My journey through my 40k Pile of Shame has been a years long travel, and it looks like it reaches to an end. Well, in reality it is likely to be a endless trip as some new projects still can join the frey and postpone this day of celebration AND mourning where I will be left without anything to Paint/Assemble/convert and/or slash... (I am btw still waiting for my AdMech Patrol since July 24th...)

If we step back a little bit a few years ago, everything was resumed with the Lock-down. How to spent you time once trapped at home? Once you read and reread your books, cleaned all the closets from basement to attic, made the repairs your home needed desperatly for months, well it leaves you with a lot of free time.

This is where the closet cleaning takes relevancy - can you hear my wife wispering about that pile of toys that need to be sold/given? Yes I do (exactly it was something like: " You will have to do something out of all of this").

The inventory was superficial but the ultimatum clear enough. So, well, I will paint them and thenput them for sale on Ebay. Looks like a good plan honey? (PS - Ebay is a fraud - Did not get a single hit - Or is it because everybody collects Primaris only nowadays?)

First part of the plan surely has been completed (otherwise I would not write about it, right). Painting kept me busy for a while.

Something like 18000 pts of Space Wolves and other Astartes accumulated since 94 or something. Rythm has been sustained with an equivalent of one 10 men squad per week or 2 tanks. Tanks are painted fast. But It proscratinated a little bit as in the end, and as of today, Decals are still waiting to be applied. Bad Mojo. Thinking abut setting wolf icons on shoulders pads for someting like 300 guies is a terrible idead. I guess it will be ... painful.

I lost some of the dynamic until I succumbed to AdMech at the begining of 2023. New Year/New Army. It is the first time in almost decade or so that I did some serious purchases. Everything started because I wanted a Termite for my SW, and then some Priests and Skitarii were added. I still do not fuly understand how.

But my latest Reanimation Protocol has been the 2023 Call to Arm Challenge. It really reset the dynamic and I had frantic painting this whole summer. And it was not only SM: Eldars, odd little blisters, Repaint of ooP Rhinos too (I never thought I would ever do these ones).

But all good things come to an end. The 40k Pile of Shame is strongly affected/melt as snow under a 40ºC sunny weather. What´s left can be quickly summarized:

• ooP Rhinos - 3 - already painted, would be a repaint to unify style with the rest
• ooP Predator and ooP Vindicator - same as above
• 1 Scratch built Carnodon - but Turret is awful so soem more plasticard work will be needed
• 1 Kit Bashed Land Raider - I have to redo the front part too as it is looking like a brick - brickier than a standard LR brick
• 3 IG HW Teams - But I want to make 9 Teams out of the 3, so I need to ind out more footmen there
• 6 Spore Mine - Don´t ask where they are from. I do not really remember. I assume I bought them for a Scenario or something like that

So, more or less 3 months of work, doing it slowly (and if I do not add anything such as a AdMech Patrol (Scroll up for cross reference ) and more cyborgs, or a couple of boxes to legalize my units under 10th Ed new rules (Deathwatch KT mainly, by the Eldars of mine shout out loud for some reinforcement too)).

What else? Well, nothing left except tons of Bits. I might set up extra home made scenery but I already have more than I need...

This is the end of the tunnel and I will sooner have to adress my wife´s querry: " You will have to do something out of all of this". Btw, Did I mentioned she asked again about it? But this time the full question was completed by a "We may eventually play with it"... 

Bouargh

PS1: My last item removed from my 40k Pile Of Shame - Escher Ganger:

PS2: But I still have a ton of WFB minis to be painted... I´ve just basecoated 2 HE characters. These are so small and tiny vs. 40k minis.

Credits: Socks illustration taken from Rob Eastway book cover - How Many Socks Make a Pair? (Surprisingly interesting everyday maths)