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Just how much stuff do you have, in terms of models, which isn't part of your army?

This can come from random 'that's pretty cool' purchases, aborted armies, and other assorted odds and sods you have absolutely no memory of buying, but have anyways....

Me? Rather a lot. Was going through my Bitz Box the other day, having finally recovered them from my mates flat (long story). During the hours long rummage (is a very big box) I was shocked at just how many potential armies I have knocking around. Put it this way, I have 4 boxes worth of Saurus and 2 boxes of Skinks, plus a few Metal Saurus characters, from an army I lost interest in whilst painting. Thus, should Lizardmen ever decide to tickle my fancy again, I should only really need a Slaan, perhaps a Skink Shaman or two, and I have a full army raring to go. Now, the amount randomly sitting their might seem high, but I did used to be a staff member with two jobs (Full Time and Key Time GW job to give me the discount :p ) so money was far less of an option.

But surely every gamer must have the seeds of more armies than he might care to admit? I find it hard to believe that the majority of gamers have always been shrewd investors, as most of us were kids when we started, and thus just bought stuff we thought was cool and practical use be damned.

Who knows, you might even find enough stuff to trade with another Poster (in the relevant Forum, natch) to bulk out your current or next force?

I guess the crux of the matter is, despite prices, just how many of us appear to have more money than sense! :p

i collect 8 different armies, and have models i like from alot more.
if people dont like prices then maybe its time for them to stop collecting.
GW is a buisness, so they want max. proffit from it.
im happy to pay thier prices, otherwise instead of painting most of the time i would be wasting that money on things like drink or going out every day, atleast this way i have something to show for my money.

I don't really know what 'an army' means, I know what a 'fully painted army' is even less, but my Imperial Guard models come to over 10,000 points spread over four companies. I don't buy anthing new from GW and as a result I never need to complain about their prices.

I also have a hefty Cryx army (almost every relesed model) and growing Panzergrenadier, Circle Orboros and Mercenary (Warmachine) forces.

I bought more stuff than I needed for my Tau, then cut back and sold off the excess on eBay. I have more units than can be put into 2,000 points but it gives flexibility and let's me play 2K+ games. At least I've managed to assemble it all and start getting it painted.

Thanks to the 5th edition Troops rule, I might need to add one or two boxes of FW.

Other than that I have a big load of beaky SMs and plenty of old skool Terminators from Space Hulk and the metals that got issued at the same time. This isn't an army and would need a lot of extra units bought to make it one, which I don't plan to do.

I only have about 1135 pts of CSMs. I have a base squad of CSMs unpainted as well as some Termies. Besides that I don't have anything. And I need more Oblits. Thinking of converting the 5 Termies to Oblits. Probably better than buying actual oblits now. Maybe some weapon bitz from my friends and a box of Spawn will get me the parts to spread out to them to make it work.

I wanted to buy some Noise Marines to start a second Slannesh CSM army. But it looks like I'll be buying basic CSMs and converting them with some tyranid weapons. GW is losing out IMHO. We know how to convert things. And almost everyone excepts them, some even expect them.

There is a lot of metal I know I won't be able to afford now. I really don't do much with my money except waste it on food/clothing/housing/utilities though.

I'm trying to cut everything back significantly, especially stuff I'm not playing atm.

I have a PILE of fantasy stuff (Reaper, Harlequin/Icon/Black Tree, Ral Partha, etc.) that's purely for the heck of it. It might get used for D&D or Mordheim or something else (SOBAH? Broadsword Adventures? Armies of Arcana? HOTT?) but for now, they're on my lead mountain, ready to go for when I have no money to spend on preciouses.

While I have a handful of ork bits (using them to make more beefy necormunda gangers. Goliaths are still a little small), with that exception, all other bits in my collection are part of armies that I have (SM, Eldar, DH and IG - although the latter two are really a two-fer).

I have enough models in my SM and eldar to field most IC options wysiwyg, and easily enough FOC options to fill a chart twice over.

By order of preferences here goes some of my collected items.

- Tyranids I have so many im afraid to count them... problem is im still buying them and when they get on my hands I sculpt lots from scratch, his is my favorite army...
- Death guard terminator army... just about everything to make a small 14 deathguard csm, 2 rhinos, 18 termis, lord, 3 oblits ( apart from models i have 2 huge boxes filled with things like necromunda, chaos etc for convos)
- Pirates small warband with minis from freebooter etc
- Uraken gobbos from rackham ( all of them)
- Warmachine khador a few jacks and still buying stuff

Edit: how could i forget... and a infinity Yu jing barband

Unpainted, unassembled, part assembled, half painted then stopped, collectors/games day models mint in box/blister .... probably somewhere around $4000 US.

Was much, much worse but have sold off the vast majority of my clutter.

Also some of the above will end up in armies or as conversions... eventually, but most will eventually be sold at a lost.

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Just how much stuff do you have, in terms of models, which isn't part of your army?

This can come from random 'that's pretty cool' purchases, aborted armies, and other assorted odds and sods you have absolutely no memory of buying, but have anyways....

Awesome post, Doc.

I don't want to open a can of worms about measuring the utility of unused miniatures (some people may value their constant availability as a form of active use), but sometimes I think that the real cost of miniatures should be figured out by factoring in the cost of unused miniatures. So if you can divide your miniature hobby collection into used and usused, I'd say the true cost of the used is the total amount paid divided by just the miniatures that are used.

I still think GW's stuff can be very expensive per figure, but if we're talking total hobby cost, than any maker can be expensive. Even if someone is into gaming with paper flats, they have the cost of their colour printer and whatnot to factor into the equation.

However, most of us have the habit of thinking about the utility of something that puts us in the best possible light. I can't really see too many people enjoying buyer's remorse.

I don't think it matters are long as you're having fun.

Tabletop wargames are not just about having a pile of figures. It's the enjoyment of reading the history (or fluff) researching and planning an army or a campaign. And playing a game sometimes!

As long as you can pay your mortgage and electricity bills, what's the problem?

At one time, I has a massive bitz box, but then the Eye of Terror supplement came out and I savagely raided it for parts to build mutants. More recently, I converted a bunch of WWII vehicles I bought just for the hell of it into various Ork vehicles, so now I have hardly anything. Between that and two AoBR sets with marines traded for Orks, I have a sizeable Ork army for not much money. I put my WFB beastmen on round bases (That's all!) and now they are more LatD mutants. I still have some chaos warrior, marauders and knights hanging around that I will probably still have stuck away in a box when I die. By the time I get all those Orks painted, the new Necrons codex will be out then we'll see how interested I still am in them. I have limited space, so turnover is pretty harsh. However, with the higher prices, armies will grow slower from now on.

I've decided to limit myself to the following:

Armies built around:

Cygnar: Epic Caine, Jeremiah Kraye
Protectorate of Menoth: Everything
Cryx: Epic Skarre, Epic Lich, Goreshade, Epic Goreshade, Skarre, Terminus
Khador: Vlad, eVlad, eButcher
Mercs: Broadsides Bart, Magnus, eMagnus

Circle Orboros: Kaya, epic Kaya, Kromac
Legion of Everblight: Rhyas, Thagrosh, eLylyth
Skorne: Zaal, Xerxis, Makeda, eMorghul
Trollbloods: eMadrak

40k: Not much. Maybe Eldar and Grey Knights.

Fantasy: Tri-Elfs, maybe Vampire Counts

Tri-elfs?

i.e. High, Wood and Dark? I thought you were getting rid of your DE stuff...

I tried, and then I ended up painting 21 Corsairs.

I guess Malfred thought Tri-elf player sounds a hell of alot better than bi-elf player.

Waaagh_Gonads wrote:I guess Malfred thought Tri-elf player sounds a hell of alot better than bi-elf player.

That's playa.

i had a beastman i was given free that I ended up trading for a dark eldar army that I'm never going to use.

i have about 13k of WH and IG (combined of course!) that will probably continue to grow. i just bought some ork stuff, but im not sure where thats gonna go. i might just sell it (tho i doubt that, ill probably keep it and paint it when i get around to it). but other than that, i have a BUNCH (like 150) cadians to paint and something like 25 or 30 SoB to paint (thank god for the To40kP on warseer to get my ass motivated ).

other than that, all of the bitz and whatnot that i own pertain to the armies listed above (which im very proud of, especially considering some of the people here and their nutz collections of stuff that will never see the light of day).

just my 2 imperial credits.
BLARGAG!!!

Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:Just how much stuff do you have, in terms of models, which isn't part of your army?

Right now? Very little. For the past few years, I've been pretty careful to limit and consolidate purchases to my current armies. And the other stuff got sold or traded. So I'm very happy with this.

Well I do have the Dark angels Chapter so I would assume that is a little more than you might play in your standard game. Other than that I tend to keep things pretty much only at the army list level.

I am selling my one army in a vain attempt at starting another. I have very little other than what was in that army (including bitz). I push my purchases about as far as they can go so little really goes unused.

6000 points black templars
10000 points daemons <no really, I need 3 of every greater daemon!> :blush:
4000 unpainted white scars models
ogre kingdoms
empire
dwarfs (no points on any of these cause I don't even play fantasy!)

I have my Marines, and my revived guard army. I have a bunch of guardsmen that are beyond use due to a packing error, and a stack of blisters I got from raffles and goddybags thanks to my local GW store.
Plus a few models from the Ork army I sold off, and that damn box of ogres I won at games day that I'm gonna convert into ogryns.