First up, Pug number two is finished:
Click the Pic!
The bases will all be finished together so that they match the scenic base.
Next we have a WIP Big Robot:
Click the Pic!
He's the one on the right... The one on the left is another robot conversion. Obviously, I still have a way to go but it is getting there. These two have also caused me to think about putting together a small band of warrior robots... a bit like the ABC Warriors... but I have only got as far as these two and possibly the embryo of a larger one that I have had on my mind for a very long time... but only time will tell what happens there.
The hobby. It is just two words. It means different things to so many people but to me it is a habit that I have built up over the last thirty years or so. What does it actually mean to me? It is a way to pass the time... but it is also a massive time-soak that I could be using for other things. I often look at my hobby stuff and despair... this is my living room (I am not even going to mention the state of the loft):
Click the Pic!
The three cupboards are completely full so I have no space to tidy away all the mess on top of them... and this is my dinner table:
Click the Pic!
If we have friends around for a meal, that stuff gets plonked on the computer table. My life is dictated to by the amount of hobby stuff that I have... it stares at me everyday and there is no escape from it. Last week I was talking to a workmate about it (he's not in the hobby) and I referred to it as an anvil around my neck that I had no emotional attachment to. I simply continue to do the hobby because I have got into the habit and it has cost so much that I feel obliged to keep going with it. I then said that if someone turned up and offered me a fair price for the lot of it, they could take it all away and I wouldn't miss it... it would probably be a great weight lifted from my shoulders.
I think there are many such things in life that you allow to take control of you and it is only when you start tripping over things and are forced to confront them that you realise just how unimportant they are.
To put it into perspective, lets's take a box of plastic space marines (ten tactical marines):
- You buy the box of marines.
- You have to decide how you want to build them... so you need a codex.
- You then need the tools to remove them from the sprues and clean them up.
- You then need glue to assemble them.
- You then need to undercoat/prime them.
- You then need to paint them.
- When they are painted, you need to base them... so you need basing materials.
- When they are finished, they need to be varnished.
- The remaining components need to be stored (either on sprue or clipped off into a storage box).
- The tools need to be stored.
- The glue, paints and basing materials need to be stored.
- The troops need to be safely stored.
Before you know it, you have to think about all of the things above and until everything is finished and stored properly, there is stuff to get involved with. That doesn't take into account having to transport everything (something that happens quite regularly in the military).
All that, just to have ten plastic marines to game with. It makes you think.
I look at my collection and I despair because a lot of it doesn't have transportation storage... so I have to sort it out this year OR sell the stuff.
It's all on a knife-edge at the moment.
If I get rid of everything, I can start again... but will I get a fair price? If I don't get a fair price, will I regret it? Will the new 'freedom' justify the lack of a fair price? Do I just suck it up and get storage for everything?
So much to think about.
If you are interested in buying some of my stuff... here's my Ebay link:
Things are going slow so you may get a bargain if you are quick!
See you from Lobo's Space Bike!
4 comments:
I love the Pug minis from HF, and they are very nicely done. :)
Lovely job on the Pugs dude.
Understand the 'too much hobby' feeling, and I only have a couple of cases and parts shelves in a cupboard. For me, having moved several times with all this gear in tow or stored; I operated off a principal of Fire!
I looked at the item/box/figure and wondered how I would feel if I lost it to a fire. I made several hundred dollars on eBay that month.
I now have the figures I always use, enjoy building a collection towards and overall - about a 1/2 what I had before.
Another is to bite the bullet and buy uniform storage, even a single smart looking cupboard. You'll be amazed what uniformity does when organising all sorts of kits. Behold, the majesty of my hobby vault! You feel organised, a real pro hobbyist; in my case I then sold off old cupboards and storage gear and got nearly 2/3rds my cash back.
Another element is you defined your workspace - if it won't fit or spills over; you tend to focus your buying choices more.
Hope my version helps, been loving the Squat army over the years :)
I have had a similar problem, but tried to approach it in ways than getting rid of _everything_.
- I've made a list of everything I have. This lets me keep an eye on what I have and stops me getting stuff just because.
- I categorise stuff in three ways - stuff I'm excited about painting, stuff I'm excited about gaming with, and The Stash. Every few months, I check everything is in the right category, and sell anything in the stash I can bring myself to get rid of.
I need to have a clear idea of what something is for to prevent it stumbling into the stash.
- No models without a storage solution! Anything that gets bought within a month gets a KR case out of the hobby budget in the following month, or something gets sold to free up the space for it. (Terrain has two bookshelves rather than cases.) The important thing is not to let it get out of control.
I'm also moving towards assembling and undercoating something as soon as it arrives - firstly, because this usually means it takes up less space to store, and secondly, because it means that when I'm seized by the mood to paint, I don't have faffy things I don't want to do getting in the way of that.
Also - taking a break from the hobby is not a bad thing. Buy as much as you're willing to store and hobby with! I have LARPs for when modelling and painting is getting too much. I usually come back to it happier later.
There is then economics:
Things have a value to you. They bring you happiness, or at least should do. You can think about how much money you'd assign to that happiness. Would you spend £10 on a helicopter ride? £20? £30?
Buying things makes me happy. But buying for the sake of it is not an efficient use of money, either. I've bought models because I judged that assembling, painting and gaming with that thing will bring me more joy than that money could elsewhere.
But things change. It doesn't matter if you paid £10 or £30 for those Space Marines, if you are desperately sad and they are not making you happy, but you can sell them for £5 and have a nice take out and that will make you happy - sell the darned Marines!
I like 99p ebay listings for things that I am no longer invested in. It means that someone else then pays the value that makes them happy, and I no longer have a thing that no longer makes me happy, and as much money as two people would pay for a thing.
My exception to this is out of print stuff. Because things may change back. If I have storage space, I'll try and keep out of print stuff, because I can't be sure I'll get that thing back again later. I have to be really sure I no longer want that thing to offload anything I didn't buy for trades in the first place.
I have written many words - but in short, think hard about what makes you happy, and do it. But be thoughtful that what makes you happy may change in the future!
Post a Comment