm for Lion Rampant. :)

A long time ago I became fascinated with the "Renaissance"/"Pike and Shot" period. Primarily the 16th century, but also the TYW and ECW. The main motivator was Charles Oman's "History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century"; not the most accurate of books, but a great motivator.

So, since the mid 70s the sixteenth century has been my thing, and I have always planned to "do" the whole period, from the Italian Wars to the Dutch Rebellion. Of course, life, family, houses, other distractions, all got in the way and it has been half baked at best. Sometimes I have got the Italian Wars stuff under way, and other times I have bought bits and pieces for the other conflicts in the period, but never anything consistent.

Now, with ten years to go until retirement, or there abouts, I find myself possibly in a position to actually complete this hare brained scheme. I am not putting all other periods to one side, but putting less effort into them. I am starting to focus my attention on the armies of the 16th century and looking to add the bits I need. My painting (I do a little myself but out source most of it) is beginning to focus solely on the period, and I only have one unpainted army from outside the period that needs to be started, and one other that is nearly finished.

So you never know, by the time I retire, I might get there.

pretty much all my "projects" are open ended. I dont play historicals so every thing I have can always be added to. Even my finished armies are only armies I haven't seen anything I've wanted to add to YET.

Not quite as old a projects as some of the above, but I have two projects that are gathering dust:

Paint, and rig, my 1/1200 Langton Napoleonic era ships. I have three, and while I'm sure they will look great when done, its taking far to long to finally tackle them. I've had these around five years now.

And my idea was purchase and paint even more!

Also, I have over a 150 Venexia 15mm landsknechts, men-at-arms, and some cannon that are waiting for the paint brush as well. I've had these around nine years or so.

My DBA project, with the goal of collecting 8 armies has been going on for 5 years. I need two more armies.

My Warhammer1000 project, initially with the goal of collecting 1000 points of each warhammer army, has been trimmed to only 8. It has taken me 3 years to paint 5 of 8, and many I decided to only complete at 800 points. Frankly I would rather stop it and sell everything, but I am close to finishing. The later armies are not as well painted as the earlier ones.

My oldest project is rebasing my 28mm Warhammer figs to use for Warmaster. 1/2 way there.

My 15mm Carthaginian army – started in the late 80's and still crawling towards completion nearly two-and-a-half decades later. One day, one day…

as just thinking about finally basing my OttomAn Turks- converted from other figures way back in the mid 1980's.They are older than one of my usual opponents.

-Gaming the SYW.
Two armies, Prussian and Austrians.
I have collected hunderds of miniatures (28mm), started painting the Prussians about ten years ago, and then other projects came in between. I'm still buying more miniatures now and then, but still no painting. I also have three rulessets…

-Ancient Persian army. Around 450 miniatures collected (in 28mm), painted just enough to have a 75 points Armati intro force, around 60 figs. My Greeks are ready (+500 mini's), and I also have a nice Macedonian army of around 300 figs.

-I also have a collection of well over 600 old school Orcs, Dwarves and Elves, for a LOTR project. Some of these miniatures I own for 25 years. Yet to start this one.

I'm not even going to ramble on about 15mm here. Two projects are awaiting paint. Together well over 1000 figs…

My friends sometimes call me crazy. I wonder why that is?

Ww2 Western Desert.

First set of Airfix figures given to me in 1970. Started attempt to Wargame proper since 1983. Had first game using my own figures this year but still have more to do. I've even been working on some 8th Army tonight!

My Warhammer Skaven army rebuild stalled after we stopped playing. Every now and then I paint a unit for fun. My IG collection is close to fully painted but not quite there either.

My Warlord Dacian forces have been patiently waiting for years. The thought of all that flesh and plaid is a bit daunting still.

My ACW armies in 15mm have been growing, initially quickly but much more slowly, for about 25 years

Soon I hope to be able to replicate the Artillery Park of the Army of the Potomac on a 1:1 basis

Napoleonic armies for Waterloo. Became fascinated with the Napoleonic wars as a child in the 60's when I got the Avalon Hill Waterloo game. Starting in 1970 I was going to do it in 15mm, then changed to 6mm, then to 2mm. Now thinking about 3mm. The truth is I have not found a set of rules I like and the larger scale figures require more detail than I am willing to invest research time in. Combined with how I feel every time I read the Napoleonic boards I suspect it will never happen although I still have Adler 6mm and Irregular 2mm.

Byzantine army for the 1444 campaign in Greece. I thought of this one back in 1976, while working on my masters degree. I've made a couple false starts. Slowly, more stuff has become available. Maybe I can start soon.

Then there are the figures and scenery for a version of the incredibly unhistorical movie The Viking Women. I've been working this for 7-8 years. I think I have the bad guys. I have a few of the women. I found a way to make the sea serpent, but it is in a book packed away somewhere in our storage unit.

Grelber

Of my current projects, the 28mm FPW saga is three years old.

The unpaint 28mm Trojan Greek armies I have based are two years old. The oldest project is an unpainted 28mm Old Glory Korean Turtle ship that's four years old.

The 28mm Vietnam project is two years old:
28mm Viet Cong infantry company, 28mm US Marine Platoon, 28mm ARVN infantry platoon, palm tree kits, a platoon of 28mm M113s and two 1/60 scale die cast CH-46 US Marine Sea Knights. All of course unpainted, still in box.

28mm Viking army is primed and in need of paint. They're also two years old.

The most recent 28mm armies are 28mm Foundry Masai, 28mm German colonial infantry, and 28mm Sudanese army ranging in age from 1.5-2 years old (and all unpainted, new in bag).

That's my basement of shame!

Projects that I have started but I haven't *yet* progressed far enough to have a game:

20mm ACW (mostly Airfix plastics with metal flag poles added)
20mm WW2 (again mostly Airfix plastics. Will be for the Far East; Burma & Pacific)
15mm Zulus (I have thousan's of 'em in bare lead but only a couple of dozen painted)

I think everything else I have at least taken to 'small game' stage even though my plans were much grander when i started.

Vikings – Painted and dipped. Look OK but my painting is better so when I DROPPED them and they all got chipped I decided to redo them. Look good now. I think I've been trying to finish for about six years. Figure I have another six to go. LoTR minis – have too many figures to count. Can't get to them because of the fore mentioned Vikings.

My Undead army for Warhammer: I bought the Nightmare Legion boxed set (metal) and the Skeletal Hordes (plastic) back in 1989, along with a whole lot of blister packs of GW skellies. Twenty-five years later, they still haven't made it onto the table for a game of WFB (although some of them did get painted and fought in Hordes of the Things battles).

I recently reacquired the third edition Warhammer rules, and they're now part of my Oldhammer project.

My WWI Germans from Great War miniatures…

Well, it's only been about 3 1/2 years since I got back into gaming, but the following projects are not yet complete:

3 years – 15mm Sarmatians. Mostly done, but I still have 60 lancers to prep, prime and paint (horses painted, just the riders to do. And the basing). I might just get around to doing them this year.

3 years – 15mm Scythian commanders and cataphracts. Only 15 figures, which I started painting but never finished.

3 years – 6mm ACW. I did paint up 10 regiments of Union infantry, but I've got a heck of a lot more for both sides still to paint. I'm planning to paint them up in February and March (or at least make a darned good start).

1 1/2 years – 15mm Buccaneers. Mostly done. Just the commanders, artillery and light troops left to do. And their ship. That's for a playable army. I've got a whole load more figures to paint up for additional units…

I started putting together armies for the campaigns in the Sudan more than thirty years ago with Mikes Models. Over the years I've added units, terrain and accessories like boats. As I near retirement I knew I had to 'finish' it. My goal was to be able to have a large assault on Khartoum like the one portrayed in the Charlton Heston movie. History be darned…I wanted Hollywood! Well, when Crescent Root released it's new Middle East city walls, gates and towers sets I knew it could finally be done.

Part and parcel to the Khartoum game, I've always wanted to run campaigns based on the Mahdist uprising and on the reconquest. Through the good offices of TVAG proprietor Patrick Wilson I've had Anglo and Mahdist riverine fleets built by the great Master modeler Richard Houston. Everything has fallen into place and I have everything I need to play the campaigns.

Like any good war gamer though I recognize the futility of 'finishing' a project. I'm sure I'll add a unit here or a unit there or pick up an accessory occasionally but I promised my long-suffering wife that I'd reign it in after retirement. She's been so supportive of my involvement in the hobby over three decades and counting and it's reasonable to expect a reduction in hobby expenditures in retirement. It'll be time to finally PLAY with everything I've amassed.

Similarly, my Anglo-Zulu War collection has been built over the course of more than thirty years. We're renovating the house next year (after a year of delay) and when it's done Grandpa is gonna get his game on.