Bring Out Your Dead!

 As discussed a few days ago, I've set myself three resolutions this year: reduce the lead mountain; finish things off; stay cheap. This post, I believe, exemplifies the spirit of all three that I'm trying to achieve.

Reduced the 'Lead' Mountain

I've gone and done one of those YouTuber things where I gather together all of my unpainted models to see how big the problem is.

Now, I am fully aware that there are many, many people out there with a backlog exponentially larger than mine, but this should be seen in the context of me not only selling off/giving away quite a lot of my original mountain before I go back into the hobby properly about 15 years ago and I've also been putting in quite a bit of work to reduce the new pile I accumulated over the last half a decade or so.

Anyway, here it is.

I know, it doesn't seem like that much, which is quite pleasing really. The biggest individual chunks of work to do are a 15mm Ancient Greek army for Impetus; the remains of various Dropzone/fleet Scourge and Resistance forces and all the remains of my Batman Miniatures Game collection that I've completely lost motivation for. I'm also conscious of some of those larger pieces which are likely to be time consuming like the Lord of Change, Balrog and Nazgul on Fellbeast.

All in all, there are 570 individual miniatures (I'm counting Dropzone Commander infantry per base and 6mm ACW infantry per strip) in these photos. There are likely to be some more miniatures lurking in my bits box, but what happens in the bits box stays in the bits box.

However, I've decided to add the Lead Mountain tally to my usual acquired/painted numbers, mainly so I can keep track of things as the pile reduces.

To begin the process, I opted to go for a traditional quick win. This resin ruined building was amongst the massive collection I inherited from my dad and was one of very few unpainted models that I have kept.

I'm not sure of the manufacturer but I like painting resin scenery as it's a really straightforward process as resin responds well to basecoats, washes and drybrushing.

As a piece of terrain it will be extremely versatile, being eminently suited fantasy games and historical games all the way late dark ages/early medieval to World War 2. In fact, I could see it turning up on a set for a 7TV Children of the Fields game.

Finish Things Off

In amongst the Lead Mountain are lots of leftovers from different projects which number a handful of models that just need completing. The reasons why they haven't been finished are many and varied and in the case of this Dwarf skeleton from the Moria terrain set was simply because I overlooked it.

Now that I've properly catalogued the backlog and know what's in there, you can expect to see more of these random oddments popping up just to get them off the list.

Stay Cheap

I like finding alternative to official miniatures lines, and I like finding uses for models that are just hanging around my collection. This is not born from any desire to cut corners, but I like the creativity and problem-solving aspects to it. I also don't like feeling beholden to a company, particularly when they do things like ban conversions at events, put profiles in with miniatures and charge exorbitant prices for this 'exclusivity'. I'm constantly baffled when Stockholm-syndrome has kicked in and 'loyal' customers view any variation or creativity as somehow damaging the wider hobby.

This is one of the reasons I really respond well to companies like Crooked Dice and TTCombat. Despite the fact that Crooked Dice produce a range of miniatures, 7TV is a miniatures agnostic game where creativity is actively encouraged, whereas by putting their rules and stat lines online for Carnevale, TTCombat encourage people to try their game with other miniatures (which is what I did) before they invest. In both cases, I am actually more inclined to by official models because I like the cut of their jib.

Having said all that, here is an example of me at my proxying finest. This is Tasha Lem from the Papal Mainframe set for the now deceased Doctor Who Miniatures Game from Warlord Games. Now she has risen again and been reborn as a vampire (initially a Noble Strigoi, and later probably demoted to Common Strigoi, that's Venetian politics for you) for Carnevale.

I felt that the DWMG miniatures were good match for Carnevale as both games have fairly truescale proportions (no massive heads or hands) so she wouldn't look out of place.

In terms of painting, I'm not massively pleased as the contrast paint I used didnt really respond well to the quite shallow details on the model, and my initial experiment with Gulliman Flesh really didn't work meaning there are more layers on the skin than I wanted.

The face looks a bit clownish in the photo, but she looks better in real life, possibly because my eyesight isn't very good. She may end up being stripped an redone in time, but I'm just as likely to leave her until I get hold of some of the official vampires.

Whilst I was painting her, I also took the opportunity to rebase and repurpose a model I had put together to proxy and try out Guildball. I built two full proxy teams but only ever played a few games and never bought into it (although I do appreciate Steamforged Games giving me the opportunity to do this), not because I didn't like it, just because my gaming group didn't really take to it and fantasy-sports games don't really take off as projects without opponents.

This model, given that it was originally a zombie, seems like it would work best as a Starved Dhampir. I think I'll repaint the purple bits to be red to be more thematic at some point too.

So here's my current proxy Strigoi gang for Carnevale. A Noble Strigoi, two Reapers, a Nosferatu and a Starved Dhampir. That comes in at 72 ducats, which is more than enough for a small game and will allow for multiplayer games, along with my Guild and Rashaar, and just a break from using the same models all of the time. Additionally, by me having proxies it means if a friend likes the look of the Strigoi, our forces won't be identical.

As it happens there some more Carnevale miniatures arrived today. I bid on an eBay lot which implied that some miniatures miniatures might be broken or missing bits and I had been prepared to raid the bits box to make something work. However, it turns out that the lot I bought for just £8 (including postage) included 6 full miniatures (RRP is £25 for five) and a few random bits that might be useful for conversions.

The selection includes two Rashaar cultists (a Slave and Hybrid), one Guild member (a Citizen), two servants of the Vatican (an Inquisitor and an Executioner) and a Patrician partygoer (another Barnabotti to join the one I already own). All of these are sculpts I don't own and so this was a pretty good eBay haul. The flip side is that 've now started two more gangs and so the Strigoi might remain as proxies for some time.

Admittedly, this does mean an increase in the Lead Mountain, but I've countered this by giving three MDF 15mm bunkers for Flames of War to Pete and throwing away eight broken Lord of the Rings plastic miniatures that were beyond saving. All of this leaves my numbers for the start of the year looking like this:

Acquired: -5

Painted: 11

Lead Mountain: 562