"How optimistic are you about your longest delayed project?" Topic

That would be my Jacobite rebellion project.
I have been buying figures since 1984.
About a dozen or so Highlander figures are "done", save being mounted on "proper" bases.
I had planned to do them on my standard 2" x 1" bases, to do regimental games.
Then about 2 years ago, I was inspired by a random phrase that popped into my head, "The Sword and the Haggis". So I ordered a few bags of Old Glory Government troops and Highlanders, and promptly put them away.

Now…
I am getting the urge to do Widow Moore's Creek Bridge. Now I totally realize that kilted (even trewsed!) Jacobites are totally inappropriate for this, but nobody will make Hillbillies with broadswords and bonnets.
I am now determined to spit in the eyes of the nay-sayers and knock off about 3 dozen or so. (I love the Front Rank guys I got at a flea market, BTW.)

Government troops? I had a whole British army for the Plains of Abraham a few years ago, and if you can tell them apart from the "right" figures, you have a PhD in 18th Century uniform pedantry. Alas, I sold them to put food on the table.
However, I am in delicate negotiations with another member of my group who is looking for something to do and I have several regiments of primed troops ready for someone to finish.

I am more optimistic that I can bring this long on the backest burner project to fruition.

I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel …

TMP link
TMP link
After languishing in boxes and crates for 30 years they now see the light of day. So the moral is never give up, you just do not know when inspiration and motivation will strike.

To be honest, I've pretty much given up.

For over a decade now I've been hoping to see early Napoleonics (1790's) in my preferred smaller scales (10mm, or 6mm). Pendraken made an early attempt that fell through. Clibinarium is interested, but he's so busy (and has so many unfinished lines) that he will never get to them. We flirted with Eureka and provide them with detailed lists … and they produced a beautiful 28mm line that is useless to me. Adler has a great early French line, and even has greens sculpted for early Austrians, but the economics of the early period have scared him off.

I had hoped to re-start Napoleonics in the proper fashion, working my way through the 1790's into the early Empire, but I don't see it happening … which has kept me from diving back in. Sometimes I even think that I will just go back to 15mm.

Sigh.

The project that has been in the back of my mind the longest remains dependant on a new range being made. I'm cautiously optimistic that they will be, in the next year or two.

I've been pretty good and either ditching something quickly if it's not working for me or seeing it through.

I keep plugging away at my 28mm AWI units. It is the only era I game in that I can not even field one army.

I have 3 eras that I game that I continue to add unpainted lead to. I guess they count because I want to game with the unpainted figures but have no time to game lately.

Matthew

I don't have any projects like this. I add to my collections regularly, but every period/genre I have, I have enough to do a bunch of games.

That said, I'm also not obsessive about the "right" figures. So my Napoleonic French fight from 1796 to 1815 in the same uniform. Ditto my WW2 – I use Panzer IVs in gray, dunkel and camo whenever and wherever I need them. Plus I don't collect every tiny little variant. I'll use an Ausf G in place of an Ausf F or whatever (but not a PzIv in place of a Pz III). Likewise, my ACW figures are strictly generic and stylized.

I sold most of them off; there are a few I am on the fence about. I need to start doing something with them, or sell them off as well.

I just pulled my 30 years plus project of a 3D version of Mighty Empires out. I'am half way there and should get it ready for the Summer. SO it never to late for a project!!

I refuse to answer this due to possible self incrimination issues.

What Von Ted Said.
Fortunately the source of the Popozombo river wont discover itself before I get it together.

I have some 25mm figures for playing D&D that have been sitting around for at least a decade. But that doesn't mean I'm not optimistic about getting around to painting them. I do, however, think it more likely my son will be painting them rather than myself.

It is just a matter of time…

Just pulled out a project from 2004 that I think I'll have ready in a couple of weeks if not sooner. I also am almost finished with my Napoleonic Project (@ 200 15mm figures left)

The bigger project is reviewing and assessing which to continue and which to ditch

I have just spent the last few days emptying closets and various bins to do an inventory of all my various "stuff" and took a long walk down Memory Lane. Some of it was like 'Oh wow – why was I into that?!?" But others were things I would really like to do. So my new strategy on the old stuff that I would like to do is to box it up and ship it off to Sri Lanka. Get it back and have it ready to go. Meanwhile concentrate on current projects.

As long as my plan to live to be 800 bears fruit, I'm optimistic about all my projects.

Not at all. I had been planning on doing a Kasserine game but have only got some of the Americans painted and no Germans. Stuff has been sitting around for 2-3 years now. Thinking about selling off what I have or trying to do something else with it.

I've "only" been a wargamer for some 16 years and my tastes have evolved a lot over that time (I was a teenager when I started), so my oldest delayed (but not abandoned) projects are less than a decade old. I've simply abandoned all projects older than that – I have no interest in returning to 28mm massed battle medievals "in the grand manner" (though I might do it in a smaller scale), let alone Warhammer and 40K.

As for my oldest delayed-but-not-abandoned projects, for the first time in years I've recently been feeling very optimistic about reviving them. I now have a different outlook on them and am doing some heavy "spring cleaning", scaling them back to more manageable scopes and doing away with figures that I now feel aren't up to par or clash stylistically with the core of the project. There's a 28mm pirates/swashbucklers project and a 28mm swords-and-sorcery project that I had spent more time planning and buying for than actually painting, and in so doing had allowed them to become ENORMOUS in scope (on paper, that is – the swords-and-sorcery project was going to have something like 50 cultures/nations/gangs represented, which makes for a damn lot of figures even in a skirmish project). That daunting enormity had weighed me down. Now I'm just forgetting all about that, picking up some old figures from the lead pile and painting them, enjoying them for what they are and ignoring the big picture. Some figures I'm deciding are simply not worth the effort (unsatisfactory sculpts/castings), so I'll unload them somehow. For the first time in years I can look at my lead mountain and not feel an overwhelming sense of angst. There's also a spaceship project from which I'm jettisoning several unpainted fleets that I was never entirely pleased about having bought, and a 6mm sci-fi project, although with that one I may jettison all the old figures and get all new ones, keeping only the terrain. There are other projects in the lead mountain too, including Aeronefs and 6mm Sengoku Japanese, but they'll have to stay in stasis for now.

Another delightful thing is that I can now sort through the lead mountain and find new uses for figures that I'd originally bought to be part of those unwieldy behemoth projects. There's a group of Old Glory Cossack Wars figures (surprisingly good and characterful sculpts, BTW) that will make an excellent Song of Blades and Heroes warband. There are some Old Glory Darkest Africa tribesmen that are much more poorly sculpted and simply don't make the cut, but bits and parts of them (specifically the headdresses and shields) will make great conversion material. There are some Celtos figures (originally bought for the swords-and-sorcery project) that I'm now thinking will be the start of an actual Celtos project – I'll just have to make sure to keep it small in scope!

I've got 3 armies in need of completion or update. I have every confidence that they might be finished in the next decade.

My oldest is my Blood Angels, mostly from the 90's/early-00's. They really need rebasing and a dip and I've got a few more units that I could add to them. I finally bought the bases, but who knows when they'll get done….

Having ditched (sold) nearly every large scale project that has sat unfinished, I am now working through stuff that has not seen light for years. Pretty gratifying actually. Just finished a couple pre-TOS starships and I am thinking "Why did I not build these 10 years ago!"

I have been buying figures in 28mm for a SYW project ever since Foundry started their range (1997?), and have been adding more at least once a year. I think I have around 100 painted, but around 500 unpainted.

And yes, I did buy more already this year…

There also is a long forgotten fantasy project.
Orcs (zillions of'em), Dwarves and Elves. All from the pre slotta base era.
Some of them got painted, but my style is so much different now that I think I should start all over again.
I am collecting them since 1980!

I just moved so now I have some projects that have backed up for three months, going on four. I think I'll get to them … we have lots of room and have cleared lot of boxes now.

With a huge unpainted stockpile in a multitude of scales and periods I stopped buying figures a year or two ago. It's rules and terrain only from now on, and then only when there's a genuine need – with one exception: when that 28mm colonial Australia range finally materialises (it's only for skirmish games, after all…).

I don't see this as a problem; if I had the interest at some point I know I can revive it easily enough when required. My main problem these days is just getting a game: the regular group has become increasingly irregular due to long runs when they're either not playing or playing something that doesn't interest me.

I agree about the Old Glory Cossacks, Rhoderick. I have all of the Cossacks Wars range, plus the Foundry figures. Although I don't have any, the Cossacks in the Eastern Renaissance range would be perfectly compatible and add even more variety. I would no doubt have bought them too were it not for the fact that I have quite enough already for purely skirmish scenarios. To oppose the Cossacks I have assorted Tartars from the ER range (just one of many projects in the interminable queue).

I was inspired by the Grant and Young/Lawford books and always wanted a pair of Seven Years War armies. Now, some forty years after buying the Young/Lawford book, I have one regiment purchased, but not painted. I'm getting old, looking at retirement and reduced income in about four years, and wondering if I should wind up some odds and ends and then concentrate on this.

Then, there is the 15th Century Byzantine army project, which is only a few years younger.

Grelber

With one of my projects I do seem some way back in the tunnel. It might be the same one MajorB is in … I think I can see him – and he says he can see light.

So we're nearly there then …

Phil

It took me 30 years to do my WSS project, but I got there in the end. Have completely lost interest in it now of course:)

The two most glaring failures in recent years I have recognised as such. I have made half hearted attempts at selling the kit, but in the end just stuck them in the loft. I'll let them mature for a few years and see what happens.

I am still hopeful about my long delayed Comets for 11th AD. They are assembled and undercoated. That only took ten years. Give it a few more and might actually paint them. Less so all those IDF M113s, they are up to 12 years now, but I still look at them from time to time.

Very optimistic. I've been working on the AWI since the mid 90s and now have decided to focus on one battle and stop buying random figures for every theater. also I may switch painting technique to speed up the process.

MajorB, I think that's an oncoming train….

It's now starting 7 years, but I'm optimistic my Viking project will be through before another 7 have passed.

Not very, unless I get lucky and hit the lottery.

Not very.
The second army I painted was a 15mm Scots army for the battle of Flodden. On the 500th anniversary of the battle in 2013 we refought it. However, I wasn't satisfied with the number of Scots pikemen fielded so used substantial numbers of a friends early swiss pike (ironic considering those were the tactics the Scots were trying to emulate). We used a 'friends' Wars of the Roses army for the English who I no longer game with. So to play again I would want my own additonal Scots pike and need my own complete English army. Finances and other projects make this very unlikely but I can dream.

Very--- to the point of certainty.

The projects all get finished.

Just keep working on it.

The lack of extra money has delayed my publishing of a series of Osprey style books which has uniform information in them.
Some of the titles included the Three Kingdom Koreans
Alabama in Flames about the Creek War of 1812-14
The Chickasaw-French war of the 1700s
The German Auxilary troops in the American Revolution
The Spanish Operations in the American Revolution
Filibuster Operations in the Americas

Alas some of these even have the artwork on hand though most are lacking the actual artwork. The lack of funds have killed the projects.

Not at all regarding that grouting job in the kitchen !