Saturday, November 3, 2012

Don't fear the Keeper . . .

Hi,

So, as some of my past blog posts indicate, I tend to be a habitual Bartertown abuser.  It's rare for a day to go by that I don't kill at least 5-10 minutes perusing the latest offers, and thinking up grandiose new projects that rarely see initiation, let alone completion.  I think it's sort of a geeky equivalent of dreaming about winning the lottery, or something.

Like this, but you end up with LESS money than you started.

That said, this morning, for the first time in a long while, I found myself not particularly excited by anything.  Not that there wasn't anything up for trade that I wanted (au contraire), but rather, that I couldn't really think of anything in my lead (/plastic/resin) pile that I was willing to trade.  In other words, for the first time in a long while, there's not a single planned project for which I have models with which I'm bored.

In part, this is the result of my recent trade, the last of my Tau for a couple of Blood Bowl teams (human and ork).  Both have a bit of paint, but nothing clumpy.  I'm thinking of breaking from my usual practice, and rather than stripping them down to plastic, working with the base colours already there.

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Mostly Orcs.

This is kind of a new thing for me.

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Humans, some Orcs, and a couple of Rackham Oni.  I shall paint the latter for the sheer joy of living.

At about the same time, there's two other factors in play.  Over at the Big Red Batcave, a bit of teasing prompted Simon to show off his lead pile; that would be the one in which he managed to forget about more than a 100 28mm Spartans and several Celtic chariots!  Even more impressive was the pile revealed over at Legatus' Wargames Armies!

In the spirit of "I'll show you mine if you show me yours", it's only fair that I show off my own pile of shame, or in this case, drawers:

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I hide my shame under the bed.

Several years back, a friend of mine told me about the Keeper, and about how on the day I painted my last unpainted mini, He would come for my geeky soul.  Clearly, I've taken the lesson to heart ;)

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Probably still a step up from what I hid there as an adolescent. 

Over the last couple of days, there's been an effort by some of the guys at the club to organize and concentrate their painting, identifying a "main" project for 2013, and some supplemental projects they can use to take breaks.  While I defy all efforts to impose organisation on my hobby practises, I figure it can't hurt to do an inventory of  all the stuff I want to do and for which I have models (or, in one case, for which I'm in the process of getting models), i.e., my "Don't fear the Keeper" list.  Supplementing this, of course, is the list of all the stuff I want to do, and for which I don't have models, but might, in the forseeable future (i.e., the "how to grow the lead pile" list).

Unless he breaks your elbow.  Then it's okay.
Don't fear the Keeper:

6mm SYW French (M&R / Maurice)
6mm Late Romans (at this point, no idea, I only have a bit of these, but haven't found the heart to part with them)
10mm High Elves (Warmaster)
15mm  Antigonids (Impetus, expand to  400+)
15mm Spartans (Impetus, to 500 points)
15mm Persians (Impetus)
15mm Mongols (Impetus)
15mm Soviets (cossacks for FoW, infantry for BA)
15mm French and Natives for Muskets and Tomahawks (inbound)
15mm Napoleonic Russian Guard (for Lasalle, but also possibly in competition with 1/72 for my big boy / one day project)
1/72 French (Black Powder?  Lasalle?)
25mm Rohan (Fantasy Impetus / SAGA)
28mm Orks (40k, someday?)
28mm Bretonnians (WFB, Fantasy Impetus?)
28mm Khorne Demons (just a couple, maybe for SBH?)
28mm Space Marines (Classic metals, maybe 40k, maybe just to paint)
28mm Skorne (Warmahordes)
28mm Cryx (Warmahordes)
28mm Khador (Warmahordes)
28mm Asst. (Some Hasslefree, plus all the incoming Reaper figs, who knows for what, possible SBH, but too awesome not to have bought them).

Priorities:

Immediate painting priorities for me right now are the Mongols (working towards the club's February event deadline), the 15mm Soviets for Bolt Action (because it's fun) and 15mm French for Muskets and Tomahawks (because it's my favorite historical period / genre, and I finally have someone to game it with).  That ought to keep me busy well into the spring, even without forays into other projects.

Spring has sprung, the grass is riz, I wonder where my Mongols is?


The tiny, battered, part of me that still feels shame and regret suggests that I should refrain from buying more stuff until I get this mound painted, and for the sake of my own fragile grip on things, I'm going to make a earnest effort.  I can, however, see a few basic barriers to this goal.

First, a fair number of items on the Keeper list consist of enough figures to start a project, but not enough to finish it.  The 15mm Persians, both Napoleonics, and several others fall under this heading.  If I make serious headway on a project, I'm going to find it hard to not pick up what I need (want) to finish it.  The second potential problem comes from the club.  There's already much noise among the gang about the expected release of the new Sam Mustafa ACW game "Longstreet".  There's also a couple of expected Impetus releases (Fantasy and Baroque) that will be hard to resist, though off the top of my head, I can't think of a way to blame that on the club guys ;)

I've got a game lined up for Wednesday, so should be able to get a post up mid-week, and I'm working on the first base of Mongol CL right now.  Assuming things don't go totally pear-shaped, I should be able to knock out a couple posts a week for the next little while.  Until next time,

FMB





9 comments:

  1. Wow! I'm glad I only have a Napoleonic and Late Antiquity fetish to keep me going.

    Next time my wife complains about my hobby taking over my life I'll just show her this post! ;-)

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  2. Nice post - Good luck with it all! :)

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  3. A lot of nice figures, and a lot of work!
    Phil.

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  4. I love the contents of those drawers. Utter chaos! Excellent!

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  5. #1, you always deliver the funny and today was no exception. I love this post!

    #2, I would lay awake at night with 2 drawers worth of unstarted projects but that's just the organizational side of me, being of German stock and all. Then again, you have a vibrant club and local scene. Whatever you paint, you've got opponents for and that is a blessing. Good luck and you might think about quitting your day job so you can REALLY tear into the lead mountain.

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  6. You`re welcome Rosbif ;)

    Thanks gang, a little more tongue in cheek than usual, but I figured it`d be fun. @Monty, you're absolutely right. I can get opponents for pretty much any project I care to pursue, and even a few I hadn't though of pursuing until I met the opponents in question ;)

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  7. It's always fun to read posts like this. But I never (?) show my mountain of unpainted plastic. It's a wall from 2 x 3 m. When my wife saw it her hair raised! :-D

    As some-one else always write: "Model on"!

    Greetings
    Peter
    http://peterscave.blogspot.be/

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  8. Not my genre, but the Orc figs look nice. Looking forward to seeing your Mongols. Best, Dean

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