Black Sails Arrive |
Oct 07, 2014 09:17 |
This could be called the straw that broke the camel's back, but calling over 700 models a straw is something of an understatement. And I'm not quite sure I'd consider being likened to a camel exactly flattering...
Sometimes a deal is just too good to pass. When I spotted a lot of 15mm sci-fi models being sold, I knew it was one of them. In earlier times, I wouldn't have hesitated to grab this but my current attempt at self-control spoke against it. For example, grabbing that lot of Bretonnians years back was a good deal, but I still haven't painted even all the archers yet. And there is at least some progress with the Bretonnians with roughly 75 archers painted. Some really good deals are still sitting in the boxes they came in...
This lot happened to coincide pretty nicely with Project H2 which I've been working on lately. Naturally, it wasn't quite a perfect fit but quite good enough.
After shipping and taxes I ended up paying about 30 euros per kilo for the models. Granted, that includes a bit of packaging materials and this ain't no flimsy lightweight plastic either, but I reckon you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a similar price-to-weight ratio anywhere for practically new-in-box models. About 50 vehicles, 660 infantry and a bunch of resin buildings, all in pretty much pristine condition. Looking like a project that never got started. Looking like a lot of future projects on my shelf, truth be told...
The only problem is that under my paint-one-buy-one regime this giant blob of 700 models is posing pretty much an impossible challenge. Even though I'm about 100 figures ahead right now, there is no reasonable way for me to paint over 600 28mm models in less than three months. And that's assuming I won't buy absolutely anything else for the rest of the year...
The options are pretty much:
1) Ignore this lot for the purposes of the count. There is some merit to this approach, but ultimately it is cheating.
2) Just throw in the towel and admit I've lost. While probably true, it does not give incentive to anything about the situation.
3) Grab the new 15mm infantry (I don't have any other) and mass produce it. On the upside, 15mm terminator robots are not exactly the most challenging painting subjects. On the downside, I won't be doing much else for the rest of the year.
What do you think I should do?
P.S. I guess you could say I dug my own grave. I knew this was coming. The paint-one-buy-one principle sounds nice, but in practice it prevents scale changes. The only way to do a smaller than usual scale project under these rules is to immediately paint all new small stuff, making consolidated project purchases very difficult.
P.P.S. Looks like I'll also need to buy about 200 bases for the infantry...
P.P.P.S. The masai are really not involved. I just didn't have more pictures of the sci-fi models.
maxxon
About the principle | Juha (guest) | Oct 07, 2014 15:58 |
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Well, all those regimes we do for ourselves, should you really stick to that? I mean you buy some (or a lot) and you paint some (also a lot, in your case) and that's the way it goes anyway. And the law of the nature is, there will always be more figures than you can ever paint, so why fight it? |
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I climb the mountain because it is there | maxxon | Oct 08, 2014 09:13 |
Why do we set goals for ourselves? Not only because the goal is worthy of achieving but also because striving to achieve it is worthy in itself. We're not saying you shouldn't eat healthy because you're never going to look like a supermodel anyway. On a more practical level, the issue is not that I'm going to run out of storage space. It is that I've already run out of storage space. If I don't control the intake, I'll have to start throwing stuff out, literally. |
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Accounting update | maxxon | Oct 09, 2014 09:07 |
I actually found a bunch of models that were hiding under some buildings and therefore were not counted. The official tally is 788 models. Sigh... |
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Ratio per scale? | Vader (guest) | Oct 09, 2014 13:56 |
You should count the buy/paint -ratio for each scale. If you don't have any unpainted figures in that scale, then the first purchase is "free". Another note, if you don't have enough storage space, then you don't have - painting figures will not give you more storage space. I don't know if selling or giving away miniatures is an option for you, but if it is, then you should have (buy-sell-give)/paint ratio or something. |
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Scaling down... | maxxon | Oct 09, 2014 14:38 |
Yeah, I considered this scaling thing already long ago for the painting diary section. In the end I went with everything counts as one because anything else would just lead to overcomplication. The rules are set and I'm not about to change them mid-game. That would be cheating. I can admit losing, that is not the point. But these are all experiments after all. It is worthwhile to analyze whether they have served to further the underlying goals or not and the reasons for that. At the end of the day the raison d'etre for the resolutions is to get me painting more stuff. In this, they have been successful. The specific other reason behind purchase control clause is to stop buying stuff on a whim. This, largely, has also been successful. I really don't want to count how many figures I bought last year... It is the specifics where the problem lies: What I've been painting exactly, how the success is measured etc. This is a learning experience, and the analysis will be used to set next year's goals. That said, I do realize I'm just delaying a real solution to the storage space problem. After all, painted figures take up more space than unpainted ones. I've never sold a figure I've painted, nor do I plan to. I've given a few as gifts but never sold one. I have sold off unpainted stock, but the problem there is that my backstock is mostly non-GW and therefore pretty much unsellable locally. Arguing price with stingy a-holes does not serve to improve my disposition. It's not like I need the money to pay the rent. I would be glad to give some as gifts, especially in local circles where I stand a chance of seeing them again, if I just could be sure that the gift was appreciated. |
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Better luck next year | Vader (guest) | Oct 09, 2014 15:52 |
The bright side, if you start painting those small scale miniatures next year, your ratio will allow you to buy a lot of 28 scale miniatures... :D But the problem is common, as a teenager we had lots of time and no money, we bought miniatures and painted them, when we got more money, then we bought more. Nowadays there is less time and maybe more money (at least compared to the amount of time). Let's face it, we will never have all of our miniatures painted. :) Of course this kind of ratios are helpful and at least we are not living with false feelings "yeah, I have not bought that much and I have painted a lot", but with cruel facts. It helps to buy less. Sometimes. |
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Winds of Change... | maxxon | Oct 10, 2014 09:07 |
Well, I've been doing the basic resolutions format for two years now. While it's been effective in a way, I'm not totally happy with it. I'll need to rethink the whole deal for next year. |
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