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I recently wrote about selling my pile of shame and how it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Then I went on eBay and picked up two more Ork box sets in addition to the Combat Patrol I already had. It's not the same though, this isn't a pile of shame. It's a pile of potential. Let me explain. First and foremost, they were excellent deals. The Beast Snagga army set was £100 and the Imperium Premium Kit was £35. That's value you simply cannot turn down. Secondly, I have a plan. Instead of having everything sat in the boxes for months on end, I'm going to build them ASAP. It's all part of my new model-building system based on an incredibly complicated excel spreadsheet. I'm going to build all of these models, then prime them, then drybrush them, then paint them, then base them and then actually play a game with them. I swear, that's what I'm actually doing. I've already built 5 models! When this process is done I'll have well over 1000 points of Orks to take to the table. My old method of spending 10+ hours painting each mini was too slow so I'm going to try the slapchop method with the 2.0 speed paints from the army painter. A friend does the same technique for their 'nids and they always turn out pretty awesome - so with a little extra detailing I'm confident I'll have an army that I can be proud of. The hardest part is staying away from eBay and Facebook marketplace. It hurts me to know there's probably some great deals out there that I'm missing out on. Maybe if I check every now and again it won't hurt anyone... right?

I got back into 40K 10th edition after a break during 8th and 9th. Life happened - you know how it is! When I came back, it's safe to say I got a bit too excited buying new models. I had over 3000 points of Primaris Space Marines in a nice, juicy pile ready and waiting. I had such good intentions - I really was going to paint and play with them all, however as time went on and my rate of painting stayed at it's traditional slow pace, those models started to feel like a burden. Towards the end of 2023 I was thinking about New Year's resolutions and wanting to clear my conscience, so I'd originally planned on painting like a madman and getting through a huge chunk of my unbuilt models. Then the first week of 2024 came and went without me so much as looking at the models and I knew I had to make a change. We've all heard this advice before - "don't buy any new models until you've painted what you already have!" If I had any hope of actually painting all my models and playing a game of 40K in 10th edition, I knew I'd have to do something drastic. After sleeping on it, I decided to put all my Space Marines on eBay (see the attached image) and pick up an Ork Combat Patrol instead. I got rid of all my Orks during 7th (again, life happened) and I missed my green bois... although I don't miss their twerking models. So far I've been able to resist trawling eBay and Facebook marketplace for deals on Ork models. Once the Combat Patrol arrives and I've actually got something to be getting on with, I may well turn it into a challenge - perhaps a hobby streak? Anything to avoid me creating a new pile of shame and having to go through another hard reset!

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)