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So how many models of any game system, not just GW, are lying around your domicile unbuilt and unloved?

Which do you have more of? Built, Built and Painted, or Unbuilt?☆


☆ For clarification, let's assume that monopose metal and plastic figures that are not on a base, nor haven't been removed from their box/blister pack, count as "unbuilt."

If I go way back into the deeps, I’ll have to say the PoS is larger then my painted pile. Simply because I have shoeboxes full of old lead minis that were dumped on me second hand.

For my “active” pile, I’m in much better shape. I’ve got a chunk of stuff still on sprue, but have been much better for the last couple decades of not overbuying. And have actively painting more then I buy for most of the years I’ve been blogging.

I have 3914 painted minis. I don't think I could at this point have more unassembled unless I made some very poor life choices.

I have 37 unpainted minis that are mostly assembled outside of a couple models from the new Tomb World set that are a bit dependent on how the datasheet turns out assuming GW ever gives the new Deathwatch rules...

I did recently order the Old Umbrey army for Warmachine so I'll have about 33 models there that need to be built when they arrive along with about 3 Marvel figures coming out next week.

I did used to have a real backlog but over the Pandemic I made an effort to get caught up and from there try to buy within the rate that I actually paint. I never leave things unbuilt in part because I really enjoy building and because having it together lets me see what I'm making to help drive me to getting paint on it.

I hardly have any unbuilt, unpainted models. I only buy new ones/new board game with miniatures when I know they are going to be the next project in the queue. If I buy a bigger set but I am not planning to use some parts of it right now, I sell these parts (for example a team I don't want from a two-team Kill Team box).

I have a pretty negative outlook on the consummerist culture so I only buy things I am sure I will use immediately.

I definitely have more built/ built + painted.

Though I do have a fair # of unbuilt....

Almost completely built, but more unpainted than painted here.

99% of my vast collection is unpainted... every time I sit down to paint I end up sculpting more minis which increases the percentage of unpainted even further . In short? Im doomed!

Definitely many more built than not. And I think probably more painted than unpainted as well, though not all of them are painted to my current standard.

Waaaaay more built than unbuilt.

Everything is built, but I assembling everything once it's delivered.

My very rough guess is I have like 66% painted and 33% not painted/ built. Within these 33% there's stuff that's just built, but also unfinished stuff in various stages of painting.

Within the 66% there's possibly more than half without finished bases, because I hate basing. Still, I consider these ready to play and about every 5 years or so I have a phase where I do some basing.

You missed a 3rd option.
I possibly have equal numbers of built, and unbuilt or part-built models. I magnetise a lot of them, and paint a lot of models in sections.

So a part-built model might be unpainted, painted, or painted with more parts than that single model could possibly use at once.

Way, way more unbuilt than built. I'm the type of person who hoards this FOMO stuff with the intention of finishing them after my pensioner years start. My biggest regrets in life are the minis I rushed and built/painted to a half assed standard, that stuff would have been better off staying on the sprue..

I've a lot more unbuilt than built (let's not even mention painted because I might crumble of shame).

Damn near everything is built - I might still need to do 10 gants from the Leviathan box, can't remember.

Most things that are built are at least primed, I don't have much bare plastic sat around. Maybe some dark eldar jetbikes and a Talos.

I have a lot that is primed and waiting for paint - or maybe with one or two base colours applied. That's my stumbling block, the actual painting.

Waaay more unbuilt than built

I'm getting a bit better at not buying things faster than I paint but the backlog is not defeatable in one lifetime.

At one stage back in early 2001 after moving back to Australia from the UK after a year of buying GW minis by weight at staff discount price there a mate and I counted up my unasssembled models and gave up at 12,000 with 2 more full cupboards to go,
90 plus percent of that has been sold off, along with a lot of other models bought subsequently.

Now I would definitely have more painted models, then unassembled, then assembled but need painting.
Thanks mainly from moving from WHFB and 40k as my main focus to Warmachine and Marvel Crisis Protocol.


I’ve been working on my Praetorian Guard IG this year, and have painted over 120 models and still have that many to assemble, 60 of which are with me here on holiday in Japan so that I can finish removing mold lines and assemble ready for when I get back to Australia, and likely get to next year. The production line grind never ends.

I have around 40 unpainted minis and hundreds of painted ones from 40k/AOS/WFB and Malifaux.

Built. If i have anything unbuilt for more than two months, i consider selling it on as it's fallen by the wayside as a priority.

Wow, that is a strict approach! I'm very feast or famine with when I get things done but I never sell stuff on any more because I've always regretted it. That said, I've only sold painted minis, never boxes of stuff unassambled so perhaps it's easier if you've not gotten attached that way.

 Da Boss wrote:
Wow, that is a strict approach! I'm very feast or famine with when I get things done but I never sell stuff on any more because I've always regretted it. That said, I've only sold painted minis, never boxes of stuff unassembled so perhaps it's easier if you've not gotten attached that way.

I know it goes against gamer tradition, but i hate having stuff sitting in boxes. At least if it's built, it can get used. Even if it may not get paint in the foreseeable.

 Inquisitor Gideon wrote:

 Da Boss wrote:
Wow, that is a strict approach! I'm very feast or famine with when I get things done but I never sell stuff on any more because I've always regretted it. That said, I've only sold painted minis, never boxes of stuff unassembled so perhaps it's easier if you've not gotten attached that way.

I know it goes against gamer tradition, but i hate having stuff sitting in boxes. At least if it's built, it can get used. Even if it may not get paint in the foreseeable.

I've more or less hit a similar place. I've gotten to where the primary cost of a purchase is the time I'm going to need to put into it and if its not enough of a priority for me to want to put that time in immediately, I probably don't need to pick it up at all. Like when I need a Beastboss and Snaggas right after the recent Combat Patrol was released I considered (and probably should have) passed on it simply because I didn't want to take the time to paint the Squighogs that are effectively free in the box.

Far more built models, but my unpainted minis and unbuilt kit collection is probably in the hundreds.

 tauist wrote:
Way, way more unbuilt than built. I'm the type of person who hoards this FOMO stuff with the intention of finishing them after my pensioner years start. My biggest regrets in life are the minis I rushed and built/painted to a half assed standard, that stuff would have been better off staying on the sprue..

I've been doing a lot of work upgrading 'finished' models with new paint jobs or even breaking them up and rebuilding them better.

This is in large part because I have very few unassembled models left and just about everything that is assembled has at least gotten a base coat.

The other reason is that some years ago, I initiated a policy of liquidating members of the Pile of Shame that have been here too long. It cleared out a lot of needed space, and brought in cash for stuff I actually wanted more.

As a very slow painter, definitely more in boxes. But as I've neared having most of the stuff I'm really interested in and my buying has tapered off, I should be catching up...eventually.

I won't buy a new kit until the previous one has been built and painted, so I usually have zero backlog.

Unless my regular gaming buddy sends me stuff to do for him. So i currently have 2 Votann and one Space Wolf kits on the go. Sigh.

I am 97% built and painted. The only things unpainted are in my active painting Queue, and I probably will not buy more until I am back to 100% painted.

I’ve got about 7 painted, 13+17+2 built, 3+6+2 unbuilt.
Painted: Custodes guard plus blade champ plus miku
Built: rest of Custodes combat patrol, the hq+some battle line emperors children, two rhinos
Unbuilt: rest of emperor children release box infantry, the noise marines, a assassin+lucius the eternal

I swear I’ll paint them when I get to it and have the time, don’t mind me getting the Christmas box for ec soon

I have huge amounts of painted and unbuilt, and a large amount of built. Doing some back of the envelope math I have probably about 3000 painted minis, and about half that unpainted.

There are at least two distinct facets to the "pile of shame" hoarding issue:

Group 1 buys new shinies as they appear, because they love buying stuff they like the look of. I think these are the people the GW employee's famous quote of "The 'Hobby' is buying GW products" comes from. Proverbial whale myth

Group 2 buys stuff with a long term plan towards amassing a certain kind of collection, and buys sooner rather than later because of GW's predatory FOMO tactics make it extremey uncertain when a particular product becomes OOP, cuz as soon as a product becomes OOP, scalpers step in and the prices of those specific items skyrocket to ridiculous levels

Personally, I'm in the second group. I just want a nice collection of stuff to play Rogue Trader with, as well as models for 1st edition Epic Space Marine & AT. I'm actually pretty far in the aquisition phase already (Getting all the BSF kits was a godsend for the RT stuff!). It would be lovely if I could just buy these as I get em done, but decades in this hobby have taught me that would become prohibitively expensive.. better to buy it now when its still in stock, even if I cant get it built and painted until the 2030s