Sunday, August 19, 2018

Pending Projects and Lead Piles...




Is there such a thing as too much lead?  Probably, especially if it's unpainted.
Is there such a thing as too many projects in progress?  Yes definitely.

Project Management Highs

I placed an order at Waterloo Miniatures for more Napoleonic Age of Sail goodness and when the package arrived I laid the items out to double check it was all there (not that I've ever had a problem with Waterloo Minis, it's just something I do with every order).



I got:

1 French 80 gun ship (hull, masts, sails) - because obviously the French need some additional firepower.
1 British 74 gun ship (hull masts, sails)
6 small boats (The idea being that these can be used for some sort of marker; for instance in Post Captain damage to a ship in the beginning of a turn can trigger a command test at the end of the turn which can be several minutes later if not longer and players forget.  The little boat can be a reminder).
-or simply just to represent boats I guess-
6 mast with brass sails (I have idea to make markers for when a mast is dragging next to a ship)
1 set of 4 fallen mast markers (masts floating in the water, for after the wreckage is cut free).


And looking at the order I thought "Stew my main man, I think you've lost some weight, good job on your diet."  But more importantly I also thought "I am KILLING IT when it comes to AoS project management, self high five!"



What I mean is; after this lot is painted up (and it's not really a lot of stuff) then the Age of Sail project will be complete* with NO lead pile left over.  Everything bought will painted and ready to go.  No over buying, no wasted money, all ready for play.  For me, that is a Project Management High and represents some good hobbying.  As I've said before, I'm not a huge fan of having lead piles (and plastic piles) because I see that as wasteful.  And with time, experience, and self awareness I've gotten much better at knowing what I can accomplish, how much time it will take, and have become much more selective about what I am doing and what I am buying.
-yeah, I know it's not done yet and this is a premature high, but it's such an ity bity leadpile, but needs must wait until next month as for now I have to focus on finishing some ACW stuff for Pacificon at the end of the month.  (about 2 weeks away and counting!)

These must be completed by Pacificon.  A few more bases for each side and some markers for the CSA.


*by complete; I mean complete-for-now.  There's always the possibility for more but with these two ships and markers complete it will give me a grand total of 8 ships (4 per side) which is enough for any game of Post Captain.  It should be enough to also start trying out some fleet level rules.

Project Management Lows, or "What Else is Laying Around Here?"

And looking the AoS lead pile reminds me of the other less than perfectly complete projects that I have laying around.  Staring me in the face with unpainted eyes accusing me of neglect (not that they would have eyes even if I painted them as I don't paint eyes..)

After Pacificon  my 'convention season' wraps up as there are no more cons on the horizon, probably none for the rest of the year.  Which is nice in a way, because then I can stop focusing on putting on convention games for thankless strangers and get back to playing with local friends, maybe even attend the odd club game day.  But it's also a time a reflect on what might be the next new genre or project to start for next year.

And there ain't nothing for a new project like some old project (what is old is new again!).   Maybe it's a good time to start focusing on some of these other disturbing lead piles laying around here and get those projects into the same awesome state as the Sailing Ships.

Like the Dark Ages?  There's more than enough Vikings, Saxons, and Normans laying around...

lots of gripping beat plastic sprues and clams in here.

some works in progress..and large bags of plastic pieces.

A bunch of Normans that I had bought awhile ago and need to rebase and some minor repairs.


Besides generic historically possible scenarios I've long had designs on doing the famous battles of Ashtown, Edington, and of course Hastings.

Or what about all this Lord of the Rings stuff?

A drawer over here

Another drawer over there..

these two ring wraiths on fell beasts that are impossible to store.


I once had an idea of doing some battles in Osigiliath (if you're an LoTR nerd you know what that is)

I even started making some nifty ruins...







These were all made out of Hirst Arts Molds.



Or how about some Wild West? Here's a whole Dead Man's Hand project that hasn't even gotten off the ground....



though Wild West / Dead Man's Hand is something of a trap.  Sure, you only need about 10 miniatures per side. But then you need a whole western town to shoot it out in.  So like $30 bucks for the miniatures and like $300 for the terrain.


Or I could get a move on with my WW2 Rebasing Project.  When I was getting into WW2 games the hot rule set was Flames of War.  Which I did play for many years and liked it up until the point that I didn't.  Now I'd like to have all these guys based individually for rule sets like Chain of Command or what have you.


There's a whole bunch of Americans and Germans needs some rebasing.  


Side discussion: When Flames died...

I remember when I suddenly stopped liking Flames of War.  It was when I hadn't played in a but and then went to an tournament for fun, see folks, and play the game of course.  I took some Panthers bc I thought; "I don't really want to think too hard, so I'll take some big powerful point expensive tanks so I'll have less to carry, but I'll be tough and able to take some shots."  Played my first game against a nice fellow that I don't remember well.  I deployed my panthers, he deployed some Shermans right in front of them.  I said, "you sure you want to do that?"  "Sure, I have the first turn." he says.  'Alright'  I say, and think it's strange bc shermans can't hurt Panthers from the front and even if he moves full speed I'm gonna hit most of them on the next turn.  First turn:
"I'll fire the Shermans at the Panthers" he says.
"I guess, but you can't hurt them?" says I.
"Oh, these are the Shermans armed with the armor penetrating ammo."
"the what now with the armor what?"
"yeah, it's in the new codex / army list / book."  He says.
-sure enough, there it was, a whole codex that I've never even heard of that had Shermans with completely different stats; result: 4 dead Panthers. I remember that the player was nice and not being sneaky, just assumed I knew.  but that experience and some others like it lead me to the thought of "I'm not playing games where the rules and stats keep changing."

Now where was I.. 


OH, and for completeness sake, here's the ACW  pile.




SO maybe before I start some new project..

-say like AWI using Muskets and Tomahawks rules.  Figures can be Blue Moon 18mm purchased from Old Glory just like my ACW suff, where I already have an Old Glory Army card for a 40% discount, and then because it's the same scale the ACW terrain like all those snake rail fences and trees could be used as well...so it really wouldn't be a huge thing to do and I really like AWI....


.. I could pick one of these old ones again.


22 comments:

  1. So,l lookin forward to your AWI pile then,I mean with the army card it's so cheap and you've paid for the card so you need to buy stuff to get your money back..... I'm trying not to buy any figures for a year, I've done it before but I do need to do it,I too have piles of boxes for varying projects so no new figures until salute in April,I haven't bought any figures since April and have even given a 40k army that I will never finish away,I have bought a bit of terrain stuff but mainly bits and bobs so I can try and finish stuff off, so well done on your management of AOS and don't feel bad about the rest,we all do it!
    Best Iain

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    1. I’ve done that too; not buying any miniatures for a year. It’s funny how i still found things to buy though like terrain and rules. Before I moved I did a purge of wargaming projects and all these lead piles are what is left or what I’ve accumulated since.

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    2. Bit of spend, but nowhere near figure spend,oh by the way I meant to say your Lotr ruins are ace,surely you could scratch building your dead mans hand buildings at little cost?
      Best Iain

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    3. I’ve seen some really cool Eold West buildings made of balsa wood and foam core. Might be worth a try, though I’m sure there is a step learning curve. I’m also concerned about storage bc 28mm take up so much room. My dark age buildings are 28mm and are such a pain and take several selves while my 15mm WWII buildings all fit on one shelf. 😀

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  2. Stew, you had me convinced of your great progress with Project Management High with respect to your AoS project. I nearly bought into your argument for not buying more than practical. Then I saw your other projects. Well, we must all begin somewhere and your AoS project is a great place to start.
    Looks like you will be busy for the foreseeable future. That is good!

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    1. It’s kinda cheating bc the AoS genre lends itself to very easy project management: buy a ship, paint a ship, repeat. There’s never a sale or anything to really tempt over spending and I don’t see people selling ships much on eBay or TMP.
      At least while I was taking the pics I discovered that i still have an interest in all these projects and it wasn’t super overwhelming. 😀

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  3. You need to pack that all away and hide it again …. there we are, sorted, now you can buy more stuff :-)

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  4. I am embarrassed to say that I am far worse at project management than you are......but I have begun living by the rule that I must paint two figures for every one I buy.

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    1. Hi Anton! Thanks for the comment.
      I think that is a good rule to live by. It can be hard though. Especially if what you want to buy is a box of 30 figures. 😀

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  5. Ah yes project management. Bit like my 28mm AWI skirmish project that I was going to start after I completed my Napoleonic one...oops 15mm ACW jumped in the way. And to add to that pile I bought some Blue Moon Union cavalry at the weekend at the Partizan show, along with a 28mm Nap engineers cart to be used in a scenario from a blog post at Olicanalad's Games. So a bit more Naps work soon before AWI gets a look in. Did I mention the Portuguese, RHA, and British Cavalry still to do. Oh well I'm sure it with come together in the end.
    Carry on Stew and may the madness continue.

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    1. All sounds great but only if it gets done! 😀
      I figured out that my style is that I tend to glom onto a project and focus on it until it reaches a certain level of completeness and as long as my purchases don’t get too far ahead of my painting it tends to work out.
      Good luck with those projects! All sound great except RHA but only bc I have no idea what that refers to. 😀

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  6. I think that situation is basically just a condition of life. Oddly enough, I just started up LotR (new box set is looking shiny), so if it makes you feel better, i can't even stop myself from adding more ;)

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    1. It’s not a terrible situation but I do believe it needs monitoring.
      It seems that LoTR is every where I look these days; and I’m such a feeble minded follower that I immediately want to join in. 😀

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  7. I was pretty envious of your project managing skills until I continued reading the post... glad to see that you are just like the rest of us. ;)

    I have been pretty good about putting totally new projects into a spreadsheet, where they live without me having to buy lead/terrain/etc. On the downside, I then can see how much it would cost and already have a shopping list.

    As for which project to pursue, LotR may be coming back with the new complete rule book and starter box, so maybe that is the one to do. On the other hand if you are going to go totally new, AWI would be a nice way to amortize your 15mm terrain, and you do have that army card to pay off. Plus red coats are a lot more colorful baddies than butternut!

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    1. Well in my defense the Wild West lead pile is the result of an over generous friend giving it all to me as a gift (though maybe bc he knew he would never get around to it.... I’m looking at you Mr PC!). And the ACW pile is not too large and the result of over generous family giving me a huge OLd Glory gift card.

      I am a little tempted by the new GW rule book. They tend to go OK when they do everything at once.

      First world problems. 😀

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  8. I'm looking forward to seeing these "mast dragging" markers that you're designing.

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    1. Ha! So am I. Don’t know if they will come out looking like it does in my head.

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  9. So many projects, that's life! Love the Normans...

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    1. Thanks Phil. I like the Normans too, probably why I have so many of them. 😀

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