A Serious Conversation About Downsizing

[captain sox]

Good day everyone.

 

 First off, I've been a part of this wonderful hobby for about 5 years now, but I've come to a point where I've lost my desire and motivation. Possibly it's my passion for spending and collecting that has gotten me into this mess. I've amassed about 10,000 pts of DA goodness since the new codex, and I find it's too much stuff. I have about 40 bikes, 45 terminators and at least enough PA troops for a full battle company. 

 

NONE IS PAINTED. 

 

Part of my problem is I never play. So my models just sit on the shelf and collect dust. I paint, then strip, repaint and strip again. I just finished painting a tactical squad over the weekend, and today they ended up in the Simple Green to get stripped. I'm a really harsh critic of my painting, which is why I think I strip and re-paint often.

 

I need your help deciding what to do. I have way too many models to really ever play, even when we play Apoc it's about 6000 per side. In those rare occasions I do play regular games, I usually get tabled.  

 

So it appears I don't really enjoy any aspects of the hobby anymore. I don't know if I should pull the pin and sell it all, or reduce the army to a reasonable amount like 2500-3000

 

Have any of you been in this situation, if so What have you done?

 

any help would be appreciated. All my modelling projects are on hold until I can figure this out. It's really gotten me down.

 

Thanks!

[Grotsmasha]

If it's the painting you enjoy, perhaps creating 1500-2000pt starter lists, painting them and then selling them on eBay would be a viable option for you. You don't need to turn a profit, just break even if your doing it for the enjoyment.

 

Cheers,

Jono

[Deathstrike_Chimera]

I would downsize the model collection if you find you have too much. That's my opinion.

 

If you aren't having a good time playing, maybe you are playing with the wrong people??? Try asking the people if they want to play a casual game or something to help you out figuring out tactics and such. That might help you get better and not get tabled so often.

 

About painting: Don't be so hard on yourself! I'm sure you aren't as bad as you think you are; I've seen some pretty terrible models. I'm sure yours aren't that bad. If you really feel that your models aren't up to par you can practice more and get better! :) or you could go and get them commission painted if you have money (which it seems that you do...)

 

Anyway, best of luck, I hope you figure it out! :D

[Aqui]

I forget who faced a similar situation some time ago, but the Frater in question sold most of their stuff (if not the vast majority), so that they were able to break free of the dead lock they felt they were in. I'm not sure that's the best way for you to go, but it might be worth looking at. Sometimes taking a temporary step back from something you love (which turns sour) is better than completely walking away. Whilst I have no doubt of your love of Dark Angels and the Unforgiven, perhaps a little side project (dare I say even another race, but let's not go into that too much ) might help re-inject enthusiasm where you've lost it? It's certainly helped me some time ago...

In any case, I hope you get back the good feelings this hobby generates

[Darkangeldentist]

Downsizing seems sensible but take it slow and hold off till you have worked out exactly what you want.

It sounds like collecting and painting is the biggest part of the hobby for you currently.

Before I go any further on that issue though, I am aghast that you would paint a squad and then strip it when you have others lying around unpainted. Being critical of your own work is fine but you can never give yourself a fair assessment if you never keep anything long enough to compare new stuff against. It is much harder to tell how good or bad a colour scheme is objectively when you just have the current project to put up against that perfect conceptual scheme in your mind's eye.

Paint a unit, then regardless of how content or not you are with it, make sure that you keep them until after you have painted at least one other squad. After each new unit is completed compare them and see decide what you like and don't like about each. You can also better judge what progress you have made when you have multiple units painted at different times.

It can be really hard if you are a perfectionist to hold on to models you are not completely happy with but it's not as if you cannot strip them at a later date.

The idea of painting squads/lists to sell on ebay could be a good idea if you decide to downsize.

Writing up some lists and using that to determine which units to prioritise for painting is probably a good step as well. List construction can be quite fun in itself but I can sympathise that thinking up a list that both uses the models you want and works well on the table can be a serious challenge.

My collection was slowly built up and now I only add the odd few bits and pieces as I feel like it. Most is painted and I will not strip the paint of any models until all of it is painted. Even if I am planning a new project/list I will won't strip anything until everything has some paint on it.

[Interrogator Stobz]

Hey Sox, here's what I did for my greenwing: take a small group of your favourite units/minis and put them on a shelf, hide the rest in the shed and block them out of your mind. Trick yourself into concentrating on what you can see, choose one unit from this group and paint it up to a basic but tidy tabletop standard (no bling at this stage) choose another unit, rinse and repeat.
Now in no time you have a bundle of usable dudes, as you will have gotten better at painting by now you can start adding bling if you want. If you are still not sure of your ability with details then take all those models and replace them with some from the shed. Repeat.
Because you have only base coated and first layered all your minis so far there is no need to strip them if and when you feel you have become good enough to finish them all off. The process leads to great satisfaction, but only if you set an end state such as 'I will paint a Battle Company this year' or similar.

TL/DR: Chunk your workload and set a solid goal, then get to work!!! That way you will not feel like leaving the hobby due to impressing your Apoc mates on a massive usable force.

[Interrogator Stobz]

And find somewhere comfortable to paint and some music that you enjoy, nothing worse than sitting for hours hunched over a table if you are uncomfortable :devil:

[shabbadoo]

captain sox:  I have collected miniatures sine the age of 7, and so I have been in the RPG/ miniature wargaming hobbies for 35+ years.  Over that time, I have amassed,  well, your 10,000 point of Dark Angels are "nothing".  That being said, as I have gotten older, I have come to the realization that there is simply not enough time to have quite as many varied interests as i do, and so I began to seriously downsize about seven years ago.  I used to have 6K+ points EACH of Chaos Space Marines, Tyranids, Blood Angels, and Dark Eldar, and Imperial Guard, but I sold them all (except for the IG).  The IG have been reduced to mostly infantry (Tallarns), but I just haven't got around to selling them yet.  I also used to have about 4,000+ points EACH of Chaos Warriors & Daemons, Empire, Orcs & Goblins, Dark Elves, Ogre Kingdoms, and Beastmen, but I have sold all but a few models from those armies during the last seven years.  It cut my GW collection by nearly two thirds.  I now have 7 armies total (Dark Angels, Orks, Tau, Eldar, High Elves, Bretonnians, Vampire Counts), which is enough to keep me busy for years and years, seeing as I don't half-arse anything and so have 5,000+ points in EACH of those, excepting Dark Angels which, like you, I have 10,000+ points of.  Okay, and Orks, which I likely have 8,000+ points of.

 

I won't even go into how many thousands of miniatures I have bought over the years for RPGs, but I have sold some of  those as well.

 

I think you have just become overwhelmed.  What constitutes being overwhelmed will vary from person to person (obviously), but you've apparently hit the wall.  What you should probably do is write up a main army list, perhaps with a few extraneous elements to choose from, and cut loose the rest.  For me, that would mean cutting down to 5,000 points.  For Deathwing, I would keep a unit of DW Knights, a DW Command Squad, two basic DW Terminator units, one Land Raider, and one Dreadnought.  For Ravenwing, I would keep two full Ravenwing Attack Squadrons, two extra Land Speeders, and one each of the newer vehicles.  For Greenwing, I would keep a Command Squad, one Company Veterans Squad, two Tactical Squads, one Assault Squad, one Devastator Squad, and one Scout Squad.  Add to that two Rhinos, a Razorback, two Drop Pods, one Predator, one Vindicator, and one Whirlwind.  And then you have any HQ models added to that.  Altogether, that is plenty of stuff, and (to me at least) it doesn't seem overwhelming.  And all of the Dark Angels  toys are there.  From there, you write up a main army list that includes your favorite units, and then stat in on painting it up, one unit at time.  I am doing something similar myself right now.

 

You could use the soon-to-launch ETL as inspiration/motivation.

[aura_enchanted]

If you ever want to give anything up infantry wise or transports wise I'd consider buying some.

[Dread]

I know the feeling. I've been collecting minis for over 30 years now and I have quite the collection of 40k and fantasy armies not to mention a lot of the just cool minis from other companies. I go thru stages of wanting to paint on a certain army and next thing ya know, half painted and moving on to another army. It's very bad on my part shifting around so much but at least when I do paint, I go great guns until I just can't no more. Good luck and I hope you find your peaceful center and keep on painting.

[Interrogator Stobz]

Inner Peace, just like Kung fu Panda.

Problems solved

[Disciple of Caliban Sgt]

Sox,

 

I know what you mean I've been on a serious spending spree for about 5 years as well. Trying to finish it up now as I'm fairly certain my disposable income is about to go the way of the dodo bird.

 

What others have said works. Don't get rid of anything until you are absolutely sure as I've also read on here way too many people quickly ditching their stuff then regretting it. Give it a good long couple of months think before parting with your stuff.

Also the gaming thing I find for me is key. I play with friends casually and it has been incentive for me to get stuff painted. Don't forget ETL III is coming that also got me a huge incentive to paint up about 5K worth of points nearly 85 terminators painted and based.

 

Lastly the quick stripping turn around. They are your models and if you aren't happy with them do as you please but I would paint up an entire company and if I didn't like it THEN strip them down. At the very least it lets you practice but who knows if you get the whole army on the table painted up you might love it. And for the love of god don't try and "keep up" with anybody. These guys on here with 35+ years collecting have us beat and that's all there is too it.

 

DoC

[ValourousHeart]

Captain Sox,

 

I ran into a similar issue years ago, maybe 12-13 years. Ironically that would have been 5 years after I entered the hobby as well. I had collected most of my stockpile during the height of ebay and those wonderful discount web store of yore. Now maybe my collection at the time wasn't as large as your, and it certainly didn't cost what I imagine you have spent... But I clearly remember that it occupied 30% of my 1 room apartment. Not only was none it painted, I hadn't removed the shrink wrap from most of it. All of it neatly stacked and organized in the corner. Then I moved twice in that year.

 

I was sick, I had a hoarders feaver. I believe the industry term should be Pokémon. The problem was I wasn't playing, I wasn't painting, and the the most damning evedence... all of the shrink wrap... I wasn't even opening the boxes.

 

So I went back to the very first things I bought to find what first motivated me to get into 40k. I didn't have to go very far down the list before it became very clear what was truely important and what was crap that needed to go.

 

I still remember the first handful of items I bought, and the youthful emotions tied with those purchases even now some 17 years down the road. Those items in order were:

 

1. 2nd Ed SoB Codex

2. Warriors of Redemption (2nd ed Sisters battle force)

3. Ravenwing Battle Force (2nd ed set that came with a chaplain)

 

The starter set... IE the rules... barely made the top 10. Right there in a nutshell was what interested me about 40k. So I kept my sisters and my ravenwing and dumped the rest.

 

Believe me, it was very liberating dumping the driftwood. What followed for me was I found my wife (literally bumped into her at the airport), found my LGS (she wanted to go to a different part of town) and I found my color scheme for my sisters (she suggested that I go in and get a painting lesson as a refresher).

 

I don't know if you will get all of that out of it, but if all you get is liberation, it will be worth it.

[Master Avoghai]

Your situation just shows what I argue for 15 years now... Without playing, you give up.

 

For years now I see people collecting stuff and saying :"I do that for the fluff and for the collecting aspect"... <_< fine! But the essence of the hobby is playing, meeting people have fun with a couple of beers and trying unlikely "heroic facts".

If you don't play, then you'll end up quitting because all you'll end up collecting is dust on your models. I prefer having my models packed up in my cases, ready for a game than on the shelf.

 

Try to find a club, start with 1000pts game, and if you can teammates games, so that you can learn things. It's fast and you can play 2 games in an afternoon. Then rise up your amount of points. You'll lose games sure, but if you always notice what works and what doesn't, you'll be happy learning for the nex game and will always be lookin forward to it. Sometimes you'll say "well, it didn't work because I miss this models." It will motivate you for painting it. Playing is the key.

 

And about the painting : be humble with what you can do but be proud of what you've done. I often see people complaining about how the tourney players kill the hobby, but I'm the kind of people saying that golden daemon and cmon have their responsibility as well. How many people I see not perseverating because they are ashamed of their models? But man! You'll see that around a gaming table, you can meet army with just 3 colours! Sometimes, you'll play against unprinted models! So tell me why being ashamed?

Moreover at playing distance, you don't need a golden daemon winner! Your eyes are not that sharp. Believe me, there's nothing more satisfying than seeing an army deployed entirely painted, whatever painting skill you have.

 

Keep things simple, play more games and enjoy!

[ValourousHeart]

I wanted to weigh in on the "don't be too hasty" topic.

 

I agree that it is wise to take counsel. It is also wise to not act rashly. But I disagree with the idea that you should postpone deciding for fear of future regret.

 

You should take some time, the right amount of time to decide, but once that decision is made, you should waste no time in executing that decision. If you are conflicted about a piece, shelve the decision for now and move to the next piece. Perhaps that next piece will be easier to decide upon... and might affect the first piece you were considering.

 

However that last point... the synergy as it were... is really the key to your dilemma. Finding the key pieces that you are conflicted about and making a decision about them might just make all of the other decisions easier.

 

For me, before my purge, I had a plan to have a full chapter of Dark Angels. And in fact was closer to having a full 3rd company, scout company and deathwing than I was at having a full ravenwing. But what I loved about DA was RW, it was the list I played, it was always the units I started my lists with. Once that choice was made it was easy getting ride of all of the DW and GW. The scouts, not so much, because I used them for necromunda at the time. But that was a much smaller list than the 10th company I had planned.

 

Now the idea of having a full chapter isn't in itself bad... but it had become toxic for me. So anybody here on that path and loving it... please keep it up. But it doesn't sound like Captain Sox likes that path anymore. And if that is the case, he should strongly seek an alternated destination.

[Isiah]

This is a really interesting topic. 

 

All I can add is that having been through a similar downsizing process myself (although not from the high starting point you are) I found the whole process very therapeutic and if anything rekindled my interest in both models and painting them.

 

I'm now at a point where my 'collection' can fit into two GW plastic army carry cases and no more. Actually, that's just infantry models - Dreads and vehicles are extra! I didn't go down the army list route. I made a conscious decision to only collect small elite armies - so in my case Deathwing and Grey Knights - each occupying approx one-and-a-bit and half a case respectively. Support models in the form of Techmarines, fill up a few the odd slots. In truth it's plenty for gaming with, and certainly enough to paint and store without losing your sanity or ripping through your life savings :).

 

[i do have a fully working Greenwing force too - but they are hidden away.]

 

I will admit to slightly losing the plot though as I'm currently collecting old metal Kasrkin models with a view to building a (small) Astra Militarum allied force - the Ash Legion - to fit the fluff of my force. Hopefully this should, with my Inquisitors and Henchman, fill up the remaining case-space, but I envisage some overspill :O.

 

So I would say that if you recognise that you have a need to downsize then just go ahead and do it. Don't worry so much about army lists per se because I think you will be sensible enough to keep the right amount of everything ;). But you do need to be focussed on what you are going to collect.

 

Make yourself a bit of money from selling the non-required stuff off. Lift the nagging burden of unpainted plastic hordes staring reproachfully back at you, and get back to enjoying the 'hobby' without it becoming a second job <_<.

 

Cheers

I

[captain sox]

My brothers, I knew you would all lead me in the right direction. I had a good sleep, and have decided to go into the basement and have a look at my army once again. I do plan to keep some of my army (Deathwing mostly, because I love terminators) and maybe a bike squad and a few tactical squads. 

 

As for gaming, I do play with a great group of guys. It's just we don't meet often enough for me to take the time to learn the rules, etc. I am not good player by any means, but that's not my forte. As for painting and stripping right away, I sent a letter in to Dr.Phil to see what's wrong with me! When I woke up this morning I was "man what was I thinking, those tactical guys looked great!"

 

Oh well live and learn. 

 

Thanks again for your guidance and advice!

 

Sox

[lhg033]

just be careful not to end up buying other things as you browse ebay etc to sell off what you no longer want.

 

i'm just coming back to the hobby and my (loved/hated) DA armies and will be having a bit of a purge to raise funds and clear out space. I'll be keeping a number of things sentimental reasons (my first ever scout squad from 3rd edition which spanked ragnar and ran him off the board etc) but will be ruthless with the rest so that I don't end up hording everything for the sake of it. I plan to set my self a few goals for selling old kit and painting up new things before I let myself buy anything else though I have just bought Dark vengeance, the dex and some knights (2 limited edition captains #1 included) but I may sell off the chaos side of this before I get tempted.

[captain sox]

If anyone is interested in stuff send me a PM. I'd like to give people here dibs before going the auction route. 

[elmo]

That's a kind offer and I would love to take some stuff off your hands but I have the same problem you do - a plastic crack habit ;)

[Dread]

AH!! Must resist....but the plastic is so strong...NO!! must, oh, just give it to me NOW!! There, now everything is ok. What!? I don't have a plastic habit, I can quit anytime I want, I can! Just not now, so "GIVE ME THE GLUE AND LEAVE ME BE!!!" Uh sorry, I get cranky.

 

HAHA! Please post some of your pics so we can see, please!