"Do you have a catalog of your armies?" Topic

I've started to catalog my collections before and never really stuck with it. But as this year and next (and probably '18 and '19) are devoted to cleaning up my collections, i thought it was a good time to revive the project. I am focusing on units, so my catalog is very simple: Period / Nation / Scale / Unit Type / Unit / No Stands / Notes. The period, scale and nation are the sheet title, so my catalog has just 4 columns. A typical entry reads:

Gun | m18 150mm Howitzer | 4 | Deployed, Towed, CO, Movers
Tank | Panzer Company | 16 | PzIV HQ, 2 x PzIV Plt, 1 x PzIII Plt

This tells me this is a 4 gun battery with limbered and unlimbered guns, a CO stand and associated movers (I don't bother listing every specific vehicle). I use color coding on my miniature stands and the sheet has a corresponding color code in the Type column. So I can find the right unit by looking for the ID color in the box. The ID coding makes sorting and clean up easy. With loads of transports it would be easy to lose track. I am also slowly making up tray cards for them as well (pieces of paper with a box for each stand so players know what they have, and makes sure during clean up everything gets sorted back to its proper place).

I'm keeping it on Google docs so if I hit a flea market or Ebay (my armies are in outside storage) I can check and see how much overlap I have with what's on offer.

I don't bother with manufacturer as I don't know in many cases and frankly don't really care.

Do you have a catalog of your armies?

No, but I do have a lot of unmarked boxes.

No, but I have a pretty shrewd idea of what I've got.

I sometimes do roll call posts on my blog, like these below, but I find it quicker to look in cabinets (I have cabinets not boxes) than down a written list. I use these when on holiday, sometimes, especially if I'm working on scenarios for stuff not used for a few years.

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Both painted and unpainted for nationality, unit name, size and notes.. Basic .xls spreadsheet doc on the cell phone and desktop.

Nope. I rely on flawed memory.
That's why I bought Orc Pirates twice.

I have some catalogued and some that really need to be. More recent projects are more likely to be in better shape as I've learnt my lesson.

I am in the process of replacing spreadsheets that kept track of the same as TMPWargamerabbit. The originals were lost when my flashdrive died.

Example tray card for my MicroArmor:

only in my head

I did do something similar to that for my WW2 stuff, but I put everything I have, for specific formations, on one sheet, but then I'm very specific in what I game in WW2: for me it's just Western Desert and four months starting at the end of 1941.

Like this for 15th Panzer
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and this for 22nd Armoured Brigade Group
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The latter looks like this in 15mm

Only for a few armies where I built for a specific campaign.

The rest are somewhere in my head.

Dont you think its a little ocd,Mark?

Yes I have a list in Word,

eg

Royalist Foot
Unit/ No./ Weapons/ Coat/ Standard
Sir Bernard Astley's / 28 / 12p,16m / green / green&red
(by the way coat colour is unknown really)

or
Soviet Armour
Unit / No. / Equipment
2nd Coy. / 2 / T34-76

This allows me to keep track of what I have and plan what I need (or want) as well as being a simple copy/paste into a scenario design when needed.

Unpainted units are in red text, of which there is far too much!

It's hard to juggle 3 different realities.

First Reality, what I physically own

Second Reality, what I wished I owned

Third Reality, what my wife thinks I own

+1 Xintao
Or what I told her they cost….

Yes.

I am keeping it in a Google docs sheet.
I also list manufacturer, catalog references (if I know them), and some other notes such as painting style or basing details.

I am not too fuzzy about it, if information is missing, it is missing. But the figure count is correct, as far as I know.

Nope. I do, however, have a list of my unpainted stuff.

I have no lists….I need to organize it though….

No, and simply noting "stands" would not work for me. I often have favorite periods where I have duplicate troops in different basing schemes.

I am trying to reduce the number of basing schemes I use. I have not been very successful to date.

Not a chance. I like surprises😊

Kind of. It will be upgraded after The Move.

Do I have a what for my armies?

In general I only have one basing system for each period (ignoring singly mounted skirmish).If I had multiple basing I would just make that a column, so 45th Highlanders (4 Stands DBx, 12 Stands BAR) or whatever.

definitely on my to-do list but not near the top!

I've been planning one so that my wife will know what I have for the Estate Sale after my demise. One never knows when the axe will fall.

If nothing else all of mine are in labeled boxes. So this box says "Saxons." So someone could sell them as the ID process would be pretty easy. You may not know a Tiger from a PzII but if it's in a box "German Tanks" you;re 90% of the way there. So if I get hit by a bus tomorrow…but more important she knows who to call to clear it out.

I have them both in labeled boxes and all the information of each unit in my computer.

I have a plan …

Phil

I keep a list of all my models and units. I categorise them into genres, periods and scales.

I've started building lists/catalogs of my holdings. On the plus side, it's like Christmas when I start rummaging through old boxes and find stuff I forgot I had.

pjm

Oh,I see.Its part of a cunning plan. I myself plan on being entombed in a giant hill,with all my figures on parade to serve me in the afterlife.My coffin will rest on a map of the world,with all the water features filled with mercury,to be forever flowing….

I have boxes. The boxes have labels on the outside. There are words, mostly in English, on the labels. There is a more than vague correlation between the words on the label and the contents of the box.

Sort of…… I have a detailed Word file, on my crashed computer, (of course no backup) that lists all my painted figures, all units in progress and some of the lead pile. In the past I have given excerpts to friends so they could plan a game or campaign and to assemble an insurance claim, after my 15mm
Napoleonic Army was taken from my car.. Which by the way is a good reason to make a inventory/list of all your miniatures, games and rules and by the way include the manufacturer as well as edition it makes filling out the claim forms much easier and more defensible.

One last thing after you put the inventory/list together, make a back-up copy or two and give it to a trusted friend to hold.

I have, and I suspect there are armies, ships, games, that I will not play in my lifetime, so I stopped.
And I bought a new army.
To make me feel better.

They're all in the failing memory in my pointed little head :0 Ummm…the boxs are labeled, does that count ?

I do have catalogs, both in my computer and printed out on paper, for all my naval miniatures and Napoleonic armies, including both completed units, and unpainted stuff still in the bags or boxes. However, I also have some other stuff that was given to me at various times that I have not cataloged since I only have marginal interest in it. Why do I keep it? Well, you never know when you will meet some madman who will drag you into exactly those periods that never fired you up before--and it is cheaper to keep what you already have than buy it all again new.

Yes, I must update it some time,

And my knights have a list …..

Yes. Colour coded dots on boxes and drawers indicating the period enclosed.

Work on it.

I have just varnished (meaning finished) and noted 4 ancient egyptian chariots. They are: 'eg 63' to 'eg 66'.

My register of unpainted minis is quite neglected, but I have all my painted miniatures registered in an excell archive, along with details as nation, period, troop type, manufacturer and date of completion.

So, in theory, I know what I can field. Just in theory.

I am lucky if I have labelled the boxes, which is why most of my boxes are clear…

No, but I should

No, but most everyone should, or should at least have an inventory of the most expensive items. It's always possible to lose everything to an insured event, like a fire. In that case, you'll have to demonstrate what you had and what it will cost to replace it.

Spreadsheet with period, scale, troop type, paint status, basing and location.

26k troops accounted for

I had started doing so time ago, but in the end I gave up.
I now like better to show pictures on my collections in a blog, in a more or less orderly way: soldadets.blogspot.com

Nope! Just a bunch of jumbled up, unmarked boxes with God knows what in them.