As 2015 comes to an end, my miniature collection hits a big milestone: 10,000 models. I have sold a few armies over the years, but ignoring those there are now over 10,000 models gracing the cabinets of my hobby room. Of those, just over 6,000 are painted and the rest are in various stages of “pre-assembly” (I seem to get to the stage of cleaning, building and basing the models before things slow down…).
Those 10,000 models cover
- 50+ fully playable armies (Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, Warmaster, Warmaster ME, EPIC, Flames of War)
- 100+ fully playable smaller gangs/fleets/warbands/teams (Mordheim, Battlefleet Gothic, Blood Bowl, Necromunda, Lord of the Rings, Dystopian Wars, SAGA, Man-o-War, DBA – though some of the SAGA and DBA forces are in “army” territory in terms of size).
In 2015, I bought about a 1,000 models (mostly a burst of Warhammer acquisitions – see below). I also managed to paint almost 400 models which isn’t bad but clearly a losing battle against the acquisition scale.
The stats below show the distribution of models across the different game systems, as well as the “gaps” in my painting strategy.
Terrain: There are 700+ terrain pieces (not included in the 10k model count). Most is done and ranges from big stuff (e.g. Mordheim buildings) to small add-ons (e.g. fences). Those pieces can be placed on over 100 sqft of modular sculpted gaming tables (plus assorted flat surfaces for space and water).
Warmaster: One of my big painting gaps. I used to be “almost done”, having finished the 6 original core armies (Empire, Dwarves, Orcs & Goblins, Chaos, Undead, High Elves). Then, Specialist Games died and I bought the rest of the collection “just in case” (you know, in case 10 years after my last game of Warmaster, the opportunity to play would arise again and Lizardmen were desperately needed somehow…). Now ~500 bases of Bretonnia, Dark Elves, Kislev, Lizardmen, Skaven and Vampire Counts are starting at me from their slot in the To Do List (I did manage to get the Wood Elves done before the initial enthusiasm died).
Warhammer 40k: I used to be an active 40k tournament player in the early 2000’s so this part of the collection is blessed with a number of fairly complete painted armies: Emperor’s Children, World Eater, Dark Eldar, Eldar, Imperial Guard, Blood Angels (two version), and Ultramarines. Most of the unpainted models are just “left-overs”, including the Blood Angels vehicles from my second attempt. Oh, and there is a 130+ model Ork army somewhere. But mostly 40k is in good shape.
Warhammer: Like 40k, I have a number of fairly “done” Warhammer armies due to early tournament gaming. Bretonnia, Dwarves, Empire, Orcs & Goblins, and Undead. The later two are horrible out of date but mostly complete. Except, earlier this year Warhammer followed the way of Warmaster when Games Workshop blew up the game system. So, in typical impulse style, I bought all the missing “must have” armies before the models disappear. And so now there are 1,000+ High Elves, Skaven, Vampire Counts, Chaos, and Ogres added to the “unpainted” tally. That should keep me busy for a while…
EPIC: I am doing pretty well here. Mostly due a few years of incredibly energizing “Tales of EPIC Gamers” over on the TacComs forum. All the armies are on the blog. I still have to get the Tyranids, Titan Legion and Adeptus Mechanicus done, but that’s a mere ~400 models (compared to the ~2,000 already done).
Flames of War (FoW): This is the last of the “army scale” systems and, again, I am doing pretty well. Everything is on the blog with all the core armies finished. The missing models are just a few odds and ends.
Mordheim/Blood Bowl/LotR/SAGA: These are “time fillers”. I paint the odd warband/team during breaks and seem to be at about the mid-point for each system. Fortunately, they are all out of production and I own every available force, so the upper cap won’t be growing much anymore. Slowly but surely, this will get done.
Necromunda/Dystopian Wars/BoFA/Warmaster ME: What can I say, these are the black sheep. The entire collection of all gangs, several fleets and plenty of 10mm Tolkien goodness – and nothing ever saw a brush. I actually airbrushed some of the Dystopian Wars fleets but the details aren’t done. Some day…
Man-o-War/Battlefleet Gothic/DBA: The happy few. Everything is done and nothing is left to buy. Well, for DBA there is of course potentially more to buy, but all the classic forces are well represented. Romans, Greek, Seleucid/Successors, Gaul/Germanic/Britons, and enough generic medieval forces to make two armies.
Overall, there are about 3,500 models left to paint. Of those, about 2,000 are of the more time-consuming 28mm scale and the rest are 10mm/6mm which should go up a bit easier. Still, this will keep me busy at the painting table for years to come (especially painting is, most definitely, a side activity in the evenings – if it were my day job then I wouldn’t make such impulse purchases in the first place 🙂 ). Wish me luck!
Wargaming Workshop 