"Why do you keep buying miniatures?" Topic

At this point I have pretty much all the minis I want to game all my preferred periods/genres. But I still enjoy the painting aspect of the hobby, and just painting terrain doesn't scratch that itch in the same way.

So I buy minis to have something to paint/build. I restrict myself to things that can be added to existing collections.

My latest purchase is a regiment of T34s in 1/285, and am eagerly awaiting their arrival. I'll add them to the 60 or so T34s I own already…

So, why do *you* keep buying miniatures?

Pretty much same reason people climb mountains

I have it on good authority- "Miss Kitty Markel's Book of Good Thoughts and Plans" that the larger your pile of unpainted minis, the further you are from dying. I've gone from counting to weighing them. Do you think 8 pounds is enough ?

I am pretty much in the same place as ExtraCrispy. I pretty much only get personality type figures or something really new to add to my existing collections.

I can quit anytime I want!

Years ago I fully intended to stop buying new games and just adding a new unit or personality to the games I already had.

BUT…there's always a new game that catches my interest. And then it's logical me vs. ooh shiny! myself.

I'm about 80/20, but that still means new stuff.

I've cut back, but it's tough. There is just so much to do, and so many cool things keep getting released. I do believe there is a "high" to be obtained when buying toy soldiers or whatever. My dad was a collector of many things, and he had boxes and drawers full of stuff piled floor to ceiling. When he was on the downhill slide my brother and I tried to convince him to sell some of his collections so other people could enjoy them. He said he enjoyed his stuff. I asked him how he could enjoy everything when he couldn't even see it. He said that he enjoyed it because he knew that he owned it. Collecting is a sickness of varying degrees.

Libero igitur quovis emere ego sum

Eight pounds, PJ? Pfffft, amateur. ;-)

Because I am weak, and suffer from a severe case of 'Ooh shiney' disease

I don't have enough yet (common topic in my household – not everyone agrees)

Phil

For me, the hobby is half playing games and half painting/modeling. So my answer is I keep buying miniatures for the painting/modeling aspect of my hobby.

Magpie: "Ooo, Shiney!"

At this point I have pretty much all the minis I want to game all my preferred periods/genres.

I don't, yet.

New figures! At the mo I am enthused for he soon to be released – plastic Colonial Afghans, so we can wargame the 2nd Afghan war.
I have just finished my French milice for the French and Indian war, as I have been after them for ages.
I am slowly putting together the lovely plastic British for the Anglo- Zulu war, to replace my old and basic Wargames Factory figures.

Much easier these days to buy and paint miniatures than to find opponents and fight games.

I'm trying to rid myself of unpainted lead but I do buy a few figures, just bought some Company B Japanese WWII Paras & a ark of the covenant & bearers in plastic resin in 15mm & 28mm.

Oooo shiny.

So we're all essentially nifflers.

Addiction.

I nolonger really buy minis, almost all I now pring myself. Gone thank goones are the mounds of unpainted lead and plastic. Print on demand saves so much space and money. We do commission the od STL file for stuff nobody wants to produce, that's as close as we get to buying minatures.

Cos I like them and 'cos I can.

Because I don't have them all yet…

He who dies with the most wins? :)

pjm

Thought I was done… Just discovered multiple new sets which my subconscious is trying to sweet-talk my conscious mind into buying.

I need to start attending some Miniatures Anonymous meetings again. They offer a coin, every week I don't buy… The coin is nice, but it is not as good as getting a box of mini's in the mail.

Channeling Nancy Reagan is their motto, but, God love her, it just isn't working for me, Nancy:

"Just say, 'No', to buying more miniatures."

Waiting for the anti-miniatures rejection drugs to be approved by the FDA. I really need a fix, Man!… I got it bad, this time!

If I don't buy once or twice a month a kitten dies.

I stopped a bit over a year ago. I still have not finished painting the lead pile and stopped doing that about 5 months ago. Still get the urge to buy some now and then.

I've reached the point where I really do not need anything. I have the genres I play pretty complete. However as Mark said, I can always be tempted by something new for a collection, especially with so many small skirmish games around. I can do plenty of different 5 – 10 figure groups for the Fistful of Lead series.

So, why do *you* keep buying miniatures?

I'm just not all that bright.

Martian Root Canal +1

I've gotten to the point that I don't want to start new projects, but that doesn't keep me from adding to what I already have. It reduces the number of figures I'm buying to a trickle, sort of, kind of . . .

"Collecting is a sickness of varying degrees."

I have that sickness. I can't stop.

Don't we need to do our part to stimulate the global economy?

I keep adding to existing historical collections with the occasional new skirmish game or rpg miniature. I have purged a few old collections when space became tight. This year will probably see less purchases as last year was rather excessive.

I almost bought back into 40K SOB but instead went and counted my unpainted IG & Skaven until the feeling passed.

Collecting is a sickness of varying degrees.

According to this I am very sick. I was just discussing this with some gaming friends earlier today. I pointed out I have been collecting figures (and games) for over 40 years and I still don't have figures that cover various period (Mexican-American War for one). The real measure of how sick I am is that I have at least two periods where I have figures in 2 or 3 different scales. That one is harder to explain. Somehow different scales match different rules and sizes of battles. It just seems right.

When the lead level in my blood reaches 100% I become immortal.

I find it easy to settle on one scale and one period (been building 20mm late Cold War for 5 years now.) but not a set of rules.. have played 2 games and neither was very satisfying

I've thought about it long and hard and realize that I do not understand the original question. Is there some reality where we do not buy miniatures? How does that work, I can't wrap my head around it…

Because they're there.

I buy them because stealing isnt allowed…apparently…

Even when I decide to quit, I always find "just one more" that I want.

Because instead of being listed in a magazine which came occasionally, and required an international money order and a wait of (insert number of weeks here) before they arrived and I decided they were not what I wanted so rinse/wash/repeat, I can check the internet, see a picture, crank up PayPal and buy it then and there. I don't need it, but I can have it…..
I blame technology.

What was the question again? I was busy putting a together an order for 28mm _____ – fill in the blank.

I enjoy painting but don't want to start a new army so getting those extras.

I buy miniatures I like, for two reasons. First I buy them for a project or game they would be ideally used. Secondly, because if I wait too long before buying them, the company has gone under and I can't find them to buy any longer.

I have LOTS of projects planned.

It must because of my utter lack of self control. At the rate I paint it'll be several lifetimes before I catch up. Just started painting some figs I've had for 5+ years: 25mm WW2 Russians.

Only 5+ years, Chuck ? I just got out some that I bought back in the '80s, looked at them, bought a few more, then put them back in their box while I paint some more recent purchases …..

What we need is for more manufacturers to sell single figures instead of packs. As I said, Fistful of Lead does not need many figures per player, but you can't always find single figures in every period.

What Greylegion said, plus I am always adding a new slant to an existing project that involves more miniatures that further delays the beginning of actual play.

No will power. 23 years ago I gave up smoking but giving up buying new shinny figures, no chance.

Anyway I am still in the build phase of 20mm very late Cold War. I expect to continue building, converting, painting, building scenery and basing for another 2-3 years before I play a game. A full campaign to be exact. The invasion of Cube-a

I hope you are suitably chastised, Tim.

I like toy soldiers. And tanks and aeroplanes and stuff. And because I can.

Sorry Tim, I've been drinking a lot lately and