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Over the years I have collected, sold, and rebought armies for years and after discussing it with some of my friends, can't decide if collecting an army is hoarding. Gaming isnt hoarding you say? Does your collection take up more than 2 army cases? Mine takes up a display case and 3 army cases. If my room were smaller, it may take up about 1/6 of it.

If all my figures were painted and based the answer would be a definite "no" but as I have not accomplished the task of having a mostly painted army I admit it. So yes, I for one am a hoarder, as I still have never finished completely painting an army, and have hundreds of figures I ignore because I have more important things to do (school, women, excercise, cooking, hanging out, internet, these forums.) Ive recently been like it and have just been mass painting via spray paint and drybrush highlighting with scorched brown washing. Before this attitude the figures in my gallery were all painted by me, but IMO take too much of my personal time. 8 hours for each chaos daemon averaging 20 hours just for the squad of purple noise marines, thinking back I could've beat another RPG, got a six pack by now, etc.

So, anyone else have a "collecting" problem or do you feel you can be done with the game and dump everything on the curb one day?

So if I get most of it painted it doesn't count as hoarding?

SWEET DEAL I like your definition.

If you dump it on the curb, let me know where you live!

That being said, it's taken a LOT of self control to not spend large chunks of my paycheck on small plastic figures... If I had the capital, I would hoard like there was no tomorrow!

I figure it's hoarding when you have no idea if or when you'll paint the majority of it. I've been good about not buying anything so far this year and just trading stuff I won't paint for stuff I will paint, and so far so good!

malfred wrote:So if I get most of it painted it doesn't count as hoarding?

SWEET DEAL I like your definition.

If you can paint several armies of 2000 points and they look nice (but not award winning) you should definietly post them in all of their glory on dakka. I cant though, orks just make me want to stomp on any of them I dont need for my 2500 army. Too much converting and painting but 3 years from now well worth it.

I think your definition of hoarding is skewed. Sounds like you just like war-gaming better than painting. Unless, of course you don't play at all and all your models collect dust while suffering from an inane need to keep your precious grey hoard. Besides, you clearly score with the women as you stated. So, my muscle-y friend, relax!

ED: poor attempts at grammarmathing.

More like 30 years to paint mine. I have a lot of orks and truly hate painting them. I love playing with them, assembling them and converting them, but painting them.. no.

And i'm DEFINITELY a hoarder

Interesting question...
Though I agree with what was previously stated...that definition of hoarding is skewed.
I started collecting my Orks in the early 90's, took an eleven year hiatus, and with the encouragement of some pals...got back into the hobby. My army has increased exponentially in the last two years (over 9K points). My Orks take up three cases, and two bookshelves in the den...I'm still building more (add another case of Necrons). Only a fraction of those are painted...not due to laziness, quite the contrary, I invest too much time into each mini (my current project is painting a Dread in the manner of a Balinese Barong). I can only do so much given the confines of time between work, and family...
Is it "hoarding"?, I don't think so. Hoarding would be collecting in such a way that it affects your life...in my case I believe it enhances mine. My models, books, and other paraphernalia, are all contained and organized...way better than the wife's shoes.

i would consider myself a hoarder except i play with my models and only play with fully painted models (95% +, cuz i always miss something then realize it 3 weeks later)

Hoarding as a mental condition is more a matter of having things pile up so high you can barely move through the living space. You'll spend money first on collecting, and last will come things like food and bills.

If you've taken the time to assemble them and actually do play with them, I don't see this being a likely hoarding situation. (Having a backlog is okay -- having a room packed floor to ceiling, wall to wall full of 'I'll use these some day' models is another.) Some people don't want to take a lot of time to paint their stuff, they'd rather just play. And that's fine. I've been playing with a bunch of unpainted and underpainted models for ages, and my local group doesn't care one bit; they'd rather I have fun playing, and sometimes have to prod me into using a model I haven't finished yet.

As for how much room your collection takes up, that's not bad. It'll fit in a small closet with room to still see everything, so no sweat. Don't think you're 'weird' or crazy for collecting stuff. Some people have closets full of baseball cards, or comic books. Me, I have a closet full of yarn.

(I'm not kidding. Plastic storage bins, floor to ceiling, each labelled with the contents. Full of yarn. Some day I'm going to start knitting miniature sweaters for my Space Marines, I swear...)

I'm not a hoarder.

I get rid of stuff periodically. Not even sell, sometimes it just goes into a skip. I'm sure someone would want it and would even pay money for it, but it is no longer of any value to me so I get rid of it.

My wife's family are "collectors" - yet they never seem to throw anything out, so the shed tends to be full of crap as a result.

As Candroth said above, hoarding is (in the case of toy soldiers) a slightly irrational condition in which someone acquires much more of the stuff than they can use, because of imagined requirements.

The classic hoarders are dragons, who amass as much treasure as possible, and do nothing with it.

Collectors buy stuff to slot into gaps in their collection. The stuff doesn't necessarily get used, but it performs a role as a display piece. Even if it just fills a mental slot.

The classic wargamer like myself, often buys things with the intention of doing something with it, but he gets side-tracked and the items end up in a cupboard.

For example, I've got a large number of 15mm SF figures from the old Laserburn range. Some of them were painted up for Traveller and Laserburn back in the day, but the majority are still bare metal. I keep promising myself to get some new SF rules and finish all the figures.

This isn't hoarding or collecting. It's just bad organisation.

I agree with Chromedog that when things go too far you have to get rid of stuff. I hate to chuck it out, so if I can I put it on eBay or give it to someone. But if that is too much trouble, I bin it.

I collect and hoard. Some stuff I 'collect', I don't know when/if I'm going to get around to painting it but there are certain things I always try to buy if I see them hopefully to get as much of the range as possible. I certainly want to keep them all because I'm interested in them. This is what I do for Judge Dredd and Doctor Who miniatures.

Other stuff counts as hoarding; if I'm honest I don't see myself doing anything with them, I don't have great interest in them and yet I can't part with them. That's hoarding.

My parents are terrible hoarders. They buy new stuff and make it, and often dip into their collections for the odd thing. But the reality is that they have more model kits than they could ever make and 54mm figures going back decades stored in dozens of tins packed away around the house. Morbid as it sounds I can almost guarantee that most will not be touched until the day they die.

Candroth wrote:Some day I'm going to start knitting miniature sweaters for my Space Marines, I swear...

This would be EPIC!

As long as they are snow based, and the sweaters have tiny reindeer and snowflakes and holly on them....


As for hoarding, I don't really have enough capital to purchase enough stuff to be classed as a hoarder in 40K terms, however I do have a cupboard and a 'gorilla tub' dedicated to (possibly) not broken electronics!

I think that having the models for more than two armies which will be made in the future is a clear sign of hoarding (I am myself guilty of this.) I really should start powering through them than be a lazy bum.

Hoarding is the correct way to go. Never sell or get rid of any GW stuff. Someday, it may be the coolest army again. I have been hoarding continuously since 1990.

I was into a generic Marine\Guard army back in 93. I sold those in 2004 after not playing for 10yrs or so and roughly doubled my money. So I say horde away but sell someday!

After I got back into it and decided to do an Ork army I limited myself to only buying something new when I had the last thing painted.

I'm not hoarding.
But I like Dragons....

Would call it collecting. Tend to aim for a realistic army structure, thus end up with more than enough models at 1,5 - 2 x times of the common army size in points.
Plus, I almost never recycle models for another project, so they stay as they are and new ones get added.

Just look at the little heads below.... each representing 1 real existant army ..... (dakka hasn't enough of them ,sadly an incomplete listing.)

I think if you use something in really any fashion, whether it be painting, playing, or whatever it isn't hoarding. Now the problem is I plan on using my models for something but hardly have the time to actually use them.

malfred wrote:So if I get most of it painted it doesn't count as hoarding?

SWEET DEAL I like your definition.

Hahahaha, I've seen your thread my friend, you've got nothing to worry about at your pace.

I sometimes feel the same way about "hoarding" my army because I don't use them very frequently and most of them are unpainted, except it's kind of the reversal for me. I'm super busy so I can't spend enough time on them as I'd like.

Some day I will take a picture of foam trays in my basement.