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Last night I was looking through some other threads and I saw some amazing examples of artistic vision, tenacious dedication, and genuine focus. I've always had respect for people that have creative vision coupled with timely execution and see a project followed through to completion. I also experience pangs of bitter self-loathing because I have had dozens of "amazing" ideas over the years that are sitting in boxes, bins, drawers, or on my "Shelf of Shame". The Shelf of Shame is where I put the projects that I invested the most time and money into and still do not finish. It is near my painting desk in plain sight and takes up space I could be using for something else. It is intended to be a reminder that I really do not need more miniatures, and in a lofty sense it is supposed to be motivation to actually finish the projects that I have already started. You can probably guess how that is working out so far.

I was thinking about this more and more today, and decided to open a thread specifically dedicated to failed projects. Not WIP, but failed. Forever unfinished, doomed to remain flat black or 1/2 covered with GS forever. Those projects that you were *so* excited about at one point but now you would rather watch soap opera reruns than endure the grueling drone of working on them again. Those are the projects you'll never finish.

...or will you? Again, with lofty ideals and high hopes... there is a chance that someone might actually pull out some old stuff and give it a critical eye once again. And there is also the possibility that sharing an idea you didn't pull off could inspire someone else to try something similar.

This thread is intended in good humor and will hopefully be fun. What I'm looking for here are works that you were truly inspired by at one point, such as a Traitor Guard unit with sick grotesque mutations, any kind of kit-bashed Orky vehicle, something like that. you want. Feel free to give some background if you want. I'll post a few of my more notable failures tonight.


(if a thread like this one already exists please accept my lame apology and feel free to direct me to it, I did not find one).

i don't have any failed mini's, but I sure will like this thread

Early on, when I got a massive box of orkz for Xmas. This wouldn't be so bad if I didn't like spending 2-4 hours per model. I got through 35 orkz, and just couldn'g bring myself to do anymore.

I have a tonne of unfinished models, but none of them are as bad as that. I've learned from then on to buy armies as piecemeal, rather than in bulk.

I'm down with this thread BIG TIME. I'll gather some pics and get back here soon. Dirty laundry time.

I will too. I have some failed projects many people will remember.

Hmmmm..... Failed project...... Let me see....... Well I was just kidnapped by evil spirits and fought my way out with the help of Bill Clinton but I think I could find something in the 'Ol Box-O-Shame. Its not that I wont finish these projects its just I get side tracked some what easily. Well I'll be back with more later time to start digging.

Failed Project- Chaos Marauders

This is the most recent failure. I can safely say "failure" because I am never going to finish these and I'm never going to play them again. Ever. Here's the story: I first put together a unit of 35 Marauders together for the first WFB game I had played in 10 years. They were flat black at the time and not a lot of work went into them. They were crushed. I put them on the back burner and concentrated on my Warriors.

A couple months later I was putting together a list for a WFB campaign game. I had recently read the special rules for Wulfrik the Wanderer I knew I had to make a HUGE block of them with Great Weapons (49 in all, ) to completely freak out my opponent as they came in on whatever random table edge I wanted and tore through whatever was left of his Dwarfs.

I put hours of work into snipping Flails and turning them into Great Weapons and once I was finished I started to paint them. I immediately realized that painting Marauders was not going to be a fun project for me. That made me drag my feet, and by the time the game came around I had a only a few of them finished and most were less than 1/2 completed. Some were no better than the photo, but these are the worst of the lot. So yeah, painting them wasn't fun but at least I had made a huge effort and would get around to finishing them eventually.

I changed my mind however when they failed every roll of the game. Did not come on the table until they did so by default, were defeated in combat resolution, failed their Ld test, and broke off the table.

It's not so much the combat result, bad dice can happen anytime. It's the combination. I don't like the models much, painting them is annoying, and they really didn't do much to impress me during their first or second adventure. The Marauders are finished.

Umm, I could just take a shot of my workroom and put that up

This should be inspirational stuff!

Hmm, my very first sm captain. My very first model too.
No pics, because he is in a landfill by now. He started out 'ok' for a first mini. Regal blue, with silver where appropriate, and red for the cape.
Then, I repainted him using this 'testors' paint, and this was like 6 years back so I didn't strip the model. The result was a complete mess. I set him aside and worked on a few chaos warriors (they were bad too)
Then, I tried to repaint him again, and he was even gakkier.
A few months ago, I tried to strip him, but the nail polish removed I used melted an extremely thin amount of the plastic, so he kinda puffed up a tiny bit. I didn't think it was a problem, but the puffy part kept moving arounf when I touched it (finger print sunk in, etc) I threw him in the trash. He was unsaved.

Failed Project- Imperial Space Marines

For balance, here's on of the oldest failed projects I have, and this one is a shame because I could have gone in this direction and been pretty happy.

These are the first Space Marines I ever got. Some are missing from this photo but I know where they are. I made a force representing a Crusade with a tactical squad from each of "the big 4" and 2 squads of Terminators. I bought a box of the Rogue Trader Imperial Space Marines and used Terminators from the original Space Hulk set. I also picked up some metal Marines, one of which is in this photo.

My aspirations were high and my intentions were genuine. I had read all about Space Marines, had watched a couple games against Eldar and Imperial Guard (not sure why they were fighting, maybe they mistook each other for Heretics) but then someone introduced me to Orks...

A few years later I tried again, this time thinking that if I added armor to the force it would motivate me to finish the Marines. 3 of the 4 Dreadnoughts are now claimed by Chaos and the Rhinos wound up supporting my Genestealer Cult. The rest have been tucked away, a monument to a time when I looked to the light of the Emperor and found myself unworthy.

I will have to take a picture to go with this but here goes.
I started playing 40K (Rogue Trader) in 90-91, at the time one could field a pure Harlequin army. I saw the Harlequins and the amazing paint jobs that people were doing, I had great aspirations, they were my first army. Now, approx 20 years later, I started playing again and they still sit, primed but unpainted (well I did paint 3 about 6 months ago). Maybe someday...........

Fafnir- I know exactly what you mean. I'll be posting my failed Ork projects before long.

battle Brother Lucifer- Gummi Marines. I did that do some Beakies once, soaked them in Pine Sol at the suggestion of a friend. They were wrong.

MudgeBlack- I have a couple projects like that. Where did the time go???

Years and years ago a friend of mine had this awesome Grenadier dragon (they made a ton of different dragons, I have no idea which one) with separate wings that needed to be attached.

Now in those days we had no clue how to properly drill and pin such appendages, so his father got out a soldering iron to 'lightly melt the metal together' - destroyed the darned thing, melted lead all over. Project: FAILED (well, hey, we were just kids...)

My friend thought it would be funny to assemble my scouts with Tau Firewarrior legs. They now look like marines on chicken legs. DAMN YOU BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!

I don't really have any failed projects, just put on hold for the moment, but trust me i will fail one of these soon, chaos is looking for me

the soldering!!

And I can just picture those dudes wiith the chicken legs

Ummmm Everything?

Most recently, I tried to make an Eruption Gun for my Dwarfs of Chaos army (it's in the indie rulebook)...man it's ugly, and not in a good way.

lol, Ambull, somewhere in one of my boxes is the bottom half of an old metal ogre, top half got melted by a soldering iron trying to affix an arm I believe.

So I really consider most of my stuff 'on hold' rather than 'failed' Those that do get binned just get re-cycled elsewhere usually, or bits of them do at least However, I'm fairly confident that not even the new goodies will get these guys back off the ground:



Started them back when they were released, liked them then, didn't like them a short while later Don't like the models, hate the paint scheme, just have no love left for these at all. Those raiders are just chaos black, that's dust making them grey, they've been sitting on a shelf completely untouched for several years now. Various grotesques have been slowly merging in with my mutants, a few other bits have been croping up here and there in various 'projects'.

I do however like the bikes, not sure what I'm planning to do with them, but they will get some attention again at some point, who knows they may eventually get joined by some of the new ones too - those I do like.

And then there's this :



That box under the Battle for Macragge is my DE box, it's not full to the brim but there's a bunch of stuff in there.

Think that's pretty much a failed project then However looking at them again I have just thought of a possible use for some of those helmets at last

Edit : Oh, yeah and they're blue as I thought it would be cool to have the 'shadow-skinned' mandrakes with midnight blue skin, and I had some kind of fluff involving blood-lines or something. The wytches were a cult that took inspiration from the mantilex, a kind of insect with a high mutation rate which they bred for fighting and racing games. The mantilex came in different size groups and were yellow and black striped, hence the bike colours, and the differing styles is a reference to their mutability. It went something like that.

The landraider interior, i have most of it finished but i just havnet put it together, the land raider is together and can be puilled apart to see the inside but , all the electric wires and LEDs arent connected.


Then the ThunderHawk..... well its 85 percent built and looking good, until my kittens decided too use it as a scratching toy.... so i can easly repair the damaged.. but i bought a FW one... so its goin too be a terrian piece....

Kinda like my titan i built( i gave it too my game store for terrain pieces..... I bought a FW one ) It was built and had two games play but i wanted a real one...

anD THERE out of ammo, i just never finished him ..... hes still in the army as a value member.

My WOC fantasy army - I was going to do marauders and have it slaneshi themed... it failed... but now I am going to trade the marauders for other stuff. Nothing is ever failed... it is always a resource.. you just have to value it and part with it for the right thing.

I will try and find a remaining mini as most of them just go binned. About 10 years ago I destroyed about 40 plastic space marines, and the arms, guns, shoulder pads, for another 40. This was such an epic FAIL i left the hobby for the much cheaper (i.e. no minis) WFRP.

I can genuinely say that I have had more concerted focus for the projects I am working on in the last 2 days that I have in the last 2 months. I should have started this earlier.

Thanks to all who have shared so far. I know there are a lot of stories out there.

Good idea that simply FAILED: Some kind of robot/dreadnaught/'knight' type thing, I really didn't know what it was intended to be, but the technique was sort of a good idea but I ran out of steam and the project disintegrated.

I designed some strange gothic looking shapes and printed them out onto really stiff paper, and painstakingly trimmed them out and stacked them up to create a relief texture. These panels then became the sides, fronts, back of the walking thing. Maybe I'll go back to the idea someday but it will not be done this way. I don't know what the hell I was thinking, I should have known better. It's kind of therapeutic to come on here and divulge this failure, to admit to it.

Looks like a face on legs. I like it

I'll have to add a picture, but long story short I decided to paint a white army for my first army.


It came out horrible. I ruined an ironclad dread, I still need to strip it.

My flatemate got pretty heavily into Orks awhile ago because he loved the look of him. Unfortuneatly in his first game I spanked him so hard that now he is really dragging his feet on painting them.

Then he went on holiday for a few weeks and got psyched to get back into it after I kept promising that he wouldn't always loose so hard. So he pulled out all his Orks and primed them with some black spray paint he got cheap from a budget store...

Turns out the paint he got wasn't matte paint like the label said, and now he has about fifty nobs, stormboys, bikes and Ghazghull that are shinier than my slightly balding head!

That is a definite failed project in my book!

Ahh, Orks. My first true love in the 40K 'ooniverse, and also my greatest shame. Orks represent my most epic achievement and my most crushing failure when it comes to wargames modeling. I tend to be a bit obsessive, to *REALLY* get into something, immerse myself in it... then become overwhelmed and have no idea how to manage it. Ultimately I step back and avoid it. This is the result:





This was the contents of ONE BOX. I have another one with a comparable number of Orks (mostly Goffs and Grots, also has my Death Skull Clan) but after setting all this up decided that a fair representation would suffice.

Cult of Speed, Snakebite Boarboys, a Bad Moon Clan, countless Grots, Runtherds w/ Snotlings, Painboyz, Meks, Bloodaxe Clan, Bloodaxe Kommandos, Stormboyz... and now that the rules have changed and the new models are so ridiciously huge, almost everything on this table is obsolete.

I know that I'll paint a bit of this, and yes I can play this army if I want, but overall it is the fail that all of my other failures are measured against.

That is an absolutely enormous unfinished army. Humongous. Loads of minis I remember from my first army.
I dont collect orks anymore but I estimate that your failed army would be worth at least 100 quid or the equivalent dollar vaule! so all is not lost. waste not want not etc

Wow, there's some cool mini's there. Don't let them go towaste, let Dakka inspire you and re-vitalise them Let the old-skool loose