The Grey Tide. Pile of Shame. Buyer’s Remorse. These are all terms people in the wargaming hobby are far too familiar with, and understandably so. As someone who is largely contained within GW’s line of projects, I can only imagine how hard it can be to responsibly limit hobby spending if you’re into multiple games across different companies. But by “spending”, I don’t just mean money. No, in this hobby we put our blood, sweat, and tears into projects…but how many miniatures do we leave half done or, worse and so often the case, sealed in their cardboard boxes? And do we truly believe in the follow through the mention of this reality often has us offer up?

I recently celebrated a birthday where I was gifted a beautiful Vanari Lord Regent. A beautiful, exquisite model, with so many different possibilities! Then it hit me: Just as the blood Cain spilt in days of old cried out to their God, so too did a pool of unfinished potential hobby greatness cry out to me. In both cases, these cries could not go unanswered. In mere moments I was hit with guilt, shame, and then the final piece of the puzzle: resolve. A resolve that many a gamer has declared, a declaration to not buy anymore miniatures until the ones I have are complete.

Even though they’ve now been stripped of the paint in this picture, the fact it was a fully built force just gaining dust is appalling to me now.

Dramatizations aside, it did truly bother me that I was starting a Lumineth army when I had an entire Khorne Bloodbound army fully built and primed, remnants of a dream to attend an Adepticon AoS tournament that was dashed due to sudden illness years ago. There is no good reason why I should be worrying about getting another army bought when I have one in my possession already. So, with that, I bring to you all a more reasonable, measured statement of intent: I, Eric Myers, will not buy any miniatures for any game until the standing three projects (Warhammer 40,000, Age of Sigmar, and Kill Team) are fully built, painted, and based, and I can only buy miniatures afterwards for factions I already possess miniatures for.

This self-imposed resolution feels more manageable than the traditional blanket statement on not buying miniatures till everything is painted. With this framework, I am still very goal orientated, but I have some wiggle room. And, once all three projects are done, I can buy new models, but with the condition they are for factions I already own. This means getting projects out of factions I bought a couple boxes for but never went anywhere with.

The first on the docket for the three projects is my Age of Sigmar army, Khorne Bloodbound. Since they’re the most completed out of all the three projects, it only makes sense. It won’t be quick though: 15 Skullcrushers, 25 Blood Warriors, 2 custom built Khorgoraths, and a handful of heroes will take time to get done. Which is why I’m trying to go with a very straightforward, but still pleasing, color scheme. I’m taking inspiration from Japanese folklore on Oni to build the look and feel around. For now that means bright red skin, dark metals, a few bright spot colors, and the odd tiger print cloth. Once I have a test model done, I can break down the thought process better.

One of the Khorgoraths mentioned above.

Second is probably the easiest to manage: Kill Team, specifically the new box set (minus the Ork Kommandos). Having the entire project be 10 models and some terrain isn’t bad at all once it’s all put together. The terrain will be very straight forward to paint, as there are tons of visual inspiration for an Ork shanty town out there. For the Death Korps themselves, I have a few floating around. I’d be very interested in doing Death Korps with a bio-hazard angle to their paint scheme. Something about their greatcoats being hazmat suit yellow is very appealing to me, but I’ll have mess around before I can know for sure.

Last, is my Warhammer 40,000 project…which is the most nebulous out of all the three. Aside from it being composed of the Chaos Space Marines from the two starter sets from 8th edition, I have no idea on a scheme/theme and they are largely in a holding pattern.

With all this laid out, the next step is the hardest: follow through! But, I hope through these series of articles that I can prove to myself, and other hobbyists in need of motivation, that we can put dents into our piles of shame and maybe one day indeed clear them entirely.